Interior designers often look to nature for inspiration, but Crystal Sinclair Studio might be unique in distilling the drama of a thunderstorm and transposing it into a family home.

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Responding to clients Maggie and Ryan’s desire for a scheme that was “dark, moody, and sexy”, husband-and-wife team Crystal and Ben Sinclair pinned an electric scene erupting over the Manhattan skyline to their mood board. To replicate the ambiance, they pulled colors from the photo and ran with it.

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The result is a discerningly thematic and intensely atmospheric home. After a jolt of white on the porch (for the lightning bolt), the New Jersey brownstone boasts an enfilade of monochromatic rooms over the property’s four floors. Crystal likens it to an art installation: “When you walk through, you feel a different emotion in each space.”

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The project allowed the Expert to indulge her love of black in the entry and stairs, which feels more luxe than gloomy, thanks in part to a richly textured 3D artwork by Rebecca Stern. Down in the basement—which houses a den, gym, and bathroom—a cocooning shade of teal represents the Hudson River. There, instead of a conventional white ceiling, it’s the flooring that’s pale, with the incoming light dancing on the marble mosaic tiles.

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Up on the parlor floor, the rainy blue living room radiates tranquility: “Whatever’s on your shoulders eases off, and you just want to sink into the sofa,” says Crystal. The latter is a custom design intended to look like a plush, folded-over mattress on a chrome base, which Crystal thought the couple would never sign off on, but they went for it. However, the pink dining room did take some persuasion: “I had to talk Maggie into it—she didn’t like pink, so we compromised with the red banquette and curtains instead of pink on pink.” (Of course, the client is now a blush convert.)

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Ascending to the second floor, the cloud-like quality of the principal bedroom in a soft periwinkle is palpable. “It’s so calm and serene,” muses Crystal, whose sample library mushroomed in her quest to find exactly the right shade. The room has a glass partition onto her favorite space of all: the all-black ensuite. However, it almost didn’t come to life: the statuesque double sink in Nero Marquina marble was too heavy to be carried up the stairs (it was eventually boomed in via the second-floor windows).

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The secret, says Crystal, to mastering tone-on-tone decor, is to create depth through materiality. “I relied on textures: mohairs, chenilles, wools, plush rugs to make you just want to fall into the room,” she reasons. A little juxtaposition didn’t hurt either: the mirror above the guest bed, for example, is wrapped in the moodiest of grays. “Since it’s not a room the family spends a lot of time in every day, you can get away with that intensity of color.”

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After rain comes sunshine and blue skies, and this plays out optimistically on the top floor. Pre-schooler Delaney’s room is a bright shade of aqua, while that of her newly arrived little sibling is an uplifting shade of marigold. “After the moody palette, you walk up to this bright golden space and your face just lights up,” says Crystal. In a house this sumptuous, child-proofing wasn’t out of the equation. “There aren’t a lot of sharp corners,” notes Crystal of her predilection for soft, spherical shapes. And sticky fingers are of little threat thanks to fabric guards.

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A sure sign that the decor is pushing the envelope? When contractors (in this case, Ridge Restoration) start remarking on the choices. “It's so fun because they’re normally not so into the design, but as they were painting they were like, ‘this is a really cool house’,” laughs Crystal.

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