David Kleinberg is born in Brooklyn, the middle of three children. Before he’s a year old, his family moves to Great Neck, in Nassau County.
As a teen, he starts reading building and construction magazines that his neighbor, a developer of custom homes, shares with him. “I wasn’t wildly creative as a kid,” he says, “but I was always interested in houses.”
Travels to Europe for the first time. “I shelved books at a local shop to save money for a trip to Paris,” says Kleinberg. “I remember having tears in my eyes when I saw Notre-Dame.” In later years, he visits such far-flung places as China (above), Morocco, India, and Uganda, where he observes mountain gorillas in the wild. “Travel is a great luxury.”
In 1976, Kleinberg graduates from Trinity College with a degree in urban studies and starts his design career at the New York firm Denning & Fourcade. “I had planned on going to architecture school, but I took a left turn into the giddy world of decorating instead.”After working for designer Mara Palmer for five years, he joins Parish-Hadley in 1981. “It was the heyday of full-fledged, exuberant decorating—a magical time. Albert [Hadley] taught me about the spirit of collaboration and being open to new things.”
Decorates his second Manhattan apartment, on the Upper East Side. “My first apartment was a 250-square-foot fifth-floor walk-up, so I was inspired to go all out with this one.” He has lived in his current home, also on the Upper East Side, since 2012.
Celebrates his 30th birthday in the Hamptons.
Works on the renovation of Henryk and Barbara de Kwiatkowski’s newly purchased Calumet Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. While at Parish-Hadley, he also helps decorate the couple’s New York City apartment, Palm Beach home, Bahamian villa, and Conyers Farm in Greenwich.
Leaves Parish-Hadley to launch his own firm, David Kleinberg Design Associates. “I never thought I’d do it, but my intuition told me that it was time to walk through the door. I lived and breathed my business for the first three years, but I didn’t mind—I was so excited.”
Participates in the Kips Bay Decorator Show House for the first time. (He also designs rooms in 2012 and 2016.) “I set out to demonstrate who I was in terms of architecture, furniture, art, materials, arrangement, and comfort. The study I designed really did describe who I am as a decorator.”
In addition to overhauling a substantial residence on Park Avenue, he takes on projects spanning the globe, from Los Angeles to England to Mustique.
Debuts a collection of rugs with Patterson Flynn Martin. (A second one is released seven years later.)
Publishes Traditional Now: Interiors by David Kleinberg (Monacelli). Also begins renting a vacation home in East Hampton, which he buys and decorates two years later.
Kleinberg makes four staff members equity partners in his firm in 2016. “These designers have been an integral part of building and sustaining the business, and I wanted to remove any guesswork about succession and the future.”In 2017, The New York School of Interior Design honors Kleinberg with the Albert Hadley Lifetime Achievement Award and appoints him to its board of trustees. “Having had such a close relationship with Albert, receiving the award was incredibly touching.”
Releases a furniture line with Henredon while working on residences in London and Sintra, Portugal, as well as a yacht that’s being built in Holland. “What keeps me going as a decorator is the feeling I have when I’m able to forget about obstacles and imagine all that’s possible.”