animal prints
A who’s who of tastemakers have sworn by them, including no lesser personages than the Empress Joséphine, Elsie de Wolfe, Billy Baldwin, Bill Blass, and Albert Hadley, just to name a very few. There’s a good reason they’re all devotees. When it comes to giving a room a dash of cosmopolitan glamour, nothing does it quite like an animal print. If you’re the cautious type, you might want to be judicious in your application—a leopard seat cushion or throw pillow is the chic equivalent of a quiet purr. But there’s nothing wrong with a full-throated embrace of the style: an antelope, zebra, or tiger rug lays a versatile, genre-defying foundation for a statement space that’s as gutsy as a roar. Welcome to the jungle.
antiques
There is a noble beauty that comes from an armchair or table that has stood the test of time for centuries. A gracefully aged, lovingly used antique gives a space a sense of history and a lasting soulfulness that no shiny, fresh-off-the-line piece of furniture ever can. An heirloom can be like an old friend who was there when your great-grandmother took tea and is still hanging around the living room to watch you sip your double macchiato. This points to the important thing to remember with inherited (or seemingly inherited) objects: they must adapt. Nobody wants to live in a museum. Period pieces don’t have to dictate period rooms. Think of it as a balancing act. Match a Georgian chest of drawers with a vivid work of contemporary art. Pair a walnut claw-and-ball-footed highboy with diaphanous taffeta curtains and pretty painted floors. The gorgeous results will combine a healthy respect for the past with a joyful celebration of the way we live today.
A nineteenth-century shield-back chair from John Rosselli Antiques has a noble profile and the graceful marks of patina.
Cultures converge in Amelia Handegan’s Charleston bedroom, with a nineteenth-century Anglo-Indian desk, a nineteenth-century English armchair, and an antique Indian pichhwai wall hanging.
Ann Getty combines eighteenth-century English gilt armchairs, a Louis XIV table, and Chinese silk panels with an Orientalist work by Jacques-Émile Blanche in her San Francisco home.
In a pared-down Atlanta living room by D. Stanley Dixon and Carolyn Malone, a neoclassical chest and gilt mirror feel soulfully clean-lined.
In a Nashville house by Suzanne Kasler, a mist-hued custom wallpaper by Gracie augments an abstract by Steven Seinberg.
Cheryl Skoog Tague’s New York foyer features a grouping of works by William Kelly.
art
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a well-curated space speaks volumes—about history, about culture, about the personalities of the people who live there. In one fell swoop, you can communicate everything you need to say without ever uttering a word. Placement is key. If you want that vibrant, monolithic abstract to be the major note in a room, then set it off with furnishings and fabrics in soft neutrals. A quieter approach might pair a soothing painting with bare walls in a similar, serene shade. And don’t ignore the value of matting or a frame. With the right setup, a toddler’s imaginative scribbles can achieve the visual impact of a Lichtenstein and serve as a heartfelt, lasting memento to boot.
from left: A niche frames a striking painting by Roy Lichtenstein in a Southampton, New York, house by David Kleinberg. / Also in Southampton, Quinn Pofahl and Jaime Jiménez defy convention by placing a console in front of a floor-to-ceiling abstract by Michael Lee.
from left: Gilt antiques are juxtaposed with a stark contemporary piece in an Atlanta dining room by John Oetgen. / J. Randall Powers achieves the same frisson with an eighteenth-century French chest of drawers, a Michael Taylor chair, and an abstract by Sherie’ Franssen in Houston.
A Toronto salon by Jan Showers has the hushed atmosphere of a gallery and doubles as an entertaining space; the artworks are by Jason Salavon.
art of arrival
It’s as true in decoration as it is in life: you never get a second chance to make a good first impression. Start in the driveway and think of the curb appeal. Does your façade beckon visitors with an inviting garden, a lacquered front door, the crunch of gravel underfoot? A pathway planted with flowers, a large-scale lantern, or a pair of tightly clipped potted topiaries will provide a sense of progression. Once inside, the foyer gives you the best opportunity to set the scene. Indulge in a sense of drama and be mindful of proportion. In a soaring space drenched with light, a sinuous contemporary sculpture can be enchanting. But even closer quarters can have their charm: black-and-white tiled floors and a stolid library table, a gilt wood console and glimmering Murano mirror, a streamlined industrial pendant and a fluffy Berber rug. Whatever the mood, the prevailing sentiment should be “Welcome!”
At the Ojai, California, farm of Brooke and Steve Giannetti, a rose-lined gravel pathway is an inviting approach.
With grass growing through pavers, clipped hedges, and a pedimented front door that offers peeks of ocean views, a house by Mark D. Sikes in Montecito, California, practically embraces visitors.
The façade of a new house in Birmingham, Alabama, by James Carter feels charmingly timeworn, thanks to whitewashed brick.
