The layered look: mix it up, baby! anything goes in eclectic design, one of the hottest decorating trends to sweep the country

Art Business News, May, 2004 by Laura Meyers

In fashionable interior design circles these days, "eclectic" is one of the most sought after looks. And no wonder, given today's informal lifestyles and self-assured consumers who fill their homes with a pastiche of things they love.

"Eclectic design is increasing in popularity," observed interior decorator Leslie Harrington, principal of LH Color in Old Greenwich, Conn. "People have gained more confidence in their own taste, and have been standing up for it with their designers. The idea is: Be true to yourself."

Traditionally, interior decorators and their clients alike "looked for things that went together when they put together a room," Harrington said. Now, though, theme design and precise adherence to any one historically correct style is considered a tired concept. In its place comes the layering of varied, sometimes opposing, design elements. "There has been a growing movement toward what I call 'Ditching the Joneses,' getting away from 'matchipoo' syndrome and instead filling the room with things that you love," said Harrington. "And those things don't necessarily come from the same period of time or from the same place."

A Medley of Styles and Eras

The trend toward eclecticism, also called "casual contemporary" in designer lingo, persuaded Los Angeles art fair organizer Caskee & Lees to launch the L.A. Decorative Arts Show. The annual expo brings together under one roof a diverse mix of exhibitors, including Asian and tribal art and furnishings dealers, contemporary art galleries, antiques dealers and contemporary artisans. "More collectors decorate in a mix of periods today," explained show producer Elizabeth Lees.

The look appeals across the culture board. The cutting-edge design magazine, nest, routinely features a melange of eclectic interiors, and the New York apartment of its editor, Joe Holzman, was included in the book Modern Eclectic, by style maven Orianna Fielding Banks. But the look is not limited to fashionistas. HGTV has presented numerous segments on eclectic interiors. Even specialty retailer Pier One is now promoting eclectic design in its new commercials featuring "Queer Eye" decorator Thom Filicia.

At its best, an eclectic interior seamlessly juxtaposes time periods, styles, ethnicities, materials and artistic traditions, creating very personality driven spaces, often with a dash of quirkiness or whimsy. Eclecticism is adventurous, smart and often colorful--and, design experts say, not for the fainthearted.

"Modern eclectic has both reference to the past and to a global lifestyle ... points of view coining from all different directions but, in the final analysis, speaking with one voice," said New York designer Vicente Wolf. Added Leslie Shankman-Cohn, owner of Eclectic Interiors in Memphis and president-elect of the Tennessee chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers, "The definition of eclectic design is choosing the best of everything. It's a mix; it's a layer. You are trying to achieve contrast and surprise, balance and harmony with a bit of oomph."

Think antique rugs and early American furniture combined with--oomph!--contemporary Pop art on the walls. Abstract paintings paired with 18th-century dark wood English chairs and case pieces. Or Asian objets 'd art, 1940s Biedemeier furnishings and Modernist black-and-white photography mixed with a leopard skin rug or animal-print fabrics.

Consider designer Thomas Lavin's West Hollywood, Calif., furniture and textile showroom, currently presenting Madeline Stuart's new Hollywood Regency Redux furniture line paired with contemporary Surrealist paintings and Asian-influenced accessories. Or Lavin's own 1920s Spanish Revival-style personal residence, which is filled with 1820s Federalist antiques along with contemporary boutique production furniture, vintage rugs and cutting-edge work of local emerging artists. "The thing that makes an interior interesting, in my showroom or in a home, is including dissonance in the space," said Lavin, who has a degree in art history. "If you go into a contemporary house and see a Victorian painting, you will pay attention. In my own house, I put artwork and objects I am passionate about."

Passion also permeates the showplace home of designers Bruce Cahan and Andy Kahn, co-owners of Southwark Decorating Co. in Philadelphia. "We like to mix and match styles, pulling from all different periods for furnishings and accessories," noted Kahn. "If you fill a room with things that you love, they will go together--although it's true: We are over-the-top eclectic in our own house."

In the Kahn-Cahan residence, a mahogany Louis XV piano shares the riving room with a lacquered bamboo cocktail table, a dark wood monk's bench and a pair of 1941 dub chairs re-upholstered in an off-white fabric covered with deep beige polka dots. Accessories include vintage miniature tea sets, English biscuit jars and rustic French peasant pottery. The adjacent staircase features leopard print carpeting. Hanging on the walls is a collection of beach scene paintings.