"Eclectic" is a popular adjective in interior design parlance, meaning a decor that comprises heterogeneous elements — a mixture of textures, time periods, styles, trends, and colors. There is a fine line, however, between a beautifully eclectic room and a room that is merely haphazard and chaotic, with no unifying themes or motifs.
These images capture eclectic decorating at its best. In culling these photos I focused on rooms that manage to bridge design styles and sensibilities across multiple decades. To put it more simply, these are rooms that marry old and new, antique and contemporary, serious and fanciful. For example, a heavy velvet Victorian armchair may be paired with a Lucite coffee table so as to highlight — through contrast — the independent beauty of each piece. Eclectic decorating also appeals to me because it provides a dynamic canvas for my evolving taste and whims.
FIRST ROW
• 1 A room by interior designer Darryl Carter, who once again has orchestrated an elegant pairing of old and new. My Notting Hill.
• 2 HGTV. Here a contemporary room is punctuated by dramatically old-fashioned artwork.
• 3 Graphic designer Ashley Putman pairs Chippendale with Eames in Lonny via High Gloss Blue.
• 4 Elle Decor. Here a West Elm headboard, John Robshaw linens, Saarinen tulip table, limed-oak armchairs and a 19th-century English portrait create a truly eclectic point of view.
• 5 Loftlife via Coco + Kelley.
SECOND ROW
• 6 Made by Girl via Canadian House and Home. Here leather and glass contrast with refined antique furniture to create an interplay between archetypal masculine and feminine decor.
• 7 Apartment Therapy. This eclectic living room (mine) includes a modernist Arco lamp, Crate and Barrel sofa, mid-century modern Danish teak coffee table and an 18th century Gustavian chair.
• 8 Elle Decor. The living room of Frédéric Fekkai and Shirin von Wulffen mixes vintage Milo Baughman armchairs, an 18th-century daybed covered in a print by Chapas Textiles; the tripod table is by Hervé Van der Straeten and the rug is a 19th-century Oushak.
• 9 Elle Decor. A modern mobile chandelier by Intérieurs hangs over a Saarinen dining table, punctuated by a dramatic and unique antique console table.
• 10 Lonny. Here a Louis XVI armchair is paired with what appears to be a West Elm desk.
Images: as linked above
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Eclectic to mean often means collection of beautiful, covetable things, which often are not from the period or style. It often results in a beautiful room. No. 7 is a good example.
beautiful round up of images C! I swooned over each and every one.
esp. yours :)
oh and the second picture is of Ally's (From the right bank blog) home. I love everything about her decor.
LOVE rooms 2-10. HATE room 1. It looks like a waiting room gone horribly horribly wrong... as if the original coffee tables were damaged and these ridiculous boxes were all that could be found on such short notice. I have, however, seen tables like this in modern rooms that don't offend me so. I just think that this combination is just off.
These are beautiful examples of how to incorporate vintage and antique furniture with modern pieces. I love #10!
Love your house especially. Great to see this post from you since you obviously know how to mix old and new so effortlessly in your own space! Some really great examples here, and you are so right - my favorite rooms are those that mix styles. The little details are so important - a modern room with a really beautiful Persian rug or a traditional room with oversized modern art. (The HGTV example is cool because we see that just having traditional art instantly makes this space look personal and lived in.) I think when a room is all one style it often comes off as boring or staged. Eclectic rooms feel more authentic and welcoming to me. And it's also nice to see here what works in these rooms that keeps things fairly cohesive, because you're very right that you run the risk of having things look like a hodgepodge. The most obvious thing I've noticed here is that spaces need to be very uncluttered and organized so that it doesn't just look like things are thrown about. (I like example 4 least because there is just a bit too much going on for my taste there, but it seems like if you removed just a couple things it would work better.)
i think using white is the key. i see a lot of white walls as a big fresh, neutral canvas to hold the mix of old and new. and if it's not the wall, it's the next big, visually occupying element such as sofa. i also noticed a high contrast of white and dark colors like black which gives a cool modern feel.
Completely agree with keeperrox! 1 just looks uncomfortable and uninviting. Maybe get rid of the smaller box and paint the large one to add some much needed color. Numbers 4 and 5 are outstanding. Though in 4 I would get rid of the small bedside table. Just not needed.
I live in an older home (1901) yet love modern furniture. I quickly realized that if I wanted to add modern furnishings I had to honor the age of my home. To make it work I added antique furniture in with the mid-century finds and new pieces. It works well (I believe) and doesn't look like I just want to live in a more modern house.
THIS POST IS GOLD. I've got serious issues with our current design style which was modern clean lines... until the nice furniture from the 1900's started to roll in our door from grandparents. This post gives me hope that I'll be able to work with color and pattern, and maybe pull off something that works instead of what we currently have. Do you think that the white wall is consistently important to each of these rooms? I'm very much not a fan of white walls generally- but these rooms are beautiful!
Catrin here. I am so glad you are all enjoying this post. I could have spent DAYS more looking for photos. I have a hard time defining my style but these photos pretty much capture it, whatever it is!
Anyway, I think white walls certainly do help, though in my living room (#7) the walls are a pretty unusual green, which came with the house (I may not have been so bold as to choose the color but I am glad the former owners were. I love the color). I think you could do a more dramatic color but then the furniture would have to be toned down a bit. Maybe, for example, if you had old-school William Morris wallpaper you may want to have more modern, simple lines in the furniture. The wallpaper would almost function as the "traditional/vintage" component of the eclectic mix. Or maybe if you had a very modern, bold wallcolor it would contrast nicely with some more subdued, soft antique furniture (esp light-colored Swedish, for example, which would stand out nciely against a more modern wall color)??
Just some thoughts....
Also, I think the key to all of these pics is that the owner/designer seems to genuinely love each piece chosen. I think that if you listen to your gut and really respond to a piece of furniture or art then it will have a connection to the other pieces, if they, too were chosen with care. The connection between the pieces will be that their beauty/originality hit you in the gut and heart. Does that make sense?
For me, the thing that jumps out about my fav furniture/lamps is the lines...often the arc or curves of the lines. So whether it is the Arco lamp or Spanish colonial side table, there is a common element...
let me think some more about it.
"Do you think that the white wall is consistently important to each of these rooms?"
No, I don't.
Although white is used in many of these rooms, there are also white elements among the furnishings and textiles - it's the repetition of color that makes these spaces work.
You need to examine the colors of your elements and find the scheme within them - and select from those existing colors for your paint color, draperies, rugs, pillows, etc.
I love this post.. the decor is so me!
p.s. confused about pic 7.. i see the new, dont see the old
In pic #7 there is a 17th C. Gustavian barrel back chair and an antique bracket on the wall, as well as an old Turkish rug. But, you are right: In this image most of it is new. The rest of the room, however, is crammed full of antiques (2 grey linen French bergeres and an Aussie cedar table that is about 100 yrs old...also a crazy old marble topped coffee table!) I probably should have used a wider lens! Sorry!