New Traditional decor is all about layering unique wares in an edited fashion. For the most part, upholstery is kept neutral, allowing for artwork and accessories to take center stage.
Walls are adorned intentionally, with unique antique salvaged mirrors, sconces, and, in some cases, architectural remnants. Salon groupings of artwork are usually done in matching frames, for a tailored look. Special oil paintings, impressionistic portraits, or landscapes are usually hung on their own so as not to compete with other decor. Drawings, architectural studies or botanical prints framed simply with over-sized mats seem to be a popular choice.
When it comes to accessories, it's an exercise in mixing and matching. Natural curiosities are pared with antique silver dishes; staffordshire chinaware is placed on stacks of books next to something organic, like an oversized branch. The point is that hard meets soft, old meets new, color meets neutral tones. It's all about juxtaposition, scale and placement.
FIRST ROW
1. Sybaritic Spaces
2. Dwelement
3. Elle Decor
4. The City Sage
5. Aesthetically Thinking
SECOND ROW
1. C.W. Styling
2. Houzz
3. Lonny
4. Milk and Honey Home
5. Apartment Therapy
(Images: As credited above)
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True Greek Recipe: Paximadi Bread Salad with Tomatoes, Feta and Capers
Terribly boring decor style. These all look like hotel rooms or spare bedrooms in uptight homes. Sorry, it all looks fabulous. Expensive and lifeless.
Whoa, harsh comment alert! Why are you here then??? While the rooms are bit colourless for my taste, I liked them all; there were lots of pretty elements and ideas I can glean from them. I liked the architectural details in #6, the clean but personality filled look of room #9, the fireplace in #8.
I like these rooms, but I also understand earlier comments: these rooms are lovely, but so very appropriate. I want to go into each one and add a few pops of color, texture and (gasp!) irony to give each space a little more energy. These rooms don't want for elegance, but they do want for spirit. That said...I'd be thrilled to live in any of them!
"For the most part, upholstery is kept neutral, allowing for artwork and accessories to take center stage."
This is patently wrong. Neo Traditional style can make use of bold and dramatic color and pattern often juxtaposed against traditional silhouettes. For example, you might mix a modern geometric on a an antique french chair frame.
I enjoy AT, but editorial quality is sometimes really lacking in the basics, like fact checking.
I'm sorry, I didn't intend to offend anyone. These are elegant spaces; they're just too subdued for my tastes.
I dunno....I think I might be very happy with a living room like #4 if I could express my zany side in another, more private area, like bedroom, bathroom, or even kitchen. I want to have my traditional cake and eat it, too!
I think these rooms are beautiful, elegant and serene. They encourage me to purge.
These rooms are, on the whole, beautiful. I would only make little tweaks here and there. It's so refreshing to see something NOT MCM/ironic/quirky-for-the-sake-of-quirk/self-consciously hip/kitsch/etc. Subdued elegance and restraint does not a boring person make.
Even though these are very different to my aesthetic, I really like #1, #3 and #5. I don't find them boring at all, just very soothing, something I have a really hard time achieving!
Wow - earlier comments are a little offensive. I absolutely love these rooms, and my home is very similar to this. I'm somebody who just doesn't like bright colour at home, which I don't think makes me boring at all! For me, a light, neutral palette allows my home to fit every mood, occasion or gathering in a way that bold colours or decoration wouldn't.
Strangely, I do love spectacular art and dramatic colours elsewhere in my life - just not at home.
These are really nice rooms, objectively. Personally, I think they're very formal and subdued and I prefer a lot more color. Photo 9 comes closest because of the striped rug and red pillow.
Neutral rooms are more about subtlety, texture and layers and I experience those charateristics as indulgent, comfortable and inviting. I've been criticized for not having enough color in some of my rooms, but my home is my sanctuary where I want to feel soothed not stressed or overwhelmed. I have pops of color in artwork and in some rooms there is more color than others. It works for me. I also garden (English style) and so I fill up on color there. To each his own.
I think #3 is Darryl carter, not boring at all
Spectrogram put it perfectly. Thank you! I wish I saw more writing like this on AT.
In a similar vein, I once read that, in matters of decorating (though I guess one could apply it more universally) the point is "to make all the right mistakes." That's what I aim for.
As for Ms. Zahl's statement -- <<For the most part, upholstery is kept neutral, allowing artwork and accessories to take center stage.>> --- With the possible exception of photos #8 and 9, the upholstery AND the artwork/accessories are neutral. Where's the fun in that?
Who wouldn't want to live in a luxurious hotel suite forever? You design queens need to come off it. Anyone can be an eclectic pack rat, but I don't see enough folks pulling off informed restraint.
That said, anyone who piles books up on a table, on a bench, or on the floor as an intentional design motif is 100% ridiculous. An ordered mess in a space like these is akin to holes in a new pair of $500 jeans... it's trying too damn hard.