The Seduction of Reduction
Can reading a book feel like a visit to a spa?
After perusing Karen Lehman Bloch’s new tome, The Inspired Home: Interiors of Deep Beauty (Harper Design, $35), I felt strangely cleansed. Its collection of nearly two dozen spare, all-natural houses washes over your senses like a chamomile bath, leaving you feeling calm and relaxed, and ready to toss half of your furnishings into the Dumpster.
While Bloch hauls out Mies’ dictum that less is more, this isn’t a book about minimalism. It’s about achieving a feeling of emotional and spiritual uplift by surrounding yourself with things that make you feel good. It’s about appreciating the tactile, taking your cues from nature and embracing a mix — not because it’ll impress your friends or follow fashion, but because it will nurture your soul. (Bloch calls this a “design detox.”)
While it all might sound a little woo-woo, there’s no denying the appeal of these spaces, or the credentials of some of the designers represented, including Vicente Wolf, Juan Montoya and Donna Karan (who also wrote the foreword). Bloch’s text explores the ideas behind their approaches, breaking them down into simple, easy-to-emulate principles.
Purity. Architect James Cavagnari and interior designer Erin Quiros renovated this 300-year-old former farmhouse on the Sicilian island of Salina. In keeping with local practices, they installed niches and built-in benches, reducing their need for freestanding furniture. Extraneous ornament was curbed, as were colors, except for the natural tones of the contemporary and ethnic furnishings.
Every room in the house opens onto a terrace, including the master bedroom and bath. The floors are paved in handmade Sicilian terra-cotta tiles; the walls are covered in a pristine chalky plaster native to the island.
Sensuality. Interior designer Catherine Weyeneth Bezençon transformed an 1890 French barn (still piled with hay) into a soulful home filled with classic modern furniture, natural textures and a trove of collectibles gathered on her travels — including this grouping of Han Dynasty terra-cotta in the living room.
What’s more sensuous than food? (OK, I can think of one thing, but let’s overlook that for the moment.) In Bezençon’s dining room, bare, monastic chairs surround a salvaged wood table, keeping the focus on the food while managing to hold their own against the barn’s rugged stone walls and beamed ceiling.
Layering. Bloch says beautiful pieces can and should stand on their own, but are often enhanced by layering one piece atop, beside or underneath, as in Cathy Vandewalle’s artifact-laden penthouse in Bangkok.
Restraint. Fashion designer Luisa Beccaria’s 18th-century Sicilian castle does not look at all like what you’d expect a castle to look like. Going for a dreamy look, she pared down her furnishings, layering strong, simple pieces with romantic dashes of lace, gilt and ceramics. The palette is similarly restrained, with nature-inspired hues that feel almost Scandinavian in their purity.
Balance. Creating a sense of order and coherence in our homes will promote those same qualities in ourselves, Bloch maintains. As an example, she cites interior designer Darryl Carter’s bucolic retreat in Virginia. In the studio of this 1840s home, a screen made of banyan bark flanks a daybed fashioned from an antique gurney. Large statement pieces like this — and the massive coffee table — balance one another and mean you don’t need to have as much “stuff” for the room to feel furnished.
A contemporary linen-covered sofa blends right in with Carter’s collection of antique furniture. In this modern take on rustic design, rough blends with refined, creating a balance between the two that results in harmony.
Bloch also praises such traits as authenticity, surprise and grandeur — which she distinguishes from “grandiosity,” a characteristic that is more about ostentation than scale.
To read all of her suggestions and to see 242 other photographs of tranquil, revivifying spaces, pick up a copy of The Inspired Home, available at bookstores and online.
More: Mini Guide to Minimalism
