Growing up in a small town in the Netherlands, I thought the only right way to go was to furnish a home full of antiques. My younger sister was often too embarrassed to bring back any friends claiming that the house was like a “museum”. When I started collecting stuff to fill up my room and later my student digs I thought in order for it to be right it had to be antique. How wrong was I! Fortunately everyone grows up!

My preference of furnishings now has to be a mix of one or two antique pieces (preferably a bit over the top with some gold accents), combined with a bit of art deco, some mid century pieces and the required contemporary items (e.g. sofas, cushions). Does this all get a bit overly complicated and end up in confusion?  No I love it. The different periods obviously have different styles and therefore provide intrigue and uniqueness.  The various style periods also provide the ever required layers and texture a room needs (think chrome with wood and leather etc) and can marry in harmony provided you display them correctly and leave the color scheme not too wild (I don’t mean white!! but actually DARK) and then go wild with pops of color here and there….

For antiques  I love to go with Empire style pieces – straight lines but with gold accents and often marble tops.

For Art Deco think wooden cabinets or cinema chairs with velvet cushions

For Mid century think of the ever successful Eames or La Fonda chairs or perhaps a nice Geoffrey Harcourt or what about a mirrored Parisian 50′ console?

For great art deco and mid century pieces try 1stdibs.com

Please dare to be different……