Designer ‘Clutter’
Are you a ‘more is more’ person when it comes to your interiors? At heart do you like to be surrounded by an abundance of the many things you love and collect? But – you haven’t found the best way to pull it all together.
A look at the São Paulo home of architect Sig Bergamin may provide inspiration. “I like everything, so I just put it all in a blender and mixed it up,” says the Brazilian architect who enjoys near rock-star status in his native country. Well-traveled, he has collected items from around the world. His goal: “I didn’t want this to be an interior-decorated house.”
This is not a look many of us would aspire to. To boot, interior designers consistently advocate eliminating clutter. But there are those who just want to have ‘more’ going on – in at least a room or two. Let’s see how senhor Bergamin has pulled it off, creating a fun, enchanting, and invigorating look.
While there’s a lot going on in the room, all is not without a bit of order. Color is a key component in the ‘structure’, you might call it, of the room. Running through the mix of colors in the space, there’s repetition in the intensity level of color. There’s enough visual break for the eye to rest a bit. The grouping of like items adds underlying order: the glass vases on the visually balanced shelves, and the pillow groupings on the two identical sofas. The mirroring of the sofas adds a further element of order. The deeper tone of the sofa fabric and the wood furniture pieces serve as grounding elements. — A keen design is at work in the ‘non-decorated’, ‘blender-mixed’ space.
The choice of wall color plays an additional role in the success of this lively space. The color serves as a ‘glue’, holding together the scatter of bright hues. The bluish-green is just bright enough not to compete, but rises to a level of ‘joining the party’, so to speak.
A shot of two of the walls gives us a closer look at the colorful details. Not everyone can own a painting or print by Alex Katz, but reasonable art reproductions can be found at Art.com; posters at Posters.com. Local art fairs can be sources for art collecting. (To get this look you’ll need to collect a lot of framed wall art!)
So, are you one who collects a lot of, well, ‘stuff’? Do you collect treasures when you travel? Do you haunt garage sales or flea markets where you fall in love with pictures, lamps, vases and other decorative items? Do discount stores lure with irresistible finds? Do the colorful accent pillows at import stores ‘speak to you’? You love your purchases, but don’t know how to use and display them without an effect of overwhelming clutter. Take heart; all can be displayed without becoming just clutter. An overwhelming stash of stuff can be ‘delightfully’ over-the-top: colorful, fun … passionate.
The images above are from Architectural Digest. The photographer: Roger Davies.
In the living room, Sig Bergman’s collected items include artwork by well-known artists, an extensive collection of Murano-glass vessels, and Asian ikats.
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