Christy Ferer, "Break the Mold"

"Break the Mold"

• In the dining room, mix antique chairs with a contemporary table. Or vice versa
• Use a glass-topped modern metal table in front of an antique sofa. A simple modern pice juxtaposed with an ornate old piece brings out the beauty of two eras. 
• Christy Ferer says hang a for of abstract art in a traditional room.
• Let line, color, and shape unify objects. Centuries come together when emphasis is placed on similarities rather than differences.
• While you might want to mix with abandon certain periods and styles do marry particularly well. Good blends include Victorian, art nouveau, and eighteen-century French pieces: Scandinavian modern, Shaker, and Japanese; English Regency and Chinese; contemporary and Japanese or Chinese, seventeenth-century Italian and art deco. But don't hesitate to make other combinations. A bit of deco with Shaker. Or Scandinavian modern with Chinese. In moderation almost anything can be decorative punctuation. 
• Christy Ferer also recommends Midcentury modern, the furniture and accessories from roughly the 1940s through the 1950s, is highly collectible now. Its finishes are light, its lines are simple and clean, and practicality is its premier concern. Think Heywood-Wakefield, Russell Wright, Knoll, Charles and Ray Eames, and Eero Saarinen. Much of their work is being reissued today if you can't afford the original. Even one piece of midcentury modern will give you a newness to a traditional room. 

More Eclectic Rules to Break from Christy Ferer

"To be eclectic means anything goes."

There is a define line between eclecticism and chaos. A room can take on an eclectic look by using subtle contrasts as well as bold ones. Vidicom CEO Christy Ferer says A contemporary home filled with classics or a historical one filled with contemporary ones automatically has an eclectic spirit. But it's certainly possible to create an incoherent space by jettisoning all organizing principles. 

She recommends you start small- with galvanized metal chairs pulled up to a rustic country dining table or a sleek halogen lamp on a Chippendale desk. Mix shiny with rough, urban with earthy, provincial with palatial, old with new, the found object with the treasure. That's what eclecticism is all about. But there is safety in some uniformity. Keep one color of wood in a room of different period furniture. Use neutral walls to showcase varied forms of art. 

More Eclectic Tips from Christy Ferer

Christy Ferer says filling up your living space is like panting on a black canvas or assembling an outfit. You are building a look - your look. The advantage of being eclectic is that it gives you the broadest of palettes, one that allows you to dabble in culture, styles, and periods.

One of Christy's mentors, Bernadine Morris, former fashion editor of The New York Times, told me the key to style is never looking like you spent hours putting yourself together. The same goes for decorating a space. It shouldn't look too matched, too decorated, too precise. Fashion Cynthia Rowley agrees. "The worst thing is to have everything perfectly appointed," she says. And Calvin Klein equates modernity with relaxation: "The role of modern design is to make living in a complex world-where even times has become a luxury-easier, more relaxed; it goes beyond trends. Mix casual with formal and work with modern textures and different weights and forms."

More Style Tips From Christy Ferer

Vidicom’s CEO, Christy Ferer, believes that breaking the rules allows you to start a revolution in your own home, and it gives you the courage to go ahead and let those style “security blankets” unravel. Show off your most beloved accessories in new ways, experiment with your furniture to create new spaces, find fresh ways of living from room to room. 

What Breaking the Rules offers is a small window on the world, the style snapshots that has affected her eye and the way she played with her home. Christy is blessed because she has been to exposed to so many people who have pushed the envelope and broken more than a convention or two. Now she is sharing that with you.