The New Deco. Done Quietly
Art Deco has a reputation. Hollywood Regency, Gatsby gloss, gold and chrome, mirrored bars, the kind of full-volume glamour that looks incredible in a hotel lobby and gets nervous in a regular living room. Done well, it’s beautiful — there’s a reason it keeps coming back. Done full-throttle, an Art Deco room can feel heavy fast, or worse, read trend-dated within one interior design season.
We’re two sisters in Paris, and we walk past the 1925 originals every day — La Coupole in Montparnasse, the apartment blocks in the 16th, brass details set into doorways no one notices. What strikes us is how restrained they actually are. The bones are quieter than the revival suggests. So we put together an edit that takes the cue from the source: sprinkle Deco, don’t commit to it. One hint per room, layered into a space you already love.
The edit. A 1913 Modigliani caryatid — figural, archaic, the piece that holds a wall without trying. A heavily fluted bowl in verde marble — period-correct, sculptural, a centerpiece that doesn’t raise its voice. A scalloped brass mirror for a powder room. A harlequin diamond rug in latte brown — geometry without volume. A milk-glass sconce with a fluted body
Palazzo Latte Brown Re-Jute Rug — Art Deco Harlequin Diamond Pattern — from $319
A burl side table with the depth of a sculpture. A small mahogany stool with a cutout silhouette. A velvet ottoman in a quiet tiger print. Even two whiskey lowballs cast with an arch motif — Deco at $25, which feels almost too obvious — in a playful way. Pick one. Pick two. The pieces age well because the room isn’t carrying them — they’re guests, not residents.
