As a decorator and a furniture designer, Barry Dixon has achieved an international reputation for eclectic elegance.
But his new book, “Barry Dixon Interiors” (Gibbs-Smith, $40), illustrates that the Washington, D.C.,-based tastemaker is as concerned with imbuing homes with personality and individuality as he is with giving them fantastic looks.
Shortly after he returned from a trip to the West, The Denver Post caught up with Dixon via telephone to find out more about his take on design today.
Q: What are your impressions of the West, and how do they impact your work?
A: I was just at a Wyoming dude ranch for a friend’s 50th-birthday celebration. It was really remote; there was no phone in your room or in the common areas. We’ve been in Colorado a lot, too. I’ve worked on homes in Beaver Creek and Vail. I love that area. It is big sky country. Frank Lloyd Wright started that whole (bringing the) outdoors in thing. You’re reminded of the importance of bringing that big sky in. When you see these incredible groves of aspens or these incredible colors in the rocks, I think it definitely affects your eye and your sensibility.
Q: Most of the rooms in your book incorporate antiques. What suggestions do you have for shopping for and decorating with old things?
A: In many cases these are things that have been collected by the family. When a designer starts a project, he shouldn’t be erasing their history. He should be connecting it to their present. This isn’t another designer showroom. Antiques and artifacts take (the room) out of a showroom disposition. You’ve got to keep an open mind to what’s appropriate for the environment. If they have a really wonderful collection that they’ve inherited, I build on that.
When shopping for antiques, you’ve got to listen to your gut. Look for things that excite you and that you want to be around. If you see something and don’t buy it that day but it haunts you, then it should be in your life. If you forget about it the next day, that’s your subconscious saying you didn’t need to make that impulse buy.
Q: What was your intention for this book, and what do you hope people will take away from it?
A: The intention was literally to take 10 different subjects — from a Tribeca loft to a farmhouse in Virginia — and give the reader an opportunity to say ‘My house is more like this one’ or ‘My house is more like that one.’ It should be a useful tool for people, whether they do it themselves or use a designer.
What is your house asking for? What style is all around you? How do you pull that out of yourself and design successfully for you? We weren’t promoting a single look. It’s as much progressive as it is traditional; it’s as much masculine as it is feminine. We’re trying to teach people how to discern their own personalized recipe for their private rooms.
Q: What do you think is the most common mistake in decorating today?
A: Some homes are being overdecorated. Some designers are overly appealing to a formula so that you lose the kismet, the happenstance, of casual design. There needs to be an order to the chaos in a room. At the same time, just before that becomes a completely unbearable exercise — this chair has to be here and that chair has to be there — the number one adjective to apply to any successful interior is hospitable. You should feel beckoned into that home.
Too much attention to line and form can be intimidating and formidable. Keep an eye on hospitality and practical use. At the same time, don’t make the mistake of becoming too comfortable or relaxed. It’s walking that fine line between being beckoning and ordered. Too often the mistake is that people go from one extreme to the other.
Elana Ashanti Jefferson: 303-954-1957 or ejefferson@denverpost.com
