Copyright Metropolitan Home Nov. 2008

I am not one to follow today’s “top designers”. In a way, I find that it interferes with my creativity. But this week at my brother David’s house in Louisville, I scanned several issues of Metropolitan Home and have to say: I like that guy Jonathan Adler. His Palm Beach apartment, featured in the November issue, is totally mid mod and very fun. Here’s a snippet of his ethic. Gearing up for new year’s resolutions, readers? How about an over-the-top powder room? I am going to start cataloging ideas!

What’s exciting about design now is that we’re living in an anything-goes world,” enthuses Jonathan Adler. “Eclecticism, the buzzword for the past few years, is too weak a word to describe the amped up style du jour. I prefer the term ‘aggressive incongruity.’ To make an impression and feel new, visual juxtapositions need to be almost jarring.” Adler’s aesthetic may be a bit too extreme for many, but it’s clear that this designer, who terms himself a maximalist, knows what he likes: combining styles “with abandon and a sense of fun. Maximalism,” he says, “is life affirming; minimalism is gloomy. We’re only here for a short time, and I want to look back at my life and remember the fun of a powder room wallpapered in a lime-green brocade, the excess of a giant vase filled with hundreds of peacock feathers, or the zest of an orange lacquer cocktail table. It’s the over-the-top things that stay with us and mean something.”