Usually I love the layered look, love these particular colors, love patterned fabrics, love gold-framed paintings. But this one is too much for me. Every item Makes a Statement and the eye has nowhere to rest.

My eyes are exhausted trying to find a place to rest them. If 1/3 of the items would be removed, I think then they might be livable without getting tranquilizers lol.

Wouldn't you hate to be the housekeeper here?!?

A lot of layering for a hot climate!

Some elements I love...the bullion fringe on the chaise, the poster bed in blue green (at least on my monitor), the wood mushrooms on the floor (but not the one on the desk-I was already surprised once by the ones on the floor), the pleated skirts on the cream sofas, the large scaled Chinoiserie wallpaper.

In the picture with the gal & her pup...isn't that mushroom patch in the corner the funniest little thing? I can't decide if I like it or not. I guess it's that "unexpected" touch I'm always hearing about.

J

Love the dining room. That rosy red & lime green is a favorite color combo of mine. I love the pale paneling too in the family room (or whatever people of that socioeconomic standing call those rooms).

Nice to see you posting, chijim. Have you been quiet as of late or have I just not noticed your posts?

For the layered look, very well done (like AD needs me to say that). I prefer something more serene, and I like my tschochkes and objets d'art to have a history, a story or some personal resonance. It looks to me as though al the little details were curated by a third party and not really part of someone's life. My favorite rooms are more genuine and more eclectic.

Btw, has there ever been a home in AD w/o an ID? In my experience shelter mags don't go looking for interesting spaces, they are pitched content by those who can make money from being featured (architects. ID , etc.)

Makes me nervous just looking at the pictures. Probably because I would have to dust it all! And I like "stuff".

Nancy

This house is not appealing to me at all. It seems way overdone, especially for a house in a warm climate, as DeeDee99 said. I do love some of the crown moldings and individual furniture pieces, though. Thanks for sharing, Jim.

The blue living room makes me a bit twitchy, but I like the other rooms, especially the dining room. Being from the south, it's a style that's pretty familiar. (Not that I really consider Florida to be the south!)

Except for the scale of the wallcoverings, it's actually kind of subdued.

I think all the rooms are very pretty except the purple-ish room. There are way too many itty bitty do-dads stuck all over the wall. It reminds me of something "if Ants were people" would do. The use of wall lanterns extended out off the wall on hanging brackets is pretty cool. I do love lanterns!

Has ID written all over it. Boring.

A few too many laters to suit me. And what the heck are those mushroom things doing in there? I do like a few items but way too much of them put together.

The dog is very cute.

I'm generally not a huge fan of the layered look. All that dusting! However, it can work beautifully, but this example just doesn't. It misses layered and merely looks cluttered. Too matchy matchy? Too blue?

I appreciate seeing what's in the latest AD as I refuse to buy any more of that magazine! Thanks Jim!

There are certainly many interesting pieces but I must be becoming jaded as so many are just "ho-hum, that thing again". Really the only new things are those awful mushrooms - and in two different rooms - what's with that? Maybe the owner/ID makes them herself!

Interesting to see blue in every room and I do adore the blue and white plates and tiles.

IMO it's a restrained layered look - only 3 things on some surfaces! ;D Be easy to dust.

You know what's interesting. I don't think these rooms have a time stamp to them, do you? What says 2012? Don't you think it could be 1982 just as easily? Maybe the ikat chairs?

Yep, no particular date.

No particular date indeed. Could be a room in an upscale home from any of the last ? Many decades. Which is why I said boring. It's a stereotype.

Meh, if you *could* tell, then it would be deemed "dated" and an "update" would be called for. It's no more boring than the latest West Elm catalog (in it's own way) or more stereotypical than Pottery Barn, Ethan Allen or other looks that it seems so important for the decoratory masses to copy verbatim.

If that is layered, then I like it all a great deal. Compared to some of the layered houses you've posted, Jim, this just looks like a regular home traditionally decorated.
It is only slightly too rococo for me!

I have a feeling that this is a very clever "Where's Waldo?" challenge and we're supposed to help the owner find her shoes. I doubt the dog ate them.

I love the colors.

I love the Chinoiserie toile on the cover! Big and fabulous!

Question: two of the rooms pictures have blue walls and either a wood trim or wallpaper border at the ceiling---- or perhaps the walls are papered with a paper that has the trim motif at the end of the roll. (I can't imagine that as it would mean a lot of waste when cutting off that strip for smaller pieces, but it's always possible.). One of the top trims looks very flat, like paper, but the thicker, scalloped trim looks like wood in the photograph. Does anyone know what those actually are?

I just saw something else I like. I like that most all the rooms have similar textured area rugs in common. I think this a good thing with so much going on. I wish there were more pictures of beds and linens though. Is this house in St Augustine?

I just took an Advil...

Jane

This is obviously a person who has too much money, too much time, and obviously not enough willpower to say *no* while shopping.

I like every room except the first one. I can understand the love of accessorizing, but there needs to be a correlation other than the blue and white colors. This room is not just over the top, it's out-and-out *overkill*.

Would love to visit but wouldn't want to live there. :) I'd love to shop the house and pick a few things for myself.

My MIL does layered and she has a good eye but I just can't relax in the house. When the family is visiting everyone seems to migrate to the outdoor spaces - front porch and side porch so I feel like I'm not the only one who is overwhelmed by all the formal stuff.

Not my style, but I LOVE the vaulted ceiling with the exposed beams. Oh my heavens, that is beautiful.

I've moved so often for different jobs that I shudder to think how long it would take movers to pack all of the furniture and accessories up.

chijim, this layering seems different to me than the other layering examples you have posted.( in my memory anyhoo) the layering in these photos seems to be less cohesive somehow.Is it supposed to be an eclectic layering? Can you help me/us understand what I am seeing and why it works?

I wonder if it's the blues that turning so many of you off. Blue is not a popular decorating color (although certain shades rotate in an out) or if it's the traditional styling.
Can't be that ceiling!
Here is a room just as busy that I love and wonder if the layering is still a turn off.
I saw this this morning, I hope I am not hijacking your thread Jim. Not what I mean to do at all.

But nothing screams '2012' to me like the fake antlers. Nothing else seems of a particular date though...unless you count those mushrooms.

I do love that ceiling with the exposed beams, and Bumblebeez, your room is much, much more to my liking. Somehow it doesn't seem as busy. The original room is too much blue, for me anyway. I'm not a 'blue' nor a traditional person, especially as far as my decor goes.

Back for a second look. The more I look, the more I like. That paneled room is truly beautiful (bleached pecky cypress?).

What are the lamp columns made of, the floor lamps in each corner? I really like them.

Outsideplaying, I am totally with you on the antlers thing. They look appropriate and wonderful in certain houses, but this ubiquitous use is ridiculous. We have real shed antlers that we found incorporated into beaver lodges that we've broken apart to stop them damming up the creeks. One intact set is in the laundry room on top of a built in cupboard, and two separate antlers form a base for an antique garden gazing ball in our living room. I love them because they are real, found objects from our own property--- we have a herd of deer that allows us to live here--- but have occasionally considered putting them away because of the fake resin antler craze.

I think the thing that makes these rooms relatively successful to me is that 1) you can't really tell when they are done--I never think that is bad, and 2) I really had to think about why I Don't like them all that much.

I like the pecky cypress room, but the rest I am not that enamored of. But I had to think about it: I can usually look at a room and say Yes/No, Good/Bad, or yuck after a quick scan.

I think the thing that I really don't like about these rooms is the overblown scale of the wall treatments and the trompe l'oeil--creating that phony symmetry in the large blue room especially. Then the overuse of symmetry everywhere else. I don't even think there is that much stuff really, it's not that heavily layered compared to a lot of things you've shown.

Bumblebeez - For me, you are right about the use of blue. I would go mad if I had to spend time in that blue bedroom, and the great room is not much better. I like blue as an accent color; have used it in several rooms of our home, but never, ever on the walls. These things are so personal!

For me it's not the blue, since I like blue, but so much stuff that no one thing stands out. There's such a 'competition' of elements no one thing being the center-of-attention. As Pal has said, the trompe l'oeil is too much, too fake, too large, as well as too unnecessary to add any amount of beauty to the room.

I also find the use of too many styles going on, and although I like eclectic, there is *nothing* that unifies this space.

I like it. The colors in the blue room come from her fabulous collection of ironstone platters. She combines rustic beams and paneling, with formal oil paintings,with tropical furniture, with ikat upholstery. In this room, the trendy ikat might still look fresh in 20 years.
Mushrooms? A personal touch. Who doesn't have a completely personal, "this is my thing" touch in their home?
Why is this considered layered decorating? She's got a lot of collections, on the walls especially, but I don't find it cluttered looking.

Those aren't fake resin antlers. They are vintage roe deer antlers from Europe...usually attributed to the Black Forest. I have several that belonged to my grandfather who brought them back after his military service was over. They are all the small ones. The largest one is presumably from a regular midwest US deer: a neighbor visited one day, saw my collection, and returned the following day with his addition :) I enjoy them all!

{{!gwi}}

My grandmother always said a house should have antlers for good luck....no idea why, but she did, so we do.

Hat rack convenient to the front door????

We have two pairs of (inherited) Victorian era Hooks made out of deer hooves. We think they are probably to hold hunting rifles, but they could make creepy coat hooks I guess. They are stored away.

palimpsest, you know, I've seen those hoof hooks in antique stores, and didn't really know what they were for. It makes absolute sense that they are gun racks! But of course :)

I like antlers where they are appropriate, trade winds,, and did not say nor do I think that those featured in the article are resin. I do think they are inappropriate in the rooms shown, as there seems no raison d'etre for their inclusion except fashion.

kswl, I was replying in general to this:

"But nothing screams '2012' to me like the fake antlers. Nothing else seems of a particular date though...unless you count those mushrooms." I was simply clarifying the antlers were real to someone---who was not you---who believed they were fake.

Personally, I hope the homeowner has included them in her decor because they please her. Which is reason enough for me :)

I've wanted some antlers, big ones, no attached skull, for years and years although I never really pursued buying any.
But when they became trendy, I didn't want them anymore.
I'll always like them, naturally shed ones anyway.

In other case studies of Layered Homes that chijim has posted in the past -- I have always spoke up in favor -- but not this time .... and frankly ... I'm not quite sure of my reasons ...

There are some corners of the rooms that I do like -- but not the overall look ... I found most of the rooms were too "new" and "fussy-overdone" in an artificial way.

And yet -- as I have stated -- I normally do love really layered rooms and decor of all sorts and kinds ....

... just some thoughts ....

... and I'd like to thank chijim for posting this thread -- ALWAYS interesting discussions!! :)

Apolgies about the 'fake' comment. I've seen so many fake ones, I just assumed. Ex-DH was a big hunter, so I've seen and decorated around many antlers in my past. Even in the basement rec room we had with them around the pool table, I wasn't especially fond of them, but dealt with it for his sake. Living in the country, we too find many antlers from the deer we live with, but I don't choose to have them in my rooms, even as hat racks!

Thanks, tradewinds, I just did not want you or anyone else to think I don't like antlers in general!

.....but I *don't* like antlers, unless they're on the head of a *living* deer. No offense, it's my problem, and that's ok. ;o)

It's always interesting reading all the different viewpoints on a post.

This my give some here apoplexy, but the homeowner said she isn't finished w/the decor.
Hehe....more layering.

Pal - The symmetry/overblown scale of the wall treatments reminds me so much of Charles Faudree & to some degree David Easton(Balderbrae)
I suspect Faudree was her inspiration in general w/the overall decor mix esp w/the plate,art, and antler vignettes.

awm03 - Tks, yes,I've been absent of late w/posting...just being lazy!

I too have a coatrack made from feet/hooves--antelope & polished no less, my sister bought it in Egypt many yrs back.
I used to have it hung above a closet door in my bdrm with a sword resting across it.

I like it. It has that bit of an Alice-in-Wonderland edge that appeals to me. And I think those colors work in Florida. I'm wondering if the giant cartouches are copies of something from a famous toile that we're supposed to recognize.