Contemporary decor can present a challenge. It values a well-selected variety of elements from different design eras and creates a new context where they now belong in new ways.
Designers add new dimensions to open space, changing perspectives, and facilitating engagement. Designers are gifted in choosing the large and small components, from furniture to lighting fixtures to items on a shelf.
Integrating diverse elements effectively takes some insight. Arranging colors, fabrics, window treatments along with wall treatments, pieces on tables and shelves, and artworks can create the dynamic you want or clutter that only produces stress.
You can reduce clutter with organizing, storage, and eliminating pieces. If you can think of the space as a grid, you can divide it into places or quadrants. If a piece of decor—a group of books, a cluster of candles, or a unique porcelain—does not have a place, it should be removed.
It takes some talent to select and arrange objects in a room to complement and integrate them with others in terms of color, shape, and texture. It’s not cluttered when the combination of has a plan and principle. Without that purpose, all you have is clutter that needs dusting.
Consider how a lighting fixture can make a difference. The Uranus is a contemporary pendant with mid-century and industrial era strategies. Strikingly simple and geometric, it is an assemblage, a combination of angles with no extras.
The profile recalls candlelit lanterns, but it has been stripped of anything sentimental. The shape is subtle and curious. It’s intriguing even when it is off.
Hanging over 70-inches from the base and almost 22-inches across, it is structured from gold-colored aluminum joints, each of which connects an acrylic tube illuminated by LED lights from within.
The Uranus hangs alone or in series without teardrops, crystals, or shades. It’s simplicity in concept and execution and simply fails to complicate things.
The Rhome does the same thing in a different way. Without a bangle or bead in place, the chandelier is a piece of sculpture that hovers above a room without visual interference. Interesting and visually challenging Rhome takes advantage of mid-century memories.
Available in satin brass or acid-washed black metal, the architecture depends on industrial joints just like the Uranus. The slim metal branches link with simple functional joints. The thin arms spread 44-inches long and 30-inches wide, but they virtually disappear behind the crystal bowls they support.
Unlit, the Rhome is a clever piece of art floating aimlessly above the room, its arms set at random angles. Lit, the chandelier is an attraction, an intriguing assemblage of lamps in retro-shaped clear delicate crystals.
If simplicity means scaling back the clutter, it doesn’t mean throwing everything out with the bathwater. It means careful selection and balance that fits the sense of place. If you’re thinking of lighting fixtures, both Uranus and Rhome fill the bill.