Charlotte Barnes Interior Design & Decoration

Can traditional design be modern? The answer is yes, if the interior designer is Charlotte Barnes. Few match her skill in creating rooms that are as convivial and cosmopolitan as they are personal and fresh. In this Connecticut living room, she evokes the wildly theatrical Turquerie drawing room Renzo Mongiardino created for the London house of Lee Radziwill in 1966, by using Indian printed cottons for the curtains, the wallcoverings and even the lampshade and upholstered divan. Her take is as bold but more relaxed and bohemian, grounded by a luscious grape-hued velvet-upholstered sofa and a pair of cushy teal linen armchairs, all of Barnes’s own design. “People always talk about the mix,” she says, “but it’s really the combination that’s important. A good combination has a cadence that actually makes the look.” Beyond the striking wallcoverings, what makes this room is the pair of antler racks Barnes found on 1stDibs and a “long-owned painting” belonging to the client.