Japanese Lacquered Hardstone Chest

The California-born style of Hollywood Regency, also known as Regency Moderne, emerged during the Golden Era of cinema from the 1920s to the ’50s. Decadent and bold, vintage Hollywood Regency furniture and interiors playfully mix colors like jewel tones and hot pinks with lacquered walls, gilded accents, mirrored surfaces and metallic finishes for maximalist spaces.

Although it involved elements of the coinciding Art Deco movement, such as a preference for clean lines, Hollywood Regency was much more opulent, inspired by glamorous movie stars and the lavish set designs for films being made in Tinseltown. Furniture designers associated with the style embraced an eclectic range of influences, including throwbacks to previous styles of grandeur, such as Rococo, neoclassical and chinoiserie, as well as materials, from bamboo dining chairs to lucite bar carts to sunburst mirrors made from gilded resin. Hollywood Regency end tables, floor lamps, chandeliers and other pieces tended to be small-scale, fitting into an overall design rather than serving as a focal point.

Interior decorator Dorothy Draper led the shaping of the Hollywood Regency style and also designed iconic pieces like the España chest, which was manufactured by Henredon. Virginia native William “Billy” Haines, a furniture designer who started as an actor, contrasted hand-painted wallpaper with Chinese ceramics and Chippendale chairs, while architect John Elgin Woolf imbued his Beverly Hills designs with theatrical details. Paul Revere Williams, a trailblazing African-American architect, was pivotal in defining the look through his commercial projects, such as the 1940s Beverly Hills Hotel and bespoke homes that mixed everything from Louis XV paneling to Georgian architecture.

Find a collection of vintage Hollywood Regency bedroom furniture, tables, seating and other pieces on 1stDibs.

From Japanese handmade earthenware pottery, originating circa 14,500 B.C. and adorned with elaborate corded patterns known as jōmon, to natural elm case pieces and storage cabinets built in Qing dynasty–era China to mid-century Thai rice-paper charcoal rubbings, antique and vintage Asian art and furniture make for wonderful additions to all kinds of contemporary interiors.

Eastern elements elevate any home’s decor. Introduce zen sensibility to your living room, dining room and bedroom with the neutral color palettes and the natural materials such as rattan, bamboo and elm that we typically associate with traditional Asian furniture. Decorative handwoven embroideries and textiles originating from India and elsewhere on the continent, which can be draped over a bed or sofa or used as a wall hanging, can be as practical as they are functional, just as you wouldn’t seek out Japanese room-divider screens — often decorated with paintings but constructed to be lightweight and mobile — merely for privacy.

With everything from blanket chests to lighting fixtures to sculptures and carvings, it’s easy to tastefully bring serenity to your living space by looking to the treasures for which the East has long been known.

For British-born furniture designer Andrianna Shamaris, the Japanese concept of beauty in imperfection isn’t limited to her Wabi Sabi collection. She embraces it in her New York City apartment as well. In the living area, for instance, she retained the fireplace’s original black marble while swathing its frame and the rest of the room in bright white.

“We left the fireplace very clean and wabi-sabi, so that it blended into the wall,” says Shamaris, who further appointed the space with a hand-carved antique daybed whose plush pillows are upholstered in antique textiles from the Indonesian island of Sumba.

In the growing antique and vintage Asian art and furniture collection on 1stDibs, find ceramics from China, antiquities from Cambodia and a vast range of tables, seating, dining chairs and other items from Japan, India and other countries.