Most Surprising Very Richmond Decorating Advice

So you want your house to have that classic, colonial-Southern-Richmond look? Hold up! Turns out that right now, “I think the trend is to not have a very Richmond look,” says interior designer Janet Brown, owner of Janet Brown Interiors in Carytown.

Ten years ago you could have visited 10 homes in Richmond and found them to be nearly identical with period furnishings, Brown says: “Matching tables, matching lamps … ceiling white, trim white.”

Now, Brown says, “It is in vogue to be an individual.” She’s seeing muddier, European paint colors, such as those from Farrow and Ball. More ethnic fabrics and influences, such as Oushak rugs and Suzani textiles. “It isn’t the flowered chintz that used to be in your mother’s house,” she says. And instead of matched, formal furniture, contemporary, country and Italian styles in the same room.

Of course, the classic Richmond look will never die out entirely. “It sneaks in, like apple-green doors,” Brown says. And that’s OK.

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