By the beginning of the 21st century, the Australian designer Greg Natale had grown tired of quiet, minimalist interiors.
“At that time in Sydney, we were very inspired by John Pawson and David Chipperfield,” said Mr. Natale, 51, referring to British architects famous for their sober, purist designs. “I love their work too, but I’m definitely a modernist who prefers maximalism.”
Rather than trying to strip away yet more ornamentation and pattern, as many designers were doing at the time, Mr. Natale decided to dive into design styles from the past to see what shapes and patterns he could find and reinterpret.
“I’m inspired by looking back because I think you need to know design and art history to be able to move forward,” he said. After starting his own design firm in 2001, he found a niche in designing interiors rich in colorful elements and sculptural forms, which reimagined historical touches through a contemporary lens.
“The first project I ever did was a little one-bedroom apartment for my sister,” Mr. Natale said. “It was all pattern on pattern on pattern. I did that on purpose, so I looked different than everyone else.”
Today, Mr. Natale continues to draw inspiration from a variety of sources, including 19th century Regency style and 1960s space-age furniture. But there is one style in particular that has perhaps made the biggest impression of all: Art Deco.
“I love Art Deco,” Mr. Natale said. “That’s when Art Nouveau went modern,” he said, as the style arrived on the world stage at the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris.
“It was at the same time when the Bauhaus architects were really stripping everything back,” Mr. Natale said, “and Art Nouveau turned geometric, with very clean lines.”
Because it’s associated with the Roaring Twenties, he added, Art Deco, which featured decorative elements celebrating simplified forms and exotic materials, “has always had a bit of glamour.”
Mr. Natale has aimed to channel that glamour while designing contemporary interiors and products for the home that offer a new twist on the 100-year-old style.
A townhouse he recently completed in Manhattan, for instance, is layered in pink, light green, gold and multicolored marble; streamlined shapes; and repeating patterns. “The owners were actually in Paris when they bought the house, and they were eating out at maximalist Parisian restaurants every day,” Mr. Natale said, which they wanted reflected in their new home.
Pulling inspiration from French style of the 1920s and ’30s, in the living room he installed a wallpaper mural based on an abstract painting of overlapping shapes by Wassily Kandinsky, but unexpectedly paired it with a plump sofa and ottoman cushy with 1970s swagger by Gianfranco Frattini. In the shower in the primary bathroom, he added a similar decorative touch to the wall with pieces of marble assembled like a puzzle. In the dining area, he created a streamlined ceiling medallion made from rectangular blocks arranged in a circle, and he covered an adjacent wall with a composition of rose-hued and smoked mirror, playing up the Art Deco focus on warm, reflective materials, but in his own dramatic way.
“I think a really good designer or architect tells a story,” Mr. Natale said. “There’s a story, and elements of surprise, as you walk through the house.”
Mr. Natale’s embrace of color and pattern, he said, comes from his childhood. His parents were immigrants from Italy and built their dream home in Sydney in the 1970s. “The Natale house was all tiles and marble, with patterns everywhere,” he said. “My love of pattern has just always been there because of my family home.”
Mr. Natale’s appreciation for such decorative touches, and interest in the past, is also apparent in the furniture, rugs, wallcoverings and home accessories he designs and sells through his website and at retailers such as Bergdorf Goodman. His Anjelica bar cabinet, for instance, has a circular shape with ridged wood doors and polished brass details that give it a Jazz Age feel. His home accessories include vases that recall early 20th century skyscrapers. And his rug designs include numerous Art Deco-inspired patterns with asymmetrical arrangements of curved and straight lines realized in multiple colors.
Mr. Natale’s willingness to buck trends while developing his own voice as a designer has won him many fans, and his portfolio of projects has expanded well beyond Australia, to homes in England, Greece, Switzerland and the United States.
“He’s very innovative,” said Cara Woodhouse, a New York-based interior designer who follows Mr. Natale’s work. “His use of material, color and form is just so thoughtful, and he can take something old and make it new and fresh.”
The designer Jonathan Adler is another admirer. “Some people just have it,” said Mr. Adler, who wrote the foreword for Mr. Natale’s 2015 book “The Tailored Interior,” adding that both he and Mr. Natale share a deep appreciation for Art Deco.
“Art Deco is both heavily ornamented and heavily minimal at the same time,” Mr. Adler said. “That’s a difficult balance to strike. But that’s what Art Deco is and what Greg is able to do.”
Mr. Natale’s Stella Diva rug is a case in point. Directly inspired by the Chrysler Building, and ringed by pink and gold triangles, he reduced the skyscraper’s showy decorative elements to strict geometric shapes and assembled them into an arrangement as playful as 1980s Memphis design.
Yet Mr. Natale isn’t about to let himself get pigeonholed. Ever the design pluralist, he continues to try to break from the crowd, noting that he has recently been admiring the angular, midcentury modern work of the Italian architect Carlo Scarpa.
“In architecture and interiors, we’re going through this very curvy, very organic moment,” Mr. Natale said. “So I thought it might be nice if we start introducing some sharper lines.”
This September, he plans to introduce a collection of home accessories named Terreno, which will include bowls, boxes and vases. Inspired by Scarpa’s Tomba Brion in Italy, which features concrete structures composed of rectangles, stepped details and circular openings, Mr. Natale said the pieces will explore architectural forms and textures.
Eager to stay ahead of trends, “I do look back,” he said. “But I also look forward.”
The post In This Designer’s Hands, Art Deco Feels Contemporary appeared first on New York Times.
