Banish the Beige
Madcap guys write the must-have design book of the season
By Jason Oliver Nixon & John Loecke • Photographs by John Bessler & Jay Wilde
It takes exactly one year to craft a design book such as Prints Charming: Create Absolutely Beautiful Interiors with Prints & Patterns. We began this amazing project in the spring of 2016 and wrapped up the writing, endless photo shoots, and editing in the spring of 2017. And that was after months of writing a proposal, reworking the proposal with our book agent, and shopping the book around to prospective publishing houses in New York.
Each of the chapters in this book is a space — a home or apartment — that we, the Madcap Cottage gents, designed, so the book’s photo shoots had us hopping between interiors that we had crafted in New York City, Iowa, Florida, upstate New York, and our hometown of High Point, North Carolina. And then it was back to NYC. We live in North Carolina, but we are lucky enough to work all over the world, from New Orleans to London, the Hamptons, and our own backyard, High Point’s historic Emerywood neighborhood.
We were inspired to pen this colorful tome not because we harbored illusions of crafting a New York Times bestseller, but rather because folks like you, our clients, have always found pattern a tad perplexing.
At Madcap Cottage, we believe decorating should be fun, and never grim and glum. It should be an adventure — one whose end result is rooms that burst with personality and that put a smile upon your face the moment you step through the front door. And the key to crafting this décor-driven bliss is patterns, friends, patterns. Forget white walls and neutral furnishings. It’s time to dream big and transform your home with the wonders of pattern! So let’s go; this E-ticket ride is ready to roll.
For ease of use, Prints Charming is divided by pattern-themed chapters instead of, say, by rooms, so if you think you have an affinity for “Pattern is Romantic,” you can start there and hop between “Pattern is Sophisticated,” “Modern,” “Timeless,” “Masculine,” and so many more. Pattern is not granny, and it’s definitely not going anywhere but up.
What follows is a sneak peek to entice you to embrace the myriad pleasures of prints and pattern in your own home. And once you are hooked on living a more colorful life, as are we, you can purchase the book (Abrams, $35), at The Country Bookshop in the heart of Southern Pines. We will be there on November 14 at 5 p.m. for a book signing, and hope to see you.
Life is short. Why dream in beige?
Here we are in our upholstery workroom in High Point, the furniture capital of the world. That’s John Loecke on the left and Jason Oliver Nixon on the right. Almost all of the fabrics featured in the book — including those upon the cover — are from our Madcap Cottage for Robert Allen @Home collection, available at fine retailers from coast to coast (please visit madcapcottage.com to find a retailer near you). Retail? Yes! We believe that good design should be available to all and not just to the interior design trade. By the by, John’s pants and Jason’s shorts are crafted from Madcap Cottage collection fabrics, too.
The living room of our 1930s-era, Regency-style House of Bedlam home, the centerpiece of the chapter entitled “Pattern is Sophisticated.” An antique Chinese rug pairs with a custom scenic wallpaper from Gracie Studio and brings a timeless storyline to life. Black furnishings add just the right amount of neutral to allow the room’s patterns to really sing. Green and coral are the hues that predominate in the space and connect the dots between the various patterns. The armchairs are covered in the Madcap Cottage for Robert Allen @Home pattern Mill Reef, inspired by the fabled club in Antigua that was once home to American heiress Bunny Mellon. Note that all of the furnishings in the room are vintage or antique: Look to the past to move the needle forward.
In the chapter “Pattern is Timeless,” a classic blue-and-white living room that we designed in Des Moines, Iowa takes center stage. The Duncan Phyfe-style sofa — an inherited heirloom — is the perfect, punchy focal point for the room. The sofa’s tree-of-life-patterned chintz is a design classic with origins tracing to the China trade in the early 1700s. Tonal blue-and-white motifs round out the look and play off the flora and fauna elements in the chintz. The vine-and-floral-bouquet pattern in the rug echoes the blue-and-white pottery collection that fills the room’s shelves.
We gave a suburban home in New York’s Westchester County a contemporary spin thanks to a spirited dash of prints and pattern, as profiled in the chapter “Pattern is Modern.” Here, the home’s entry — once a white box with zero personality — looks smashing thanks to striped wallpaper that helps mask the foyer’s many odd angles while adding heaps of drama. The zebra rug lends an organic element to the room. In a room, you do not want to make everything too perfect or too linear, as that will have less impact. Talk about a grand entrance, all thanks to a little stripe tease.
In the same “Pattern is Romantic” cottage, the kitchen shines with a mix of textured finishes in a limited color palette of blacks, grays, and pale blue. Natural materials such as slate, marble, and wood, tell a textured and well-worn pattern story. The room’s tongue-and-groove ceiling and chunky chiseled wood beams add visual interest on high. Although new, the finish on the custom cabinets was intentionally distressed to give the room a sense of history. The Roman shades in our Windy Corner fabric pattern are from the Madcap Cottage collection for Smith + Noble, the window treatments catalogue and e-tailer.
An Art Deco-styled living room springs to life in the chapter “Pattern is Masculine.” Think clubby, chic, and sophisticated abstract patterns, moody colors, and deco-styled chinoiserie in a small apartment on Manhattan’s East Side. Takeaway: Stumped on how to embrace pattern? Create a storyline for your home, and turn to pattern to make that dream a reality. Throwback 1930s Shanghai and a nod to the Bund in the East Thirties of NYC, why not!
Another view of the clubby living room in the chapter “Pattern is Masculine.” To give the light-filled apartment moody atmosphere, we covered one wall with a glamorous Asian-inspired wallpaper. The wall was just the starting point. Note how we carried the chinoiserie vibe throughout the room, from the Chinese-style brass pulls on the serving cabinet to the vintage gilded and lacquered faux bamboo dining table. Be sure to bring a storyline to fruition: You can dip a toe in the water, but if you want the complete pattern effect, go full force by bringing fabric and accessories into the mix. PS
High Point’s John Loecke and Jason Oliver Nixon invite you to dive into the accessible, affordable magic that is prints and patterns.