NOBODY DOES IT like Metropolitan Home. I say this not because I’ve been writing for the magazine since 1981, but because — though it’s known mainly for a certain sleek, high-end modernity — it is also capable of forays into the avant garde, the eco-chic, the rustic and the bohemian (sometimes all in one project). ‘Mix it up’ is Met Home‘s motto, and it sure keeps us readers on our toes.
Met Home, edited by the same small group of people almost from the beginning, is always on top of trends, so when Donna Warner, the longtime Editor in Chief, decides it’s time for “drama queen staircases, elegant draperies, sexy chandeliers, Wicked Queen mirrors, and soothing daybeds,” you better believe it.
Below, Jonathan Adler’s Palm Beach home mixes vintage and new, plastics and marble, neutrals and brights
Glamour: Making it Modern is the newest coffee-table book from Met Home’s senior design team, written by Features Director Michael Lassell. More than 200 photos of 125 projects by some of the magazine’s favorite designers (and mine), including Benjamin Noriega-Oritz, Amy Lau, Celerie Kemble, and Jonathan Adler, employ principles that define this thing called glamour as it stands in 2009:
- oversized objects rather than little bitty ones
- luster, polish, shine and sheen, applied with restraint
- antiques and vintage alongside modern
- Asian influence on Western interiors
- the use of multiples (framed images, a pottery collection) to make a whole more than the sum of its parts
Below, designer Shamir Shah transformed a New York City apartment foyer into something uniquely glamorous with a ceiling made of 31 rice-paper lanterns
Some projects are more accessible than others, but all are inspiring. Some of the ideas in the book, like putting a chaise or lounge chair in the bathroom, as one designer suggests, don’t cost a thing.
Below, Nisi Berryman, owner of Miami’s NIBA Home, went all-out glam in her fuchsia-colored bedroom with a Baroque mirror, vintage vanity, and furry pillow on an acrylic chair
casaCARA 
Never before have I thought that I’d want a hot pink room. Now, I see the appeal!
Someone actually lives in that Palm Beach home?
…
Yes! Jonathan Adler (the potter/designer) and Simon Doonan.
You are right about the same old group of people produce met home. tired, repetitive and boring. Give me Dwell any day.
My point was that Met Home has been consistent through the years (what you call repetitive) because of their relatively unchanged masthead. Perhaps that’s why they are one of the few shelter magazines left standing, while other magazines have flailed around trying to find an identity. Anyway, thanks for commenting, Tara. I like Dwell, too.