Save Those Souvenirs

Joe Billone proudly announced that he has racked up two million nine hundred and seventy-eight thousand frequent flyer miles and his partner, Mark Bodine, might very well have assembled more.Joe, as vice president for Avon Products and Mark, product development manager for the Associated Merchandise Corporation, have collectively accrued more than airline miles. They have collected an impressive array of furnishings, tableware and handcrafted objects from across the globe. In their comfortable East Hampton home, every room represents a United Nations’ worth of collectibles, and a Conde Nast traveler’s guide to those exotic worlds overseas.

While many decorators who have painstakingly constructed a whisper-clean, softly hued aerie would despair when their clients turn up with a primitive Jamaican painting vibrantly dabbled in screaming primary colors, Joe and Mark celebrate the jumble. And though they are not professional designers themselves, their ability to combine a lifetime of disparate foreign pieces into a cohesive whole deserves attention, particularly for the lessons to be learned for all of us who would like to integrate our far-flung travel acquisitions into our very local East End decor.

In Mark and Joe’s home, celadon elephants and bowls and plates are placed on a mineral green arts and crafts sideboard handcrafted in Iowa. The soft green shades of the pottery and satinwood finish of the console harmoniously blend the disparate shapes, while the entire vignette is backed by a veil of Tyler Graphics sheer curtains, printed in hues of sea foam and caramel, further repeating the shades of the sideboard’s rough-hewn wood top and, of course, the pottery.

The variety of objects is not merely unified by color. There is a subtle peach theme pervasive throughout their home. The curtains have soft images of shells and fish, as do the hand-embroidered pillows and the inviting upholstery. Plates from the Costa Brava of Spain hang jauntily on the garden room walls, picking up colors from Joe’s hydrangeas, which are hung upside down to dry—a casual moment of dynamic textural juxtaposition—so simple, but very effective.

Bold architectural shapes of a Balinese mahogany bed echo the richly carved Indonesian display cabinet. Both stand like principal players in a soft pastel scene. The bed, dressed in a richly woven Venetian damask coverlet, under a vibrant Indian quilted bedspread and a Marseilles duvet, beckons the visitor to luxuriate. The elaborate what-not cabinet absorbs jars of Famille rose, Famille vert and carved soapstone, African fish. The layering of equally scaled objects proves a successful technique when spread about an ornate piece.

Richly hued wall color as background to an assortment is an age-old technique for drawing together varied silhouettes, colors, textures and scales. As unpopular as Victorian decoration and its cluttered interiors are today, they were successful at the time due to their richly hued backgrounds, which allowed for the elaborate bric-a-brac to blend more easily. The Metropolitan Museum’s 19th-century wing showcases this exact combination with darkly somber walls hosting ornate frames and furnishings. The sumptuous silk velvets of the Frick’s upholstered walls deeply complement the old masters and period Sargents.

As in gardening, where repetition of the same planting effectively creates a more cohesive whole, Joe has framed all of his international photographs in the same manner and grouped them thematically. As an example, his extraordinary ornithological photographs, selected by bird species and framed by simply layering on a very thick piece of glass (with no frame), are hung en masse and are all of the same scale. The 12 prints of birds—including the red-billed hornbill, the bird that inspired Zazu of The Lion King"—are printed all in one size, encouraging the viewer to look intently at the variations of plumage.

Though the British are most renowned for their “Grand Tour” collections assembled from the four corners of the globe when the “sun never set on English soil,” it seems particularly American to also bring together many cultures under one roof. As a nation of immigrants, we have successfully integrated the customs, art and visual language of countless nations. It only seems natural that our homes should absorb the rich influences of other countries.

So, to cohesively collate your multicultural and international objects, simple tricks of the trade can be applied. Gathering by color, shape and scale may help. Repetition of treatment, as in the similar framing and similar proportioning of objects, holds an assemblage together. Richly textured or colored backgrounds act as a glue that can bond your collections. And consistent themes, for instance items picked for their adherence to the sea or the country of origin or even their heritage, can bring an entire room together psychologically.

So as one’s eye takes in the aggregation of their internationally furnished abode, the various treasures settle restfully and peacefully—creating a home at peace.

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