The NY Times recently featured a good article over in their Home section recently, written by Marianne Rohrlich, An Offbeat Symphony in Counterpoint. In it, she discusses the popular yin-yang, masculine-feminine moment occuring on the runways as well as in the home.

?The hard and the ruffly,? said Stephen Sills, the New York decorator, referring to current trends in decorating. ?There?s no middle ground now.?

Michael Kors, fashion designer, whose first home collection was introduced this month, concurred. ?There?s a dichotomy of the classic and the outrageous,? he said, in which ?patterns might seem feminine, but the coloration is masculine. The balance of the two extremes makes everything chic-er.?

Decorating, like fashion, is all about counterpoints. And just as heavy metal and lace are contrasts of the moment in women?s fashion, chiseled bronze and soft colors are the extremes in home furnishings this fall. Crystal chandeliers and beaded floral fabrics are being set off with rusted iron lamps and iron tables. This is not the grab-bag eclecticism of recent years, but a balancing act between two extremes.

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(image from NY Times)