Lean Into the Camp of Classical Design With a Column (or Three)

If you can’t renovate your home to install architectural elements or structures inspired by the classical tradition, there are plenty of furniture and decor accents that playfully nod to antiquity, or at least an idealized version thereof. Fun bonus: By using individual pieces of furniture and decor, you can indulge in the more camp and ironically kitsch aspects of classicism, without having to fully commit to the theme. Overly ornate beds, a chaise, or even a decorative platter can make a lackluster rental unit feel like Arcadia or the court of Louis XIV—all it takes is a little imagination.

Ornamental columns as side tables? Sure!

Columns, whether Doric, Ionic order, or Corinthian, are a foundation of classical architecture. A full-height, load-bearing column can easily veer into movie-set or Liberace territory, but miniature versions are actually elegant, borderline camp, and an unexpected alternative to an Ikea or a Muji side table.

A chaise for all your fainting couch needs

Incorporating a chaise lounge that has classical ornamental elements and architectural lines in the living room is a good way to add some variety to your upholstered wares. (After all, those L-shaped viral TikTok couches are nothing to write home about.) And while it won’t rival the comfort of a deep-set chair and a half, at least it will let you stretch your legs.

A Neoclassical (day) bed

With a bed this excessive and ornamental, you can get away with an otherwise pared-down decor. Note: You need high ceilings in order to pull this style off, lest the canopy swallows the whole height of your room.

An alabaster candle

Alabaster is a lightly colored, translucent, and soft-toned rock used since the Bronze Age primarily for carving decorative artifacts. Trudon created a series of candles with translucent alabaster vessels that filter light for an overall soft glow. Vesta, named after both the asteroid and the Goddess of the holy fire, has notes of rose, freesia and jasmine further softened by balmy, musky base notes—a sophisticated alternative to the viral sunset lamps.

Pastoral wallpaper!

Frescoes are lovely, but are extremely resource-intensive and also quite permanent. De Gournay creates hand-painted and hand-embroidered wall coverings, with naturalistic motifs that are inspired by pastoral landscapes of England, sprawling vistas popular in 19th-century France, and stylized garden scenes combining Chinoiserie and neoclassical elements. (Make sure you can install wallpaper in your home before committing, though.)

... or a more architectural option

If you love idealized cities and geometry, you might prefer a wallpaper portraying structural elements of buildings or a city rather than a garden basking in the light of an eternal spring. This wallpaper by Atelier Fornasetti depicts a rendition of an intaglio study of the Procuratie facades of St Mark's Square Venice, lending some classical structure to an interior through its detailed line work and simple palette of black and white.

A cheeky lamp

Seletti creates cheeky riffs on classical iconography, and the Grace and Wonder lamps, feature, respectively, a Graeco-Roman warrior and a Greek goddess chewing bubblegum, which is a perfect blend of classical and camp (as if they were ever antithetical: the concept of camp originated in relation to the court of Louis XIV, where the king liked to cosplay as Apollo)

A decorative platter

When famed architect Gio Ponti was the artistic director of Ginori Manifattura from 1923 to 1933, he created the sophisticated intricate pattern known as labyrinth, which marries the quintessential Grecian ornamental pattern with the rigor of 20th century neoclassicism. It’s a style that is versatile enough that even those who are averse to a classicized aesthetic can appreciate it.

An ornamental bowl

Classicism goes hand in hand with biophilia, and, with this in mind, L’Objet created a bowl consisting of the juxtaposition of two shells that contains both classical motifs and zeitgeist-friendly elements of biophilic design. It doubles as a service tray and as a purely decorative vessel, and is available both in white and with an inner gold coating.

A surprisingly sleek bathtub

Bathtubs have been around since 3000 BCE, and surviving evidence of Roman baths indicate an architecture that is more rooted in geometry and harmony than in ornamentation. If, however, you are more oriented towards modern-era Classicism, a free-standing tub is the way to go.

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