10 Madcap ways to add pizzazz to your home
Whenever I have a little problem, like how to choose a light bulb, I write a column. When I have a big problem, like how to clear out the family home, I write a book. For a writer, this is a good formula. I get free expert advice and pocket some gas money.
I was wrapping up research for my next book about merging households, a messy process I stumbled through inelegantly several years ago thinking, as I often do, “There must be a better way.” So I called John Loecke and Jason Oliver Nixon, the design duo behind Madcap Cottage, an interior design business based in High Point, North Carolina. Their home exudes their signature style — a zany, whimsical, colorful combination of patterns mixed with abandon. And they still look pretty happy.
“We were like the odd couple,” Nixon recalled.
“This has been an evolution,” Loecke said.
They were working in Manhattan nearly 20 years ago when they decided to move in together. They chose Nixon’s place — a 400-square-foot one bedroom — because he owned his apartment and Loecke was renting.
“I was the neatnik, a minimalist,” Nixon recalled. “John was more … relaxed, and eclectic.”
Nixon’s apartment reflected his modern aesthetic: white walls, spare neutral furnishings and only a few items of clothing, all black.
“I don’t think I owned a piece of black clothing,” said Loecke, whose traditional furniture and extensive wardrobe were colorful and patterned.
They both vividly remember moving day — and Loecke’s furniture out on the sidewalk. “I was like, what are we going to do with all this?” Nixon said.
A storage facility a block away was the compromise.
“I wasn’t going to give up my stuff, but it wasn’t going to work in that space,” said Loecke, who now regrets paying $150 month for 12 years for stuff he should have gotten rid of. He never used any of it again. (Folks, we’ve been over this.)
However, one pivotal piece did move in, a traditional rolled-arm upholstered chair, which Loecke had slipcovered in a high-sheen pink chinoiserie chintz.
“It was the complete opposite of everything in Jason’s apartment,” Loecke said.
The chair grew on Nixon. It seeded what would become their blended style and eventually led to Madcap Cottage’s irrepressible look. Their current home is “sort of England meets Palm Springs by way of Morocco,” Nixon said.
“Our relationship would have ended if I had tried to do to his apartment what we ended up doing later in our home,” Loecke said, offering hope to any couple blending households and going through the design wars.
“John took me on an adventure, a journey of having fun with interiors that weren’t all neutral,” Nixon said.
Madcap is the very opposite of neutral. It’s pure pizzazz. So I asked them for tips. In rapid-fire response, they rattled off 10 rut-busting ways we can add madcap style to our homes:
• Paint the front door a bright color. Try canary yellow or lacquer red. You’ll add instant curb appeal, give your home a focal point
and turn a neutral facade into a knockout, they said.
• Put something — anything — on the walls. Find prints that relate to your interests, or frame your kids’ artwork. Art makes rooms friendly.
• Bring in house plants, especially ones that flower. Having anything alive in your home besides you and your pets feels welcoming.
• Change up accessories. When you edit your things and move accessories around, people will ask if you’ve bought new furniture.
• Commit to a pattern — somewhere. Pair a solid neutral sofa with a patterned chair or print pillows. Layer in patterned drapes. Try florals, geometrics or stripes. Patterns give a room personality and dimension. No one comes to your home and says, “I love your beige.”
• Mix up your bedding. Pair a white fitted sheet with a flowered top sheet and striped pillowcases, then layer on a patchwork quilt.
• Shop your china cabinet. Haul out old china and put heirloom patterns back on the table. Your kids don’t want it, so you might as well use it.
• Trim it. Use a glue gun to embellish lampshades, drape panels and throw pillows with grosgrain ribbon or braided trim.
• Spa-tify your bath. Install a rain showerhead. Splurge on a fantastic bathmat and plush spa-grade towels.
• Ditch your fear factor. Life is short. Don’t be boring. Almost everything you do to your home is reversible. Nixon took the plunge with one flowered chair, and look where he is today.