Sonoma County interior designer on the luxury of quiet design

There is so much to love about maximalist home decor, including its layers of exciting colors and patterns.

Minimalism is nice, too, with its restrained lines and focus on the essentials. But there’s a new trend in fashion that is now taking over home decor: Quiet luxury.

Quiet design, and by the same token, quiet luxury, combine a few quality pieces (a handbag and a coat, or a sofa and a credenza) with a few layers of tranquil colors (such as beige or white and black).

The goal is to create an intriguing but effortless look.

In fashion, the layering of browns and creams has been described as latte dressing. And that’s, really, a good shorthand guide for creating a simple but sumptuous home design.

The movement may in part be a counter reaction to the fast fashion and fast design that flooded the market in an ever-shorter trend cycle of items, which were made of cheap materials, sold cheap and then were quickly discarded.

Online hacks and influencers pump out copious stories and listicles shaming people for wearing outdated styles or living with the decor of five years ago.

But quiet design, in general, is also about creating a place of calm in a sped up world, and that in itself is luxurious, according to interior designer Jessica Wichmann of Zeitgeist Sonoma, which offers an integrated approach for clients of both architecture and interior design.

Husband and partner Efraim Wichmann is a licensed architect.

“Our lives are so noisy our homes need to serve as a refuge,” she said. Quiet interiors, she explained, offer “a place to find refuge from the noise and to anchor ourselves, but also to let our own personalities come through.”

The design style includes more neutral palettes, well-curated color accents and natural- and higher-quality materials that lend a feeling of venerability.

“It’s about being selective about where you’re drawing the eye. Not everything can be ‘look at me!’” she said.

What is it you want to feature? A quieter environment will allow that feature that you really love to get the attention it deserves without overwhelming the eye.

“Sometimes the monochromatic palette can feel really indulgent, really luxurious especially if it is highlighted by textural variations that add depth and interest and character,” Wichmann said.

For a Bodega Bay home she incorporated a textured stone fireplace in the main living space for that anchor of earthiness. The decor is spare with a few pops: an art glass end table of translucent gold reminiscent of polished sea glass and a seafoam rug that oh so subtly echos but doesn’t upstage, the ocean views

“It’s what we at Zeitgeist honor, bringing the outdoors in. That is what feels to me like the richest kind of spaces — when we feel quiet, calm and natural,” she said.

Sonoma architect Amy Alper also defines quiet luxury by a limited palette of materials that promote “a sense of calm and repose.”

What is more luxurious in a hurried culture than time and space to relax?

“People are looking for what I term in my work, the timeless aspects of architecture: proportion, detail and plenty of natural light,” she said. “Those are the kind of things that help projects feel luxurious and then slowly adding the right piece of furniture, the right piece of art. Things I would refer to as curated.”

It’s a concept that can be incorporated throughout the home, even in the more private spaces, like a bathroom.

For a guesthouse in Healdsburg, Alper designed a bathroom with a spa-like tranquility: White plaster walls and warm wood cabinets that echo the cedar exterior. The showering area with entrance to the outside pool area as well, is tiled in a soft aquamarine blue, the only standout color. But with nothing else competing with it, it falls, to the eyes like the view from a beachside hammock in the Caribbean.

The white oak cabinets with a warm cognac tone are rift cut, showing only the vertical grain.

“It’s quiet,” Alper said. “It adds a feeling of Zen.”

He believes in the maxim of Frank Lloyd Wright: “Less is more only when more is too much.”

“At the same time my design aesthetic is thrown in there a little bit when it comes to adding texture and patterns because I love patterns,” Alper added. “For me the pattern has to have multiples layers to it, so that way it comes off luxury.”

For a bathroom, in one project, the clean lines of a floating cabinet are offset by a back splash in geometric patterns, a detail that is bold but not overpowering.

The quiet backdrop of materials, he said, allows him to then “fill in the blanks” with an exceptional piece of art, sculpture or furniture, that only whispers luxury.

A kitchen by designer Cesar Chavez speaks softly with cherry cabinets stained a warm nutmeg but brightened by polished nickel light fixtures and cabinet hardware, a balance of dark and light, natural and manufactured.

“My goal is not to incorporate so much that it all competes with each other. You just want to make sure your eye flows through the space,” he said.

In The Gilded Age, ostentation spelled luxury. In the digital age, luxury is down time to take it easy and disconnect. More stuff only means more maintenance and management.

“The luxury side of it is trying to be at the spa without going to the spa,” Wichmann said of the quiet design trend. “We’ve had clients say I want my bedroom to feel like a hotel bedroom. Not filled with too many books and piles of extra clothes but just pared down with clean spaces.”

Sonoma Magazine contributor Karen Kizer contributed to this story.

Staff Writer Meg McConahey at be reached at meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com.