Well-Adjusted Designers Display Their Gilt Complexes

Suddenly it’s everywhere. On the ceilings and columns of Washington’s refurbished Union Station. As props for the models in the Bloomingdale’s and I. Magnin holiday catalogs. In Louis XVI reproductions of hot-air-balloon chairs in the Spiegel fall furniture collection.

Ralph Lauren, HG and New York are touting it. Even those postmodern devotees in California are using touches of it in home design. Gilt is back. It’s no longer considered a gaudy flashback to the times of overdone, froufrou taste; designers and architects are combining the new with the best of the ostentatious past.

Nancy High, director of communications for the Furniture Information Council, says that America’s new gilt complex is part of the overall return to opulence. It’s another way of putting on the glitz.

“Gilt is pervasive in mail-order catalogs and some of the higher-end home furnishings,” she says. “There is a return to formality, and you can’t get much more formal than a rococo gilt frame.”

This resurgence of gold has shown up not only as an accent on wood furniture and accessories but on coordinated fabrics with metallic streaks or outlines, according to High.

In fact, the art form has become popular enough to shake the roots of the once secretive society of craftsmen. In April, the Society of Gilders was formed at the Newark (N.J.) Museum and it now has more than 250 members.

Gilding Network

R. Wayne Reynolds, a Baltimore gilder and one of the charter members of the guild, says that the group was formed so a gilder in Maryland could share processes and techniques with a counterpart in California. That kind of network never existed in what Reynolds described as a “protected business” in which secrets were passed from father to son.

The group also wants to increase public awareness of classic gilding.

“Gold leaf does not come out of a bottle or a can or the local arts and crafts store,” he says. “People think applying gold leaf is dipping a brush into a bottle of gold paint. We are trying to rebuild the information so that people know that gold leaf is a sheet of gold applied with a specially prepared surface and a great deal of skill.”

When you see the term gilt it may not always be gold leaf. The term has lost its original meaning and has been used to refer to a gilded surface made from Dutch metal (a combination of copper and tin) or bronze powder.

Reynolds, who has been a gilder for the past 12 years, says he does a lot of restoration work in tradition-conscious cities such as Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Washington, but recently even the less traditional areas of the country have been returning to gilt.

“I think people are now craving a quality product,” he says. “There has been a large counter movement to the steel coldness and straight lines.

“In the 1950s there was a movement to taking a strip frame and putting an abstract impressionist painting in it. People burned out on that look.”

The new look is opulent and romantic, with deep colors, dark paneling and the appearance of a European salon. “Highly reflective surfaces tend to be more opulent, and it’s a sexy look,” says Tom Williams of Federal Hill Interiors.

Sophisticated and Adult

“I really feel all of us are becoming more and more aware of our surroundings. My clients want sophisticated, adult dining rooms, and I tend to use gilt. Gold, deep, reflective colors create more of an impression of being comfortable.

“It’s almost like creating a stage set. Dinner is a lot more than ‘let’s sit down and eat a meal.’ People want to create an atmosphere. Use reflective gold and silver, crystal, walls upholstered in moire, and the whole room shimmers.”

How much gilt is too much gilt, and what goes with it?

“There is nothing more beautiful than a contemporary background with a beautiful gilt mirror for accent,” says Baltimore designer Alexander Baer. “White walls with elaborate gilt pieces used sparingly and contemporary upholstery is beautiful. It gives the room a little bit of sparkle.”

If you want to experiment, start with a mirror or a chair with a small gilded portion, he advises. For example, take a Regency chair with gold leaf and put it with a Sisal rug, linen sofa and a contemporary piece of art.

“Pine and the country look has been around so long that people are ready for a change,” he says. “The gilding work on furniture and the regency style is a return to the refinement of furniture as opposed to the heavy look of pine. People have begun to see gilt used successfully without looking too formal or museum-like.”