Black and Gold

The only place to stay in New York was and still is The Ritz Carlton. No matter what upstarts spring up afresh. I loved it as a home from home back in the day and have many fond memories of it. Designer Scot Snyder excelled himself for them with his Chinoiserie. Nothing says opulence quite like black and gold together.

 

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However, here in the Brit Isles we do it equally lavishly. Check out the Voodoo Rooms in Edinburgh. How glam can you get? Baroque black was never more sumptuous than here.

I don't know why this particular combination lends itself so well to Baroque or Rococo but it does. This Chicago hotel mixes it up with a bit of Op Art and a swathe of OTT leather.

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Back in Blighty, something more attainable can be done with the simple application of wallpaper and paint.

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But it still takes balls to make an actual gold wall and live in this, below. I love it because of my current fad for gilding every bit of furniture I come across whether it warrants it or not. 

 

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It's not easy to locate an interior that doesn't either reference Baroque or Chinoiserie with these colors, but I love this Ralph Lauren Home shot for its Art Deco feel, and because it has a black cat in it, which are the finest cats known to mankind. Fact.

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More Art Deco loveliness. I wouldn't call this restrained but I do like the reversal of gold first, black later. There's that bloody couch again. 

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Get it wrong and you can find yourself straying into Arab territory, which is to say, dangerously close to tacky on occasion. I'm being polite. I lived there for a few years. When it comes to design their motto is More is More. 
Here's a gorgeous contemporary scenario I wouldn't say no to. Decadence! 

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