Interior design: creating eclectic new looks from old pieces

There was a time in the 1970s and 1980s, according to Ronan Sulich, the Australian representative of auction house Christie's, when we were quite literal about populating Victorian terraces with colonial cedar and Victorian-era furniture. We faithfully matched architecture and interiors, rather like custodians of a National Trust property.

During this period, even my family's Belfast dining room, which was used for Christmas dinner and not much else, was replete with what the trade calls "brown furniture", Georgian silver and cut-glass crystal. None of which, much to the chagrin of both Sulich and my parents, is as sought after as it once was.

"These days," says Sulich, "there is a more eclectic mix of contemporary functional furniture alongside architectural or antique pieces which function more like sculptures or artworks in place of their original purpose."

Sulich lives in a Victorian terrace in Sydney's Darlinghurst and practises what he preaches. While he still loves the art and culture of the 19th century, he's also drawn to contemporary pieces and is increasingly adding modern items to the mix. He finds they speak to each other across the ages because of their materials or colours.

The 20th century currently offers the greatest source of inspiration for the style addict. You may know a '50s-ophile for whom pops of colour and laminated ply with chrome and vinyl are the defining elements; a Danish modernist with a predilection for crafted timber and indoor plants; or an aficionado of streamlined art deco. The joy of tuning into a particular decorating era is that everything tends to work together – the proportions, colours, fabrics and shapes.

According to Sulich, however, people tend not to want to be stuck in one era: a more varied collection of pieces, each with their own story to tell, can instead become part of a new narrative.

This room in Charleston House, the home of the Bloomsbury Group in East Sussex, England, is a perfect example of how a strong decorative personality, ranging across types and periods of furniture, can exert a distinctive, cohesive force. Sulich cites the manner in which the Italian 18th-century commode (centre) and 1920s modernist armchair (front) are united by the room's bold colour scheme and the eccentric placement of art, an aesthetic pioneered by Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell, Bloomsbury Group founders and the home's decorators. "They've created a style out of the detritus of the past," says Sulich.

We could all take a leaf out of that particular decorating book.