Hollywood Regency Decorating Style

Do you love classic Hollywood films with all their over-the-top glamorous interiors? Then Hollywood Regency may be the design style for you. Hollywood Regency is a look virtually synonymous with the Golden Age of film from the 1920s to the 1950s when the big movie studios like MGM, Warner Bros and RKO, and directors like Ernst Lubitsch and Howard Hawks, created some of the most lasting, iconic films we still celebrate today. Films like Bringing Up Baby, Design for Living, Trouble in Paradise and Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals epitomized the elegant sweet life that many Americans of the time aspired to. Those movie studios and Hollywood directors helped fix an idea in Americans' brains of what glamor and elegance looked like. Film stars of the time like tastemaker Joan Crawford took this style created by Hollywood set designers, used it in their own homes and launched a living, breathing iteration of a style we now know as Hollywood Regency.

Pictured above: One of the godmothers of Hollywood Regency was designer Dorothy Draper, the designer of this fabulous draped swimming pool for luxe The Greenbrier resort where she was the in-house designer from 1945 to 1960.

Contemporary designers are constantly finding inspiration from the timeless elegance of Hollywood Regency. Here, designer Redmond Aldrich offers a fresh spin on Dorothy Draper's tented poolscape at The Greenbrier resort with this lavish, elegant design for the 2024 Kips Bay Decorators Show House in Palm Beach.

Hollywood Regency is a style we might call "maximalist" today, defined by over-the-top luxury, elegance and glamor. The style emphasizes bold colors and patterns, luxurious materials like marble, velvet and lacquered surfaces; symmetrical patterns and details (think identical peacock velvet slipper chairs placed on either side of a white couch); and lots of gold and curvy sofas, chairs and coffee tables for a sleek look. Shiny, reflective, glossy finishes are central to the Hollywood Regency aesthetic. Colors often lean toward bold jewel tones like topaz blue, emerald green, amethyst pink and citrine gold often paired with a bold black and white checkerboard floor.

The lobby of the Viceroy Hotel in Miami (shown here) was designed by a contemporary designer often associated with a modern take on Hollywood Regency, Kelly Wearstler. Miles Redd and Carlten Varney are other designers working today who continue to bring the style into their work.

Renowned interior designer Dorothy Draper, whose design impact spanned from 1925-1962, is a central figure in spreading the opulent and maximalist look of Hollywood Regency to resorts, hotels and homes across the country. Her regular column for Good Housekeeping magazine helped convey her taste for high-style luxury to an even larger audience. Her iconic designs for The Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, show her use of the style's touchstones like the combination of bold color and pattern in this bedroom, but also the use of black and white, gold and ornate plasterwork, statement chandeliers and flooring to convey a message of abundance and glamor. Beginning in 1946 and until 1960, Draper used Greenbrier as a design canvas, converting a WWII Army hospital into a symbol of American style.

Though sometimes confused, the decorative arts movement known as Art Deco tends to be sleek and minimalist while Hollywood Regency has a more eclectic, maximalist look. Interiors like this home office from Cathy Kincaid for the 2023 Kips Bay Decorators Show House are more in keeping with Hollywood Regency's ornamental and over-the-top look. And while Art Deco was a style started in Paris, Hollywood Regency was distinctly and iconically American.

Anyone who has watched classic Hollywood movies like Written on the Wind, Leave Her to Heaven or Gone With the Wind knows that staircases are pivotal in many dramatic scenes, locations for both grand entrances and deadly stumbles. At The Greenbrier resort Dorothy Draper takes full advantage of the staircase's impact with red carpeting worthy of a Hollywood movie premiere, an ornate gold mirror to check your reflection before descending, an emerald green chaise and some gorgeously outrageous wallpaper. This design moment looks straight out of a Douglas Sirk film melodrama.

Hollywood Regency design, however, is not a relic of the past. The over-the-top style is not just for the rich and famous; a modern version is surging in popularity, fueled by designers like Kelly Wearstler. Shawn Henderson, design director for the online auction site eBay, says there's no denying the high Hollywood style is back. "Hollywood Regency has spiked in sales," Henderson says. "Recently a William 'Billy' Haines cabinet sold on eBay for $7,500."

Not everyone can afford original Haines pieces, but elements of Hollywood Regency style are within reach for even the most budget-minded decorator. Going Hollywood Regency is all about the details, says interior decorator and furniture designer Barclay Butera. "The wonderful fabrics, fringe on lampshades, chandeliers with crystals — Hollywood Regency style is about glamor, but so much is found in the wonderful details," he says.

This Malibu residence typifies designer Kelly Wearstler's blending of eras and influences and a love of luxe surfaces like marble into a cohesive whole in her new Hollywood Regency style.

Designer Kristan Cunningham says for those working on a budget, jazzing up thrift pieces can be one way to get the luxe Hollywood Regency look on a budget. "If your grandma gave you an over-the-top brass chandelier, replace the flame-tip bulbs with mod opaque globe bulbs," she says. "It creates the juxtaposition of 'super clean with super fussy' that is so relevant in Hollywood Regency." Or use a coat of high-gloss paint to add the look to a vintage item.

"Hollywood Regency style used a lot of bright, glossy colors on furniture. So, have furniture lacquered or buy some super glossy spray paint and do it yourself," says Kristan.

For her den, Kristan did just that, purchasing an inexpensive white lacquered TV credenza and adding her own Hollywood Regency design style. "I replaced the knobs with brass Chinese medallion hardware, and I added brass corner details to each door," she says. "It's so glam, and the best part is, no one else will have the same piece!"

While we might not all be lucky enough to call La La Land home, we can create an atmosphere of Hollywood Regency-worthy luxury in our own spaces with some simple tips from this room by illustrious designer Timothy Corrigan. Step one: Layer. Hollywood Regency is what modern design fans would call maximalist, and what that means is layered fabrics with rugs, curtains, upholstery and pillows all piled on for maximum impact. Also key is layering in the statement elements that give your space depth and personality like artwork or a statement light fixture like the stunning chandelier shown here. Step two: Use lamps and curate tabletop collections or stacks of oversized books to add even more dimension and a feeling of abundance.

Think of the Hollywood moguls of yesteryear: Louis B. Mayer (MGM), Jack Warner (Warner Bros. Studios) and Daryl Zanuck (20th Century Fox). These movie studio heads had big personalities and helped create the outsize, bold look of Hollywood movies from the 1920s through the 1950s. Interior designer Dorothy Draper translated that vision to the domestic front, as with her iconic designs for The Greenbrier (shown here) whose vivid color contrasts of green, gold and red define the Hollywood Regency look.

For this 2024 Kips Bay Decorators Show House in Palm Beach, interior designer Tristan Harstan summoned up the tropic paradise of both Florida and Hollywood thanks to a nod to the iconic palm tree. Here the most-glam of trees is rendered in an immersive mural and in a gold tree as an accent. Plenty of sleek gold touches and lacquered surfaces send a message of old Hollywood glamor.

Though the black lacquer desk might seem Art Deco, this interior from Jay Jeffers leans into the luxury and excess of Hollywood Regency with its striking two-color paint, its elaborate ceiling and a "wow" factor indicative of the style.

The glossy black-and-white tile floors at The Greenbrier resort are one of the characteristic components of Hollywood Regency style. Add in a dash of red, some ornate furniture and bold wallpaper and you have one of the classic rooms that make Dorothy Draper a design legend.

Atlanta-based designer Michael Habachy is known for his glamorous, dramatic designs, certainly the case with this ultra-stylish lounge. The amber display cases, moody lighting, blue velvet chairs and black chandelier convey opulence but with a decidedly masculine attitude.

Luxurious accents like the fringed stools, gold accents and curvaceous bench and sofa mark this space by New York's Hayden Interiors as a prime example of how to bring Hollywood Regency style into the 21st century.

With its shades of emerald, white and pink and its curvy, slinky sofa and chairs, this living room designed by Terracotta Design Build is a fresh interpretation of the mood and style of classic Hollywood Regency.

One of the hallmarks of Hollywood Regency is blending bold color with graphic black and white. Here, Dorothy Draper's hall and staircase leading to the casino at The Greenbrier builds anticipation.

Terracotta Design Build brings calm and sophistication to this bedroom founded on simple elegance where a channel headboard, glamorous gold globe lights and a touch of blue velvet make this space look like a scene from a classic Ernst Lubitsch Hollywood film.

Black-and-white portraits of Hollywood movie stars set against black walls show how one Hollywood Regency motif of black and white can get a sophisticated, nightclub-worthy do-over in this elegant and edgy living space from designer Michael Habachy.

Famously glamorous designer Mary McDonald combines disparate influences in this room that references Amish quilts and Moroccan tile work. The cascading curtains on the canopy bed and the layering of curtains on top of blinds add richness and depth to this suitably opulent bedroom.

Reflective surfaces, marble and gold are all elements of the Hollywood Regency look as seen in this bathroom from Laura Hawk's LCH Interiors.

Designer Laura Lee Clark amps up the drama with a lacquered white ceiling in this stunning living room. Lacquered surfaces and curvy lines, as seen in this coffee table and loveseat, offer a nod to the sleek surfaces of classic Hollywood Regency.

New York designers Yellow House Architects created this Kips Bay Decorators Show House foyer on NYC's Upper West Side to make a definite statement. A slinky black entryway table and black chaise spell louche sophistication while the striking black paint and statement light fixture deliver the glamor of Hollywood Regency for a new age.

Even subtle design elements like the half-moon drawer pulls on this vanity and the repeated gold tone of these sconces, elaborate wallpaper and faucets update Hollywood Regency for modern life in this design from Atlanta's Terracotta Design Build.

The beauty of Hollywood Regency is its versatility, as seen in this room from Terracotta Design Build. The space illustrates how you can add the right maximalist wallpaper (but with a minimalist positioning) or a curvy velvet sofa set against a boho blend of white walls and blond wood and still get your Hollywood Regency point across.

Ornate wallpaper and a striking ceiling treatment, elaborate molding and a profusion of color and fabric mark this stunning bedroom designed by Phoebe Howard for the 2024 Kips Bay Decorators Shophouse in Palm Beach as a modern take on Hollywood Regency.