STYLE: HOME DESIGN : A Neo-Ancestral Fling

Vintage . . . retro . . . neo-ancestral. Whatever you call it, no matter where you buy it and despite how much or how little you pay for it, the look in interior design today is old stuff , even if it’s new stuff made to look old. It’s an age of wacky, perhaps tacky, decadent opulence. Chandeliers, candelabra, threadbare screens, gilt mirrors, vintage draperies and mountains of fringed, beaded and tasseled pillows create a lush, if sometimes slightly loony, atmosphere. Like many of us, you may have been born to Formica, but now your furniture--and even your clothes--can look as if they’ve been stashed at the family villa for generations.