The Layered Home: Inspiration for Crafting Cozy, Collected Rooms

The design influencer behind the Instagram handle A Spoonful of Benjamin presents an aspirational guide to transforming your living spaces into vibrant and cozy havens.

"If you choose one playbook rule, let this be your guide: Layers plus personalization create absolute spatial magic. Nothing else comes close." –from the Introduction 

To magazine editor and stylist Benjamin Reynaert, more is more when it comes to the home. The more patterns and colors combined, the more preloved pieces scooped up at the right time, the more surfaces to display treasured objects, the more a house will feel like home. Layers are key to achieving this maximalist alchemy. It's not a look that can be bought all at once, but one developed over time, leisurely and with intention, as you stay mindful of your space’s personality. Most of all, layering a home requires listening to and respecting your own instincts and taste. 

To help train your eye, Benjamin takes you on a journey through exquisitely decorated homes lived in by creative and curious people. From the United Kingdom and Paris to Delaware, Mississippi, and California, these homes artfully integrate patterns, colors, textures, art, furniture, and objects to create interiors that are as unique as the people who live in them. More than 200 photographs capture home tours of stunning maximalist homes, and Benjamin’s talks with his favorite tastemakers reveal tips and tricks on collecting, arranging objects, and modifying rooms over time. 

Brimming with beauty and smart advice, The Layered Home shares how to curate interiors filled with warmth and endless visual interest by embracing abundance, imperfection, and craft. The end result: a gorgeous home that tells your unique story.

Benjamin Reynaert runs his own studio focusing on interior styling and creative direction, where he directs editorial shoots, develops visual branding languages, and creates product. He has held top editorial posts and contributes regularly to publications including Architectural Digest, Elle Decor, Domino, House Beautiful and Veranda. With a BFA and bachelor's in architecture from Rhode Island School of Design, he is a contributing editor at Frederic Magazine and is a co-founding board member of the Asian American Pacific Islander Design Alliance (AAPIDA).