Love The Odyssey? Here’s how to add ancient Greek touches to your home
- The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of the Homer poem, has grossed $1.352 billion worldwide since its July 17 release, sparking renewed interest in ancient Greek influences in home decor.
- The Hellenistic Revival trend, highlighted in the 2022 Pinterest Predicts report, reflects a cultural resurgence of classical Greek design elements in interiors.
- Key ways to incorporate Greek style include using Greek key motifs on upholstery or flooring, adding sculptural plaster busts and reliefs to bring an academic and human touch, and utilizing an ancient Greek color palette featuring terracotta, ivory, cerulean, and Tyrian purple.
- Interior designer Max Rollitt and experts emphasize the beauty, harmony, and modular patterns of Greek design, which create a calm and ordered atmosphere in modern living spaces.
Sprawling in both scale and ambition, The Odyssey has been conquering the box office since its release on July 17. In fact, Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of the like-named Homer poem has made $1.352 billion worldwide as of Aug. 20, per Variety. So it’s no surprise fans are looking for new ways to bring ancient Greek influences into their homes.
To be sure, the trend has been building for the past few years. The Pinterest Predicts report for 2022 named a Hellenistic Revival as part of the cultural zeitgeist.
“Classical design has always influenced interiors,” interior designer Max Rollitt recently told Vogue. “For me, it’s about beauty, proportion and harmony. You’ll find carved friezes, mouldings and painted cornices in many houses. Greek patterns are wonderfully modular, and their repeated rhythms create a calm, ordered feel.”
Here are a few ways to incorporate ancient Greek references into your space.
1. Greek key details
Also known as the “meander,” the Greek key is a repeating geometric motif made of interlocking right angles. It was often featured in temples and monuments in ancient Greece as well as on domestic pots and vases.
Today, Greek key details can bring historical touches to a space without overwhelming it. Think of featuring it on the trim of your upholstery or curtains, recommends Vogue, or adding it as a border in mosaic or tiled flooring.
2. Sculptural plaster
Specifically, busts, reliefs, columns and plinths. “Whether placed on a bookcase, desk or on a plinth of their own, busts and sculptural fragments can be wonderful additions to a room,” Rollitt told Vogue. “There’s something elevating and academic about them, while they also add a very human element.”
If you’re opting for a bust and want to go all-in on the ancient Greek theme, go for a representation of a well-known figure such as Plato or Socrates. If you’re less of a purist, a bust of another famous person or character may resonate more — especially if he or she has personal meaning to you.
3. An ancient Greek colour palette
Think of colours such as terracotta, ivory, pink, cerulean, warm yellow and pale green. Feeling plush? The most expensive colour to produce in ancient Greece was known as Tyrian purple, a rare dye harvested from snails found off the coast of Phoenicia. But other colours were associated with luxury, too.
“In her pioneering work on domestic spaces, Ruth Westgate, a lecturer in ancient history and archeology at Britain’s Cardiff University, notes that the Greeks used dark blue and green pigments for paintings and mosaics in the ‘best rooms’ that visitors would see,” says the Sherwin-Williams website.