At the center is a collection of Buddha heads gathered over many years of travels through Asia; above them hang Edward Curtis’ sepia portraits of Native Americans from the turn of the last century—the sacred and elevated meaningfully paired together. The surrounding narrative is built on rhythm: books stacked and stood on end; ceramics, photographs, and small accessories tucked in; the base grounded by repeated stacks of white magazines, white coral, and cast organic forms. The middle shelf is deliberately varied, to offer interest for the eye; the top and bottom answer it with strong symmetry that settles everything down. The tones stay close but rich in texture, which keeps the eye moving. 

Brown follows the rules some of the time and knows when to break them. “There are rules for composition and balance, the rule of odd numbers, symmetry, using color to make a thing recede or step forward, scale and proportion,” he says. “They all matter, but I decide which of them are relevant to each task and project. It would be overwhelming to apply all of them at once; there are always just one or two, or a particular mix, at work in anything I style.”

Above all that, however, styling goes beyond objects placed for the sake of filling space. It is curated narration—the stories of one’s life.

As a Feng Shui practitioner, Brown does everything with intention and deeper understanding. Styling, he says, is where your senses take in a room and understand its intent, mood, and feeling tone: “Sometimes it instructs you without words, how to relate to a space. Other times it works on you physically. It can raise your temperature or even calm your nervous system,” he explains.

“It can also do something quieter. When similar objects are grouped together, your brain gets to solve a small puzzle. It finds the collection tucked into a shelf or a tabletop and there’s satisfaction in that discovery. A calm settles in. Spread those same objects too thin and your brain can’t land anywhere. It reads as noise or, dare we say, clutter. Good styling is the difference between a space that soothes and one that overwhelms without you even knowing why.”

A Final Word on the Art of Imperfection

There is the human element to consider, Brown says. “What makes a space feel alive is the sense that someone was just there. An open book. A throw that isn’t perfectly folded. Those details are minute, but they do real work. They make you feel something.”