are you describing yourself?

read this fascinating article about how to decorate like a boss, entitled "dictators of taste". that happens to be my title as well. here are some tips:

How to get the look: when you’ve got Ferraris outside, get Versace inside

Big it up Make everything miles too impressively big for comfort or practicality. It works every time.

Go for gold Slather every possible surface with gold. The furniture, walls and ceiling mouldings – even the statuary. It says wealth/pride/power at a stroke.

Go repro The old architectural and furnishing styles of absolute monarchy really do the business – lots of decoration, lots of power symbolism. (But dictators don’t like the real thing. Antiques are old and often shabby and that doesn’t cut it. Better to buy new.)

Think French while you’re in that repro mode. Repro French decoration and furniture has been the taste of thrusting big money for 150 years. It’s fancier, curvier and altogether golder (ormolu) than anything Anglo-Saxon.

Think hotel The design style that’s most influenced dictator decor is the look of big city grand hotels with their eclectic mix of pastiche styles and their oversized public spaces. Go for glass Get giant mirrors and chandeliers the size of cars to add to the fantasy value of those gigantic rooms.

Make it in marble Marble is the material of emperors. Marble makes things important, expensive and everlasting. So put it everywhere. Floors and walls, columns, tabletops and in sexy statuary. New shiny marble, of course, not dull old stuff.

Get big important pictures – 19th-century oils. Until recently contemporary art was seen as pointless and ugly in dictatorland. And Old Masters were often just dark and grim. But art pompier really does the business. Have your portrait everywhere. The most important pictures – the only ones that really matter – are of you, the Dear Leader, the superhuman. Feature yourself doing something heroic or mythological – or just meeting other Great Dictators.

Involve brands Increasingly, dictator style is a branded game. Everyone knows the global luxury brands. You’ve got Rollers and Ferraris out front so get Versace sofas and D&G curtains inside. Buy anything with animal heroes Lions in marble, eagles in gold. Everyone knows what they mean – they’re Roman, they’re Napoleonic, they’re just like you! (via)