Charles Allem, Inc. has no signature style-by intention. "Each project is like a new movie," explains Allem, who was recently named one of the 100 best designers in the world by Architectural Digest. "There's not a good room or a bad room, the whole thing evolves as one space. Architecture and interior become one organic whole. True design doesn't have rules."

Working out of offices in Los Angeles and New York, Allem uses the unique energy, feeling and mood of the environment to create comfortable inviting homes, suited to the lifestyle and tastes of the occupants while providing them with a buffer against the outside world. His homes are designed to be places in which people can enjoy living and entertaining, not just places to pass through and gaze at. "People are turning back to the values of home, wanting beautiful things around them," Allem observes. "But it's not just the linens you put on a bed, it's also the mattress you sleep on."

He insists that today's nearly unlimited availability and access to design and consultation leaves young married couples no excuses for having a bad home. Many quality stores even provide "wonderful" free in-house design services. One-stop destination shopping is available. He warns, however, against exclusively using furniture of only one style, design or manufacture. "That's the tragedy," he notes, "when people have no identity. It's like a plastic plant, it's not breathing. When rules become a blueprint, rooms become boring and tired. Edit is the biggest word."

While noting that it's "fabulous" to bring inherited furniture or items from parents to a new house, he recommends maintaining sufficient emotional distance to be able to pass on inappropriate things or place them in storage. For this, Allem recommends seeking out the advice of a professional designer even if a designer will be used for nothing else.

Describing himself as raised in the traditional school, he loves the 20th-century and a mix of traditional and contemporary pieces. "There's no reason to just have antiques," he advises. "You can have beautiful antiques, but you need an edge in the room-if you're not 65. Take something from the '20s or '30s and give it a new look, change the upholstery or cushions. Why sit in a chair that's uncomfortable? Put a geometric carpet in a stuffy Georgian room. Take a beautiful mirror with a mahogany frame and strip it down and glaze it. Don't be afraid to change. Take a stripe and put it on the diagonal, turn it around and give it an edge. "I love everything gorgeous. The fabulous parts of each decade are connected...