Like ‘Embellish’ for people, the owner says.

A visit to Clutter is like a peek into someone’s closet.

The tiny Madrone Lane shop is crammed with pampering silky robes, vintage jeans with sari fabric cuffs and luxuriously scented French laundry soap.

On a bright fuschia wall, earrings dangle inside picture frames, gilt or feather-boa fuzzy.

“All the clothes I buy are things I would have in my home or love to wear,” owner Katrina McDermott said. “It defies trends. I try to stay focused and true to my style. I don’t want anything ‘normal.’

“I love this store, it’s me let loose.”

For McDermott, who also owns the 8-year-old shop Embellish across Madrone Lane from Clutter, style is always personal. While the older shop showcases eclectic art and home furnishings, Clutter is all about personal style.

“It’s is like Embellish for people, which is small and cluttery,” McDermott said. “It’s really an extension (of the first store). It gave me the ability to be creative again.”

McDermott’s style is self-taught. As a 21-year-old, working at her mother’s dog- and cat-themed gift store with antiques in Issaquah’s Gilman Village, the pair went on shopping trips all over New York, San Francisco and Europe.

“I was surrounded by beautiful things as a child. I think you need to expose yourself to a lot of things and assimilate it all and be faithful to your vision,” McDermott said. “When I stray from it, I’m always sorry.”

For a time in her life, she and her husband bought houses, fixed them up and sold them; every new house had to be decorated to sell.

Merchandising furniture was a natural evolution, with McDermott designing and decorating homes in each client’s style.

She prefers to work in a home where the owner has already moved in furnishings and made a first stab at decorating.

“It’s not the big things, it’s the little things that tell your personal story,” McDermott said. “Your clutter tells the things you’re interested in – books, art, knitting… Anthropologists learn more from dishes than major structures.

“I’m trying to make their vision and what they have, look the best. I take their cues. A lot of time people know what they like, but are all over the map.”

She finds rooms may have a lot of belongings in one area and few in another, creating a feeling of imbalance. After “editing,” adding items can actually make the space feel less cluttered.

“There is an art to clutter,” McDermott said, “to arranging it for a more balanced and peaceful feeling.”

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Disarray by design

Clutter is located at 122 Madrone Lane, and open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. For more information, call 780-1708.