Horror Vacui's Profile

I LOVE the tissue-paper faux fire! I am so stealing that idea.

Whoa! If that was Paul and Jennifer's wedding (which I could not attend :( ), small world! Or maybe Tuscany destination weddings are just currently the rage this spring for SF couples...

Love these old-world wall plates (especially all the blue and white) , and though I do have a nice collection of Spanish and Italian ceramics, I have no more wall space. I read somewhere once that you have to decide between bookcases, windows and display walls, and my house is maxed out on all three.

Wow, I thought I was the only one who gets a kick out of those ridiculous pamphlets. They are very well-drawn, though, especially those panels featuring the recalcitrant sinner cast into the lake of fire.

You can read 'em all on the Jack Chick website, too; sometimes I will wile away a weary afternoon doing just that. Haven't got saved yet, though, what with being a recalcitrant sinner and all...

This is a refreshing change from the minimalist and mid-century modern looks that AT features too much of (in my opinion -- but then I am a big fan of more-is-more and over-the-top.) I love the way it's stuffed full of so many elements that might seem contradictory (crisply-tailored bedding treatments and crazy taxidermy), yet they all work together in the grand scheme. And I love the way it doesn't look "done"; it's dynamic, more of a work in progress, with real people living in it and loving it. Too bad it will likely generate a bunch of OMG-I-could-never-live-like-that-so-much-CLUTTER comments from the peanut gallery.

My then-husband and I did this over 30 years ago. He's an artist and consequently very visual, and I was literature student who did not think it was practical (though it looked great and was oh so avant-garde and original at the time.) Anyway, I quickly got used to it and never had trouble locating books by color. Many years passed, until finally I had some beautiful and huge custom bookcases made, which forced me to reorganize everything. I decided to group roughly by subject and within those categories by aesthetics -- but not specifically by color, just by whatever books (and pictures and various items) looked best near each other. Less attractive books were banished to another bookcase in a more dimly-lit hallway. From an artistic standpoint, I like the new system just as well as the old, and after a short period of adjustment, I have no trouble finding whatever I am looking for. And I enjoy tweaking the arrangement by adding new books to the mix and relocating older ones. My bookshelves are one of my favorite things about my house; they give me both intellectual and aesthetic stimulation.

A huge gold-leafed miroir soleil -- sunburst mirror -- at the Clignancourt flea market. I found it the last day of my vacation, and the vendor would not take a credit card, and the ATM would not work!! ARGHHH! This was years ago, and though I now have a collection of sunburst mirrors on my dining room wall, none is as magnificent as that one, which I think about with regret every time I look at that wall. And even if I could find one as fabulous, the price on those things has skyrocketed in recent years, making the Paris one an insane bargain by comparison, so, double-ARGHHH! Sigh ... the one that got away ...

I had a similar mirror disaster, though with a flea market bargain. I glued back the salvagable bits of the ornate, gilded frame and filled in the gaps with faux red branch coral (originally drawer pulls and tie-backs from Anthropologie that I had been hoarding.) Then I had the mirror part replaced (at a cost way beyond the price of my flea market find but so worth it in the end) with much nicer beveled glass. The result is an original and funky piece decidedly more in keeping with my house's gypsy vibe.

When we bought our house, the previous owners left behind a large Parsons-style table (not a desk, it was square rather than rectangular, and a great chrome yellow color.) We used it as a make-shift dining table until we constructed our permanent dining room table, then we used it as a utility table as we renovated the rest of the house. Eventually we discarded it, but I still think about it now -- many, many years later -- and wonder if we should have kept it. I like to think that it's still in use by someone who appreciates it.

My style generally skews to antiques (rustic European, Mexican, Spanish Colonial), but it is eclectic enough that the few mid-century pieces I have (Bertoia dining chairs, Braakman tea trolley, Noguchi horn lamp, Aalto Paimio armchair) fit in with the mix and even lighten things up a bit. I LOVE bent and molded plywood; it's simple and clean, yet warm and somehow artisanal.

P.S.: Not that crazy about "privilege" used as verb, though ;)

I always like your posts, Tess. You have a lovely aesthetic.