Art at Home

Art Makes This Home Personal

I love to visit homes that reflect the people that live within. And while anyone (with enough money, of course) can purchase their home from the Pottery Barn catalog, it takes vision to create a personal decorating statement. For many of us this is exactly what we are seeking to do.

Meet Laura and Ralph.They are big believers in forging their own decorating path. As collectors of folk and outsider art, they are lover's of the unique - and it is reflected in their style. Art is a big part of their home.

    The entry may be small but it packs a big Punch. It also offers a good decorating trick - look at how the signs and pictures are arranged. Instead of centering them on the wall, they are hung off to one side, including the light switches in the display - clever.

Along with folk art Laura loves all things vintage. She has a unique ability to combine the mundane and the
 unique.

In her living room, a vintage weaving steals the show. This is a family piece that Laura inherited. Sad to see it folded at the end of a bed, she had her husband build the custom frame from standard moldings and plexi-glass. Now it gets the attention it so justly deserves. The furniture in this room is slipcovered in white canvas keeping the focus on the art.

Laura creates amazing vignettes throughout her home.

While the furniture is all white, the walls and ceilings play with subtle color combinations throughout the house. In the living room, the walls are a soft cashmere gray combined with a blue ceiling and accented by raspberry in back of the bookshelves. 

An old Bing Crosby Ice Cream box and Kewpie dolls make for a whimsical display - "one man's trash is another man's treasure."

The large empty frame is a great decorating trick. While every room needs some amount of blank wall as visual resting space, there was just a little too much blank wall above the piano. So Laura "framed" her visual resting space.

Combining outsider art, vintage cameras, a Christmas ball, and a child's hand print, is unexpected and fresh.

Hung alone these black and white photos would hardly be memorable - but as a grouping they feel important.

The dining room chandelier was purchased from ebay. Laura painted it and added the unique amethyst,  pink, and clear crystals as well as mismatched shades.

On top of the china cabinet in the dining room, is another of Laura's humorous displays. 

The rough texture of this unusual table plays off the smooth modern dining table. And who says tools don't belong in the dining room - check out the antique jig-saw under the table.

When Laura and Ralph renovated, they tore down the wall between the kitchen and dining room and increased the kitchen's footprint, letting the light shine in.

The white cabinets, Martha Stewart from Home Depot, were paired with honed black granite countertops and a pink bead board back splash. The back splash and black and white tile floor insure that the kitchen is as unique as every other room in this house.

Even the kitchen has charming vignettes. Combining items with similar themes is an easy way to create a display.

The Louisiana-style tile floor gives the kitchen a real southern flavor. Don't miss the soft pink ceiling - it creates a lovely glow at night and ties in the pink bead board.

A fireplace in the master bedroom is a luxury, right? Unless it is in the wrong place. When Laura and Ralph purchased this home, the fireplace was in the center of the room making furniture placement difficult, if not impossible. Instead of trying work around it, they covered it. Now, the bed commands the attention when you walk in.

Two reading chairs were purchased from Craigslist and slipcovered. 

The guest room's mismatched bedding and antique brass bed creates a comfortable and inviting feeling. Many of the furnishings in this room were family hand-me-downs.

Treasures abound on the guest room shelves.

Even the practical, work horse spaces in this house are enviable. This laundry/craft area was unfinished when Laura and Ralph purchased the house.

Blue glazed satillo tile covers the floor, IKEA cabinets coral the stuff, and the cool work table island came with the house -Laura just couldn't bear to get rid of it.

Where the magic happens.

Every crafter/artist needs a place to put the stuff - and Laura is no different. But, like everything else this space is arranged in a way that makes you curious to look further.

In this house, Home is where the art is.