Scouting from my Sofa

I've always been a fan of using vintage finds to add character to my home. Whether they're heirlooms handed down through the family, items picked up during my travels, or flea market finds doesn't matter to me as long as they're beautiful and functional. If they carry an interesting story with them that I can share with my children about times past, all the better. Like the claw from a claw foot bathtub that we use as a doorstop -- my children have never seen a claw foot bathtub, so that item was quite the novelty when I brought it home.

With three children, a husband, a dog and a job, I don't find as much time as I'd like to build my collection. Our local Alameda Flea Market is one of the best, but the first Sunday of each month usually finds me snuggled up on the sofa catching up on my reading or watching movies with my family. I've noticed lately that some really good big retailers are starting to integrate vintage finds into their collections, so collecting is a little easier than it used to be. Here are some of my favorites:

Flatware by the Pound from NapaStyle. The pieces are collected from old hotels around Europe, and recall a time before plastic forks and paper plates. This product is great for parties, just store it in a big glass jar and let your guests grab what they need.

Dough Bowls from Pottery Barn. Each is hand carved from a single piece of wood, and they're great for storage under the coffee table, at the end of the bed, on a desk. Anywhere really.

Vintage Grain Sacks from Pottery Barn. These make great pillows or table runners, and have a very interesting story: each stripe and monogram is custom to a local farm and farmer. When a farmer delivered his grain to the mill, the flour was returned to the farmer's own grain sacks so he could easily recognize his own product. Now that's a story you don't hear anymore.

Vintage suitcases from Jayson Home and Garden. They're not cheap, but if you feel like splurging, they're very chic for storage or stacked up next to a chair in place of a table. My children only know rolling suitcases now -- the concept of carrying a suitcase by its handle is completely foreign to them.

I still prefer to do the bulk of my treasure hunting myself, but it's nice to be able to let someone else do the leg work sometimes. I think of these big retailers as my own personal vintage scouts. I'd like to collect vintage flatware myself piece by piece from hotels around Europe, but really, who has the time?

Pass It On

It's coming upon the gift giving season. Mother's Day, Father's Day, graduations and weddings loom and each beg for the perfectly selected gift.

In an age when it’s hip to re-use and recycle, re-gifting is also making a comeback, although not in the traditional “get rid of something you don’t want” sense. Today’s version of re-gifting consists of sharing or passing along something that’s meaningful to you. I'm especially happy to see this tradition return, as many of the decorative items in my home have been given to me as gifts or have been passed along from someone who knows I have a passion for decor. I would always rather have something that carries a story than something brand new.

While it takes no less time to choose, the perfectly selected re-gift can be more memorable and meaningful than something newly purchased. For instance:

• A bottle of wine from your cellar
• A piece of a collection that’s meaningful to you. When I got married, my mother-in-law’s sister gave me a beautiful gift: she added to the collection of teacups my mother had given to me over the years with a cup and saucer from her collection of flow blue china.
• A book that you’ve enjoyed. Write a passage in the front of the book about what you enjoyed, and pass it along to someone you think will like it.
• A plant or tree that you’ve nurtured. When my daughter Katie was born, a friend gave me a tiny Christmas cactus that was an offshoot of a plant she received when her last baby was born. Now I’m about to pass along an offshoot to one of my friends who just had a baby.
• Something someone’s admired. I once admired a friend’s enamel butterfly pin, and on my next birthday, she gave it to me as a gift.
• A stack of magazines on a topic of interest. A stack of vintage National Geographics is a perfect gift for a 10 year old boy.
• A Christmas ornament from your collection.
• A collection of letters and photos.
• Something from your family. My husband wears a lapis Polk family crest ring that will someday be passed onto our son, and I wear his grandmother’s diamond ring that will someday be passed onto one of our daughters.
• Something that feeds someone’s interest or talent. If you have an old manual typewriter, pass it on to someone who shows a talent for writing.

Practice with the upcoming gift giving season, then you'll be a pro when Christmas arrives.

Maria Callas Is My Soulmate

I'm lucky to have one of those jobs that lists "getting inspired" as part of the job description, and occasionally I just hand an entire day over to the idea of inspiration. Friday was one of those days.

My friend Christopher prepared an agenda of 25 inspiring places to visit, starting with the San Francisco Flower Market, and ending with a warehouse full of french antiques that used rickety old shelving as it's only merchandising technique. In between there were approximately 25 other visits around the city of San Francisco. As Christopher, Pallavi and I traipsed across the city and back (and then back again) we saw beautiful things, met interesting people, and ate delicious food (like the cappuccino and apricot/anise donut at Four Barrel that got our day started).

As I search for ideas that I can apply to my daily work, I always keep a corner of my mind open for ideas that I can apply to my home, or things my family would like. Friday was a good day for that. For example:

Start your day with flowers if you can. It makes everyone happy.

Even the most utilitarian corner of your house can be beautiful. I've never seen packets of Equal look so pretty.

If it's meaningful to you and your family, it's art.

Everyone works better after taking a break for some ice cream.

Remember and share the stories of the things in your house. These guys could have talked for hours about each of the products in their shop. That's one of the big differences between visiting a chain store and visiting a small privately owned store. And it's one of the big differences between a model home and a warm and comfortable family home that's been built over a lifetime.

Old and beat up is OK. Just like with people, the richness of life experience can show in the things you choose for your home. My red leather chairs aren't worn out, they're wise and experienced.

If you've got a skill or talent in your family's history, keep it alive. One store we visited, The Parish Trust, dedicates its existence to collecting and curating antiques from dead and dying industries. The store was a treasure trove of manual typewriters, vintage cameras, and other items my children might not even recognize in twenty years.

And last, in case I or anyone in my house has forgotten:

World Design

Living in Alamo, California, my children aren't exposed to a diversity of culture. However, JP and I make an effort to introduce them to world influences with different types of food, music, books about different cultures. Additionally, I try to intersperse different world influences into our home decor and tell them the stories when I can get them to listen:

African Wedding Baskets, the traditional gift given to brides in Zambia and Angola, sit on the table in our entry.


Two sets of Chinese Fortune Sticks, a traditional method of fortune telling, sit in the family room to be used randomly when they catch someone's interest.


A vintage Suzani, a form of Uzbek textile art that was traditionally made as a part of a woman's dowry, roams around the house and has lately found a home on JP's and my bed:


And most recently a vintage Indian Kantha, a quilt that's block printed and quilted by hand, was added to our stack of throws in the family room.


I like to think we're planting the seeds of curiosity now, and our children will grow up with open hearts and a taste for adventure that will take them around the world to see for themselves what's beyond their safe havens of California, Washington, Idaho and Arizona.