I get a lot of questions about what my home (2-bedroom apartment I share with a roommate) looks like-- since I'm an artist and massive collector of vintage everyone always assumes it's awesome. Unfortunately I'm much better at buying/amassing items versus actually knowing how to display them. Even though I've lived in my 1920s-era Ukrainian Village apartment for three years I haven't changed much around since moving in! This probably stems from having to move every 9 months or so during my undergrad years in L.A.; now that I'm done with school for good--I just got my MFA in May-- it's time to pay more attention to my space.
In the summer of 2007 I moved to Chicago from L.A. with two suitcases, nothing else. I subletted a furnished room in Chinatown while my roommate and I accumulated furniture and accessories for our 2-bedroom apartment in the Ukrainian Village. Due to budget constraints we wanted to get all our home decor off Craig's List-- my bedroom dresser was free, my 1950s blonde wood desk $20 and my wooden bed frame also $20. All the furniture in the rest of the apartment was found on Craig's List or at estate sales. We spent several weeks that summer tracking down pieces all over the city, loading shelves or chairs into the white delivery van that belonged to my roommate's family business. My favorite thing in the whole apartment, and the most difficult thing to get up three flights of stairs, is my 1950s Modern china hutch-- it weighs over a 100 lbs and took myself and my roommate's entire family to carry up to the third floor. I only paid $25 for it from a man who was moving out of his coach house he'd lived in for 50 years, he also threw in a side table for free!
The HiFi radio was found in a Lincoln Square alley. I dug it out of a pile of broken furniture and took it on the Western Ave bus with me-- got a few stares but it was worth it. When she came to visit me, my mom helped to hang the collage wall-- I'd been collecting botanical, bird and butterfly prints for several years with the idea of doing this arrangement some day.
While collecting vintage cameras has been a trend for a while now, I'm a photographer (received my MFA from Columbia College Chicago) and am intrigued by the tools of my trade. I even use a vintage camera, a medium format Mamiya 645, for all of my projects. The shapes, names and materials of old cameras interest me and their designs are so streamlined yet graphic.
It's Christmas yearround in my apartment though I limit the decorations to the top of this bookshelf. It started with a few ornaments bought at a Wicker Park garage sale and I kept adding on to the vignette as I found chenille stem santas and hugging elves at yard sales, thrift stores and estate sales. The best time to buy Christmas items is the middle of the summer when no one wants to think about winter! The atomic lamp was found at a family-run estate sale, the man of the house had been an electrical engineer and had designed and built all the lighting in the house!
When my friend (and former co-blogger) Jade told me she was getting married I went on the hunt for a vintage topper for her. While searching for the perfect one I kept coming across them at rummage sales, estate sales and antique markets. There's something melancholy about seeing such cherished objects now for sale, my oldest topper is from the 1920s and the newest from the '60s. Most of them still have remnants of wedding cake and frosting still on them!I has been a struggle to figure out something really UNIQUE to do with my space, like everyone else out there I love globes, printer/type drawers, owls, salon-style hangings of pictures, etc etc. While I'll always be a lover of Midcentury Modern, lately I've been gravitating toward what I'd call rustic chic meets industrial meets Victorian scientist. Yes, I said rustic chic. Despite being from Arkansas (or maybe because of it), I've always stayed away from anything 'country'. Rustic chic is rougher around the edges though and not as cutesy.
I've been overdosing on home decor/design blogs lately, of course I've been reading Apartment Therapy, Design Sponge and Poppytalk for years and always love perusing local blog Backgarage (hi Katherine!). sfgirlbybay has always had an inspiring blog and tonight I came across her "Home Tours" section, the homes I was most drawn to were located in Sweden or Finland, why am I surprised??
I'd love it if you shared photos of your spaces. Also what home decor blogs do you recommend?