Elle Decor Trend Alert: Quilted Everything

I have a slight addition to my Elle Decor subscription.  I read it more than I read Elle (though, admittedly, I may rely  a little too heavily and frequently on online sources for both fashion and gossip).  During my hiatus from stuff, I viewed each issue in a different light - mostly critiquing their intentionally askew and overpacked bookshelves. Having detoxed sufficiently this month, I returned to the January/February issue ready for design inspiration.  

The magazine's full page spread (see online slideshow here: http://www.elledecor.com/design-decorate/trends/quilted-design-2013-design-trend#slide-1) featured many unexpected incarnations of quilting. What both the print and online "Tastemakers" supplement failed to find was the most unexpected and ubiquitous quilted object this winter season - the Starbucks holiday mug.

I bought the mug intending to hold it with the impressed logo hidden.  I would have paid them extra to have a simple quilted white mug, sans branding. I had to have it.  It was the one item I could provide to nosy relatives about my Christmas list.

I love white china.  I love quilting and the feelings of coziness and warmth it evokes while still maintaining a rigid, clean pattern.  I have a (not so) slight caffeine problem. 

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Meet my new office mate:

Image from Starbucks.  Sold out. 

Perhaps I hoped this issue would show me the error of my stuff-averting ways with a packed issue of beautiful spaces.  Instead of perking me up, it left me craving a latte.  

The War on Stuff: A Six Month Hiatus

Cornelis de Bailleur, Interior of a Collector's Gallery of Paintings and Objets d'Art (1637).  In the collection of the Louvre, image courtesy http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/b/baellieu/collecto.html. 

I have been surrounded by stuff for my entire life.  Whether it is stored inventory for The Trent Collection or a Trent Estate client's possessions, I am no stranger to stuff.  However, those experiences have made me incredibly conscious of my own stuff.  So much so that, after a summer move, I decided I needed to take a hiatus from stuff and writing about stuff - no matter how valuable or aesthetically pleasing.

This hiatus lasted 6 months and created a blank Christmas list.  I just could not fathom any more stuff.

Rule #1 of purging:  If you are serious about getting rid of stuff, don't acquire new stuff during the purge.

While moving, I was confronted with belongings I had stored prior to a cross-country move a year ago. One of the easiest ways to evaluate whether or not you want an item is to pack it away for a year and decide how you feel about it.

Before I moved a single box out of storage, I took a look inside.  The storage unit became reorganized rapidly.  Either a box would go to my apartment or to a charity donation center or dumpster.

Tip: Don't lift a box until you know what it is.  This works for both safety and sanity.

I conducted this move and purge without any assistance and it paled in comparison to some of the jobs Trent Services has had.  Despite this, it led me to reflect on advice for anyone deaccessioning.

Once you have realized you need to downsize and committed to doing it, you should ask yourself a few questions: 

• Why do I still have this? 
• Does this hold any memories?
• Will I still want this a year (or more) from now?
• Do I need this?
• Is keeping this worth $(continued storage cost)?

All of this advice assumes an individual has realized he has too much stuff (or just more stuff than he wants).  The most difficult part of working with clients is not when they are sorting what to sell (or eventually donate) and what to keep, but getting them to accept the need to downsize (whether due to selling a relatives house, a move or financial concerns).

How have you fought the war on stuff?  Even within the antique business, I have found that you must always keep stuff in perspective.  If a wall of paintings is preferable to blank paint, wonderful.  If you reach a point where you want some breathing room, feel empowered to clear wall space, floor space or shelf space.

Taking this one deep breath at a time

Some drama rattles me so much that I have to step back and allow it (and my racing heart) to settle down.  The inspiration for this blog was indeed these absolutely unbelievable tales, but I am afraid I must withhold the latest for now lest I slip from anonymous retelling to reality.  

Picking for Decorating: My Current DIY/Repurpose Must-Have

I have come to realize that I have dedicated most of my previous posts to the unfortunate aspects of the antique/vintage trade.  While I know many customers are incredulous upon hearing these tales and enjoy hearing the gossip, I try to keep my tales as concise as possible – a perpetual challenge, you may have noticed - as I know firsthand how destructive obsessing over the drama can be.   With that being said, I would like to redirect the energy of the blog - however temporarily - to the positive and imaginative.

One of the privileges of working surrounded by antiques and vintage pieces day and night is the endless stream of decorating ideas and possibilities. In The Trent Collection spaces and in the retail spaces of fellow dealers, I always manage to stumble upon a novel piece or cleverly repurposed find.  Even in twenty years in the trade, though I admit to being focused on a different level of crafting for the first ten or so, I still hear and see new ideas that inspire my own decor.

My most recent must-have: a globe.  

Vermeer's "The Astronomer," in the collection of Le Louvre, Paris.   Despite what you may hear at a hotel art show or in an antique mall, he just painted this once.

One would think this must be a quick and easy find for someone like me who spends so much time at flea markets, yard sales, estate sales, and thrift stores.  Whether it is the classic case of being unable to find the one thing I am looking for or there is a world-wide globe shortage, I have yet to find one for the growing list of repurposing possibilities. 

Why, when everyone can teach a child geography with a satellite map and eerily close views via Google Earth, do I so desperately want a globe?  (Yes, I am not currently in search of a mercury glass gazing ball or round art glass creation, but the classroom relic – a tabletop, spinning Earth.)  I have come across at least two decorating ideas that I would love to try.

Idea Number 1

The first makes use of the item on the top of my Michaels’ wish list – chalkboard paint.  I want to make a chalkboard globe.  With my work for The Trent Collection and my other endeavors, I have a to-do list that defies hierarchy.  What better way to track and defy the chaos then jot it down on a sphere that can be spun wildly to obscure all tasks (when one reaches the inevitable state of to-panic)?

Photo by: The Well-Appointed House.  Globe pictured available there for purchase.  I am not affiliated in any way with The Well-Appointed House, nor am I receiving anything for showing this "repurposed" reproduction.

Apparently Oprah listed this as one of her favorite things in her June 2012 issue and it debuted back in 2010, but I have apparently been out of touch with magazine’s finds these last few years.  I have only had the opportunity to even contemplate repurposing and crafting within the last few months and one of the first blogs I stumbled upon was a do-it-youself (DIY) chalkboard globe.

I actually only learned there was a mass-produced chalkboard globe as I wrote this post.  Working in resale, I know that I can obtain the same look for less than the Oprah favorite’s $342 price tag (at the Well Appointed House)...and that I will stumble upon that very piece at an estate sale eventually. I must say though that I prefer the base of the $342 version where it belongs – on the base of my antique cast-iron and walnut music stand. 

For an extra twist, these painted globes are an interesting take on word art and they show pride in their origins as actual globes:

Idea and Image From aestheticoutburst.com

Idea Number Two

While channel surfing to put off the mindless monotony of uploading photos to eBay, I stumbled upon Junk Gypsies (http://gypsyville.com/) on HGTV.  It appeared to be yet another reality show about antique pickers/dealers/decorators, but it provided at least one novel idea: repurposing old globes into hanging lights.  Take a jigsaw along the equator (using a bucket as a globe stand), then smooth the edges with sandpaper and fit a light cord (literally a socket on a cord) through the hole (at the North Pole on one and the South Pole of the other half).  

Disclaimer: Globes are made out of a variety of materials, often plastic and paper, so I recommend a low wattage bulb or a CFL or LED that will not get too hot if left unattended.  

One of only two known celestial globes by Johannes Schöner (Museum of the History of Science, Oxford)

Regardless of how inspiring these ideas may be, if you stumble upon a globe that looks like the globe above, do not approach it with paint or power tools.  Madame Trent would be most displeased if I endorsed the repurposing of an antique globe...as would the Royal Astronomical Society were anything to happen to a historically significant globe in a crafting frenzy.

  

Photo by Real Simple.  Where are the people deaccessioning their globe collections when I need them?

While I continue my search for the inexplicably scarce tabletop globe, tell me, what items are you always on the lookout for?  Do you find that some items are much harder to find than you thought they would be?