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Antiques: Meet the Next Big Thing

by H. Camille Smith October 17, 2012 14 Comments

The HGTV.com team recently visited High Point Furniture Market to rub elbows with the design world’s movers-and-shakers and take the pulse of what’s to come. After several days of (blissful!) interior design saturation, I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that antiques are HOT! Think mid-day-sun-baking-asphalt-in-the-middle-of-the-Mojave-desert hot. To capitalize on the trend, most showrooms had a curated, collected-over-time look that mixed their newly-manufactured products with a few vintage-inspired pieces.

Traditional furniture and accessories have always been a Market mainstay. Reproductions of everything from heavily ornamented Louis XVI settees to pale Gustavian commodes have never really gone out of style; but at this Market they were joined by the real deal: centuries-old case goods, lighting, classical sculpture, architectural salvage and quirky, one-of-a-kind accessories.

Here are just a few of the goodies I spied at Market; unfortunately, most of these gems are available only to the trade so I couldn’t include links — hit local antique shops or online sites like V&M, 1stdibs or Ruby Lane to search for similar items.

Antiques at High Point Furniture Market *burled wood chest: Luisana Designs *early American ship’s compass: Design Legacy
*iron basket pendants: Bobo Intriguing Objects *carnival chick: Design Legacy

Busy Philipps Talks Vintage Furniture Sale

by Abbi McCollum September 20, 2012 9 Comments

Actresses Busy Philipps and Courteney Cox have announced that they are teaming up with The Art of Elysium and One Kings Lane to co-curate a vintage and market finds sale on the One Kings Lane website. The sale will feature vintage items that they are donating from their homes, as well as an assortment of one-of-a-kind pieces hand-selected by the interior design enthusiasts. The 72-hour celebrity curated sale launches this evening at 9pm/8c at OneKingsLane.com and proceeds will be donated to The Art of Elysium.

Design Happens interviewed Busy Philipps and asked her about design, child-proofing and her One Kings Lane sale. Check out our chat below.

Actress Busy Philipps

DH: How would you describe your house? What’s your design style?

BP: It’s very eclectic. I personally don’t love when you walk into a home and you feel like it’s a page ripped out of a catalog. Some people feel very comfortable in those environments; that’s not how I choose to live. Our house is more like a collection of pieces and things. I have a sofa from Room and Board in my living room and we also have an antique wall unit with a desk. Years ago I bought Elizabeth Taylor’s dining room chairs from her Palm Springs Estate. There are things from Modern One gallery here in Los Angeles. We have really nice beautiful antiques mixed with newer pieces and we’re not married to one particular era or style. My favorite houses I’ve been in have been able to blend different styles seamlessly and that’s what we’ve tried to do in our home. And I think we’ve been pretty successful at it. What’s crazy about our house is that we are never finished. We are just those people who are continually like, ‘maybe we need a new couch for the TV room, we probably need to order a new bed, let’s re-wallpaper our bedroom.’ It never ends. We are never going to be done with our house. And I love it. I love doing it. It’s a never-ending project and I love it – much like our marriage, much like raising a child.

DH: You have a 4-year-old daughter. Did having a child change everything in your house, design wise?

BP: You have to be careful, especially when you have antiques and really nice things. You just teach them very, very early on – one finger, it will break really fast, you don’t climb on this furniture. You can climb on the sofa but you don’t jump on the sofa. And then she has her spaces – her bedroom, our bedroom, her playroom and our TV room that are her areas where she can go nuts.

We had a little bit of a situation. We have this really cool wallpaper – and you know wallpaper ain’t cheap – in our playroom, and she stuck all of these Tinkerbell stickers on it when she was two. Then she tried to take them off and ripped a big chunk of the wallpaper down. She didn’t get in trouble, I wasn’t watching her, you know what I mean, and she’s a little kid. I just had to suck it up and at some point I’ll have to pay to get it fixed, but it is what it is and things are just things.

She’s four now and she’s like “remember when I did that Mama?”
More With Busy Philipps

Adventures in Antiquing: Classical Busts

by H. Camille Smith September 19, 2012 12 Comments

If you’ve been checking out the other photos of my house (here, here and here), then you’ve noticed that my style is pretty traditional. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea but it suits me to, well, a T.

For years, as I hit estate sales, flea markets and thrift stores looking for traditional items to fill my first home, a classical bust was at the top of my wishlist, but their high price tags meant I always went home bust-less. So I was thrilled to find this one at an estate sale for the bargain-basement price of….wait for it….50 cents! Yep, that’s right, it was tagged $1 and, as this was the sale’s last day, they had marked everything half price. Best of all, she represents my favorite Greco/Roman deity: Artemis (aka Diana), mythology’s original wild woman — goddess of the hunt, chastity, childbirth, the moon and protector of women.

My bust is plaster and therefore very fragile, hence the long (character-adding) crack across her cheek: antique bust of goddess diana

A plaster bust is the least expensive option. My friend and fellow traditionalist, Grant, one-upped me last weekend and scored this lovely pair of bisque (or unglazed) porcelain busts at an estate sale for only $20: Grant Dudley's busts

Adventures in Antiquing: Old Clock Repurposed as a Frame

by H. Camille Smith August 29, 2012 11 Comments

As I’ve mentioned before: I love antiques but, in particular, my heart skips a beat when I see European antiques — French finds in particular. Years ago, I discovered a gilt Rococo-inspired wall clock at a flea market. The clock face looked to be from the ’60s but the surrounding frame was hand-carved wood with applied gold leaf and appeared to be much older. At the time, I lived in Los Angeles and really had no use for it so it languished, forgotten, in my parents’ North Carolina basement for a decade until I rediscovered it. And, let me tell you, it was a very happy reunion indeed. I had recently purchased a round needlepoint of violets at an estate sale without a frame. Once I popped out the ’60s clock, I thought the Rococo frame and sweet, little needlepoint would make a happy pair.

And so they did: needlework in an old clock frame

Divide and Conquer: How I Faked a Foyer

by H. Camille Smith August 15, 2012 33 Comments

When searching for my current home (my first!), I had a pretty long list of must-haves: a fireplace, crown molding, hardwood floors, a fenced-in yard for my pups and an en-suite bath for myself. I also wanted a foyer — a separate antechamber with enough room for an entry table and a few decorations plus a closet for hidden storage. Well, as is true of many first-time homebuyers, I got most of the things on my list but something had to give. You guessed it: I didn’t get a foyer; the front door opens directly into my living room. Oh well, you can’t win ‘em all.

Luckily my living room is pretty big (15′ x 21′) so I just designated a 6′ x 10′ area to use as a foyer:

traditional home entryway with collection of framed photos

Adventures in Antiquing: Repurposed Wooden Tray

by H. Camille Smith August 1, 2012 12 Comments

One rule I follow when thrifting is to see a find for what it can be not what it is. Take this antique drawer I found at an estate sale. It was at the bottom of a scrap wood pile in a stuffed-to-the-gills garage. The home’s previous owner had been a never-throw-away-anything-you-may-someday-need type and had seen the potential usefulness of a small drawer that had long since been separated from it’s original piece of furniture.

What sold me is its runner-less construction. Runners are the wood or metal glides that help a drawer to smoothly slide in and out; without them a drawer is just a shallow box. I was on the lookout for a small tray that could do double duty serving food and drinks at parties and was big enough to neatly store magazines on my coffee table the rest of the time – I thought I could make this drawer work. The bottom was flimsy due to water damage so I added a plywood board to strengthen it then tacked on quarter-round trim to disguise my fix and handles on each end so it could really function as a tray.

This project was a bargain costing me less than 10 bucks -- $3 for the drawer + another $6 for the handles which are actually gate pulls rather than drawer pulls. The quarter-round trim and stain I already had on hand.

Adventures in Antiquing: Vintage Avon Bottle

by H. Camille Smith July 25, 2012 16 Comments

I love antiques. My home is filled with them. I’ll admit that’s partly out of bargain-hunting necessity but mainly because, in many ways, I feel that antiques are better — better construction, better lines, better attention to detail — just better. They have a character, charm and history that new and mass-produced can’t match.

Take this winsome little vase. I discovered her at a rural flea market this spring covered in decades of grime. The milk glass color and classic Greco/Roman shape drew me in while the $1 price tag sealed the deal. Honestly, I didn’t recognize it as an Avon bottle until I’d cleaned her up enough to make out the label.

Avon perfume bottle filled with gardenias

My vintage Avon "Grecian Pitcher" originally held bath oil when sold in the '70s, now it's my go-to vase for short-stemmed flowers like gardenias.

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Daily Delight: Vintage White Settee with Marimekko Fabric

by Briana Mowrey February 4, 2012 5 Comments

Let’s do a little furniture math, shall we? (Relax, there won’t be a test.) Marimekko + the lines of this Dering Hall find ÷ time = ??? Give up? The answer is this quirky vintage settee from Coco House & Company I peeped on 1stdibs.

vintage settee

Its almost regal, throne-like shape made me recall the Muirfield bench, and who can resist such a playful fabric pattern? Plus, it has a vintage pedigree, which makes it doubly cool. I have to say, I think this settee is greater than the sum of its parts.

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Daily Delight: Indoor Weather Vanes

by Briana Mowrey February 1, 2012 11 Comments

Have I already explained what “NMS” means on here yet? (Apologies if I have. I’m sick at the moment, so I’m all NyQuilled out. Humor me!) Anyway, many of the ladies around here use the acronym NMS — which stands for “not my style” — when talking about things that aren’t exactly our personal cuppa. But it’s frequently in an affectionate way, as in, “Hey, that’s usually NMS, but this is cute!” And that’s my reaction to the weather vanes over the couch in this Connecticut home designed by William Diamond and Anthony Baratta.

weather vanes over couch

I gravitate to Art Deco, Hollywood regency, or mid-century modern, but every now and again, some nice all-American country decor hits me, and reminds me a bit of the Bucks County home I grew up in. (Not that it was this opulent, but it had a similar pastoral vibe.) I never would have thought to bring weather vanes indoors and use a collection of them in place of paintings or photos, but this arrangement is charming. It’s NMS, darling, but I’m loving it.

[Via: Pinterest, Kelly + Olive]

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Daily Delight: Frosted Art Deco Chandelier

by Briana Mowrey January 21, 2012 2 Comments

It’s snowing in New York right now, finally. We haven’t really gotten snow since Halloween and it was kinda bumming me out. (I know, I’m one of those weirdos who actually enjoys snow even as a grownup of driveway-shoveling age, even on weekends, when it doesn’t mean a day off from work.) Watching the crystalline flakes drift down, I’m reminded of this gorgeous frosted chandelier from 1stdibs.com.

frosted chandelier

The way the Lucite prisms hang straight down reminds me of icicles. And the frosted white fading away into a robin’s egg blue feels wintery as well. Plus, it’s very art deco — always a win in my book. I imagine the light dancing from these prisms would look like sunlight bouncing off of a bank of snow.