In My Garden

Organic Rustic Pared-Down-Traditional Style

A s much as I strive to define my style, it keeps changing. A fickle beast, my taste.

But in truth, I've begun to notice something constant about my taste and it is this: I love *organic* style. I don't necessarily mean things made from organic cotton and sustainable wood (though I do like those too!). What I mean is a rustic sort of "au natural", simple, found-object kind of style. A style I don't really have words for!

I love references to the sea, pale colours, whites and blues and greens, and beachside objects like found sea stars and weathered woods.

I love rough wood, natural fibres like linen and cottons, hand weaving, hand made pottery. I like tables and objets made from salvaged wood, driftwood. I love antiques too, as long as it has a form and shape I like, and a worn heirloom feel. I like old-fashioned things.

I love traditional decor too, so I'm not all about "rustic" and "primitive". But in my traditional decor, I like things to pared down, a little more spare, not cluttered but clean and textural. I gravitate to classic armchairs, but prefer when they are covered in simple cottons or tone-on-tone jacquards so they are textural but not too visually busy. I love pattern most when it is simple, organic, or curvy. I like leaf patterns, simple florals, pale colours. Patterns that come from nature.

I'm not really into contemporary decor and the chocolate-coloured wood that is all matchy match and industrial chic. I find a lot of the pieces just lack character when they are too polished and linear. And while I'm not a huge fan of pine and light woods, I like my woods to be mid-tone or dark, as long as it looks like wood and not something made in a factory. But I do like having one or two pared-down contemporary or modern elements in a room, as they give the eye a rest from all the curvy organic goings on....

What I do love about modern is the art, mostly the paintings, for their spareness, I think, and amazing saturated bursts of colour. Though I am also fond of old-fashioned etchings, drawings, and architectural sketches.

Defining my style is a work in progress. And as much as I hate to sound so out-of-the-box, one of my favorite styles is the Pottery Barn look. All the photos in this post are from their recent catalogue, in which I found a lot to love!

Etching

I have a small collection of etchings I've accumulated in my travels. I have three from Europe and a handful of others dug up in flea markets here and there. I often find myself drawn to etchings, with their delicate detail and often quaint historical content.

Recently, I was shopping in one of Calgary's precious few antique stores (this one located in the gentrified, post-industrial, hip & cool design district called Inglewood).

There is a rather filthy little shop there (with a surprisingly sane and interesting shop keeper), chock full of dirty and broken items, but some very interesting gems, if you don't mind digging all the way to China.

In the store, after a pleasant conversation with a young man visiting from Paris, I came across a pile of old etchings, and brought home ($10) this wee beauty entitled "A Bientot" ('til we meet again). It looks like a lady of some breeding bidding adieu to a hopeful suitor (who looks a little out of her league to me).

The lovely grey-blue mat is soiled and needs replacing, but I've already cleaned the print itself using a soft white eraser.

Maybe I should go back for another - there was a really big pile - one with a shipwreck scene is calling me.

Because It Can't Always Be Heirloom...

Ikea Hemnes dresser

As much as I'd like for every piece of furniture and every object in my house to be unique and rare and terribly significant, it just can't be. It takes time, dedication, and focus to acquire prized and valued possessions, and moreover, you need great places to shop! But sometimes you just need something functional, a place to put stuff, and you can't find anything perfect to do the job no matter how hard you look.

Since buying our new house in December, we've been busily seeking out beautiful things to fill it with. While I've got no shortage of good taste and great ideas, Calgary is sadly not the place to shop. There's a severe shortage of beautiful things, and I have money burning a hole in my pocket.

Yes, Calgary, like every other suburban Hell, has plenty of generic Linens 'n' Things and Home Outfitters where everything looks the same and half of it seems horribly cheap (if I see another Umbra frame...)

We do have a few higher end shops like Chintz & Co (where I had my bedroom curtains made), French Connection (which is small and precious and where bedding can cost thousands) and McArthurs Furniture (which serves the nouveau riche who live in monster houses and have a penchant for monster gilded furniture, most of which I find garrish).

Calgary does have a couple of wee "design" districts, which, as far as I can tell, stock overpriced contemporary furniture made exclusively in China.

But what happens when you're the sort of girl who should be living in New England, the kind of girl who loves rustic/traditional, who admires antiques and things with a classic-historical-flea market-vintage quality? There's nothing.

We do have Pottery Barn (1 store, limited stock), which I like because it's updated traditional, but the quality isn't great and I would like something more "genuine": hand-built furniture, artisanal quality, real antiques. Well, we have about 3 antique stores and one little vintage shop that sells mostly knick-knacks.

So, there's little here to satisfy my tastes and less to suit my quality demands.

So, I've re-discovered Ikea, the king of affordability! I happen to have re-fallen in love with Ikea because they don't pretend to be something they aren't. They're cheap and the design is great. It wasn't always this way. When I turned 25 and got my first job in Toronto fresh out of grad school, I was happy to leave my Billy bookcase behind.

But 10 years later, I'm back, simply because I've decided that if it can't be heirloom, I'd rather have something that I know is cheap, and is still stylish. Something that doesn't pretend it's fancier and nicer than it really is.

David and I are going to Ikea this weekend to buy the Hemnes dresser for one of our spare rooms (which also doubles as David's *gentleman's dressing room* where he keeps his clothes and such). The Hemnes dresser looks smart and masculine...and costs $350 instead of $1200, like the made-in-China dressers all those "contemporary decor" stores are trying to hawk.

vignette: an afternoon in my house

vi·gnette [vin-yet] noun, verb: any small, pleasing picture or view


Biscuit napping in the master bedroom...we don't sleep here in summer because it's too warm, but good for kitties who like the heat.



Scenes from the downstairs spare room, which gets lovely afternoon light...we sleep here in summer because it's partially underground and very, very cool.



Biscuit in his favorite bird-watching spot..our neighbour has several feeders which are rather popular with local birds.

Acquisition

Whilst shopping for home-office furniture, I was pleasantly sidetracked and bought a killer gorgeous Asian table for our master bedroom. Since setting up the room, I've been annoyed by the long expanse of empty wall between the two doorways. I was just preparing to commision a carpenter we know to build us a long rustic table - basically something longer and narrower than a a sofa table to fit the narrow available space.

The Asian table I found wasn't as long as I wanted, but it had exactly the same rustic charm I dreamed of. And it measures 13" wide, leaving plenty of space for walking!

The table was constructed in Vietnam from salvaged wood. I'd never seen anything like it, but today as I looked through a reference book (Influential Styles), I found an almost indentical table dating from the 1700's. Tables with precisely the same lines and size have been popular exports to Europe and America since the late 1700's. So I suddenly felt much more content with my unusual and slightly out-of-character choice!

On the table sits an eye-catching little green antique ginger jar, which sadly is missing its cap. And on the right side of the table is an Ikea Grono lamp ($24 for two), which I hacked by covering in Martha Stewart gift wrap to cut the glare. The lamp now looks lovely and I get lots of compliments on my handi-chick design.