learn ^ design book
Things I learned from my living room...
By Jennifer Bertrand
GNOME EPIPHANY So there is never a sale that doesn’t peak my eyeballs. Often I am having whole dialogues in my head as to what I could do with whatever weird or bizarre or interesting object I come across. Recently, I came upon a sale that had 30 felt gnomes for next to nothing. Of course there were also 24 little red cardinal birds for pennies as well. Ahhhhhhhhhh, I can use them next Christmas and do a massive grouping. Then when I got home it hit me. Why should we wait until next Christmas? Instead, our son 1
Winston and I spent the evening playing hide the gnome and we placed all of them around our living room. We then created a cardinal tree with all of the birds. It was happiness spilled over into daily life. I often think we could all learn a lot from set designers who create worlds on stage or televi- sion. And perhaps we all need some of the theatrics in our ever day homes.
SUPPORT LOCAL I love all of the creative and amazing talent we have in Kansas City. No joke we have artists that play on a national level in so many varying fields. One of my favor- ite local peeps is Karrie Kaneda of Happy Habitat. Her throws and pillows are the per- fect knit texture to soften your home. Any time I do a design project, I try to bring in something local. If you are not sure where to shop for local art, of course hit the West Bottoms first. And then an easy way to start finding peeps is type in Kansas City on Etsy. VintageKC’s website also has a list of local makers and features them in the December Gift Guide! IT DOESN’T HAVE TO MAKE SENSE Yes, sure, a metal cow skull should have a bird and some tassels on it. I often laugh at what pops in my head. And even just recently I was telling a client that I sound absolutely bonkers when I say what I am thinking out loud. But you just need to look at an item and ask yourself, “What is the ex- pected use of this item?” Then ask yourself, “What is the exact opposite thing I could do with it?” Then it becomes a fun game. This will keep your home from looking like ev- eryone else’s and add conversation elements throughout your spaces! 2 3
6 vintagekc spring 2016
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