lamps to love Every good mid-century home has great lamps. Here are some of our favorites from the Pruitt house!
the Christmas tree he chose would be a huge, tacky (in the best way possible) alumi- num Christmas tree. “That first year, we just had one,” Stephen said. “Then it grew to eight. Then 30. We became obsessed. We have blue trees, black trees, you name it. We even lent them to Powell Gardens several years ago for one of their arboretum displays.” But Christmas trees are just the tip of the antique iceberg for Stephen. As you walk through the Pruitt home, you begin to feel as if you’re living in another era. Each piece that adorns the home is in amazing and original condition, even if it means it takes longer to find. For example, the Heywood Wakefield buffet in the kitchen looks as beautiful as the day it was made, but it took Stephen more than two years to find it at Retro Inferno. On the living room coffee table, the cover of an original 1950s magazine touts what to do in case of an atomic bomb. The fiber glass
lamp shades near the couch look like they’ve just been unwrapped from a lifetime of bubble paper and placed in this living room just for today. Stephen doesn’t stop at furniture and accessories, though. His pen- chant for beautiful and original pieces is most reflected in his favorite subject: art. Since 1989, the couple have collected numerous pieces ranging from paint to charcoal to photography. They have even gener- ously loaned out portion of the collection to museums over the years to allow others to view their beauty. Of course, the storyteller in Stephen occasionally takes over, and he is known for trying to locate the actual artists of his pieces. For one contemporary painting, Stephen was able to track down the artist after some digging. When he did locate her, he asked a question that had been on his mind. “The painting seemed very dark to me,” Stephen recalled. “So when I found the artist, I asked her about it. She said she had indeed been in a dark time in her life, and that fact obviously came through in the paint- ing. I was right!” The crown jewel of Stephen’s massive art collection is a small pho- tograph placed in his kitchen, where he can walk by it daily. The black and white 4”x5” photograph from 1950 is by Frederick Sommer and is entitled “Circumnavigation of the Blood.” Though many friends assured Stephen he would never be able to afford the piece, he was determined and it ultimately became a part of his sterling collection. All of this attention to detail and authenticity stems from Stephen, who is also a filmmaker (Never2Late Studios), wanting his home to tell a story.
VintageKC / Spring 2014 19
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