I’ve been thinking a lot about the act of ‘decorating’ and ‘styling’ your home. You see, I’ve started to watch more Youtube to find inspiration, watching mini-series, imagining a life of me as a vlogger…but my algorithm has gone totally wayward. I’m talking videos of ‘How to make your house look more expensive’ and ‘Top 10 Interior Design Trends’ and the to-the-point ‘4 ways to style your bookshelf’. Obviously it is fun to play with your space, rearrange furniture, move objects around, but my bugbear is when things are bought just to fill an arbitrary space. Not to be so black & white about it, but I would rather live in an empty house than one filled with decorative logs or coffee table books acquired for the absolute sole purpose of stacking coffee table books (rule of thumb – if you crack them open just once, then you’re good). I mean, if I need a rug, I’ll get a rug, but hopefully you know what I mean.
I’m reminded of this amazing video my brother shared with me a few years back – a glorious two minutes and twenty-four seconds of Daphne Guinness at home, talking about her home. Her definition of home is perfect to me: ‘I put all my books and the things that I love, I just put it into a space and I can recreate that anywhere. But that's a home, you know’. And then, the best line, ‘I don’t want decorators’.
Yes, Daphne, I don’t want decorators either! Sure, give me an architect, a carpenter, definitely a lighting specialist – I won’t complain. But once the structure is there? Decorators, beware! I just want to fill my home with all the things I love and soak in knowing that each piece contains a tiny story, even one as small as ‘I got this because I was having a bad day’.
I thought I’d share a few of these little mementos:
1. These wooden cows. I got these December 2020 in a Swiss tourist shop after seeing this vintage store’s arrangement of decorative cows. I want to do something similar, but not sure where.
2. This flower frog, bought from the aforementioned vintage store. The owners were very eccentric and I wanted to be more like them.
3. This wooly elephant bought at a roadside stall on our way to the airport from Todos Santos, Mexico. We had some last pesos we needed to spend, so my mom, sister, brother and I clambered out of the van and each picked something up. My brother named him ‘Guacamole’ and he’s very sturdy.
4. This Bellhop lamp. This was my first designer purchase, bought on sale, combined with a sneaky discount code. I love this lamp.
5. This Nessino lamp. This was my boyfriend’s first designer purchase, but since we live together, this lamp is also my lamp.Â
6. This Hoptimist. My younger brother got this for me when he first visited me in London. It’s got a chip on the bottom for once hopping a bit too chaotically.Â
7. And in the same photo, my lego dog – my boyfriend made this for me at one of his company’s team building things. I want a little westie so badly, but this one will do for now.
8. This candle my sister brought for me from Mexico City. She said it’s bad luck not to light a candle, so maybe I’ll light it again tonight. It’s a good way to make someone feel better about lighting fabulous candles.
9. This mini Verner Panton chair. I was visiting my brother in Zurich, and my godmother took us out for what ended up to be a very boozy winter lunch. We went to a Vitra design shop afterward and she got me this chair and my brother this vase. She is very much like that.
10. This Memphis Design poster I recently framed (need to hang it, so it’s in bubble wrap for now). My siblings and I were in Milan this past February for my brother’s birthday, and we visited the Memphis Studio. We got a tour from the most perfect, fabulous Milanese woman. I asked for a business card at the end of the tour, and instead, she handed us four of these posters. They’re double-sided, so the next time I’m in Milan, I want to go back and see if I could get another to hang next to this one.
Now, you and I are both here because we love design, we love objects, we love functional and nonfunctional spaces (we have range!), but if it isn’t being made from the heart, then really what is the point?Â
I was in Switzerland recently, and my great-aunt, who I suppose is like my stand-in grandmother, is doing poorly. She’s going to move from her home to a home, and as all old Swiss ladies do, she has an apartment full of tchotchkes. Honestly, this stuff has not changed since I was a baby, since before I was born, maybe even since she first got this apartment back in the bygone 1900s. We’re now going through the process of sorting through all her knickknacks, and I luckily got to bring back this old telephone (pictured below). It probably wouldn’t even get £5 in a flea market, but it holds so many memories, and all I have to do is dial 1-800-LOVE to access it all <3
Cheesily yours,
Isabelle
aka Dreamspaces
I could never live in a sleek, super-clean and empty minimalist house - I like to see myself! It brings me joy and comfort.