This cartoon in a recent New Yorker reminds us of some of the interiors we’ve seen on shelter blogs and magazines…
….where “perfection” depends on the absence of stuff…
We wonder if it makes for a very controlled existence or a refreshingly liberating one?
Top photo via Pigeon Vintage
Skim Milk House via Design Milk
Interior Designer Suzanne Shaker, whose wonderful built-from-scratch home we posted about, wrote us this email:
…”just painted our house in shelter island, and cleared all the stuff off the counters and walls, emptied closets, stripped beds. everything stripped down. back to the form of architecture and enjoying the light, and unencumbered space, a clean slate. now I’m rethinking the palette, furniture plan, where the eye goes. so much fun after 7 years . editing the stuff is uplifting! i spent the weekend feeling unencumbered..and will slowly add the life (stuff, art, fabrics, objects, necessities)back .
We hope to see pictures of the big “shift” to compare to the house’s earlier iteration.
Thanks, Suzanne!
I should think balance is the key. You might want to reduce to zero then build up. But staying at or near zero might too inhumane, too sterile, to subsist for long.
Then again, there’s a lot to be said for chaos. As long as you can find things when you need them, chaos might be more full of inadvertent discoveries. And chaos often requires a maid, either oneself or hiring another person to make sure the mess remains a clean mess.
Good points, Tim. The only way I seem to be able to work it is to move back and forth between ‘together’ and ‘all hell breaking loose’, having learned that it’s a flow, and all part of the process. I’ve certainly gotten much looser in my old age (and having taking on A LOT more projects).