Featured Hoarder or storer?

I'd rather see it antiqued or have the color knocked back. I hate when old, chipped, or faded objects are placed against a stark white, it's a bit clinical like a museum and tends to highlight the stains and flaws rather then the patina and richness of the objects.

Actually not as white as it looks but the flash lightens it. I'm more concerned with housing things safely and within reach. There is much more of this reference collection scattered about in cabinets and on shelves and every flat surface. I'm not really much on fashion or illusion, if it's old it's old if it's new it's new. But then that's me and it won't suit everyone.

(And those ugly chairs got dragged home from an auction for DD2 who just needed some seating for a new apt. but then ended up taking something else. They need to be recovered or donated one of these days when I get to it.)

 

say-it-slowly: what's the broken stuff?

 

S_I_S, I love the look of your things and the contrasts. I even like the "ugly" chairs!

I was offline for a while and just caught up on this thread... and had lots of genuine LOL moments! It's so nice to not feel like a one-off stuff-everywhere-freak....

 

Book, same with me, I go here its free.

http://www.shrinkpictures.com/resize.php

to the left I click resize,then scroll down to "Choose file",then I click 760 pixils then click resize. After its done you can download then upload here. Hope this helps

 

OOPS....well DARN.did not see your pics book....I think I am having a terrible blonde day

 

hmmmm....well if you mean the ceramics, quite a lot of them are broken. They are a bit of everything. I have a lot (a lot) of 18th C pieces but some date from a lot earlier to 20th C modern. It's a sickness I think

 

SIS I love your displays, even your garage is nicer than my livingroom I could spend hours drooling over your goodies.

Af you sure got that room all neat in super sonic time

Book, I love you,LOL....my bedroom has a teeny pathway until I can get my storage unit someday and super heavy metal shelving units for all my china,glass and other stuff. I still do not see any dust? GEESH, I guess the upper desert is a dust bowl for me,after all, I DO dust every couple years or so. Book, I love rooms like yours as its like a treasure hunt

I really need to clear the junk from my dresser to get to our clothes, that is if they aren't out of vogue . Can't even get to my BF's side of the closet so I hang his clothes in front LOL.

Before my dear Mom moved in I had my sewing room I was able to store a lot of stuff in the closet,cabinets and dresser. Now all that stuff is in one of my 70+storage containers.

 

I thought this was a thread for hoards not fashion decor? Before I sold anything I collected and I decorated my homes in what was appealing to my eye.

I love wood paneling walls too and plan on doing part of my living room with half walls of wood,moulding and the upper walls either painted or papered. Its hard to decorate a cottage when I once lived in a huge home but I can make it like a doll house,

I love the look of wood,I was never one for the modern look. I also love heavy furniture cabinets,tables and the sort,and of course a hodge podge of items scattered here and there. I also LOVE heavy drapery swagged to the sides and lovely lace drapery panels inbetween. Call me weird.

Also, it would be so boring if everyone had the same decor in their homes. I think personal tastes in decorating is the expression of ones inner beauty.

 

On some of the bottom shelves there look to be partially assembled pieces. It looks a bit like archeological finds. It's interesting.

 

Ahh...mostly old 17th and 18th C Dutch earthenware. I used to buy broken up pieces as examples and eventually did get started in archaeology as a volunteer.

The thing about archaeology is you don't get to keep the finds....they get processed and studied which is a good thing.

 

I used to buy broken up pieces as examples

There is no better way to learn the character of stuff than to have study pieces that are cheap or free because of damage and then to just spend time with them in a way you cannot do with museum pieces. A small item like an 18th C Bilston enamel box may have lots of enamel damage and be near worthless, but carried in the pocket for a while, and looked at and felt many times a day gives you a feel for the real that no amount of 'book-learning' can do.

 

Right on! Not being a professional at all this, nor even a seller, there are things that I know, but don't know WHY I know them. I just know that I have lived with and handled certain things, and when similar things appear, I know when they are not the real thing.

I hope that made sense...?

 

At the risk of insulting someone, I did offer decorating advice. Decor is one of my passions. And I thought that somewhere in the thread someone made a comment like "what to do with all this stuff?"

There are many reasons why people collect and why we hoard; some of those reasons, to be honest, are not so pretty. Like the little poor boy who grew up to make it big in real estate and is now out to collect every single toy that his parents could never afford to buy him. There is the historian fascinated with the stories contained in even the most mundane object. And there is the connoisseur, the person who admires the rare beauty found in objects made in a different time or by hand. As a collector, you can be a bit of all three.

You become a hoarder, I believe, when the collection starts dictating to you, what you can and can't do, rather than the other way around. When a hoarder has limitless resources, and fine objects, they are perceived as eccentric, but when the person has no place to hang a winter coat because the hall closet is filled to the ceiling with boxes of buttons -people begin to scratch their collective heads.

I was never truly happy with a collection displayed like the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London, the type of thing you often see overpowering the toy and doll collectors every nook and cranny, it's too in your face and revealing. I also don't want to live in a museum or worse yet, a laboratory with specimens splayed out on stainless steel tables and in porcelain drawered cabinets.

One day when I had a couple of friends stop by and offered them coffee in the living room, it quickly became apparent there wasn't a place for them to set their cups. The collection was dictating to me -"thou shalt not have company". And I decided to make a change.

I looked at all the reasons why I collect and more importantly, what is it that my collection gives to me? (I mean, if you are going to be a slave, at least you should be fed). It should come as no surprise that my main motivation is the beauty of the objects, though I certainly have a curatorial bent. That is not to say that I am better than the hoarder or mad scientist amongst collectors, I just appreciate a different value in collecting.

If your collection fills a hole in your heart, buy all means, pack it in. If you see yourself as an amateur historian, create didactic shelves of objects and scatter your work on every elbow resting place.

Speaking for myself, I can't live in a museum, lab or storage locker. It would drive me crazy. But I have always been fascinated by rooms with displays that blend all aspects of collecting without ignoring esthetics. I am thinking of the Victorian curiosity cabinet, or the 18th century private office and the country house library.

No, you should not be concerned, nor feel like you need to impress anyone, when you are completely uninterested with esthetics -because you derive other satisfaction from your collection. And likewise you also don't need to thump your chest and proclaim that you are not trying to impress anybody (because that should be obvious).

I thought that the photos that s_i_s shared offered a great example for me to comment on my decorating esthetics. In no way was it meant as a personal critique.

In the past, many friends have asked me for my opinion on arranging their collections and organizing their cluttered homes. Acting as a decorator (as apposed to an interior designer), it is important to look at the needs of the person. If that person see's their collection as an on going history project, or if they derive great comfort from the massive display, like being wrapped in a heavy quilt, then I would never dream of imposing my esthetics. But there are some, who like me, want to highlight the beauty of the objects and don't see doing so as fashion or illusion. So, to s_i_s, and others who are more concerned with having everything within reach, or have a passion for furnishings that are out of style, I say more power to you, and I have always told folks who question an out of style treasure in my home, "if I wait long enough, it will come back in style again".

 

Hi,
I just want to say there is hope. My houses always looked like the examples shown here by "my friends". When I finally stopped selling on ebay and yard sales I was able to control my "hoarding" yeh right. As I go off in a gale of giggles. Any way my stuff is jammed into closets and the garage. I will not over collect again. The trouble is it follows me home. As you know I gave away a Tiffany pen holder and was very proud of myself until today. This is what followed me home.
What in the hell do I need with these 8Ft structurial fiberglass coluums?
greg

 

I am seeing a fireplace surround... Ionian columns... elegant molding... Loooong mantel...

Of course, I am predisposed to see such things, as I have a two-foot high column which I have used all over the house. It has held a statue, my cd player, a long drippy plant, a set of leprechauns, etc.

 

Greg, Transform your house into a mini-Tara, and dress as Scarlet O'Hara for Halloween?

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Just started reading this thread...and this about sums up my thoughts..