Collections

I've never been much of a collector. Or a vignetter, for that matter. As an adult, I think this has come from a combination of not enough space (a dozen years in NYC will either knock the collection right out of you or drive you to it, I think) and a practical side which understands that coffee tables are for feet, and magazines, and remote controls, and toys, and, well, coffee. Not coral fans and porcelein horses, lovely as they may be.

Yet I was stopped in my tracks by this collection of black objects in a home that recently appeared in Chicago Home and Garden. Gathered together and unified by hue, I find this so very striking.


The miss, for me, is that this was curated by a designer, and while I think they did a gorgeous job, I just can't imagine giving up this much space to things that were not personally meaningful to me.

And oh, okay, I did have two collections growing up. Vintage pins (you know, brooches) in elementary school and porcelein dolls, particularly harlequins, after that. I can't believe I am admitting this. But I need to collect the dolls from my closet at my parents house, so it's about time I confronted this collection. Literally.

What do (or did) you collect? Would you live with a collection gathered by someone else? Most importantly, if anyone was or is inspired by this or a similar collection and decides to take a can of black spraypaint to a bunch of old crap they find lying around the house, please, please send me a picture!