Ever since we moved in together, my boyfriend has been trying to convince me that his ice axe should be displayed on a wall in our apartment. My first reaction was — not a chance. However, I've slowly broken down to his pleas, and here's why…
So much of what we see in the world of interiors fits into a mold, and frankly it can get a bit boring at times. While I'm not promoting displaying random stuff just because it looks cool, I think that embracing your inner quirkiness might not be such a bad idea.
The image of the skull above is from Amanda and Lincoln's house tour. Their daughters got a kick out of this miniature skull and so they decided to make a home for it in their living room, allowing the girls to fawn over it whenever they wanted. It appears totally random and funky but happens to be the perfect fit for this family.
The recent New York Times article on propping opened a great discussion on what we should be displaying in our homes. One of our readers summed up her opinion well with this comment:
Too often, the majority of the accessories and "props" are simply there to fill up a space or to go with the theme (ugh) of the room. It is much more pleasing to see a room that is accessorized by things you've collected yourself and that really does reflect the people that actually live in the space. -Jamie02
In terms of the ice axe, I came around to the idea when I realized how much it means to him. The axe is pretty much his other love — it's saved his life on multiple occasions and is affectionately referred to as Little Bear. I can't say no to that.
What sort of funky finds do you have out in your home?
(Image: Amanda and Lincoln's Eclectic Modern Home | Kathryn Wiens)
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My friend has an awesome old harpoon hanging up on her wall.... its definitely unexpected but its a conversation starter for sure!
Architizer has a great recent post related to this post:
http://www.architizer.com/en_us/blog/dyn/43462/things-are-getting-creepy-in-this-manhattan-loft/
I have a teeny plastic cow a good friend gave me that sits by the TV in the L/R. A teeny plastic green alien I took from my mom's place when she was moving. both are about the size of a quarter.
I have two 'finger-paintings' from my great niece in my entry way of my condo. She was 5 or 6 when she 'drew' them and I love them. People ask me about them all the time.
We have a cast iron cornbread pan that belonged to my husband's great grandmother hanging on the kitchen wall.
I still use it (and her recipe!) every time I make cornbread, but it's nice to have it on display everyday as a reminder of love, family, and the warmth of homemade bread.
I have a small, solid brass model (sculpture?) of 3 pigs dancing in a circle. I found it at an antique store, fell in love, and promptly paid too much for something that is essentially a paper weight. Put it next to a lamp in my craft room. I smile each time I see my 3 little pigs, and I don't even like brass.
At an art festival last year I came across this insane sculpture of a (presumably) dead, half deteriorated fish. It sounds gross, but it was so beautiful, and I think that juxtaposition of rotting carcass image with graceful form and high level execution really made it stick in my mind. Going back to that festival in July, maybe he'll be there with his fish and I'll finally whip out the credit card. It would go right on the fireplace mantel, and I'd name it Senor Pants or something like that.
My great grandfather was a barber, so I have displayed a few of his tools that he used such as a shaving cup and brush in the display case of my bedroom. Beautiful to everyone, probably not, but definitely meaningful to me.
A bear skull on a desk in the bedroom, acquired as an intact head (fresh, I believe was the story) by my husband as a child on a family vacation, buried in a bucket of dirt and carried back home. When unearthed, it was a skull.
Also some vintage medical equipment (those eye and ear examiners), still functional, hanging in our downstairs bathroom, also courtesy of my husband (he's not a doctor—just found them in a closet somewhere).
My (ex) boyfriend glued together puzzles and framed them, he had almost 50 of them. I'm sorry ... I just couldn't handle 50 variations of 2'x3' puzzle portraits of busty blonds in metal bikinis and dolphins swimming through outer space and pregnant galaxies with planets in their bellies.
It kind of bothers me that it bothered you that your boyfriend wanted to display the ice axe that saved his life.
But that's me.
Like Thorndale, I put things things I wouldn't necessarily proudly display in my living room in places like the laundry room, closets, even inside the medicine chest. Makes me happy to see the cheesy Disneyland pastel drawing of me and my brother c. 1971 whenever I put away the towels.
We have tons of gaming stuff because we're, well, gamers. While this DOES NOT fit into my style, it's right up the hub's alley. So we display our Munchkin cards and Magic deck boxes right next to our kid's artwork and my yarn stuff. And you know what? It's amazing how people love the crazy of it all. Because our house reflects us and not a magazine.
I'm with rural. My first thought was - isn't this your home *together*? Regardless of how much it means to him, shouldn't he get a say in what is displayed?
Our library is where we house all of our treasures - from antique Chinese cricket cages, to primitive horse statues to a really foxed out old unframed mirror. But I also have some newer items like a sculpture made from colored pencil tips which looks like a rainbow sea urchin and an amazingly delicate and fragile glass spider from Venice, both of which have homes nestled among our fine china and crystal.
I love these comments. It's cool to read about all of the unique objects other people have displayed in their homes!
And I completely agree, it makes me sound like a nasty person that I didn’t want to display the axe. I saw the axe for what it looked like and not what it meant. I thought about how it wouldn’t fit on any of the walls quite right or make sense with the décor. Once I thought about what the axe actually meant I realized it made perfect sense to incorporate into our home. I guess my boyfriend’s just one step ahead of me.
@LTELLA: I didn't think it made you sound nasty, and I really don't get why people where jumping all over you. Have you people even seen an ice axe?? Living together is about give and take, if one person just gives in right away to whatever the other wants even though it bothers them it's not going to work. You came around on your own time and that is what's important, so you can both be happy.
My old, beat up teddy bear, lol. I've had him since the day I was born. Several childhood "hair cuts," more than a few of mom's stitches, a missing nose, and a loose glass eye later, he still lives on my bedroom dresser. I'm 43. ;)
The point of the article is that LINDSAY realised the ice axe was meaningful to her boyfriend and including THORNDALE's comment "Good design needs to include objects of importance, even if they are not important to you." I agree with both statements.
We have items from when we were single, our different cultures, inherited pieces. There is always a place for the quirky or questionable item in a well loved home.
My husband and I married on Halloween, and are yard haunters with a full graveyard every year appearing in our front yard.
Our house, at first glance, doesn't look creepy or goth, but we have several items that are Halloween-related in our everyday decor ALWAYS on display. Some small concrete gargoyles line the top of a bookshelf, the large hammered-metal jack o'lantern near the tv console, and my black cat iron doorstop... and yes, we have some resin skulls in a bead glass display... because having some quirky and fun reminders of our favorite time of year makes both of us happy - and having items that mean something to us is just good design as well (no sterile or boring junk just because it "looks good" in our house!)
If you put it in a fabulous frame or shadow box, anything can be beautiful.
I recently bought a very beautiful old saw at a flea market, and it hangs on the wall near my front door, along with some skeleton keys. And nearby are stones gathered from special walks, a skiball stolen from an arcade on my birthday, pieces of driftwood, feathers in a jar, car whiskers...
*cat whiskers. They're supposed to be good luck if you find them after they've fallen off!
I just recently finished having something matted & framed that I've wanted forever. One of my close friends came over and the look on her face? Well, let's just say we clearly don't have the same decorating taste!
It's the early 1960s cover by legendary Frank Franzetta of the Ace paperback version of Edgar Rice Burroughs' "The Monster Men," with lurching zombie-looking guy striding through a swamp while carrying a blonde in a RED dress.
I also have a small framed photo in my kitchen of a shirtless Steve McQueen making a cup of tea. But NO-ONE could think that's not pretty!
That NY Times article irks me a bit in its assumption that before Pinterest (or the internet in general), nobody 'styled' their homes. Come on! There have been tchotchkes and bad taste for hundreds of years. The idea that no one paid attention to what their neighbors put on their walls, or bought lamps 'only for the light', is just ridiculous. If nothing else, have we *forgotten the 70s*???
Also, am I the only one interested in how this ice axe saved his life on *multiple* occasions?
I have to say, no matter how important an ice axe is in the life-saving department, it doesn't automatically become "decor"... if the owners like it on the wall, fine. It would be equally important and revered stored with the rest of the dude's sporting equipment, though. Raising an object to some kind of elevated decorating status because of it's history is a very personal decision, and if the home's decor was very different from the vibe of "ice axe", then the decision to hang it on a wall would be somewhat arbitrary. (Just to support the possibility of choosing to NOT display it.)
a blanket crocheted by my grandmother. it once dressed my bed as a little girl and now takes center stage in my living room. it has been in existence for nearly 40 years. m
Poster of Jim belushi with a college Shirt
@leapkate...I am so jealous! Of the Steve McQueen photo, that is.
Our house is an absolute treasure trove of collected "boy things".....
A plastic anatomy study skull, framed western pulp novels, wooden water skis, vintage signs out the wazzoo, lab beakers, shooting range arrows, tikis, tin globes, plaster saints, jars of old baseballs - bottle caps - pool balls - marbles - matchbooks, framed X-rays, metal lunch boxes, rosaries, vintage rodeo posters, and a bowl of dog skulls.
A.T. should do a house tour sometime.....
I agree with CBREYNOLDS that the frame or display can make anything work. I'm pleased you decided to go with the ice axe. I think random things are great so long as they have meaning...they are only random to people who don't know the story, and once they get it, they will appreciate it far more than some matchy display item. I love items with history or personal meaning. Give me 1 or 2 of those over a whole house of carefully selected new "pieces." I think that is why vintage stuff can be special too - it almost always has character and there is usually a story behind acquiring it that goes beyond "I saw it in the Ikea catalog....and went to the store"...
QUOTE: There is always a place for the quirky or questionable item in a well loved home.
You know, this thread [almost] alleviates the utter disgust I experienced while reading the 'Design Allergy' thread. How REFRESHING.
thank you,
My home just has stuff that I like.
My husband recently bought this rather massive replica of the Excalibur, from Spain. If that wasn't trouble enough fitting in my Indian home, he wants it displayed, not on the wall, but stuck in a rock on the floor, with the key to releasing it, a secret only he will know! Help :)
I'm so relieved that other people also have sword-obsessed husbands. Mine took me on a "surprise outing" this weekend....to a medieval festival which he had already taken me to as a surprise 3 years ago. Only he had forgotten. Surprise!!
The next day, I took him to a charity sale, where, guess what, he bought a sword! Today he bought a load of toxic products to clean it with, and I just KNOW that tonight when I get home it will be proudly displayed somewhere. I'm all for displaying loved objects, but I don't really get the whole sword thing. When is it ever going to come in handy? And more importantly: can I get rust marks off the walls with a magic sponge?!
I have a (once working!) model steam engine my grandfather made (Wilesco D16, if anyone is interested/cares).
When you live with someone the line between revered object and that ugly thing that I am not going to display as a decorating item can become the sticky point in a relationship. If one person has an object that means something to them and the other person is so anal retentive about the decor of the place then it becomes a lopsided relationship. Some people are fine with that but personally I think it shows a bit of disrespect for your partner.
I have a love of oversized, Victorian gilt mirrors. What started with one, is starting to become some kind of collection We hung one over the weekend and it just fills me with glee. I’m almost alarmed by the attachment I feel to these things.
I'm slowly collecting things from my grandmother's home. It's mostly vintage kitchen kitsch so far, but I can't wait to get my hands on some of the needlepoint she, my great-grandmother and my mom made. It will look so odd, but great in my bright colored home!
My SO and I are both scientists and collectors. We have an antique 'curiosity cabinet' in our dining room that's full of the shells and fossils we've collected on our travels. We don't care if it's weird, it's beautiful and it's ours.
it's your home, have what the hell you like, surely? There's style and then there's castrating your self-expression in the name of - what, minimalism? Be bold and move in fully, don't just nancy about trimming up "bland" with "approved fashion"!
My partner Ricky and I, have various pieces from our travels in our place here in Chicago. We have quite a few Guatemalan wooden masks and wooden saints, Mexican Day of the Dead Catrinas and decorative boxes, skulls, a collection of ceramic and clay birds from Greece. We also hung Greek worry beads on almost every door knob in our place, Buddhas here and there...and much more. Somehow, it all works and looks quite inviting and unique. It's home to us.
When my now-husband and I were first dating it was long-distance. One night when he was visiting we passed by one of those quarter gumball machine type things, only instead of candy you got these tiny plastic monsters for a quarter. Of course I had to have them! TINY PLASTIC MONSTERS!
When we got home I was a little stuck with what to do with my new acquisitions, so he grabbed them and balanced them on the door frame to my room to "protect" me when he wasn't there to do it for me.
...years (and several apartments) later, we still have those little monsters carefully balanced on the door frame of our bedroom. You know. Just in case.
I want to see it up!!!! PLEASE!!!
@tessa6461 - That is the cutest thing ever. I hope you still have those monsters over your door when you're 80! Stories like this are the reasons I try not to judge decor choices too quickly. You never know what great story is behind them.
TESSA - That is such a cute story!
On our first date almost 3 years ago, my boyfriend and I got plastic "bling necklaces" and "hillbilly teeth" from a vending machine outside of the restaurant where we had dinner.
I plan to give out sets (with a little card explaining the story) at our wedding as favors.
You can always limit axes and swords to the man cave and put all of your pink girly 50 shades stuff in the girly room. What's the feminine version of the man cave called?
Friends and family refer to my house as a museum, but it's just REALLY eclectic. The notable unusual things to me are the 8' foot carved naga from a Thai Buddhist temple, a carved alter inlaid with mother of pearl also from Thailand. I also display a collection of Japanese pachinko machines in various places throughout my home.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/68369218@N06/sets/72157627891824174/
@VICTORIA ELIZABETH Glad to see I'm not the only Victorian mirror lover. Your project looks great!
My fiance is really into collecting action figures, so we have a lot of them on display at our house. Our bookshelves are split about half and half between his "toys" and my things like books and my yarn stash. The action figures aren't exactly what I'd choose to display in my home, but they are important to him.
I would love to see a photo of how you display them! We have my Grandfather's old Army issue wooden skis leaning in a corner (we live in a cabin, so they are perfect). We also have two old wooden ice axes - one 1939 ice axe and my Dad's 1970s ice axe that has been to Antarctica. We're trying to figure out the best way to display them on the wall, but haven't figure out the most elegant solution.