Serious Style: Working With What You Got

As I mentioned in my Editor’s Letter at the beginning of the month, I wanted to touch on interior design and sustaining a comfortable abode. When Dwight and I first moved into our apartment a year ago, to test out the cable, we watched a movie OnDemand. Feeling our inner child, we choose to watch a movie we hadn’t seen since grade school—FernGully: The Last Rainforest. This animated movie which came out in 1992, is a movie that takes a stand against deforestation and the negative impacts of industrialization on the natural environment (the movie probably serving as the catalyst to my compassion towards the care of Mother Nature).  It’s a gorgeous movie that took a microscopic view of the creatures and fairy people that made up the rainforest, and that’s when Dwight and I were instantly struck with the inspiration for our house—a botanical garden of cozy comfort. We wanted to re-create that dank, yet soothing aura like that at the bottom of the rainforest floor. Since then we have thus made that vision come together quite nicely, especially evident by our guest’s compliments and their reluctance to leave once they claim a comfortable spot on our sofa. (Contrary to popular practice, in my fashion, considering our home didn't look exactly how we wanted it to look when we moved in, now would be the perfect time for us to have a housewarming!)

Through the years we have been able to be quite” resourceful”, which is our master plan of decoration! In my fashion, being resourceful means finding multiple uses for one object, especially when it comes to design. Design is all about being abstract and finding beauty in the strangest places. For example, at the beginning of this month I challenged myself to put old pieces of our broken furniture I had kept (pieces of furniture that I "intended" on putting back in place someday) together in a way that would be useful as a night stand. The pieces I had to use were the bottom board of a broken drawer, and plank pieces from the back of our old bed frame. The concept for execution: simple, modern, and useful. Dwight suggested we go get wood glue, spending no more than 5 dollars, and I fashioned the plank pieces onto the board in a simple, modern design. I waited about 2-3 days for it to dry (3 to be safe). It worked perfectly.

1) Gather pieces; 2) Make measurements; 3) Add pieces to board; 4) Wait to dry

This is why I am a heavy advocate for being environmentally conscious. There are so many uses for the things we consider trash! Recycling and being "resourceful" is a great way to build personal style because it’s nice to keep the stuff in your life that resonates with you in one way or another because as supermodel, Dayle Haddon, postulated about modeling in the recent HBO documentary About Face: Supermodels Then and Now the same can be thought about style: It is about, "how you  translate your experiences, good and bad, into something that is meaningful to yourself and other people." The dismembered pieces of furniture that at one time served one purpose, now, serve a whole new purpose, bringing an old piece of my past back to life as it assumes its new position in my life as my new night stand—and, I only spent 5 dollars in the process to make something I really needed, and saving money, I am sure, would be reason enough for most of us to be “resourceful” and think twice before we throw out an “old” item.

THE FINAL PRODUCT