Pottery Barn–You’re Killing Me!

22nd October, 2009 by Christina - 4 Comments

At first glance, this photo from the Pottery Barn catalog looks great; the window, chair, and books scattered around.  Don’t you want to kick back after work or on a Sunday afternoon and just lounge in this chair while reading?

Look again.  Tell me if you see anything wrong with this set-up.  I certainly do:

WHAT IS THAT DRINK DOING ON THOSE BOOKS?!?!

It’s going to leave a mark on the cover; there’s going to be a permanent ring from all the condensation.  I know it’s meant to look like a glass of scotch*, but it doesn’t matter what’s in the glass, simply using books as a coffee or side table is just wrong. 

In fact, purists will tell you that besides placing the glass on top of them, having a stack of books is a sure way to wreck the bindings.  Additionally, the location of the stack leaves the glass prone to being knocked over when the reader reaches down for it.  Or what if the phone rings and in haste to answer it, the reader kicks over the stack?  In both instances you’re suddenly faced not with one book that has a damp ring on it, but a pile of books with wet bent pages. 

Smaller to notice is that the book on the chair is actually two books.  One is acting as a placeholder for the other.  Stacks might be temporary, sitting on the floor until they are read or more room is made on the bookshelf.  But there is no excuse for so actively destroying your books by using another as a bookmark–particularly if you’re reading a mass market paperback.  Quicker than any of those books on the floor, the glue binding is going to crack and suddenly you’ll have chunks of pages falling to the floor.

While I normally love the decorating ideas that can be gleaned from catalogs like Pottery Barn, this one is just too much.  Granted, no one but us book obsessed people will have a problem with it.  But it still makes me cry at night.

*That’s another about this photo.  I love scotch, but you should drink it neat, not on the rocks!  Add ice and you might as well water down your drink–it’s so painful to look at.  And the ice is only going to add to the condensation problem.

NOTE:  Yes, I do recognize the hypocrisy in complaining about the damage caused by stacking books for a photo shoot of all things.

4 Comments

Stacked Stacks: BOO!!

8th October, 2009 by Christina - 6 Comments

I am a rules person.  I live hard and fast by them.  Rules like “no sprinkles on brownies.”  My rules don’t mean I can’t live in the moment or spontaneously, it just is how I classify and respond to many things.  Really, I ADORE sprinkles.  But sprinkles mean cake, so if I want them, I might as well make cupcakes (easier to freeze for a single person rather than letting a big cake go stale). 

So, one of my rules is “NO DECORATING FOR A HOLIDAY UNTIL THE MONTH OF SAID HOLIDAY”–and most holidays are at the end or middle of the month so it works out well.  My FAVORITE holiday is Halloween.  Followed by Christmas.  My birthday might actually come first.  Yes–birthday, Halloween, Christmas, Mermaid Parade. 

What I love about the holiday (besides the candy and dressing up) is the pure “autumnalness” of it all.  I like the ancient traditions that led to Halloween as we know it.  One of my “rules” is that I don’t do spring cleaning–I do fall cleaning.  The timing makes more sense to me and follows those ancient traditions.  The image of witches on broomsticks comes from celebrations in which the fields would be swept of their debris before the winter set in.  On October 1st, the Halloween decorations come out, the wardrobe is switched over, and the house cleaned from top to bottom. 

The timing of yesterday’s post on Young House Love was perfect with helping finalize my plans for decorating this year.  A few bats in the window, candles, and…I was stuck. 

First, let me say, I love Sherry and John’s website.  It’s one of the few I follow in the RSS feed and it inspires me for my humble little abode and plans for the future home I intend to buy one day.*

Anyway, yesterday the Youngsters featured their Halloween decorating and had the perfect idea of book lovers!  They pulled out their creepy titled, black-bound books to display with candles and a raven (click the photo or here for their full post with various pictures and awesome ideas).  Using items already in your home is a great way to celebrate on the cheap.  The books and candle route is classy and simple.  You can’t tell in the image here, but the blocks on top of the books are printers blocks spelling out “EVIL,” which is a nice subtle touch.

Can you guess where I’m going with this?  Yes, I got home and did a little decoration rearranging of my own.  My hardcovers seem more suitable for Valentine’s Day, so my arrangement features a few paperbacks:  Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, some Edgar Allen Poe (master of the creepy if ever there was and the perfect excuse to invest in my own raven!), Wicked Plants (it also has the look of a spell book which seemed appropriate), and I’d Rather Be the Devil.**

Because a pile of books just doesn’t scream HALLOWEEN!!, I added some deep purple feathers that I plucked from a boa (courtesy of Jamie’s bachelorette party) and scattered them over the table top and on my way home tonight I’ll be picking up some purple candles to add on either side for an altar effect.  You can’t see it in any of these photos, but part of fall cleaning means swapping out decorating accessories.  The purple is a nice highlight to the Moroccan pillows on the couch this time of year so it doesn’t become too cliche for the holiday.

*Freaky coincidence–at one point in time the three of us were all working in advertising on the Johnson & Johnson account, albeit at different companies.

** I just now remembered that I own Dracula.  Drat!  Will have to pull that one from the shelves tonight too!

6 Comments

Stacked Stacks: Being Framed

1st October, 2009 by Christina - 2 Comments

Art comes in many forms:  a painting, sculpture, dance, song, and yes, a book. 

The art of writing is the art of words, the art of storytelling.  Sadly, as an art form, its display is sometimes neglected.  I’m not talking about cover art or the overall design of a book (although that can be art and it too is neglected).

Anyone can pile books up or line them up on a bookshelf.  But not everyone has the capability of displaying books in a way that makes them a cohesive part of a room AND showcases the books themselves. 

Apartment Therapy featured these unique shelves back in April after they were included in the May issue of Living Etc. and are available through UK based Graham and Greene.  I really like the mix of ornate with simple modern that the shelves have and the choice in constructing them out of metal.  While their look wouldn’t fit in my home, a variation would be a fantastic way to display favorite books as the works of art they are. 

If you’re the crafty type, creating your own set of shelves should be relatively easy and a green way to reuse old frames or spruce up basic shelves.  Going for an eclectic look or want something with an antique feel?  Check out local garage sales or regular events like Brooklyn Flea to see what people are selling–often for a few dollars that will be well spent making your home look like a million bucks!  Doing it yourself also means customized shelves that fit your decorating style and book collection.

2 Comments

Stacked Stacks – Matching Sets

17th September, 2009 by Christina - 7 Comments

In my mind is this image of a fancy apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan where there are 10+ rooms, each of which are far bigger than my current apartment.  Gilt furniture, original paintings.  The image is of one room in the apartment–a sitting room with built-in bookshelves behind a lovely couch.  Each book is a slight variant of the same shade of blue.  Or yellow.  Or maybe green.  I’m not so sure since the image has faded to sepia tones.

I’m pretty sure the image in question was of a room belonging to Jackie O.  Maybe Brook Astor.  And it was featured in Harper’s Bazaar.  Or Vanity Fair.  I’m not so sure of the details anymore; there’s just this memory of looking at this photo and thinking how nice it would be to have a wall of my favorite books, all matching. 

Wouldn’t it be nice?  To be rich enough to have all your books rebound to match the decor of your home?  My apartment features a dusty aqua, chocolate, and cream color scheme.  With enough money my books would reflect those colors. 

I have these same longings when I look at catalogs.  Mine all arrive within a week and I flip through them trying to read the titles of books piled on nightstands and coffee tables.  Even though the image is trying to sell a couch or a lamp, all I see is the bookshelf in the background.  

Have you ever thought about how these photo shoots work for catalogs?  Jackie O. or Brook Astor clearly owned their books, but in a catalog how does it work?  Are all the people assigned to be working on the shoot bring in a handful of books from home?  Same question for all the tchotchkes decorating a fictional space. 

I have an answer for you!  They rent the books.  Seriously.  RENTING BOOKS!  Sounds like a midway between a bookstore and a library.  Except with much better auditing.  The Strand Bookstore in NYC offers Books by the Foot where Pottery Barn or Crate & Barrel can go to get a bunch of books for their photos.  Books to express affluence and intelligence, or to imply a English country home, or whatever the “in” trend of the year is.  And they rent these books out for movies and to the theater and hotel lobbies!

You can rent books by the color of their cover of by theme–art books, old leather bound, new leather bound, history, best sellers!  Anything you want.  For a few hundred a day.  Sadly, it doesn’t make sense for a private home. 

But it does make me think of how I’d love to not permanently rent a collection for that perfect look on my shelves, but actually own.  I remember reading someplace about French Royalty, possible Marie Antoinette, having a specific cover for all books in their library, all with the royal seal on them–and a great way to cover any books that were considered inappropriate for someone of their stature to own.  

I never imagined that having a book bound for a specific look was once regular practice for many people, not just the aristocracy.  At a lecture on regency literature, I had the opportunity to hold an original copy of a Fanny Burney book–I believe it was Cecilia.  Anyway, people used to subscribe to a publisher for books.  The books, once printed, would have the pages bound and sent off to the subscriber without a cover.  Or, I should say covers.  Books were often part of a “lending library” type of system and came in a few volumes depending on the length of the original text.  This way a few people could all be reading the same book without waiting for someone else to finish it.

Well, Jane Austen happened to be a subscriber, and her name was included on a page of all the subscribers to which the publisher was sending copies off in a specific area.  And Austen is why I was at the lecture, which was a part of an auction, which is probably why I remember this.

Once received, the owner would take the book to the local bindery and the binder would take the included direction about the particular method of binding to use or how much of a margin was to be left once the pages were cut.  There may have been suggestions on the type of cover to use, but an owner could choose anything within their budget to create the type of library I sometimes dream about.

7 Comments

Stacked Stacks: Nude Bookshelves

10th September, 2009 by Christina - 7 Comments

Although these aren’t banned books, Spanish photographer David Blazquez exhibited a collection of photographs that help to discuss individual perceptions of offensive material. 

The photos are of the human form as furniture and happen to be “self-portraits.” Blazquez is the subject of each photograph he took and reworked with photoshop.  Various blogs feature a blurb or photo about the work with the image showcased here, a human bookshelf. 

Art, no matter the form, is subject to interpretation.  It is subjective with  meaning imbued based on the experiences and beliefs of the viewer.  Rarely is there a “right” or “wrong” interpretation.  Even if an artist has a message for the piece, once the work is presented to other people, it takes on multiple guises.

There were some who found the human shelves to be cool and were intrigued by the concept as art and the various messages it conveyed: 

I think it’s actually quite brilliant–it’s a MALE figure in the domestic environment, a departure from the typical female representation.  Additionally, he is nude, another departure. Demeaning and demoralising shouldn’t be part of the judgment, since the photographer is the model. It is a bit creepy, but I am glad we don’t live in a world where all art is sanitized and safe, and I like that some people get icked out by it.  That means we all have different tastes.

But there was also a denunciation of the work which is a common cry amongst those who wish to ban that which bothers them; they find it offensive and/or disturbing.  The human furniture was likened on Apartment Therapy to photos of torture at Abu Gharib and porn, labeled as demeaning and elitist. 

AT editors, do you realize that this is a sexual fetish called “fornophilia”?  It’s a subcategory of Sado-Masochistic practices.  I know this because I’m a Ph.D. in Culture and Performance and I’ve studied radical sub-cultures, especially in performance.  The entire point of this kind of practice is to completely humiliation, dehumanize, and inflict suffering on the “sub” (subordinate partner) for the pleasure and entertainment of the “dom” (dominant partner).  I think this artist is laughing up his sleeve at all the “normal people” who are taking this seriously as art.  This guy did this because he has a fetish, and part of the fetish is being seen by others in these humiliating poses.  I’m surprised that AT posted this.  Frankly, it’s porn.

Rather than accepting the disturbing conclusions and learning from them, some people would rather shut all offensive material, regardless of its educational value, away.  This is how statues and biblical characters ended up with fig leaves.

Balzquez may have been attempting to “explore the concept of objects, nudity and the self-portrait” as stated on Design Boom, but public perception involves personal morals and taste, so what the artist intended is not always the reaction.

The same holds for books.  Whereas one reader may look at the material in TinTin Au Congo and see  an opportunity to teach children about past-held interpretations of different cultures, someone else sees children continuing on and adopting racist beliefs.  Neither viewpoint is wrong or right–just different. 

Sometimes they are sicking and disturbing, derogatory and offensive.  Not all art or books are happy little bunnies. But no one person or group is any more authoritative in deciding what should and should not be allowed into the public sphere.  But once you say that no one is allowed to see certain things the problem arises that an avenue of self-learning and discovery is removed; we are told that we are incapable of thinking for ourselves.

7 Comments

Stacked Stacks – From Apartment Therapy

3rd September, 2009 by Christina - 2 Comments

Each morning follows a very specific schedule for me.  Not everything I do is a necessity; some things are more habit or a inject a little fun into the routine. 

One of the first things I do every morning is check Apartment Therapy.  For home decorating resources, they are one of my favorite sites to visit to compile ideas about how to make my tiny New York living space functional and beautiful and to gather ideas for when I one day own.  Because of the nature of their blog, they’re allowed to feature a lot of different looks and approaches to decorating and they’re able to showcase things without considering space limits (not of the physical space, but space like a magazine only has so many pages space).

Regularly there are photos of bookshelves and creative uses of home accents, such as the rafters, for book storage.  There are posts about organizing books by color or flipping them around so the pages and not the spines show.  No matter what type of home you have, there’s probably a picture on Apartment Therapy about book storage that will suit your life. 

This month’s theme is collections (past themes have been based around specific rooms, colors, artwork, etc.), and they specifically request photos of book, movie, and music collections because most people have at least one of these.  I happen to have an atomizer collection that I might photograph and submit.  To inspire readers, today’s post about the theme features eight photos they found in recent magazines that focus on media collections.  All are quite beautiful and inspirational.  It’s difficult not to look at them and wish for more money (to spend on books) and more space (to then store them all), but it is easy to pick-put details that we can incorporate into our own collections. 

Because of this theme, I’m more excited than usual to partake in my morning ritual checking the site.  Over the past few months I’ve been saving links to share with you and might have to send you as I find exciting and stunning displays of literature.

*****

And just a reminder, the Giveaway for Shelley Kommer custom bookplates made from vintage children’s book illustrations is open until tomorrow, September 4th (11:59 pm).  You still have time to enter, so get over there and let us know which design you would want for yourself!

2 Comments

Stacked Stacks – Marge & Jeff

27th August, 2009 by Christina - 3 Comments

I should probably start this Stacked Stacks with a disclaimer.  While I shall refer to them throughout as Marge and Jeff, they are better known to me as Mom and Dad. 

This picture, it’s what I sort of grew up with.  We moved into our house when I was six and over the years would focus on one room at a time.  The study was one of the last rooms we decorated.  Things that are cool about this room:  1) Mr. Chair.  You can’t see it in this photo and it’s really the chair’s name.  Mr. Chair is this great leather comfy lounger from Ethan Allen.  Sadly, no one actually sits to read in Mr. Chair; the lighting is terrible in that corner.  2) That painting you see, the astronauts.  It’s by Alan Bean, who has really walked on the moon (read the NYT article).  And 3) the shelves. 

And reason three is what this post is all about.  Let’s start by saying wall-to-wall shelves are AWESOME.  You just can’t beat them.  Marge and Jeff have arranged theirs by “His and Hers,” although looking at the photo I guess it’s better to say “Hers and His.”  The open facing shelves up top allow them to display their favorite and best looking works, while the rare and fragile books are housed behind the glass doors.  Not that you can see them, but the books hidden behind the bottom doors are a mess.  Those shelves are just jam packed with books; I’ll call them both out in a minute on what books those are.

Marge’s books are primarily of the genealogical variety.  There are quite a few on the history of Brooklyn, British Royalty biographies, and classics as well.  She also houses the “family books” like Harry Potter, which we’ve all read. Her dirty secret:  Emilie Richardsand other romancy/chick-lit stuffs.  For quite some time these shelves have been my go-to parental lending library, including the chick-lit/romance stuff, which makes for great plane reads.

Lately however, I’ve switched to borrowing Jeff’s books.  Partly because I’ve read all of Marge’s and partly because I’ve become really interested in space travel and American history.  A number of the books are rather technical, but various histories and biographies have really broadened my interest in the subjects.  His dirty secret:  StarWars books, just loads of them.  I have no interest in borrowing them.

The basement is furnished and houses another set of shelves; more books that all of us read and a very large collection of J.R.R. Tolkien works from Unfinished Tales to published drafts of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. 

For the pictured shelves, I do wish they would invest in some bookends and find homes for the piles.  The study is a lovely room and just needs a little finessing.  Ultimately, it’s the inspiration for what my eventual home library will look like–a very classic look.  Just with better lighting for my Mr. Chair.

3 Comments

Practical Piles

24th August, 2009 by Christina - 6 Comments

Whenever I look at catalogs and magazines, the spaces showcased are always so perfect.  My favorites are the ones that have a clean and easy to maintain feel while still looking lived in.

Recently, I bought the last pieces of much needed furniture for my home–two lovely chairs.  In the act of packing for an upcoming lake side vacation, I plopped some books down on the chairs. The colors just jump out at me and the books seem so at home and so like they belong in the pages of Pottery Barn (which, it so happens, is where they are from).

Practically speaking, they must find their way back to the shelves (or to the hands of their owners) and don’t at all belong on valuable seating space.  However, I’m tempted to leave a pile of books there for the aesthetic beauty of it during the times when I’m home alone.  They can find another place of residence when company is over.

In the meantime, that particular pile is making its way to a suitcase.  Some are being loaned out, returned to their owners, or making their way back home with me.  Chances are another three books or so will join them on that return trip.

6 Comments

Stacked Stacks – Matt & Carrie

20th August, 2009 by Christina - 3 Comments

 Dear Matt and Carrie,

Based on what I know of you both, and based on the books on these shelves, I’m going to guess that Carrie has a set of shelves somewhere else in the house–because, man is there a lot of nerdery on these shelves.   

(Dear other Stacked readers, click on the photo, to see the flickr page where I’ve added notes regarding the geeky books.)

The good things about the shelves–you guys have a wide variety of books types and the shelves are fairly well organized/neat.  Granted it could be a little better; you got the series books all together (Star Wars, Harry Potter, wine), but then there are  photography books spread out and bits and pieces that belong together.   

Truly, your shelves aren’t that bad–it’s just that you could do better.  Like I said above, they’re boring.  Paint the shelves!  Add more photos of Scout!  Arrange the books in pretty ways (maybe purposefully lay some on their sides?).  I wish that on my upcoming visit to your neck of the woods I had more time so that I could come over and redecorate the shelves for you. 

Once those twins are born, you can kiss any organizing goodbye though.  Maybe you should start now and clear off the bottom shelves:  start stocking them with baby books.  I have a great post of Five Books you and the babies will love…

My favorite part of the shelves comes from a little tid-bit Matt shared with me.  After sending me the photo, I questioned if those were multiple copies of the Harry Potter books I saw.  In fact, they are.  Prior to their marriage, each had their own copies of the earlier books, and as the series wound to an end, again they bought their own copies so they could read the end of the story at the same time rather than waiting for the other to finish.  This is probably one of the best instances of foreshadowing I’ve ever  come across in real life:  when your babies are older, there will be at least one fight prevented as each kid will be able read the series without arguing over whose turn it is to have a book!

3 Comments