Home Decor

Out with the Old

How antiques are becoming the face of interior design…again

By Dara D’Onofrio

Out with the old and in with the new. It seems this tried and true statement is no longer what people are living by. Here, at such a pivotal crossroads in history, people are deciding what is most important to them, choosing what they want in their surroundings and for the most part, making significant changes.

Charlotte Swank, a resident of Palm Beach Gardens, was at that very crossroads when she made the move from a 3,000 sq. ft. home in PGA National to a 5,000 sq. ft. manse in Bay Village—a quaint and very chic neighborhood set in the heart of Palm Beach Gardens. Swank fell in love with the home the moment she saw it. In fact, just a few hours after seeing it with her realtor, she and her husband decided they had to have it.

Swank had tried working alongside interior decorators previously and found the process far too impersonal. When moving into her new digs, there was only one expert fit for the task ahead—Elena Johnson of True Treasures.

“Really what it boils down to, after almost 30 years in the design field, I saw the need from many clients to dispose of older items,” said Johnson of how True Treasures was born. “It’s a way of recycling,” she continues. “A lot of people come in thinking we are just an antique shop, and don’t realize we do consignment. Many come in to bring old items and find something new.”

The three-store antique haven known as True Treasures has been collecting the most exquisite and unusual antiques since 1991. One store is located in Crystal Tree Plaza in North Palm Beach, while the other store and an outlet (the area’s best kept secret) can be found on Northlake Blvd. in Palm Beach Gardens. For those seeking recycled nostalgia, this place is heaven—a treasure trove of the best consignments, antiques and collectibles from consigners, private estate collections and importers. Among notable pieces at True Treasures are fine bamboo tables by McGuire (these are the “Cadillac of tables” according to Johnson). Here, you can also find a myriad of fine porcelain and china sets from Asia.

Stores like True Treasures have become trusted havens for those seeking original pieces with a history—and a pretty price tag, too. Just as many people flock to the sale racks in department stores, this saving phenomenon hasspread far and wide and is becoming a trend for those seeking a new ambiance in their homes. “Some of it has to do with the economy, but a lot of it is that people see what is available in shops like ours, and people are very educated by media and magazines,” says Johnson. “They see what beautiful items we have here.”

One of the best parts about incorporating antiques into your already existing dŽcor is that you don’t have to part with the beloved items from your past. This appealed to Swank who has been antiquing for over 50 years and has consequently collected some astounding items in her life and travels. “She lived in Houston for a long time and she did not want to part with her past and the things she grew up with,” notes Johnson.

It is the eclectic mixture of old and new that makes the Swank residence so exceptional.

While every room in the house exudes luxury in its own way, it is the “toile room” that’s regarded as a favorite by both Johnson and Swank. Upon seeing the room, it becomes clear why. Named the toile room for the beautiful black and white toile wallpaper, the walls are adorned with lavish paintings—among them a striking portrait of Marie Antoinette that she purchased from Johnson’s boutique. Swank’s inspiration for the toile room came to her and she simply couldn’t shake the idea. “I think from looking through magazines: Antiques, Architectural Digest, Art Connoisseur, Southern Accents and Veranda. I just decided I loved toile. She [Elena] took me to a decorating place in Dania Beach and we didn’t find anything. But we both kept an eye out,” she said. When they came back to compare materials, they had both chosen the same beautiful toile—proof of how in synch they are on their vision for a room.

The room looks reminiscent of 18th century France during the reign of Marie Antoinette—the gilded picture frames, towering bookcase in moss green with gold edges and a small but cozy day bed, adorned with detailed drawings that she purchased in the quaint town of Fredericksburg, Texas.

Her love of Country French treasures carries throughout the home. In the kitchen, she tells me about her quest to find the perfect Pannier “There is no question about it. She knows what she likes and she likes to live/surrender by the things that she likes,” says Johnson. “Every little thing that you can think of—Charlotte has it.” Years ago, on a trip to New Orleans, Swank came across a Provencial spooled bread-holder that she thought was exquisite, but the price tag of $6,000 seemed steep. Deciding that she would get better quality and price in Provence, she embarked on a trip to the South of France. Four months later, as Swank was in Elena’s shop she found a very similar item—a Pannier, for a fraction of what she had invested in it.

“I think the point is, that if you wait long enough, it will come through her doors. You have to be patient,” says Swank. “Some people want to do a room in a week, and that’s not the way I’ve ever done a room. You don’t get pieces you love that way. For some people, it’s not important. They just want a pretty room.” While aesthetics are important when antiquing, it’s quality and history that often override superficial details. A rich history can be enough to make something beautiful in the owner’s eyes.

Her family room is full of sentimental items, both purchased at Elena’s store and overseas. Swank also shows extreme admiration for Asian furnishings and accessories. Her love of this style bloomed while her late husband, an importer of tools from Asia, was working overseas. They spent quite a bit of time in China and collected notable items that were thousands of years old. One example, is a statue of a horse dating to 220 A.D..

From Golden Koi fish bookends and sewing trunks with Asian motifs found at True Treasures, to sculptures and artifacts from China, this room is where East meets the West at the Swank residence. “My husband was going to the interior of China, and I wanted a tacky little Buddha statue. He comes back with an item that has been excavated! It’s an antiquity!” she exclaims. This aforementioned statue of a woman dates back to 906 A.D.

Like any true collector, Swank has amassed an impressive collection of artwork throughout the years. “Elena called me one day and said I’ve got a painting for you and I don’t want you to fall to the floor when you see it,” recalls Swank. “It was purchased in Paris. It still had its labels and all of its cobwebs.” This painting by Georges Rouault resembles a Picasso, adding a decidedly modern flair to her traditional residence. While apprehensive of its modern style over time it became a beloved piece.

The only pitfall to collecting antiques—not having enough room to store all of the wonderful pieces. “I’m retired,” Swank says jokingly, when asked if she will continue to collect. Swank’s storage areas are filled to maximum capacity, holding collections of detailed tins from all over the world, as well as trinkets and valuable figurines which she moves from room to room to keep the atmosphere interesting.

True Treasures has such an eclectic mixture of stock (receiving new shipments in daily), it’s nearly impossible not to find something customers will fall in love with. “We have so many items coming in, that if you come in often enough you will find your treasure.” V

Clutter Control

Get your life and your home organized this spring

BY JUDY MARTEL

One day, Stacey Prillaman of Hobe Sound decided to take action toward her vision of an organized closet. When the day ended, she had her dream space, and something unexpected-a new outlook on life.

Prillaman says her closet was overwhelming. “After 25 years of marriage, eight (job) relocations and a three-year period of interim storage for a lot of stuff that had to be held until our home in Hobe Sound was complete, I found myself with the walk-in closet from hell.”

The closet became a repository for a little bit of everything. “It was sort of the library, game room, keeper of photographs, musical and miscellaneous black hole stuff that also included random artifacts of family history. I literally found myself walking a wide circle around this closet every time I approached the family room,” says Prillaman.

That’s when she called space organizer,Amber Quinn.

Working together, the pair not only organized the closet, but Quinn taught Prillaman a new way to look at her possessions.

“There is something about our stuff that is somehow interconnected to our intimate subconscious,emotional hangups,” says Prillaman. “How many times have all of us picked up the same junk, knowing that it needed to be tossed, only to be met by some guilty story in our heads and, oops, the stuff gets put right back?”

The secret of effective space planning is to go beyond the bins and color-coded folders, and provide a peace of mind that comes with freedom from clutter.

“Clearing out the stuff in your life is great therapy. It creates more ’space’ in your mental life that will, in turn, be supportive of joyful creative growth,” says Prillaman. “This not only feels good, it is a precursor for laugh-out-loud positive change in your life.”

Quinn, of Jupiter, says she’s surprised at some of the items people keep, and though she says she could throw out stuff in her house all day, she does understand that one person’s trash is another’s pretext for a trip down memory lane. “My husband’s an incredible packrat,” she says. “I think he has every concert ticket from every concert he’s attended since he was 12.” Her solution is to let him have his half of the closet, but with a caveat: She gives him containers for certain items and when the container is full, he has to throw some of the items away if he wants to add to it.

“Clearing out the stuff in your life is great therapy. It creates more ’space’ in your mental life that will, in turn, be supportive of joyful creative growth.”

Understanding the psychology of the power of stuff is one thing. Getting people to part with it is another. Quinn says clients begin the process hesitantly, but once they get in the groove, they often see how much they have that they don’t need. “I do think it’s draining to have so much,” says Quinn. “It takes up space in your mind. Once you get rid of the stuff, it makes your day more efficient.”

Ali Kaufman of Boca Raton developed her business, Space of Mind, to encompass the mental and physical aspects of organization. She helps people create systems for each of the three spaces in their lives that should be free of clutter-mental,physical and cyber. Once the physical space and the cyperspace are organized, clients usually find that the mental space takes care of itself, by virtue of renewed energy.

“If we’re in a state of overwhelm, we don’t see the problem because there’s too much clutter in the way,” she says. “I help create an internal commitment for my client.”

Kaufman, who had been managing a designer consignment clothing store in Harvard Square, Boston, came to Florida four years ago to start a business organizing closets. She quickly realized that the scope of her business could be much broader, and that she’d have to get to the psychological root of why people live in chaos to really solve the problem.

The former software developer had studied to be a rabbi, and she finds she calls upon both disciplines when working with clients. “As a software developer, I use my logical side so we can create systems and not reinvent the wheel each time,” she says. “You tend to get into trouble organizing if it doesn’t work for you.” Handling the emotional aspect of organization, she says, is like being a rabbi. “It’s very spiritual. You’re in someone’s space.”

Kaufman was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder when she was 20, and she says that it helps her understand other disorganized people. She assesses clients by how they process information-are they visual, verbal or kinesthetic (handson)? Then she determines what type of organizer they are: a piler, a filer or an avoider. From there, she can get down to work.

“Most organizers are geared toward filers, and putting things away in a certain way. But you can be a little messy and still be organized, which is why creative people don’t get Martha Stewart,” she says. “All artists will tell you the creative process is messy.”

Her clients typically identify her as someone who can organize their space, but when the work starts, it becomes less about the physical space and more about the emotional freedom. “It’s more about what it feels like, and less about what it looks like,” Kaufman notes. For that reason, she doesn’t adhere to strict rules about color-coding and certain sized boxes for rganization, but rather, what works best for the client.

“We’re disorganized because of emotions,” she says. “We feel the energy of our stuff even when it’s not in front of us.”

For example, she says, some clients are at a standstill simply because they don’t know how to handle the mail. As it piles up unopened, the stress piles up as well, and finding a system to begin the process of going through each day’s mail is the first step to organization. “Often (disorganization) is a problem with creating a goal,” she says. “Creating a system is just defining the steps.”

Cyperspace is a growing area of stress in people’s lives, Kaufman says, and we need systems in place to handle it. “Think of the last time you went on vacation, had a great time and came back to 600 emails,” she says.

For Prillaman, the benefits of clearing out a physical space only to unexpectedly unlock the emotional benefitswas a refreshing outcome.

“If I had attempted this project on my own, I would only have cleared out one-tenth of what we accomplished that day,” she says of working with Quinn. “We created an incredible pile of ‘to be tossed stuff’ that day. Amber insisted that all of it be loaded into her car; otherwise it would have sat in my garage for who knows how long.

“So she drove away, smiling and waving, carrying my excess stuff away and leaving me feeling happier, lighter, more organized and literally more purposeful in regards to my life. And given her wit and entertaining personality, I actually had a fabulously fun time cleaning out a closet.”

Tips for finding your space of mind in all that clutter:

1. Do a brain dump before you get started. Take a few minutes to write down your goals, fears, supplies, questions, etc.

2. Work to your best attention span. Don’t overdo it. Schedule organizing tasks in chunks of time that won’t burn you out.

3. Create activity zones in your physical space. When you’re trying to declutter, move like items together and set up spaces according to the activities you’ll be doing there.

4. Your organizational systems should reflect your processing style and personality. If you’re a piler, don’t try to be a filer. Set up a system that let’s you use piles. Know how you process information, too – if you’re visual, verbal or kinesthetic, you’ll want to create systems that match the way you think to organize.

5. Set up a command center to track your incoming and outgoing communications and calendar appointments. This should be the spot where you open mail, empty backpacks and handbags.

6. Put organizing on your calendar! Make it part of your routine to do the maintenance tasks that keep you up-to-date.

Home Decor

Ultra Modern Appliances are in Your Future

By Dara D’Onofrio

We are being introduced to a whole slew of multitasking devices so efficient they would make the Jetsons envious. Surely, happy homemaker Jane Jetson never had trouble with house chores thanks to her many space-age gadgets. And while we may be far from possessing robot maids and flying cars, there is no shortage of mind blowing, revolutionary home appliances currently available to us. Now is the time to transform your bathroom with color changing temperature faucets like the Hansacanyon, or produce drinking water from thin air with the Watermill Water Maker. Welcome to the future of your home.

Flowing Freely

The Watermill Water Maker from Element Four has tapped an unlimited source of fresh potable water. In an age where plastic bottles pile high in landfills and carcinogens lace the water that we ingest,unlimited clean water would be like a breath of fresh air. Enter the Water Maker. Harnessing humid air through a filter, the device’s cooling element condenses water to droplets, and is then filtered through a specialized carbon component. An ultraviolet sterilizer eliminates any existing bacteria. The Water Maker is not only an answer to our everyday water needs, but also an answer to global water shortages. With this technology, water could flow freely for the most drought stricken regions of the world. For more information, contact Element Four at 250.717.3733.

Master Multi-tasker

Men always seem to be intrigued by the newest tech toys, and while women enjoy snuggling up in front of a nice Plasma T.V. too, often they would prefer that the living room didn’t resemble a Best Buy store.Picture House, the company that specializes in home cinema furniture, has created an all-in-one console that hides your plasma T.V. inside a fully working remote-controlled fireplace, creating one focal point for your room. The best part: It keeps all wires under wraps. Visit Sarasota Fireplace Centers in Sarasota, or call 941.925.3985 for more information.

Spectacle of Light

The days of stepping into freezing or scalding showers are over thanks to the Hansacanyon from Hansa, a top of the line bathroom appliance that uses light for both beauty and practicality. Its design features an open visible waterspout, which is both avantgarde and serene. Allowing you to dip in at just the right temperature, Hansacanyon’s cascading waterfall is illuminated according to degrees-water turns blue providing a cool rinse, or for a steamy shower, the stream turns a deep, red hue. For more information, call Farrey’s Wholesale Hardware in North Miami at 305.947.5451 or Ferguson Enterprises in Fort Lauderdale at 954.567.3110.

Shopping Made Easy

If you’ve ever made a sandwich and reached for the mustard only to find none left, you will rejoice in Ikan. Along with the hectic pace of this modern world, comes magnificent technology to aid us. One example of this is Ikan’s revolutionary grocery shopping countertop unit, once dubbed “the netflix of groceries”-a sleek and modern device that will make shopping for groceries a cake walk. When finished with a food product, scan the UPC barcode into your online “shopping cart.” When it’s time to shop, everything that needs replenishing is on your list. Select areas even provide a delivery service. Now spending hours at the grocery store doesn’t seem so kosher. Visit ikan.net or call 1.877.365.IKAN.