So you’re flipping through glossy shelter mags at the (pick one: beach/hair salon/airport) and suffering a serious case of collection insecurity.
You see mag bookshelves and tabletops that look so pulled together; beautiful colored bindings on books arranged just so; a knickknack here, a knickknack there; tabletop arrangements that appear to be works of art.
And yours? Basically paperbacks — save two volumes with soft green covers and gold lettering; your table has one lonely looking candlestick.
Never fear, the Faker is here, channeling Eddie Ross (of the Martha Stewart-House Beautiful pedigree), the designer who now has Hudson Valley, N.Y.-based Eddie Ross Inc. (styling services, guided flea market shopping trips, etc.), a couple upcoming HGTV specials and a blog (eddieross.com).
1. Get crafty: “To somebody who wants a beautiful rainbow collection of books all organized in reds and pinks: Go to the Goodwill,” Ross says. “Just buy a ton of books, cover them in beautiful colored craft paper. Then with ink pad and stamps, just do a really beautiful stamp along the spine of book. Then you can go little by little and find those really good expensive books, and you’re growing a collection.”
2. Spray away: “Wedgwood basalt — which is that matte finish black pottery — it’s soooo expensive, but it’s super-hot and popular. … [I took] a really beautiful shape of a really ugly vase — the glaze was like brown and yellow, and it was so ugly it made my eyes bleed — and spray-painted it flat black. It looked like the most expensive Jasperware or basalt ware. … Now when you go out and find the black and white Jasperware or the basalt … little by little you keep adding to that collection and kind of keep removing the fake and keeping it real.”
3. Big lots: With collections, more is more, says Ross. “It’s about making an impact with a lot.” Bulk up a collection by adding a few extra details alongside. “I’m looking at my collection of all ironstone and French porcelain. I have a little bit of silver, a little bit of glass [in there]. The silver adds something shiny. The glass you can see through. So it doesn’t distract from the collection, it enhances it.”
4. Check the cupboards: “You could have tea cups from your mother’s wedding china and your grandmother’s wedding china. Pull ’em out of the cabinet, and put them on a shelf in your living room or your dining room. Boom, there you go, you have collection.”
5. Use ’em: “People don’t think of a collection in a kitchen,” says Ross, a Culinary Institute of America grad. “I’m looking at my copper cookware that I buy piece by piece; it’s an everyday usable collection. … And I’m looking at this big antique jug that’s filled with all antique wooden spoons and forks that I use to cook. … The one thing that I would stress with collections is that collections are there to be used. If you collect something and don’t use it, what the hell’s the point of having it.”