For many years, I set my alarm to ring at five on Sunday mornings. I'd slip out of bed, leave my young husband sleeping, and dress in the dark. My friend Anna waited outside in an SUV. We drove on the empty streets of our Southern California neighborhood to the coffee shop, which was supposed to open at six but rarely did. If luck was on our side, we carried out extra-large lattes for the drive and arrived at the flea markets just before seven-Pasadena City College on the first weekend of the month; Rose Bowl, the second; Long Beach, the third; and Santa Monica Airport, the fourth just as the vendors, many of whom we knew by name, were setting up their stalls.
We strolled the aisles slowly. It was our time to talk. Our problems and our hopes were legion. Anna and I were just beginning our home lives. She had two boys; I had one. I'd begun my life as a swap-meet goer in college when I'd rented a cottage in Berkeley, California, that was surrounded by berry bushes. My preference was for waffles with more berries than batter, but the juice from them wrecked an electric waffle maker after only a few months. I found an old cast-iron over-the-burner contraption at the swap meet for a dollar.
WHAT I KEPT: DINING ROOM
Orchard Ware dinnerware with dogwood blossom motif, service for 40; four Audubon bird charts on wooden dowels; Mikasa china in white with gold edging; cowbells
This story is from the May 2023 edition of Elle Decor US.
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This story is from the May 2023 edition of Elle Decor US.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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Just Like That, But Cheaper. -One writer tried to replicate a classic ELLE DECOR interior in his apartment. Could he do it for $500?
It was all about the green curtains. In 2008, to my great surprise, I was offered a ninemonth fellowship based in New York City. I had lived there twice before, both times unsuccessfully, meaning I had failed to create any kind of significant social life, and so this was a chance not only to do research for my new novel, but also an opportunity to get things right. I swore I wouldn't let the city break me a third time.
And How! - Decorator Nick Olsen transforms a Sag Harbor home into a Hamptons retreat with an irreverent humor.
If you must go to the Hamptons, however-because it is devilishly good fun, after all-you may notice an apparently modest, low-slung cottage on Sag Harbor's Main Street and think, with a comfortable sort of feeling, Now that is how a house should look. Nestled amid the Botox bars, helipads, and club-staurants, it could almost set the sordid world aright both a rebuke and a solution to the chaos that surrounds it. A real home.
