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Ottawafocus.com Exclusive: Personal Provenance
Ottawafocus.com Special Contributor, Katharine of Girl About O Town
This is the time of year when we feel compelled to start fresh. We are enthusiastic about clearing our heads and our spaces, and keen to spend a few of the coldest days inside getting organized or fixing up a bit around the house. It's January after all, the traditional time of the "White Sale," when retailers deeply discount household goods and it is easy to find storage boxes and shelving systems at irresistibly low prices.

The White Sale was first established in 1878 by the legendary John Wanamaker, a respected merchant and owner of Philadelphia's first department store. The sale was originally intended to help sustain the linen business during a slow time of year by offering a reduction on the purchase of bed linens. This same marketing strategy is still in use in modern times, and now extends well beyond linens.

Girl About O Town

Today, the common practice seems to be "in with the new and out with the old" - or a collective binge and purge of sorts.Edit, we are told. De-clutter. Shed that baggage you have been carrying around, and liberate yourself from all of the junk that has prevented you from living well - or, at the very least, contain it! Hide it away in a pretty but practical box, with a neat and tidy label, or a clever Polaroid photo affixed to the outside to indicate the contents. Even better, make sure each of these pretty boxes match, as order is almost certainly synonymous with careful coordination....

It seems that lately, we have been persuaded that turning a house into a home is as simple as disposing of our ‘do-dads’, doing some paint by numbers and disguising our distinctiveness. Maybe it’s TV, or Martha Stewart, or the or the “democratization of design”, but we’ve been conditioned to believe that once we're organized, all that’s left to do is add a new piece furniture or accessory from a one-stop mass-market home goods emporium like IKEA, EQ3 or HomeSense. Coordinating colour and fabric seems easily accomplished by a quick visit to your local home building store to find a matching paint.

Before you know it, you have everything you need to pull together a beautiful room well designed for living. Right?

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Not so fast! What about your family photos? Or the portraits your crazy Uncle Bob painted of you when you were a kid? Or your great aunt's silver tea set? What about the clock that sat on the mantle at your grandparent's house or their couch you used to curl up in to watch TV while the "grown-ups" lingered over dinner? What about that swank cocktail shaker you never seem to use, or the rare porcelain jam pot that just does not seem to fit in? What are we to do with all of this kind of stuff? Should we store all of our history tucked away and hidden in a series of pretty boxes?

Well, I for one am not convinced. While I may be the first one out the door at the suggestion of a trip to HomeSense or IKEA, and I certainly appreciate the virtues of a well-organized junk free space, I also believe wholeheartedly that a home should reflect the style, personality and history of its inhabitants.

Instead of dull, flat and ubiquitously similar, our living environments should be an exuberant and unique expression of our interests, preferences and eccentricities.
This means that many of our things - the ones that we have inherited, acquired or collected over a lifetime - can and should be incorporated.

Girl About O Town
Carolina Herrera Jr.'s personal photos & mementos. Images via Domino Magazine.

So, before you pack up to purge your stuff and leave your personal history outside door of the nearest donation centre, think twice. The things we have accumulated over the years help to tell our stories, and they provide clues to who we are, what we value, and what we might aspire to. They can also be just as beautiful as the latest trend from your local decor store.

"Provenance" as defined by the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary means "the history of ownership of a valued object, or work of art, or literature."

In the world of antique dealers, expert collectors, and high-end interior designers, provenance is everything. The more that is known about a particular piece, the more valuable it often is, and the easier it is to build a room's design around it. Instead of rejecting handed down decorative arts, personal mementos or heirloom furniture as "not in fashion" or "excess clutter," the very best decorators can work these items into their interior designs, even in modern or contemporary settings.

With just the right effort, along with some thoughtful layout, colour and fabric choices, treasured old things and recent investments can coexist in beautiful harmony. Instead of being calculated or contrived, this more meaningful – and elusive - kind of eclecticism is often the most significant determining factor in the creation of a charming, comfortable and lived in home.

Girl About O Town
Textile Designer Carolina Irving's living room, NY. Image via Style Court.

Let me be clear. I am no proponent for hoarding household debris just for the sake of holding on. Instead, why not keep only what you truly love - even if it doesn't exactly fit in with a prescribed look - and find a way to use what you have in a bold new way?

Bust out your wedding china to serve spaghetti. Use grandma's teacups to corral your earrings or bracelets. Recover the tired old Victorian couch with some fabulously funky fabric; paint the dresser white with red drawers, or update that slightly scratched mahogany dining room table you're stuck with by adding a few mismatched chairs.

Girl About O Town
Designer Schuyler Samperton's sitting room, image via Desire to Inspire.
Bedroom image via House Beautiful Magazine.

The late Eleanor McMillen Brown, a pioneer in the field of interior decoration, offers us timeless and helpful insight:

"To develop in taste, quality, and personality one is obliged to respect the past,
accept the present, and look with enthusiasm toward the future."

"Active, positive taste demands a constantly fresh appraisal of familiar forms -
holding on to those thing that add quality, beauty, and pleasure to one's life,
disposing of superficial impediments."

Pay attention to your personal provenance. By reflecting even just a bit of history in your space, you can preserve memories, project personality and distinguish yourself from everyone else.

Take a look around. You just may find yourself at home...

Katharine is a dedicated furniture junkie and decorative design enthusiast. Feel free to reach her by email at kite@girlaboutotown.com if you have questions, comments or suggestions.

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Check out Girl About O Town and bookmark the Girl About O Town page right here to catch Katharine's upcoming exclusive posts for Ottawafocus.com!