In a nutshell, how does your aesthetics relate to how you live?

  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #41
Keep them coming and it is fascinating how everyone is different, but function and comfort plays both important factors in how we live.

I was always intrigued how woodworkers approach aesthetics given that skillset of making something that they put their own personality and creativity, making it more custom, meaningful and personal. I have not had that challenged to actually design for a woodworker. A lot of my clients don’t have that ability or the time or the skill, so a lot of what goes into their home reflects their personality, style and sense of aesthetics which are either custom designed or custom selected from showrooms and vendors. A woodworker or craftsman has the ability to create something that will fit a specific area, have a certain look and function that you can’t be purchased in a showroom.

This is a big part why I opened this thread as there are many folks here who don’t necessary had building skills in their acumen and a challenge made that happen- we started picking up, working with wood and tools because what we wanted didn’t exist or it cost too much money for what we needed and it wasn’t made the way it should be made. So we spear headed, tackled the challenge and that steam rolled to becoming a hobby and it just kept going……..
 
Last edited:
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #42
Sprung said:
Perhaps an interesting follow-up discussion on design aesthetic could be one of function vs. form. Whether it's the design aesthetic of our homes/lives or of a specific piece or set of pieces we're designing or building, there is always that pull between form and function and which one will (or needs to) carry more weight.
Click to expand...

Mike@1950 opened up a design thread and we need to get that going as that fits what you just described. There is a lot of really crafty and resourceful members here (you are one of them) that topic would be of interest to everyone here.
 
Last edited:
Lil Mikey prefers function (correctly), but Mrs Lil Mikey demands form. Guess who wins? After I get this bid in, I'll take a pic or two.
 
Arn213 said:
My compliments to whoever is deserving of designing and decorative work as there was a lot of planning, a lot of effort, a lot of work, even money and patience that has went into these spaces. It is evident with the furniture layout, the color scheme, accessories used, the woodworking and the interior architectural detailing (wainscoting, trims, over doors, transoms, coffered ceiling, the paneled stair walls, etc.). Perfectly balancing the opening using 2 Demi-lune consoles, adding a bench in the hallway with a pie table, contrasting use of solid wood and glass on surface planes, good use of having a large and proportional size area rug for the rooms, nice touch having the drapery panels on rods, great visual flow from dining and living room and really good fenestration from the dining and the living room (parlor). What I am saying to you is I can appreciate every single thing you all did in these spaces and cumulatively did really well without any outside professional help. Thank you for sharing Henry.

Arn
Click to expand...
It's always interesting how things come together, as I suspect with most as things accumulate and are discarded over the years a more refined "aesthetic" is the result. We didn't build this house, and most of what's in it have been with us for years - and a more than a little with one of our families for much longer. But I suspect the house appealed to us because it fit with our maturing understanding of what we like and how we live. The Windsor chairs and demilune tables you noted were things collected by Jane's grandmother many, many years ago - and they've moved with us through many houses. I won't say we haven't had help - though Jane has always had a vision for each house, she's periodically invited decorating help to translate that vision into specific colors and to help find pieces to augment what we had in a particular place. Some of those have stuck with us.

The leather chair was one of the first pieces we bought together - it was perfect in the study of our first house, a 1964 Italianate that we largely restored ourselves. A house and room we loved, and the chair is a constant reminder - in addition to being very welcoming and comfortable. The painting behind it and the pup is a reminder of our time in Mississippi. We saw a fantastic piece by the same artist, Bill Dunlap (from Mississippi but with a studio in the NC Mountains, so a double connection), at a hotel in the Mississippi delta where we celebrated our 10th anniversary. Dunlap is likely most famous for some of his Native American pieces, but he also created some excellent pieces that depict the open, rural, flatness that is the delta, amd that capture the soul of the region. They often included a Walker hound, as this one does. After Mississippi, we moved to Dallas, then to a small town in rural NC - and kept talking about the Dunlap we'd loved (a focus on the hound). On a whim, I looked him up and found his studio number and called - amd he answered. We had a great conversation about Mississippi and NC and our love of the places and people and I shared that I'd love to have one of his pieces - thinking something very small would be all I could afford. He shared that he was just finishing a large work of a spot in the delta, and offered to send it to us to see if it would be something we'd like. 4 weeks later, it arrived - the perfect size to fit a spot over the mantle in our wood-lined study in that old, country house. We loved it, and in further conversation with him found a price we could both agree on.

As to the orchids, Jane has a touch with them. She purchases a couple every year from the big box garden stores that are left over at the end of their selling season - the rejects that didn't sell - for little. I'd say she nurses them - she's say she does little other than re-bed them and put them aside to see what happens. They generally reside in a corner of our laundry room during the winter, and come out as they recover and bloom. Once warm and humid enough, they go outside on a patio wall.

IMG_20250521_122307.webp
 
Seeing the Walker Hound brought back a lot of memories. Had a Great Uncle who lived south of Fort Worth. He was a bi-vocational Baptist Minister with four small rural churches that he had herd on. However, his "real" job was with the Texas Parks and Wildlife as a wildlife game biologist. In his spare time, he bred and raised Walker Hounds. That is, until he found out he could make more selling tapes. He'd take a tape recorder and his dogs out on a hunt and record their "voices". Uncle Sonny (his real name was Joe, but his older sister already had a husband with the name Joe, backed up with a 50,000-acre ranch, so he got stuck with Sonny) was a natural storyteller. He'd usually include some sort of story or two in the tapes. The last time I was able to visit his place was on our honeymoon - 46 years ago next month. He showed us around and took us to his dog pens. Somewhere around there, we ran into a nest of chiggers. I think I got 2, but Lil Mikey's Bride got hundreds and hundreds. Told her that she was sweeter than I was - but she didn't buy that crap. She was miserable and not in a very good mood for quite a while, and her memory of the honeymoon is not always favorable. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to go to his place again!
 
Some of the aesthetics that i share the house with. The theme? - Old stuff and an Old man! Compulsive?

1747918359218.png
At the foot or our bed - the painting does not reside there, it needed some repair and restore and was sitting there until it can get moved to it's rightful place. Lace bobbin pillow, barrister wig on wig stand, 10th Anniversary Tin shoes you can barely see, a painted violin (all those sitting on 4 large either late 17th or early 18th century books (I don't remember), and plaster crucifixes hanging on an old wardrobe (full of Steiff and other Teddy Bears) painted white.

1747918495606.png

Large (and heavy) carved marble book under a large glass dome sitting on my cherry 4-drawer chest that contains my unmentionables.

1747918627757.png
Small collection of folding rulers on the same cherry chest as above - only the other side. The rubber stamps - one is "sausage" and the other is "hamburger". Have not been able to find an old one with "Brisket" - but I keep trying! The black painted tin under the old leather book, is an Epaulet Box containing, likely Naval epaulets.

1747918907407.png
Some of my old Bibles and religious (mostly) books in a simple 1X bookcase I made.

1747919043583.png
Small hanging shelf cabinet I made hanging over one of the commodes

1747919339709.png

A marble bust of some old musician (one is Mozart - the other is Beethoven) on a marble pedestal next to a very large giant clam sitting on a cherry blanket chest.

1747919498204.png
Collection of hourglasses - mostly old, but a few I made (I probably made 2 or 3 hundred modeled after the old ones - we sold the ones I made) sitting in an old walnut whale-tail shelf. The paintings hanging on the wall to the right are all paintings of hands similar to the one with the hourglasses. Apparently paintings of hands were popular in France a long time ago!
 
Last edited:
Another quirky interest is this. In London, particularly, there is a working-class service/charitable organization where the members adorn their clothing, and such with Mother of Pearl buttons. Some are done in very intricate designs and words, some just cover the clothes with buttong. They are called the Pearlies - with a Pearly Queen and a Pearly King elected each year. Since first seeing them, my wife wanted at least one piece of their clothing. The opportunity to buy any here in the states did not avail itself easily, so she started making a few herself. The hat on top is an actual Pearly hat from London that I was able to find and buy for a Christmas gift, but the one below is a Pearly Bowler that she decorated. Sitting on one of three, late 19th Century childs dress mannequins with cast iron shoes

1747926310075.jpeg
 
Last edited:
My outside aesthetic. It is undergoing change this year. But will have to stay with all the shady plants.

View up walk to the playhouse I made for our daughter. To the right used to be a big hosta bed, but it got decimated by moles last year and this year there are a lot of holes, that I am filling in again, but with the SS mesh basket root protection.

1747928302708.webp

You can see some of the holes where hostas used to be.

1747928626983.webp

1747928705792.webp
 
Beautiful garden - we like a shade garden, too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top