Catherine Richardson is a former editor at  Architectural Digest with a penchant for interior design and decorative objects.  Erin Lee Gafill is an artist from Big Sur who paints impressionist landscapes along the California coastline.  When Catherine discovered Erin’s artwork at a gallery of the famed Nepenthe restaurant, which Erin’s family has owned since it opened in the late 1940s, a creative collaboration began. 

“I wanted to incorporate beautiful works of art along with beautiful objects to place in people’s homes,” said Catherine, whose design business is called “For Love of Home.”  (www.forloveofhome.net) When she came up with the idea to have seasonal shows in the backyard and tiny cottage of her southern California home,  showcasing vignettes of antiques and vintage pieces she had collected, she called Erin for help.

“I told her my theme and the colors I was using and asked her if she wanted to send beautiful little artworks,” she said.

And that’s when the fun begins. Together, they place Erin’s work in groupings on tabletops or a ladie’s desk, for instance, “that best show the quality of her work and work with interior spaces and sacred vignettes we’ve created,” Catherine said.

With Erin’s paintings,  she artfully arranges Chinese and French porcelain, mid-centery Italian artglass, special Buddahs and other decorative pieces. She invites her friends and clients, who often are so inspired they want to bring home the entire vignette.

“It’s joyful. We love what we work with,” Catherine said. “It’s a labor of love.”

(to see more of Erin’s work, go to www.eringafill.com  Photos by Tom Birmingham.)

You might also enjoy these stories:

Nepenthe Turns 60

Before and After:Touch of Modern Art in Traditional Space

Ashleen Cummins was tired of her room with the pink, green and yellow garden theme. She was 12 now and wanted a more sophisticated look that reflected her passions.

“I wanted it to be Audrey Hepburn — kind of French looking,” said Ashleen, standing in her bedroom overlooking the Rockridge neighborhood in Oakland.

Her parents had fun remodeling the kitchen downstairs in the French country style (which will be featured on Lookiloos soon). So it was Ashleen’s  turn to make her room her own. With the classic black and white photo of Hepburn on her wall and a palette of pink, black and white, she created a room perfect for her.  

“She was very picky about the drapes,” her mother, Clarice Cummins said. The black and white swirling fabric was actually tablecloths from Home Good that she converted to drapes.

Ashleen also wanted an antique, vintage feel. She asked her grandmother if she was willing to part with her crystal chandelier. “My grandmother took it off her ceiling,” Ashleen said.

And in her room, it looks right at home.

To take a peek at a couple of other Tween Rooms, check these out:

From Little Girl To Tween Room;

Downsizing and Restyling from French Country to Modern Neutral

And a lovely nursery: Modern Nursery with Vintage Flair

When it comes to celebrating the seasons with holiday home decor, perhaps no one is more enthusiastic than Rose Garden resident Vicki Petulla. And autumn is one of her favorites as she decorates with the bounty of the season: orange and white pumpkins and wreaths of drying leaves in cast iron urns at her front door and swags of magnolia leaves and trays of persimmons in her living room.

When Lookiloos asked Vicki what she had in mind for Thanksgiving, she not only set anbeautiful vignette for a holiday buffet using all natural foliage from friendly neighbors,  she also shared her tips for creating vintage-inspired party favors. They’re snack cones, actually, she said, that can be filled with popcorn, candy or sweet potato chips that guests can enjoy during the party, then take home as a keepsake.

At upscale boutiques, these kinds of cones can cost upwards of $25 or more a piece. But with a little creativity, a trip to a craft store and a glue gun, Vicki made hers for about $3 a piece. She has made these party favors again and again, for her son’s birthday parties or to enclose a gift card for a wedding present. All she does is change the paper and the trims for each occasion. At Christmas time, she hangs them on doorknobs of her friends.

For Thanksgiving, she made up a dozen of the cones and hung them from madrone branches she lightly spray painted gold.  Vicki shops at Michael’s craft store where she heads to the Martha Stewart scrapbooking section for her supplies. To personalize the cones, she buys printed initials of her guests to affix to each cone.

Here’s her shopping list: A variety of  colorful, patterned 12-inch by 12-inch sheets of paper; assorted trims, pom-poms and fringes to decorate the top edge of the cones; colorful ribbon from which to hang the cones; hole puncher, glue gun, scissors.

Step by Step

1. Roll a sheet of paper on the diagonal into a cone, coming to a point at the bottom and open on top.

2. Fold the outside edge inward for a clean, straight line to glue the paper onto itself.

3. With scissors, cut the top, uneven edge into a straight line for a flat opening.

4. With hole puncher, punch hole about one-inch from top on each side for hanging ribbon.

5.  Dot the top edge with beads of glue, then affix trims or fringes, careful not to cover the punched holes.

6. With length of ribbon, pull through holes on each side and knot.

7. Fill with candy, toys, or nuts. (Vicki loves Cost Plus World Market for vintage candy.)

I first heard of Cottage Green in Los Altos from our friend Rebecca Sweet, the landscape designer whose husband restored their “haunted shed” into a charming cottage. She had purchased a couple of trellises made of branches that she hung on her wall for ornamentation. Loved them!

So when I had a chance, I popped in over the weekend to take a look at this lovely little home and garden shop — and it will have a big sale in the backyard this weekend, Sept. 18-19. It is, indeed a cottage, built in 1915, across from what is now the Safeway on First Street.

Through the gate, the front yard is filled with funky garden sculptures. Inside is an eclectic mix of vintage, modern and antique. Owner Sylvia Gray says she is nothing if not eclectic and likes to mix it all up. She puts together tansu chests with new pottery, a whimsical hummingbird tray on an old mantel.

There’s lot of rustic, too, from Dutch chairs to French wine baskets, along with Victorian ceiling tiles used as wall art. Sylvia has a hold storage room full of treasures she promises to sell out back this weekend. Sounds like some bargains to be had!

Find it at:
Cottage Green
145 1st Street
Los Altos, CA 94022

For years, the old structure in the back yard was known as the “haunted shed.” When Rebecca Sweet was a girl growing up in her parents’ Los Altos ranch-style house in the 1970s, even her bravest friends couldn’t make it through a slumber party there.

The roof was caving in. The floorboards creaked. Cobwebs covered old storage boxes. Spiders had taken over every inch. When Rebecca returned to her childhood home 11 years ago and moved in with her own family, the wood shed had only deteriorated further. Her daughter and friends would have Halloween parties and terrify each other over stories of the the eerie presence of the “shed monster.”

But over the last few years, with her husband, Tom Urban, taking the lead, the old shed has been given a new life and new purpose. Gone are the cobwebs and creaks. The structure is now a charming cottage and work studio for Rebecca, who is a landscape designer. As with the rest of the backyard garden once tended by her mother, who comes from a maternal line of avid gardeners, the shed was restored and decorated to maintain the family’s gardening legacy.

The roof on the 18-by-12-foot shed was pitched and decorative wood beams added to create an airy feeling and rustic charm. Her husband replaced the old aluminum windows with vintage cottage windows. He plastered the walls and painted them a buttery yellow. A long counter was built on the far end, stretching across the back, to lay out design plans. The shelves underneath store the family’s earthquake supplies, but are hidden by lovely linen curtains.

A wicker sofa dominates the seating area. Above it hangs a decorative screen made of branches from one of Rebecca’s favorite shops in Los Altos, Cottage Green. One of her most cherished possessions is a dainty painting of pansies done by her great-great grandmother.

Rebecca also likes to point out the old piece of wood siding that bears the carved named of Rebecca’s brother, Tim. He had been punished for defacing the shed at the time. But Rebecca made sure her husband kept it in its rightful place, next to the front door.

Sitting on nearly a third of an acre in a 1950s development of classic ranch-style houses, the shed was an ever-present backdrop to the garden, which was first tended by her mother and now her. Rebecca remembers expeditions to Lake Tahoe to collect rocks along the roadsides that had tumbled down from avalanches. Together, they would choose the prettiest and haul them back to San Jose where her mother would build curving borders for raised garden beds.

“I would watch her build this wall and tear it out because it wasn’t perfect,” Rebecca said. “It was her release.”

While she loves her mother’s stone walls, she has also made the garden her own by adding several sitting areas, curving pathways, fountains and an aviary. She writes about her garden and gardening tips on her blog www.gossipinthegarden.com.

When her mother visits, “she doesn’t come in the house. She goes around the garden first,” Rebecca said.

“We wander the garden and see what’s new. It’s a huge bond. It’s a personal garden, and I think it shows.”

Here’s the complete slideshow:

Whether your Fourth of July picnic will take you to the beach or a tiny back yard, San Jose floral designer Jose Ibarra has set a holiday buffet table for any space on any budget. And for this All-American holiday, Ibarra is embracing the simplicity of red, white and blue. But, as always, he does it with a fanciful twist.

Here are some of his tips for setting a table for a fabulous fourth:

1.  Round up your American Flags:  For a patriotic backdrop (or just to hide an unattractive corner of the yard) hang the stars and stripes from strung wire behind the table. Ibarra found some of his favorite vintage flags at flea markets.

2.  Paint a tablecloth blue and white:  Ibarra used a sheet of linen, but a white sheet or even a roll of paper will do (get the kids involved!). For added interest, he laid it perpendicular to the table, instead of end-to-end.

3.  Stripes, stripes, stripes!  To dress up plain glass vases, wrap them in red, white and blue ribbons. Top with white carnations ($5.99 at Safeway) and red roses ($9.99 at Safeway) and, if you don't have blue delphiniums in your yard, splurge a little. Look through your cabinets for colored glasses and plates. Jose pulled out a red-and-white striped water pitcher.

4.  Hello Jello:  It took Ibarra three days of watching each layer set in his fridge, but the effect is worth it. He was ready with his blue and red Jello to layer in his large candy jar. But what about the white? He stopped at the Mexican market, and there it was, white Hazelnut gelatin. Add shredded coconut, raspberries and blueberries on top and you've got a grand old flag.

5.  Salute this Cake!  Ibarra ordered a sheet cake with white frosting from a Mexican market. Add blueberries for the stars and cherries for the stripes. Dig in. (But whatever you do, don't let a crumb touch the ground!)

Other table decorating ideas:
Wabi Sabi: Where the Imperfect is Beautiful
Floral Chic Mother's Day
Going Green on a Budget for St. Patrick's Day
How to Make Paper Roses for Valentine's Day

Here's the complete slideshow:

Dana and John Kouretas always loved the quaint charm of the two-bedroom home they bought in 1998, before they had children. It was on a big, pie-shaped lot in Willow Glen and just a block from the coffee houses and boutiques of Lincoln Avenue. So after having two children and plans for a third, they knew it was time to expand. They wanted to more than double its size, from 2,000 to 4,400 square feet. But maintain the quaint charm? That was a tall order.

With old-fashioned detailing in marble and wrought iron, eclectic furnishings and fixtures new and old, and lots of windows pulling in light and framing leafy views, the Kouretas family couldn’t be happier.

“It’s quite big and looks big on the outside, but inside, people are like, ‘oh, it feels more homey than you would think,’” Dana said. “People who had been in the old house said it feels like the old house, but everything is opened up.”

The couple had been clipping ideas from magazines for years before they hired architect Larry Kahle from Metropolis Architecture in Mountain View and Kathleen Monarch of Monarch Designs in San Jose. John acted as general contractor.

“I liked a lot of light, a lot of windows,” Dana said. “I wanted it to be traditional, but not stuffy traditional.”

She liked Spanish European and French styles, too. So how to blend it all together, so it’s worthy of hundreds of lookiloos traipsing through on the Willow Glen Homes Tour in early May?

And don’t forget, she wanted the house to feel cozy. With ceilings designed at 10 feet downstairs and nine feet upstairs, Kathleen Monarch knew she was in for a challenge. And the last thing she wanted was the house to feel so huge it echoes and so stark it’s cold. So what did she do?

“I never wanted it to look like a designer house,” Kathleen said. “The family is so warm and welcoming to everybody and this huge expanded family and friends, I wanted it to feel like that inside. To me the house looks like them.”

But what does that mean when it gets down to the business of decor?

It means listening to the clients and pushing their boundaries a bit. Dana likes pastels, so Kathleen “tried to take that and take them out of the box a little further, make them go to a place where they’re a little nervous.”

With a crisp white backdrop in trims, doors, cabinets and baseboards, the duo decided on a rich brown for the study, a deep rust for the dining room, and yellows, pinks and greens elsewhere.

“Everything had to pop off white,” Kathleen said. “Even the materials we selected had a lot of white in them, white Carrera marble, white Calcutta marble. The kitchen island I did in honed black granite. The white and black grounded everything.”

They also played with scale and textures.

In the living room, with the French style cast concrete mantel, a fluffy white rug softens the room. In the master bedroom, a custom-designed minty green mohair headboard contrasts with the sparkling mirrored dresser.

The white-on-white master bath, which combines five different tiles with various patterns, from brick to Versailles, is a favorite.

“It’s a combination of so many materials, but nothing is jarring. Nothing is shiny,” Kathleen said. With so much white, she added, “you can’t look like you went to Vegas. Everything is honed down.”

Dana included her family antiques throughout the house, including her great-grandmother’s china hutch in the dining room and her grandmother’s twin beds that are now in her daughters’ room. She also has a favorite pair of Bergere chairs she picked up at a garage sale for $300, a fraction of what would be more than $2,000 new.

The house has become the center of the couple’s extended family, who often gather three-deep in the kitchen to prepare Greek meals. Their third child, a boy, was a toddler when they finished the project.

“Ever since we moved back in, it’s like, ‘let’s go to John and Dana’s house,’” Dana said. “And that’s what we like.”

(Photographs by Desiree Northend)

You might also enjoy these stories:
French Chateux with Modern Twist
A Decorator’s Daughter Loves Small House Style
Mission Revival Los Gatos Estate
Gentle Remodel on Spanish Bungalow
Small House Remodel Maintains Charm
Downsizing and Restyling: From French Country to Modern Neutral
Mid-Century Modern from California Ranch: A Town and Country Life

Here’s the complete slideshow:

The Problem: As lovely as my friend’s traditional living room is, with its sage green velvet sofa with subtle piping, and plein aire landscapes and classic female portraits, she felt it was getting a little staid. She had moved in a gilded mirror over her ornate side table, but still “I felt it was becoming too predictable.”

The Solution: A trip to the Oakland Museum of California’s annual white elephant sale. There, she found what she had been looking for for more than a year — a large scale piece of modern art. “I thought if I could mix in some abstract art, it would be a good beginning.” She’s still rethinking the ornate side table — maybe painting it or replacing it with something more sleek. But for now it’s clear: replacing the traditional mirror with a big modern painting makes for a stunning transformation.

You might also enjoy these stories:
An Art Lovers Living Room
From California Ranch to Mid-Century Modern
Carmel Artist’s Home and Studio
Passionate Collector Turns Home into Gallery
Bargains at the White Elephant Sale
Standing By My Vintage Female Portrait

When Mary Schlichting Francis moved into her four-plex in central San Jose, a small corner patio came with it. It was a blank slate of concrete and gray. For this woman who loves to garden as well as collect vintage treasures, her task was a welcome opportunity. So with a little imagination, a can of black spray-paint and an internal compass leading her to bargains, she transformed her patio into a creative, welcoming spot.

“You get so much more joy out of it knowing you spent so little,” she said.

Here are some of her tips to get your patio ready for spring — on a dime.

1.  Find a small fountain(Mary found hers at Savers on San Carlos, painted it and added river rocks.) The sound of gurgling water creates a soothing atmosphere.

2.  Rescue orphan plants from friends who are moving or cleaning out. Mary, who has a green thumb, loves to nurse sickly plants back to life — her exquisite white azalea is testament to that. Cast-off cyclamen bulbs from last year are blooming on Mary’s patio this year.

3.  Shop second-hand stores, like Move It Elsewhere on Lincoln Avenue in San Jose that is open one weekend a month for old pots, garden furniture and interesting “found art.” Try Salvation Army on Taylor Street, too, or Marshalls and T.J. Maxx.

4.  Buy a can of black “Painter’s Touch” semigloss paint at Home Depot, and spray a coat on old orange pots, especially plastic ones, to give them a more sophisticated look.

5.  Create vignettes by combining plants, sculpture (like Mary’s buddha statue), garden mosaics and even cheap paintings or pictures that can hang under the eaves, or over a bench. “Some things can handle the weather,” Mary said. “If it only lasts a season, but it doesn’t cost much, it’s just fine.”

6.  Go green and purchase a compost bin. Mary is sharing it with the other tenants in her complex. 

Related Stories:
Julia’s Screened Porch
My Romantic Home
Move it Elsewhere
Wisteria in Soquel

Update:

This post is featured in the San Jose Mercury News Home and Garden section here.

David Sussman started his art collection 45 years ago. He was a student at Boston University and picked up a Miro print for $15. He’s come a long way from the east coast to San Jose’s Rose Garden neighborhood, where his home — inside and out — has become a gallery of local art. And with the help of a noted painter who challenged him along the way, he developed a more daring collection.

The house itself is a handsome, two-story Georgian built in the 1930s, with gray stucco and a red front door — a house that some might say lends itself to a traditional approach. But step inside, and you realize there is nothing predictable about it. Walk into the living room and a great white skull emanating spokes of graffiti stops you cold. An L.A. city street scene over the mantel pulls you into an edgy neighborhood. And filling the dining room wall hangs a figure of a contemplative, graying woman named Theta — a work that marked a turning point for him.

“Buying art is like buying ties,” said Sussman, a family lawyer. “If you buy just what you like right now, all the ties in your collection will look the same.”

Sussman began appreciating more challenging works when he met Katherine Levin Lau at an open studio event more than a decade ago. He was drawn to the large painting of Theta. He had favored abstract works before, but found himself drawn to this figure.

“He said it was unlike anything he owned,” said Levin Lau, a former San Jose State lecturer who shows her work internationally. Still, he bargained with her.

“I’ll give you 20 percent off,” she conceded.

“Let this be your lesson,” Sussman told her. “I would have paid full price.”

And so began a long friendship, from which both have learned and benefitted.

And they started together at the De Anza Flea Market in Cupertino, where more than 800 vendors show their wares the first Saturday of every month.

“The joy of going with her — you get to see how she saw everything,” he said. “Her eyes moved in ways yours didn’t. You realize you weren’t challenging your own eye.”

They started by collecting balls. That’s right. Just balls. Bocce balls, pool balls, ceramic balls.

“How about this one?” he would ask.

“No,” she would say. “You have to get balls that have integrity, David. They can’t be brand new, out of a decorator’s showcase. They have to be something real.”

Levin Lau made him a rubber band ball. He built a rectangular, plexiglass box for them and hangs it over a doorway.

As much as Levin Lau showed him how to look at things in new ways, Sussman always had his own strong sense of style.

“I love lines,” he said. “I love an Armani suit — not a lot of ruffles.”

And the artwork he was drawn to had a similar sensibility. Sussman became a regular at the annual auctions of the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art — for 25 years running he bought at least one piece a year. And he also enjoyed the art sales of San Jose State University art students. He commissioned a whole set of ceramic plates from student Una Mjurka.

At one such art sale, he met art professor David Middlebrook and commissioned from him a double sculpture of bronze and stone for Sussman’s backyard, a piece that represents the organic versus the intellectual. It incorporates Sussman’s own thumb print.

Even his kitchen has a strong, artistic flair. With the help of Neal Bunce from Coyote Valley Cabinets –”whose attention to detail and quest for perfection made the project a success” — the space incorporates angled glass on the bar counter, with roughly textured granite counters.

“The point is,” Sussman said, “everything looks old quickly if you don’t press yourself to try something out of your range.”

It’s an attitude Levin Lau is thrilled to hear.

“He’s just a wonderful, enthusiastic, curious collector,” she said. “He loves to learn and explore. He truly loves his art.”

Update:
Katherine Levin Lau is showing her work at a mid-April exhibit at the San Jose architecture firm of Bill Gould. She may be contacted through him at www.bgdesign.com.
Coyote Valley Cabinets can be reached at (408) 561-0989.

Update 2:

This post is featured in the San Jose Mercury News Home and Garden section here.

Related Stories:
An Art Lovers Living Room
From California Ranch to Mid-Century Modern
Carmel Artist’s Home and Studio

Here’s the complete slideshow: