Something that resembles a gift guide
Pt. 1 // one-of-a-kind secondhand finds for you, someone you like or someone you love.
It’s now been a little over a month since Emma Chamberlain’s Mid-Century mansion went absolutely completely bananas viral on the internet (The sun filled kitchen! The green marble bathroom! A $30,000 chandelier in a room that will never get sat in!) yet I find myself still spending at least five minutes during the week annoyed over the fact that Architectural Digest referenced this sprawling, yet to be lived in, freshly remodeled head-to-toe mansion as her “Deeply Personal Los Angeles Home.” Stunningly gorgeous? Absolutely. An intense oozing of life and personality? Debatable.
There’s seemingly this idea that having insane fortune means you must pick out one piece of grotesquely large modern art and one very expensive vintage Italian couch that no butt was meant to sit on and then, only then, can you reach the utmost top echelon of being a tastemaker. In my previous life as luxury stylist, I spent so much time in sprawling mansions that had little to no life pumping through them - clients who had five children and there was zero sign of imagination play time or tiny artists at work! Even those perfectly quirky hipster dwellings of a very generous square footage you see on the cover of Domino tend to illicit a feeling of sterile luxury because the reality is that most editorial spreads highlighting public figures’ homes have been meticulously curated, often with additional odds and ends perfectly styled to look like they belong. (My favorite example of this being two comically overfilled bowl of limes a stylist placed in Dakota Johnson’s kitchen that caused chaotic headlines after her sarcasm got misconstrued as an actual aggressive obsession with limes.)
The point, Glenn, get to the point!! All of this to say, I’ve been thinking a lot about the ancient, heavily dissected adage of “what makes a house a home?” Social media has done a pretty successful job in making us all crave something that looks like a copy of a copy and given us this idea that everything needs to be perfectly placed, curated, and painted in order for strangers to think we have it all together and have reached some magical nonexistent status of, well, I’m not sure. But the good stuff is crammed in the imperfections! Good homes are full of special, lovingly picked crap that makes your heart go pitter-pat! Life lives in the in-between of the cluttered stacks of well loved records and books, collections of cocktail glasses that don’t match, coffee mugs from vacations past, fridges plastered in toddler art, and gallery walls of life through the years. In the world of minimalism vs maximalism, I will always take the latter (within reason, like most things.) Bring back collecting things!!
Image sources: (clockwise from left) 1//2//3//4
For this first installment of some sort of gift guide, I’ve curated a selection of festively fun, heartwarming crap I believe can add a touch of life to any home. All of these finds are the perfect conversation starters for your next dinner party/perfectly snapped Instagram post/parent inviting themselves over or maybe you can gift it to your bff who just got into cooking/sister who moved into a new apt/partner who loves all things retro.
(from left to right, starting top left) one. two. three. four. five. six. seven. eight. nine.
(from left to right, starting top left) one. two. three. four. five. six. seven. eight. nine.
If you’ve never purchased something vintage/secondhand, consider the holidays the perfect time to start! Gifting someone something that feels one-of-a-kind can be particularly special and is overall better for our gentle lil bby world that is getting overwhelmed with waste. Statistically, the time period between Thanksgiving and New Years produces significantly more waste worldwide (like 1 million tons more!) - everything from gift wrap to food to returned gifts. The sad reality of retail is that many stores will dump returns rather than putting them back out on the sales floor! The stories I could share from my stockroom days….
Intrigued by something but not sure how to display it or style it in your home? Ask me! I would love to help - drop a comment below! Need help picking out a vintage home good for a friend for the holidays? I will hunt it down - comment below! Something doesn’t have to be “big” to make a big impression. Consider building a themed gift - a vintage condiment caddy but gift it with luxury/local/small shop nuts/olives/chips and a nice bottle of wine! Or hunt down vintage matchbooks from cities you’ve been with someone and get them framed! Or vintage espresso cups packaged with your favorite beans from your local coffee shop!
What else would you like to see in a gift guide? Comment and let me know!
That’s all for this week!
XO,
G
yes! love seeing shop rochele in the line up!
💕 orlando people! 💕
I'll buy anything you tell me to tbh. But that kind of defeats the sentiment of the email lol. Can't help that you're the coolest girl i know! <3