You know when you’re flipping through a shelter mag (like, say, oh I don’t know…D Home), and you come across a photo of a room where everything is just so — there’s a throw artfully splayed across the back of a chair, a few perfectly placed books, a little clutch of flowers… And maybe upon seeing said room you think, “does anyone actually live this way??”
Well I’m here to tell you that yes, some people do, but they are rare (and admirable). All the rest have been touched by the hand of a stylist like the lovely and talented Jenny O’Connor. I liken her to the hair and makeup artist at a fashion show… She works her magic to make an already immensely lovely room drop dead gorgeous.
And Jenny is especially good at it, as she’s regularily called on here at D (not to mention at a whole host of national shelter pubs). While in the process of making lovely rooms even lovelier, she bumps up against a slew of insanely beautiful things on a regular basis, so, of course, we had to ask her which ones she couldn’t stop thinking about.
Herewith a few of Jenny’s favorite things.
Many of the things that excite me most are handmade. I love something that is one of a kind, and I enjoy the thought of supporting artists and craftspeople clever enough to actually make these works by hand.
- 1. I can’t get Lindsey Adelman’s hand-blown glass lighting out of my head. Unfortunately, I also can’t fit it into my budget. She does, however, include on her site downloadable instructions to a version of her designs that you can make yourself if you are brave and handy enough. So far, I am neither.
- 2. I just stumbled upon this lovely hand silk-screened wallpaper by Cavern that has me thinking. Powder bath? Panel as art?
- 3. A great throw always adds a nice layer of warmth and, in many cases, color and pattern to a room. This Serena & Lily herringbone throw is hand-woven in five perfect colors, and I simply can’t choose.
- 4. For styling purposes I am always drawn to vases, containers, trays, bowls… vessels of any kind. Some handmade pieces that have caught by eye recently: vintage handcrafted teak trays, hand- thrown porcelain vessels (these by Jan Burtz), recycled glass containers, and I could go on all day…
