“Safe decorating bores the hell out of me,” Dallas antiques dealer Jacqui Stoneman says. “I like pieces with a slightly ruined look. Mixing old and new. Things with a lot of soul.” And such a design philosophy could easily lead to one big hippie-dippy mess. But in this case, it doesn’t. That’s because Stoneman harmonizes her treasured collection with an eye for balance and grace.
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| ABOVE LEFT: A French chair carved from one piece of wood sets an irreverent tone for the main hallway. Hanging above it is, for lack of a better term, a skullabra. A very old electrified dance ball is in the den beyond. A mix of fruit and orchids rest in front of an old English Chesterfield sofa. ABOVE RIGHT: “I love large-scale works. They’re much more dramatic,” says Stoneman, seated in one of a pair of old theater chairs. Behind her is one of her favorite paintings. “I saw the backside of it leaning against a truck at a flea market.” | |
Stoneman’s worldly sophistication with an underpinning of eccentricity is evident from the moment you visit her home. After passing through a nondescript wooden gate, you wind your way through a slightly wild landscape, and farther back still, to a small 1930s house. Exterior-wise, by Stoneman’s own design, the place looks more like a blend of Santa Fe and Hollywood, not Highland Park. Its interior is also something altogether very different from its buttoned-up surroundings.
Architecturally, the U-shaped home with Saltillo tile flooring throughout has a central courtyard, which allows soft light to filter into almost every room. The place is a patchwork quilt of rooms that have been added on during the years, which complements its pieced-together decor. Notable visuals include antique griffin statuary and prominently displayed skulls, bleached and bottomless Louis IV chairs functioning as tables, engaging shell art, framed Mexican bingo cards, oversize tattered paintings in sumptuous gilt frames, re-purposed architectural remnants, stacks of leather-bound books, weathered Oriental rugs, and art-gallery-like vignettes of her collections that are as simple as a mix of crystal chandelier spears in a silver goblet. “You can never be too rich or too thin or have too many accessories,” she quips. Blame it on the thrill of the hunt. “It’s an ego thing, I guess,” she surmises. “It’s like, what can I find that no one else can see the beauty in?”
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| ABOVE LEFT: The living room’s sidewall features a table made from an old door; atop it is a mirror bought from a friend, where the mounted skull of a Greater Kudu antelope, found at an estate sale, makes a striking impression, as does an old stone obelisk. A grouping of dark chocolate cosmos adds a fresh touch with heirloom floral style. ABOVE RIGHT: An old hospital gurney serves as a console after Stoneman marbleized its top. Shell-inlaid chairs complement the shell-covered bust she created. Barn wood paneling with a whitewash helps reflect more light when candles are lit. | |
In many cases her finds are big. Very big and very heavy, such as an antler-based table or small adobe playhouse. “I tend to buy by the pound,” she says with a smile. “I just like the shape and scope and size and look to pieces that are old and substantial.”
Plus, they’re low maintenance. “Pieces on the brink of ruin can’t be damaged too much,” she explains. And, well, they’re just beautiful. “That’s really my thrust in this exercise,” the former art major says. “I visit art galleries wherever I go,” usually with life partner Dr. Harry J. Myers, who joins her in collecting and creating new looks with old pieces. “Harry has an amazing eye. He can get just as delirious about collecting as me. He’ll say, let’s go to just one more place when I’m beat, and vice versa.” (And with all the heavy lifting the petite collector does, it helps that Myers is a chiropractor.)
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| “Balance is critical in a room—not just for a whole room, but also for a tabletop from all angles. Especially when there’s a lot of stuff there,” Jacqui Stoneman says. Keeping things neutral helps keep the room from looking too cluttered. “I’ve tried color, but after the initial pow factor, I got sick of it,” she says. “But I do admire people who can do color well—who can use it in a timeless way.” |
Stoneman grew up in St. Louis where her home was bohemian in nature. (Mystery-writing fans take note: Her brother is well-known author John Lutz.) “My mom was very artistic. Her favorite gift from my father one year was a tool kit.” Such sense of design adventure caught on with Stoneman early. “When I was 12, I painted my bedroom furnishings black and gave them silver knobs. Mom said, ‘Hey, that looks nice.’ That made me realize I could really do anything.”
Stoneman was further influenced by an aunt who lived in Dallas who “led me to appreciate the finer things in life,” she says. “She had bought most of her antiques in New Orleans in the 1920s, and she only bought the best. I still have some of those pieces.”
Iconic inspirations include the late great American avant-garde interior decorator and movie set/costume designer Tony Duquette. “He made me realize that being brave is okay,” Stoneman says. “To know that if you like it, it’s wonderful.” She also adores the work of famed interior-architectural-landscape designer John Saladino, known for his serene, architectural settings.
Stoneman also credits home-design magazines for her ideas. “They provide an education without going to school,” she says. “If you immerse yourself in them, you’ll find they are basically really good. Learning about design used to be like a secret society, but now it’s not. You can train your own eye.” Stoneman keeps tear sheets from magazines and “whenever I need inspiration I go through them; it revitalizes me.”
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| In a guest bedroom, one of the valances originated from a monastery bed. On either side of the room, old curved doors from Europe soften the room’s edges. |
Especially for some of the design work she does for others. “I just got through helping decorate a $5 million home in Menlo Park, Calif., where the homeowners had an unlimited budget. That was equally as fun as helping a friend re-do her apartment for $500—which I did.”
Stoneman sells her finds locally at The White Elephant and to regional collectors in her network. She and Myers also exhibit twice a year at the antiques shows in Round Top. To keep it all going she gets up at 5:30 a.m. each day to survey flea markets and estate sales, or travel to big shows and flea markets in this country and abroad.
“I love my life,” she muses. Collectors are a rare breed, and “it’s really a chance to be who you are—to exhibit your self-expression. And doing so doesn’t have to cost a fortune.”
Note: Stoneman’s next Round Top antiques show will be Oct. 2-6 in Warrenton (2 miles south of Round Top) at Excess Field No. 7. “Smart shoppers usually come a week early,” she says.
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| Jacqui Stoneman chose white for her bedroom. It’s easy to work with as a unifying color scheme. The bed’s hallmark is a headboard comprised of two old columns and an architectural element from a home’s portico. The blanket chest in front of the bed is covered with old tin ceiling tiles. All artwork behind the bed is in brown, black, or white—and looks like it belongs together. To the side of the bed is a mirror lined in driftwood. Stoneman and Myers saw a similar piece in a Ralph Lauren ad and decided to make their own. |
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| ABOVE LEFT: Jacqui Stoneman purchased her breakfast room table at a consignment store. The chairs originated from the estate of decorator Tommy Cook. ABOVE RIGHT: Stoneman often uses indoor rugs outdoors. “I never pay more than $20 or $30 for them at garage sales. Rain even seems to make them better,” she notes. “That’s actually how they clean Oriental rugs; in pools of water.” | |
