Little Things Mean a Lot
Accessories are more than frivolous extras we add to a home after buying the sofa and dining room set. They’re what gives it personality. Consider the home of designer Jenny Armit, who dares to mix seemingly incompatible objects and colors, and Kelly Wearstler, who takes a lean approach with modern finishing touches. In each case, as shown in the following pages, it’s the accessories that make the difference. And no home is complete--or inviting--without them.
“To some people, home accessories means utilitarian wastepaper bins and cushions,” says English designer Jenny Armit. “For me, they are the little things we fall in love with--a beautiful candlestick, an Oriental painting--the things that make a house a home. Taken together, they tell the story of who we are, really.”
Armit’s Hollywood home reflects her nomadic past and passions, crisscrossing centuries and continents. “You can create a beautiful environment with pieces that are not obviously compatible,” says Armit, who now calls Southern California home and owns an eponymous gallery in Los Angeles. In the living room, a fanciful glass and wrought-iron Patrice Butler lamp stands next to a streamlined, limited-edition Jasper Morrison chaise. Nearby sits a well-worn Edwardian chair--Armit rescued it from the street--that has accompanied her from home to home, from Ireland to Spain. “It’s a bit old and tatty, but one bashed-up old chair helps make a look,” says Armit, who fell in love with its original hand-embroidered velvet upholstery. “A home should be a mix of the old and the new: It shouldn’t be too perfect.”
Elsewhere, the eclecticism continues. In the former living room that she uses as a dining room, she commissioned a modern, 6-foot-square resin table to seat 14 comfortably, then surrounded it with 19th century French chairs. She painted the walls a custom-mixed chartreuse-olive, creating an ideal backdrop for the lemon-hued table, fruitwood chairs and other gilt-hued accessories. Atop an imposing plinth, Armit placed a trio of global accessories: a ‘50s Pavanello vase, an African sculpture and a contemporary bronze mask by artist Ben Jakober. “Scale is essential,” Armit says. “If I’d set teeny-tiny objects on top, it would have looked silly.”
In the adjacent kitchen, a photograph of James Dean hangs on one wall, a 19th century African warrior’s shield on another. “I often think a stark modern look is much easier to pull off because the rules are so defined,” says Armit. “When you mix, you have to be very brave.”
What inspires Jenny Armit:
* Caravaggio, for his rich ochers and deep reds; Matisse, for his bright, joyful Mediterranean hues.
* The late American designer Billy Baldwin, for his eclecticism and daring.
* The Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris by architect Jean Nouvel.
* Vivaldi, Verdi and “thanks to my two daughters--rap.”
* Getting away to “my shack with a tin roof in Three Rivers,” near Visalia.
* The novels of Irish writer Colin Tobin.
