What makes for a really relaxing home do you think? Recently I did an article about an artist called
Jay Nelson who built a treehouse for ceramicist, Daria Joseph. (
read here) I knew that the treehouse would be really magical but what I hadn't realised was how lovely Daria's actual house would be. I don't have a name for her style but her modest two-bedroom bungalow has everything you could want. Also loads of great ideas to
nick channel...
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| The treehouse that Jay built Daria |
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| Having a cuppa tea inside the treehouse |
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| Daria and Jay |
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| Yes, those are my toes hovering near the snacks |
Some Daria ideas:
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| A simple little stone arrangement on the outside table |
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| Mirrors in the backyard make it look beachy |
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| Vintage windsurfboards in the rafters of the breezeway make it look even beachier |
Inside:
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| Layers of wood and different colored walls highlight her collections |
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| A striped runner shows the path from the front door to the back and divides kitchen and living area. |
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| Ledges across the window |
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| Containers from the 1950's make the pantry fun |
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| Fridge is engraved with a story her daughter wrote about her grandmother's fridge |
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| Daria unites her colorful collection of 350 Pez with equally colorful silk cushions on a Moroccan sofa. |
It's a funny thing going into someone's home for a morning and writing about them - you're basically being a professional sticky beak. Daria made me feel like a treasured guest, calling beforehand - did I want lunch? and she made little snacks and herbal tea.
Daria is the grand-daughter of the modernist architect Erich Mendelsohn who collaborated with Einstein. She has wonderful memories of growing up in Russian Hill in San Francisco and her whole house reflects her love of her childhood - a collection of 350 Pez and her old childhood toys and books. "I have always been a childlike type, I don't do serious or intellectual very well. I collect Pez, I buy candy. I like to watch tv and go to the movies. Like that."
Daria says she and Jay are wabi-sabi. I'd heard that expression but never really knew what it meant, apparently it's acceptance of transience and imperfection.
Time to go home. I get in the door and find Jackson, 15, and Cy, 10, sitting in front of the TV, exactly where they were six hours ago when I left this morning. "Did you get the milk?" says Jackson. Evidently they'd found themselves unable to walk the five mins to the store. Just as well I hadn't been waylaid as I might have come home to two skeletons holding milk-less bowls of cereal.
Possible to have too much wabi-sabi in your life?
Hello Jody,
ReplyDeleteTree houses are such incredible fun and this one is very glamorous too. We have always been enticed to them as there is really something Alice in Wonderland about them. In there one can escape from the world and let one's imagination run riot, doing all the things that one wishes to in the real world but, somehow, never have the courage to.
Daria looks to be a highly creative person and her house both inside and out reflects this. The delightful attention to detail is everywhere and this creates a unique atmosphere. How we should have loved to have joined you there.
Hi Hattatts! She has her old record player in there and we heard an old Disney record, with all those old Golden Books, just lovely
DeleteI love this post!! That tree-house Jay Nelson is amazing...the fridge story! And laughed out loud re the image of two boys, eyes locked on television for however long.
ReplyDeleteSome things are universal, aren't they? X
Hi FF, yes there are two boys in Australia (not) doing the same thing!
DeleteWhat a lovely treehouse! And what magnificient trees to build it in.
ReplyDeleteYou should click into Jay's website too, he has all sorts of funky vehicles that he's built
DeleteI wish for more wabi-sabi! Eventually those things will get up off the couch and leave. It will be shocking when they do. My son is hardly home now and no doubt will be leaving our small corner of the world soon. The other day I was in the basically clean family room and said "where the hell are the Lord of the Rings Action Figures? I just tripped over them yesterday". "Mom," Forrest said. "That was 8 years ago..." Go figure.
ReplyDeleteLove that house and tree house! I would feel very comfortable there!
Yesterday, eight years ago, what's the diff...Yes here's cheers to the things that arrived and never moved - but we will miss them when they're gone - won't we?? praying they do not join the boomerang generation though and come home for a second round
DeleteWhat a wonderful home - so full of personality. That treehouse is amazing!! I have not featured the kids treehouse on the blog yet. But don't wait in anticipation. So far it's a platform with a significant lean to it (my husband decided it needed to self drain. A lot). I think the kids enjoy the danger aspects to it…
ReplyDeleteLaughing about your milk predicament.
Heidi - how many gallons of milk do you go through a day? Basically the kids live on cereal and I do like a bowl or two after dinner so ours is at least two a day. There is a farmer out there who is sending his kids to college on our milk consumption
DeleteOh my gosh this is the best tree house in the history of the world. And I bet some cool birds come to visit as well!
ReplyDeleteDidn't even think of the birds, great view over the rooftops
DeleteThis is amazing, I want to live in a treehouse, haha! So kind of her to make you lunch and all as well, that's really kind :) Love these pictures xx
ReplyDeleteI love tree houses! Wanted one as a kid, would still like to have one as an old lady. We rented a place in England one time that had a huge one and the owner told us we were welcome to use it. I think it was bigger than the cottage we were renting.
ReplyDeleteYes Daria is in her sixties and hopes to read up there and have drinks up there with friends and she'd hoping her kids (ages 32 and 36) will come by and keep her company too as well as little kids
DeleteWhat a charming house!
ReplyDeleteIsn't it - love that outfit you posted today on your blog Rose, bring on the summer now!
DeleteWhat a gorgeous house (and tree house)!
ReplyDeleteSo unwindulaxing!
DeleteI love the inscribed fridge!The Tree house........is AWESOME!So, fun to know there are creative souls out there............and in my home town as well!
ReplyDeleteYes I came home and told Kevin I want to do that to our fridge, I might have to commission Tallulah to write something suitable
DeleteThe tree house is amazing. I do find it fascinating the first time going to another's home. Sometimes it just doesn't seem to "fit". I have to say I had a friend once who was a hoarder, not messy, not a pig, a bona ride hoarder. Yes I judged.
ReplyDeleteI have been in a house which is all of the above (not for work...)
DeleteI had a tree seat in the center of an enormous cherry tree gone wild. I pretty much lived there from age 11 through age 14. Hm, maybe not all winter, but I do remember being up there when a sprinkle turned into rain which turned into wind which turned into a named hurricane - parents were frantic but decided I should come down when the storm let up some. Do not try this at home.
ReplyDeleteLoving that treehouse!
Wow, that sounds like Scout in To Kill A Mockingbird, fantastic childhood - did you have food up there too? Wish my kids had cherry tree days
DeleteThat is a little more posh than the treehouse my friend Angus and I built back in 1972. Our NO GIRLS ALLOWED sign was just macho posturing...
ReplyDeleteThis treehouse took two years to complete (he had Facebook and Patagonia projects in between).
DeleteIn our only fandango with carpentry, my brother Tony constructed a go-cart, then made me push him down the hill. I still have the scars to prove it - literally - he left an enormous nail sticking out and it ripped a huge scar along my hand. All I could think was it looked like spaghetti in my hand (the canned kind which was the only kind I knew) Needless to say I have been mentioning it to my brother in the 40 years since.
Do you still keep in touch with Angus?
Only a bit as he lives in Japan. Oddly enough he and family moved away around 1976 and only heard back from him years later when he sent me a very touching letter when movie 'Stand By Me' came out which he said reminded him of our boyhood and he specifically mentioned the line in it that I summarize with "you'll never have a closer friend than you do of a friend you have as a boy of around age 8" or words to that effect. I've always meant to watch that movie but never got around to it. We were inseperable from about age 6-12: built a treehouse, a raft made of logs, and have grand ambitions to just the two of us take a 3,000 mile horseback journey out West all by ourselves....(were about 9yo). everyday we'd go over our packing list, what kind of horses we'd ride (I wanted a Palomino since the cool Indians in Westerns always rode them), what we'd hunt, etc. Nowadays little boys are on video games.
DeleteThat's one of my favourite movies and funnily enough Cy watches it about once a month. Truth be told its not that suitable for a boy his age because of the language and quite disturbing, but great all the same.
Delete....we were going to live off the fat of the land and pan for gold too
DeleteOh to have that fat of the land back...
Deletemy goodness, I just realized why Cy's baseball pic from your last post struck me so....he's a dead ringer for my friend Angus at that age!....Cy is a better ballplayer than the good fielding/weak hitting Angus MacGregor ever was!
DeleteHow funny!
Delete...if your email worked I'd send you a recent pic of Angus to show you what Cy will look like at age 50!
Deletedoes the jody@aboutlastweekend.com not work? I know you said once you got it bounce back. Bummer...I just had a new computer guy here today. I will tell him to action it next time
DeleteI feel really stupid! I had been trying to send it to "about last week" not "weekend"!
DeleteThat second-to-last paragraph says it all!!! I've been living that exact same scenario since my son got home 6-1-14! Makes me want to move to that treehouse by myself.
ReplyDeleteXO
Kate F.
Room for me up there? It's 6pm and I suppose no one else is microwaving our leftovers so its off to the store to make breakfast for dinner...
ReplyDeletetamarind margaritas and treehouses go together I hear
What a cool place!
ReplyDeleteYou have the most fascinating friends! I can only imagine what it would be like to hang out with you for even just a week. I'm sure it would be a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteEB, would be like watching paint dry. Most of my day truthfully is spent alone in front of a computer.
DeleteThe Wabi-sabi I learned about was related to something both distressed and beloved. Like a favourite vase with a crack running through it. A quick check of Wikipedia turns up "acceptance of transience and imperfection." Like when you've been married 40, or 50 years, or so.
ReplyDeleteThe tree house is great. And we've a good tree in the back yard for something like it.
Blessings and Bear hugs!
Think you're probably right with the nuances of that. The beloved chipped vase.
DeleteIf you look at wabi sabi as impermanent and incomplete and imperfect, as some say, then sounds like your home life is just that.
ReplyDeleteLooks like western Marin.
Maybe it more ying yang I need then, bring on the perfection!
DeleteThat is an amazing home, I'd like to move in! My Number son was home alone for half a day on Wednesday and I came home from work to find him glued to the x box screen having only eaten 3 slices of chocolate cake and some chocolate all day! (Although I'm a firm believer in the saying "there's no such thing as too much chocolate" - is that a saying or did I make it up?)
ReplyDeleteThat's definitely a saying Jay! And I wouldn't put you crook
DeleteTime and again it is clear---- the personal items make the home. Thank you for the look around!
ReplyDeleteAgreed Alexis. And they take it beyond that page 36 of Pottery Barn look that we see so often. (mind you I always think when it doubt just do a whole page of one of those catalogues, they've done the hard work for you)
DeleteSuch an amazing house I so live the surfboards on the roof. I need to find a house to suit this great idea. Well boys the world over are the same sometimes I wonder why I am not asked to scratch their itchy nose. But I suppose secretly I laugh at how laid back and lazy they are in comparison to my daughter who is so organised and a worrier.
ReplyDeleteSo funny Inge. Tallulah is similar to the boys for the laid back on the couch thing...
DeleteI could get over my fear of heights to live in that house! I'd need to sort out the sleepwalking problem too...
ReplyDeleteSx
OOps, I'll say! I am scared of heights too, can't go close to any windows on floors above five
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