HomeDesign Rules: Decorate the drawers
09. Nov, 2009 
5 Comments
For a musical accompaniment, please consider the score for Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film Vertigo.
Remember those 80’s anti-drug commercials? “This is drugs” (sizzling skillet). “This is your brain on drugs” (egg fries in sizzling skillet). Well the above image is my bedside table drawer on crazy. And I like it. When I was ten or so years old, my dad helped me fill an antique “type tray” with interesting odds and ends (a bundle of cigarettes, a Darth Vader eraser, vintage ammo, etc.), an assemblage for which we were awarded a blue ribbon in the annual Grundy County Corn Festival. Not being one to brag, I never displayed the big prize, but I kept it in my closet where it not only beautified the space but also brought back happy memories of past glory days. Using an obvious mix of decoratus nostalgia, I think I’ve inadvertently paid homage to my much celebrated assemblage in my freakishly organized bedside drawer. (Of course, I styled it prior to the big shoot). As a result, I feel a little bit happier every morning when I open the drawer to select a wrist watch, and I don’t know about you, but I’d rather have happiness than a blue ribbon any day. Of course, having both would be ideal.
So whether you use wallpaper or organizers or you prefer an impressionist-style gorgeous jumbled mess, don’t forget to decorate your cabinets, your closets and most importantly, your drawers. In addition to the peak-a-boo like mix of surprise and happiness you’ll feel every time you open a gussied up storage area, you’ll also feel more holistic and authentic when your private areas match your public ones. That’s not only a good rule of thumb when it comes to design, it’s a good rule of thumb period.
WHERE? The New Strange Closets Source Guide!
Gray flannel drawer organization tray, Target. Drawer contents (tray exterior): Yellow light bulb, Clark-Devon Hardware, 6401 N. Clark, 773.764.3575. Red and blue metal coils, Architectural Artifacts, 4325 N. Ravenswood, Chicago. 773.348.0622. Average Day at the Museum postcard, Museum of Modern Art.
(1) Songbirds by Tsutomu Suzuki for Takara, Design Within Reach circa 06, (click here for more information).
(2) A compass my friend Dave dug out of his pocket and gave me straightaway when I visited him in London and remarked, “I wish I had a compass,” and wrist watches (note: you will encounter this section again on the other side), Various (but I do love Burberry).
(3) A postcard of Wilhelm Lehmbruck’s Bust of a Kneeling Girl, a gift from a friend, provides the backdrop for a headless anatomy toy, Blick Art Materials.
(4) One of my finest mentor’s gave me this handsome black and silver refillable ink pen, Levenger, not to write him letters but as a token of his near infinite patience. Along side it, I artfully paired a carved wood sculpture, Aaron and Meghan Pahmier’s Kindling, with a Jesus Christ paper weight made by my good friend, the very sweet, creative and brilliant Albert Tanquero, Tanquero Chicago.
(5) (also bottom portion of 2) (I warned you) Nail clippers, Walgreens.
(6) Don’t worry folks; they’re only plastic. A pair of rather collegiate looking letters (T8) (or I suppose 8T), Foursided, 2958 N. Clark, Chicago. 773.244.6431, co-mingle in the same box as, gulp, the head and dismembered organs of the anatomy model in the diagonal box!
(7) Pocket square, Steven Allen. Plastic Sinestro Yellow Lantern ring, Chicago Comics, 3244 N. Clark, Chicago, 773.528.1983.
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This closet (above, below) is the public unveiling of one of my “quote unquote” inspirations* for the name Strange Closets. Cobbled together from two closets minus a bump out where I recessed the refrigerator, it’s not even all that strange, but I’m working on it with the addition of Batman and Robin figures, a faux vintage phrenology head and an actual vintage bowling pins, which make pin fun hat holders. Eventually, I’d like to either upholster this closet with flannel fabric, wallpaper it or perhaps commission a large-scale mural replete with comic book-y iconography. But I’d love to hear your ideas.
** The other inspiration is my childhood bedroom, which had a large walk-in closet, which had a door to another large walk-in closet, which is where I coincidentally kept the Corn Festival prize-winning assemblage, which I enjoyed viewing while drinking with my buddies.
I love your strange drawer. Have you seen the boxes at the new Modern Wing of the Art Institute? I love your drawer just as much as I do them.
Nice drawers!
My bedside table drawer tends to have objects of a more ‘personal’ nature tucked away in it. I had the unfortunate experience of selling some furniture on CL and having some random lady buy my bedside table. I had no intention of selling it before I had her cash in hand…and was mortified as she stood watching me clear things out. In short, my drawer aspires to be as chaste as Tate’s.
are you from Morris? ….Grundy County….Corn Festival
But yes, this is a fine closet and the best part of devoting time and money into a feat like this is you will want to keep it neat and edited because it gives so much pleasure. These’s nothing like looking forward to getting ready effortlessly.
Silly man, how have you not organized your closet by color yet? I started doing it ages ago, and it makes things infinitely easier to find.
Also, I vote for you to paper your closet in the same or similar red plaid as your new sheets.