Embracing Structure and Setting

Casa Arbolada, Montecito

For many years sourcing antique pieces for my clients meant extended travel. It meant long hours on the road, walking through markets at daybreak, exploring private homes and warehouses late into the night, opening drawers to ensure quality, sitting in chairs to test for comfort, and turning pieces around and upside down to inspect for authenticity. There is a certain romance in that ritual, and it remains an essential part of my success in this business.

However, now more than ever, something else has proven just as valuable: relationships.

After decades working in this field, I am fortunate to have established a network of dealers and vendors that I have worked with throughout my career. These people know my standards and their decorative eye aligns with mine. I can trust them immensely. Again, these relationships were built over decades. We have bought and sold from one another, agreed and disagreed, and refined our tastes alongside each other. That shared history and those trusted relationships have become a kind of shorthand in the buying process.

As it gets harder and harder to source great pieces, especially with travel restrictions and time limitations on a buying trip, I often rely on my established sources to scout for and preview pieces that meet my standards so that when I am on buying trips I can shop more efficiently and not waste time going to warehouses early in the morning or spending late nights on extended road trips going to dealers shops or homes and not find a thing that I want.

Buying trips today requires much more planning and certainly a lot of editing before I even touch ground abroad. Elimination rounds are a prerequisite before I actually go in and select the finalists. My established contacts who understand what I am looking for can eliminate the pieces they know I will not accept. They can narrow it down and leave the rest up to me to stand in front of pieces, inspect and reject them or approve and ultimately purchase them.

I have always believed that good pieces adapt to their environment. Academic figure drawings, framed simply in black, felt entirely at home here. Considering the two guest bedrooms shared a Jack and Jill bathroom I decided to embrace the term literally and make one guest room more masculine and the other more feminine. The furnishings were transitional in nature, allowing for a modern sensibility without sacrificing the historical or classical foundation. The choice of lighting and the darker woods on the furnishings did not compete with the history of the home; instead, the nature of the home provided a backdrop that allowed the furnishings to stand confidently.

So what finally ended up in this latest shipment is a result of a more elaborate process of elimination and the ultimate selection of finalists for my collection.

There are strong provincial cabinets with honest joinery and warm, time-worn surfaces. Chests and sideboards with deep molding and original hardware that speaks to centuries of handling. Chairs that balance simplicity and proportion with a softened surface that carries their own history of use. Bookshelves that feel architectural with a clarity of style. And sculptural pieces that read as a study in line and volume.

Living in this environment required restraint. The rooms did not need to be filled. Space allowed materials to breathe. It allowed silhouettes to be understood. When fewer things are present, each one must contribute. That discipline creates clarity.

The mix is intentional. It moves comfortably between classical and modern, between restraint and ornament. That balance mirrors the way I have always approached interiors. Good objects do not compete when they share integrity. They hold their ground through proportion, material, and presence in any space.

In many ways, this shipment feels like the natural evolution of years spent building a collection as well as relationships. Distance and limited time did not diminish the quality of either the items in the collection or the relationships behind the collection. The collection was reinforced with the importance of trust.

In this business, objects matter. Quality and craftsmanship matter. The personality of a piece matters. But relationships, developed patiently and maintained over time, are what allow the right pieces to find their way into our meaningful projects and into our special clients’ homes.