When I look at some of the gorgeous houses featured in shelter magazines, my first question is always the same: where’s their stuff? Where are the books that they’re in the middle of reading? Where are the children’s toys, the dogs’ toys? Where are the family pictures, the treasures brought back from trips, the little pieces that show that you have interests and hobbies?
At Halcyon, you can read our interests the moment you walk through the door. There are paintings which reflect our interest in our history and in the history of Baltimore. The cookbooks, that are well-used and well-read, are close at hand in the kitchen. Flowers from the garden or greenhouse are arranged in old trophies, vases and glasses. Magazines are stacked and then read at leisure.
And if there’s dog hair, it’s because we love our dogs. There are four, soon again to be five, of them, ranging from very little and bouncy to very big and slow. They shed black, white and brown fur. Their dog bowls are old pieces of china or silver, used and loved every single day. And yes, you might have to step over a slobbery toy that one of the dogs has momentarily discarded.
When people come to our house, they’re not afraid to sit on any chair or sofa. They can set their drink on a table without (much) worry. And if a drink does spill, it’s really not the end of the world; our friends mean more to us than our chairs do.
Every piece in our house has a story to it. We can tell you how it came down through the family or which auction we battled through to win it. We can cite dates of the artist who painted it and point out that tiny detail that marks it as early Baltimore.
We laugh about the wrong turn down the alley in Fiorenza that landed us on the doorstep of an artist we’d never have discovered otherwise. We can flip to a page in a book or magazine to help illustrate a point.
It’s integrating life into your living space that helps make a house a home, and we wouldn’t have our house look any other way.
Read “The View From Halcyon Farm” every Saturday in the Baltimore Fishbowl. Halcyon House is located at 11219 Greenspring Avenue in Lutherville. For more information, visit www.halcyonhouseantiques.com.
