What's the coolest piece of home decor you have?

[Anonymous]

We used to have this really cool pendant lighting where each of five lights hung at different heights from CB2 that I really loved (we've since moved). It was hung in the dining room and it made me happy every time I saw it.

[Anonymous]

Many years ago, we bought a large metal and wood sculpture from this artist at a craft fair in Bethesda: http://www.carlospage.com/studio

It makes me so happy to look at it.

[Anonymous]

A large print of a Mucha advertisement for a production of Medea starring Sarah Bernhardt in Paris. I bought it years ago at the Mucha museum in Prague while at a writing conference. It reminds me of my trip to Prague which is my favorite city, my dedication to writing fiction, the acting career I had many years ago, my love of the Greeks, my love of theater, how much I love the Art Nouveau period. It wraps up a lot of loves into one piece.

[Anonymous]

An antique wooden foundry pattern that my mom refinished and turned into a side table. She had someone add a customized glass top and customized wooden legs. She worked in a GE pattern factory and when the factory closed, she took one of the patterns that was being thrown away. It's functional but also a really cool piece of furniture.

What is a foundry pattern? A wooden gear foundry pattern is a hand-crafted mold made out of mahogany. Molten metal would be poured into the pattern/mold to create a piece of machinery.

[Anonymous]

An original Picasso in my dining room.

[Anonymous]

Our dining room hanging light and matching floor lamps. Brass with bluish glass "flying saucer" disks. Crazy expensive for us at the time but cherished.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:An original Picasso in my dining room.

Cool. I have a Peter Kingston, John Olsen, Guy Warren, Wendy Sharpe, and several less-well-known Australian painters.

[Anonymous]

A limited print book that was written by my great grandfather, detailing the history of our family.

My relatives have the rest of the family stuff, including all the ugly oil paintings of ancestors. I know where my double chin comes from. The valuable historical stuff is in a bank and we lend it out to museums once in a while (but there's always the risk of theft, so we're careful).

[Anonymous]

One of my favorite things is a wall hanging tapestry of fields of tulips that my dad got in the Netherlands when he was stationed in Europe in the 1950s.

[Anonymous]

I like my house but nothing in it is that special to me except a few pieces of art, and they’re only special because I like them, not in the eyes of the world.

[Anonymous]

I have an oil painting done of my grandma in the 1940s. It's hot pink and teal coloring, so everyone in my family hated it, but I adore it. It fits my eclectic house perfectly.

[Anonymous]

Old family stuff—framed recipes, citizenship papers, hand-sewn monograms.

[Anonymous]

Stickley dining room table/chairs and two different pieces of art commissioned by us from two different artists we liked.

[Anonymous]

A beautiful oil painting done by my grandmother. She was a talented amateur artist and almost all my relatives have her works displayed in their homes. She liked painting themes for different generations. She chose her beach cottage for her grandchildren, and I got the full moon over the bay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An original Picasso in my dining room.

Cool. I have a Peter Kingston, John Olsen, Guy Warren, Wendy Sharpe, and several less-well-known Australian painters.

My FIL was a physician and treated Guy. We have several works of his, along with some Downings, Watts, Forbes, and a bunch of Zupans, though we dont display those. Thank God for the country house or we'd be out of wall space!