who
darleen, 42 (interior decorator)
where
cellar of a three-story building in williamsburg, brooklyn, ny
decorating on the cheap
"I am very big on recycling. There's a store in my neighborhood called Green Village, where furniture is literally piled to the rafters, and it's all very cheap. It's the stuff you WON'T find in antique stores. Most of my furniture came from there. I painted most pieces bright blue to look
like the sky in a Technicolor movie. Tile conceals ruined surfaces. I love the turquoise credenza with the tile top [in the living room]--some of the tiles are mirrors. The round table with the gold lamp on it [also in the living room] came from a store in New York called Housing Works. It looks like something out of a grotto. When I saw a companion piece at another shop, the owner told me that it's rare and worth a lot of money. I think I paid just $85 for my table. My Russian friend carried it several blocks on his head!"
the philosophy
"There's just so much fantastic, funny stuff out there. I can't understand people who have to surround themselves with dull, uninteresting things--all in the guise of "good taste." While visiting some friends I found a cute orange needlepoint picture and hung it on the wall because I just couldn't take the humorlessness of their guest room. When I told them I found the picture, they said, "Don't make fun of it!" As if I would! I LOVED it! Aesthetically, we are living in very dark times, thinking this way. Most people love my place. They say it's like being in another world. I take that as a huge compliment--since whenever I try to picture "another world"--it's always a fantasy, or heaven."