Searching For: Perforated Things

Texture, contrast, vibes aplenty—the chicest holes for your home (and a few for your closet, too).

Full disclosure, after watching Bella Freud’s latest podcast episode of Fashion Neurosis with Courtney Love, I changed the subhead for this story to Live Through This. Someone told me it was too obscure, but ACKKKK, I wanted to (maybe I should have). Regardless, listen/watch the episode, it’s HEAVEN in your ears, and made me fall in love all over again with CL and all her freakishly wondrous fashion history references—this woman should be teaching a class at Parsons or CSM or SOMEWHERE…she knows EVERYTHING. Courtney, I ❤️ you…

Before we get into today’s story, just a few tiny + sweet things...

1. The David Lynch auction at Julien’s goes live TOMORROW. I wrote about it here in case you want to see what DL treasures I have my eye on.

2. I’ve been searching a lot lately for vintage SISLEY, an Italian label I was obsessed with in the ‘90s (still am; story about my other latest vtg searches coming soon). When I was hunting I found these pants AND also this book (same search!), which feels like it could be its own Substack.

   

3. My dear friend Jolene Handy writes the coziest, most satiating newsletter called Time Travel Kitchen about our personal histories w/food…every edition is like a love letter from a worldly BFF who BAKES for you. I loved her recent piece about the romance of ice pops, featuring this photo she took on her Great Jones baking sheet. It made me want to order this and this from Great Jones for the cabin, too.

   

4. I’ll be sharing some close-to-finished (aka: 4ever a work-in-progress:) cabin bedroom images (with my friends over at Boll & Branch…I love their vintage washed sheets so much) in a post on IG tomorrow. When I was looking at Raffi’s room, it occurred to me that we basically created another (more rustic) version of her tiny room in Brooklyn, complete with slanted roof…wild, right?

   

   

Last bit: This edition is long, so maybe click through to your Substack app to read it sans interruption…xxCb

It is possible that my love of perforated things was born back in the mid-aughts when I salvaged a large piece of pristine white pegboard from a small design company called Aux Armes (hi Dino & Sam!) that had moved out of our shared offices and left it behind. They’d used it for various art tools and random studio ephemera, which always made me smile when I walked passed it everyday. When I eventually saw it abandoned in the hallway, I hauled it home in a taxi, after which my then boyfriend/now husband hung it on the wall in a corner of our studio over his desk. And, I TELL YOU, if that sleek white slab of graphic dots wasn’t an instant room slayer (is that a thing?), I do not know what is.

Since our first rescue, I’ve integrated more pegboard and other perforated things into my life with regularity. Using it as a kitchen organizer (aka Julia The Great), an instant “closet” behind my daughter’s bedroom door, and as textural punctuation, visually breaking up our mostly white walls. (I really want to make a headboard out of pegboard, too, but that’s another project). Now, when I see metal, wood, or any other perforated material, my heart rate automatically accelerates. And, it occurred to me how handy it is to have a piece or two of holy things in your home/space…for function, YES, but also because there is something to that “friction” or “tension” design people like to talk about—that THING that wakes you up and takes your eye on a journey of interest/delight through a space.

It’s also just COOL. Is there a world where I might turn my metal perforated colander into a pendant lamp? (Maybe a vintage one:). Until then, here are my favorite very interesting perforated things to get you thinking about where you might like some extra texture in your life.᠅

PS: Today’s newsletter has a paywall, but I placed it pretty far down, so if you’re on the free list, and like what you see, consider upgrading. You’ll be supporting this tiny growing biz here while ALSO getting access to a whole bunch of wonderful ATA summer stories to come, including my Summer Micro Wardrobe, Tiny Home Tours, what we can learn from GREAT hotel rooms, my movie list for air conditioning, the best wearable + lovely summer dresses, my stainless steel kitchen makeover(!!), timely Ebay searches galore, our big Future Cottage reveal, giveaways/vintage sales, and more ❤️🏡🔮.

A one-of-a-kind table lamp from 1973.

This one is cool, made in 1973 by a French sheet metal worker “who would experiment at his factory, between shifts, with available material,” according to The Oblist, where it’s featured. Pricey but well worth it for all the compliments AND the fantastical light show it likely projects.

A pink Italian pendant lamp from the ‘60s.

For some reason, this one reminds me of the early Diner days in Williamsburg. I cannot remember if they ever had pendant lamps like this (we’re talking 20+ years ago when they opened), but when I think back to that time, huddled snugly together eating dinner at the bar, this lamp feels like it was there, too.

Can you believe this one is Pottery Barn Teen?

And I want two of them!

Perforated Artimeta Nesting tables…3 for the price of 1.

The colors elevate these Mathieu Matégot-style tables from garden to living room. I love the idea of them lined up along a wall in ascending order, displaying different objets/mementos/books of the moment.

See-through wall art by Lulu & Georgia.

Paper cutouts on a linen backdrop, made to order. Comes in different shades, too, but I love this black one the best. Would be amazing in a grouping of two or four in a grid pattern.

Vintage oblong Mathieu Matégot-style tray.

It’s definitely a tray, and it’s definitely ART.

Vintage 1960s Pilastro magazine rack, aka GOOSEBUMPS.

I am working on an essay about why I miss magazines so much (at the risk of sounding like the luddite that I am steadily morphing into). If I owned this table, I would use it to rotate my collections of vintage W magazines, Self Service, Flair, Rookie, and British Vogues…and my stacks of old World of Interiors, too. 👵🏼

PS: OMG! Remember that vintage postcard I posted to my IG Stories over the weekend?? ORANGE LAMP alert!! ⬆️+⬇️…whatt?? are the bases the same? 🤯

A very attractive fruit bowl by West Elm/Billy Cotton.

So lovely. I WANT IT.

My favorite perforated Clemmie shoes by Rachel Comey.