Hanging a frame in my apartment the other day, a crooked placement gave me pause. I had vetoed elaborate measurements and diagrammed planning for a more shorthand process (out of laziness, more than anything else). Standing back to evaluate, I realized I was okay with the happenstance nature of its position. The askew frame added a human element, which fits the space. My Brooklyn rental is quite old. The space reflects its years in warped wood floors, exposed silver radiators, and layer upon layer of paint. Striving for gross perfection is a futile game in here.
Anyone with a penchant for antiquity in all its manifestations is bound to face similar dilemmas. This is not a unique inclination—according to Anthony Barzilay Freund, editorial director and director of fine art at 1stDibs, orders for vintage and antique items over the past several months are up. Helen Rice, cofounder of Fuzzco, Ponytail, and Serious Buildings, adheres to similar principles. “Wabi-sabi comes to mind, finding beauty in imperfection, impermanence, and simplicity,” she explains of her approach to curation. “It relates to a particular aesthetic in design, but it’s really a philosophy that, to me, feels like an intuitive relationship or collaboration with forces that are greater than you.”
When Rice lovingly restored her Charleston residence, originally built in 1839, she insisted on keeping oddities like worn-out corners of door, and then filled it with antique furniture. “I like things with scars and patina because they have texture and depth of color—and they soften the new white lacquered coffee table in their midst,” she says. “The same philosophy applies to what makes a lot of things in life great: music (voices like Bob Dylan or Conor Oberst), writing (even bad grammar), people, style, etc.”
Hollie Bowden, a London-based interior designer, remarks that it’s pretty arbitrary who decides what perfection is: “A really important part of being a designer for me is questioning inherited ideas about value and beauty.” In the landscape of today’s social-media-driven age, fast-fashion style microtrends supersede spaces curated over time. Barzilay Freund notes that “in an era of AI-generated imagery and the rapid advances (some could say dehumanizing nature) of technology in general, people are gravitating toward objects that bear the mark of the human hand and show the passage of time through patina and wear.”
