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Diana Budds

‘What We Keep’: 50 creatives on the objects they collect and use in their homes

What We Keep interior book images.

To Jean Lin, design is elemental. Since opening her Tribeca gallery Colony — a serene loft on bustling Canal Street — in 2014, she’s launched countless careers, nurtured recent art school grads, and connected people with taste to objects that excite them. Now, after a decade in business, and just as she’s moving into a new space a few blocks away, she’s published her first book, What We Keep: Advice from Artists and Designers on Living with the Things You Love, which is available to order now.

'What We Keep: Advice from Artists and Designers on Living with the Things You Love'

(Image credit: Jean Lin)

The book features over 50 home tours and studio visits. Among them are TWA Hotel designer Adam Rolston’s vibrant Washington Heights apartment; Mira Nakashima’s residence in New Hope, Pennsylvania; and Workstead co-founder Robert Highsmith’s 19th-century house in western Connecticut. The interiors, and objects within them, are ravishing. 

They also tell deeply personal stories about why collectors become so obsessive about their things. It might be because of the thrill of finding something, because they view themselves as caretakers of history, or simply because they felt a visceral reaction to the pattern of a textile or shape of a bowl. 'These pieces and the places they inhabit can reveal something of who we are—as creative professionals, as neighbours, as friends, as mothers and daughters, as contributors to a society—a place in history that we can be proud of,' Lin writes.

Alexander Girard was a mid-century icon and champion of folk-art sensibilities. His granddaughter, Aleishall, created Girard Studio out of love and reverence for his legacy, while carving a path for herself as an artist and a designer. In the studio, a stacked textile collection also provides inspiration (Image credit: Brooke Holm)

What We Keep arrives during a moment of renewed interest in collecting. Recent books like The New Antiquarians and How to Live with Objects have articulated the novel ways that younger generations are cultivating their collections and Lin’s tome belongs to the same ecosystem. However, few of the people in the book actually think of themselves as 'collectors' in the traditional sense, even though they all share a well-articulated sense of aesthetics and taste. 

'It was really important to me that what’s in the book didn't feel unattainable and it didn't feel statusy in any way,' Lin tells Wallpaper*. 'I'm not somebody who lives an extravagant life because I just, it's not who I am, but that doesn't mean that I'm not surrounded by beautiful design and that I don't care about design and about beauty.'

Architect Brent Buck’s prized Dansk pepper mills displayed in a custom-built archway in his home. Brent was first drawn to these mills while thrifting with his wife; he prizes both the quality of the wood and their handmade aspect (Image credit: Brooke Holm)

You won’t find the usual suspects on the pages, like the design objects with name recognition that set records at auction. But you will see unexpected items, like interior designer Ghislane Viñas’s collection of rubber vaginas, which she unabashedly displays on a coffee table; Brooklyn architect Brent Buck’s troupe of mid-century Danish pepper mills, which he lovingly repaired and restored over the years; and dozens of cacti in the home of Santa Fe furniture designer Jonathan Boyd ('I don’t go for the rarest; I go for the ones that I find to be the most beautiful, and it takes me all over the place,' he says).

Creative director Benjamin Reynaert uses his home as his styling playground, displaying his collections in different settings. Plates on walls, porcelain framed in built-in shelves, and a gallery wall showcasing his creative process change, move, and are swapped out on a regular basis (Image credit: Brooke Holm)

The stories behind these collections are often quite moving. For Preeti Sriratana, a New York–based architect, acquiring multiple portraits of the same woman by Kambui Olujimi helped him process the grief he felt after losing his grandmother. They also reflect the reality that many people become accidental collectors. To wit: Worrell Yeung’s mismatched pairs of cocktail glasses ('I guess we only ever buy two,' he comments in the book) and the many empty decorative boxes in Rolston and his partner’s apartment ('We could put something in them. They represent potential,' he says).

KWH Furniture’s wood studio in the Brooklyn Navy Yard proves that organization is a key component to precision in design (Image credit: Brooke Holm)

There’s a refreshing sentiment throughout the book that if something speaks to you, it’s worth listening to what it says. 'When people talk about the things that they surround themselves with, it uncovers truths that aren't normally uncovered,' Lin says. 'A lot of the people who I asked to be in the book, aren't necessarily all asked about their things. That uncovered a lot of juicy, fun, and intimate stories.'

What We Keep: Advice from Artists and Designers on Living with the Things You Love is published from Abrams Books

Weaver and textile artist Hiroko Takeda’s studio has four large looms, one of which was gifted to her by Jack Larsen Studio (Image credit: Brooke Holm)
Functional sterling silver treasures by Indigenous artisans are stamped with intricate patterns at Shiprock Santa Fe, from a chapter titled 'How to Collect Sterling Silver (For Beginners Like Me)' (Image credit: Brooke Holm)
At the home of designer Robert Highsmith, an unexpected twist of matching a lampshade to the wallpaper creates a delightful trompe l’oeil (Image credit: Brooke Holm)
Good Black Art was born in this loft. Phillip Collins, its founder and a former marketing executive, wanted to share the stories of the Black creative diaspora (Image credit: Brooke Holm)
These sterling silver trays are heirlooms from a collector's mother. Displayed on a stain-less steel bar cart, the grouping seamlessly marries traditional and contemporary sensibilities (Image credit: Brooke Holm)
How to find the flow: A room with flow is both centred and open. Punctuated by a basket collection, each piece in this space leads the eye of the viewer to the next object, creating a fascinating progression (Image credit: Brooke Holm)
The kitchen of furniture maker Jonathan Boyd, founder of Boyd & Allister. This is an important room in his house: he was once a private chef and is opening a restaurant in Santa Fe, called Goldtooth (Image credit: Brooke Holm)
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