Mom's
Mom's always had a natural flair for decorating which she, at times, lets me play with moving things around too. Like her vignette above, I love it.
The big picture of the living room.
Some detail in the corner of the living room, lots 'o antiques everywhere.
There are always the requisite Carl Larsson prints we all have at least some of in our homes; a nod to our strong Swedish heritage.
Juxing of the monkey lunch box on the cheetah foot stool.
A fab gift, the bright pink flamingo pillow, left to her after a friend passed.
A memory pillow I made for my parents one Christmas.
Stepping into her tiny bedroom.
Sweet little iron bed with the antique quilt and pillows.
My aunt, my mom's sister, had these pillows made from quilts that weren't perfect after their mother passed. There were enough that everyone in the family got at least two; great idea for sharing heirlooms.
Even her wardrobe has the same feel and sensibility as her decor.
When my dad worked for Pacific Grove Florist, the girls made this arrangement for him to give my mom for their anniversary. After the original flowers died they made an exact replica of the arrangements from silk flowers for the same original beautiful antique vessel.
A little couch/daybed in the dining room for company in there.
Details of vignettes in the kitchen.
Same here.
The overview of the kitchen and dining area.
There's always company for dinner...one of Mom's obsessive creative endeavours.
Cool stuff outside, too, Dad's stuff and...
...as gifts. Thanks for stopping by.
John's Place
My mom met John through a mutual friend at the shop that's next door to his home. Actually, they are in the same building; John owns the building and rents the shop out. The shop will be on the "Shops" post and is great too. Mom told both John and I that I HAD to see his home while I was here so she called and we went. 
She promised I would be very glad we went and I was. I told him I couldn't believe I'd "scooped" his place; that one Mary or Martha or someone had not done a story on him and his place yet. Ha! So you're seeing it here first folks!!
John insisted I get on this antique amusement park ride piece to get the picture. Every piece of everything in his home is special, right down to the utensils, seriously.
He's an attorney, a big mucky muck in the community, and just has this great sense of style that most regular guys don't have. Not that he's not a special, interesting person-he is-I'm just trying to say that he's not going to be on a T.V. show with 3 other guys. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
This is his thing, hobby wise, I guess...buying buildings and rehabbing them. I asked him about Portland, seeming obvious, but he's from Corvallis, his children and grandchildren are here and he loves living here. He's got the best of both worlds; he lives in his hometown but travels the world. Most of his pieces are from his travels.
Unlike this train set that's been in his family for several generations. He has it displayed on a real train rail on his long narrow dining table.
It's not a great photo but the table is in the middle of this part of the room. It's a huge piece of wood sitting on an old H.P. factory assembly table with the innards removed. Hewlett Packard's headquarters is here. When they moved the factory, John snagged several cool factory items for his re purpose.
There are many smalls in vignettes with either family or travel history.
His home is the second floor of the building; all open except for three "rooms" he made with partitions. In the open area, which is the majority, he has several room areas within the one area. This is the living room area of the room.
I've never seen such wonderful use of so many different styles; Asian, contemporary, art deco, antiques, simple, formal, rustic, complex. Amazing.
You can probably guess by now that he's into trains. There were so many, I didn't get enough shots and/or didn't have the right lighting for more of them. This set is on the track on a rail running along his stairway.
This was once a Burmese bed which he turned into the kitchen. And when I say "he" I mean he does these things himself, not hires out.
Also from Burma, Myanmar actually now, is this door and stair railing which seems like an optical illusion, like outside coming in or inside going out.
Many object, such as this hanging lamp which he made out of several different pieces of lamps and lanterns sitting around. Bright royal blue, subtle mauve, several greens, rust, red, gray all colors living together just like all the styles living together in such a beautiful way. Too bad we can't get humans to do this...
A reflection of Mom and John in a mirror which came out of John's childhood home; just a standard builder's mirror that he put between two wood art pieces he'd not known what to do with and added a staircase. He said many folks had tried to walk into it.
The original working freight elevator and door. It reminded me of the Oella Mill rehab.
One last funny before leaving. John has this old electrical breaker, non-working of course, near the door. He'd had it further up the stairs but moved it lower because he always likes to scare folks who try to touch it. Good thing my mother taught me not to touch ANYTHING, I got to just enjoy it with my eyes.
She promised I would be very glad we went and I was. I told him I couldn't believe I'd "scooped" his place; that one Mary or Martha or someone had not done a story on him and his place yet. Ha! So you're seeing it here first folks!!
John insisted I get on this antique amusement park ride piece to get the picture. Every piece of everything in his home is special, right down to the utensils, seriously.
He's an attorney, a big mucky muck in the community, and just has this great sense of style that most regular guys don't have. Not that he's not a special, interesting person-he is-I'm just trying to say that he's not going to be on a T.V. show with 3 other guys. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
This is his thing, hobby wise, I guess...buying buildings and rehabbing them. I asked him about Portland, seeming obvious, but he's from Corvallis, his children and grandchildren are here and he loves living here. He's got the best of both worlds; he lives in his hometown but travels the world. Most of his pieces are from his travels.
Unlike this train set that's been in his family for several generations. He has it displayed on a real train rail on his long narrow dining table.
It's not a great photo but the table is in the middle of this part of the room. It's a huge piece of wood sitting on an old H.P. factory assembly table with the innards removed. Hewlett Packard's headquarters is here. When they moved the factory, John snagged several cool factory items for his re purpose.
There are many smalls in vignettes with either family or travel history.
His home is the second floor of the building; all open except for three "rooms" he made with partitions. In the open area, which is the majority, he has several room areas within the one area. This is the living room area of the room.
I've never seen such wonderful use of so many different styles; Asian, contemporary, art deco, antiques, simple, formal, rustic, complex. Amazing.
You can probably guess by now that he's into trains. There were so many, I didn't get enough shots and/or didn't have the right lighting for more of them. This set is on the track on a rail running along his stairway.
This was once a Burmese bed which he turned into the kitchen. And when I say "he" I mean he does these things himself, not hires out.
Also from Burma, Myanmar actually now, is this door and stair railing which seems like an optical illusion, like outside coming in or inside going out.
Many object, such as this hanging lamp which he made out of several different pieces of lamps and lanterns sitting around. Bright royal blue, subtle mauve, several greens, rust, red, gray all colors living together just like all the styles living together in such a beautiful way. Too bad we can't get humans to do this...
A reflection of Mom and John in a mirror which came out of John's childhood home; just a standard builder's mirror that he put between two wood art pieces he'd not known what to do with and added a staircase. He said many folks had tried to walk into it.
The original working freight elevator and door. It reminded me of the Oella Mill rehab.
One last funny before leaving. John has this old electrical breaker, non-working of course, near the door. He'd had it further up the stairs but moved it lower because he always likes to scare folks who try to touch it. Good thing my mother taught me not to touch ANYTHING, I got to just enjoy it with my eyes. 
