trash and treasure

there are so many things that go into the look and feel of a home and the rooms inside. it's easy to get lost in focusing on the big pieces - floor coverings, paint colors, fabrics, finishes - but it is often the tiniest details that provide the most visual mileage and pleasure. the items around our homes, and often the smallest of those items, are markers of who we are and where we've been - they are the pieces we bring home from the places we've been, and the memories of people we love that we hold onto. likewise, these items have the ability to make a home truly reflective of the people who live there, providing little hits of pleasure each time we take them in.

these pretty wastebaskets are two of these such items for me - i resuced them from non-use at my grandmother's house, and although she doesn't remember where she got them, i imagine her on one of the many, many trips she and my grandfather took. i like to think of her in a fantastic hat on some island picking them out or in some tiny shop in a city in spain or italy. of course, they're probably from a drugstore in brooklyn, but whatever. each time i catch a glimpse of these in my bedroom, i am pleased, first because they're pretty, but also because they make me think of my grandmother and her excellent taste. while i could just be using plastic or stainless steel trash cans, which would certainly do the job, instead, the utilitarian purpose of collecting trash has been elevated to a thing of beauty and memory. it all goes back to the idea of loving everything in your home.

apparently my grandmother and i aren't the only ones with fancy taste in wastebaskets, as evidenced by a spread in this month's house beautiful.