Greg Irvine...Collector

 "This is not the home of a hoarder.  Greg’s collections are tightly controlled.  The rule is ‘if I can’t display it, I don’t own it’ – he’s not interested in simply amassing things and squirrelling them away.  Each collection is carefully considered, and artfully displayed.  To Greg, they are installations – curated, and meticulously well kept...For Greg, collecting is an extension of his artwork."

 The Design Files

My Latest Collection

I love to shop at flea markets, thrift stores and yard sales. The problem is I have almost run out of room in my home...I like stuff! So, my solution is to collect an assortment of items and corral them together.

Beautiful, small, decorated boxes are my newest collection and the best part is I can fill them with smaller collections..

Vintage Dress Form

I didn't even realize I wanted one of these until I found one...

My adjustable, bird cage dress form is from the late 1800's. She was a bit of a splurge, but is one of those unique items that makes a fun addition to a home. I currently have her dressed with my collection of pins and I think she looks charming.

Fiestaware

When we moved to Maine from Nevada we needed to lighten the load as much as possible. This was a great opportunity to leave behind the things that we no longer needed and update some things we have had for years. Our everyday dishes for instance. I had been collecting pieces of Yorktown Pfaltzgraff since our wedding. They still looked great, but I was no longer in love with the blue & white designs.

Pfaltzgraff

My sister had been collecting Fiestaware, in all the colors. I love the form of the pieces and the colors look so great stacked in her cabinets. Fiestaware has been around since 1936. The original pieces are highly collectible and often very pricey. Fortunately new pieces are reasonably priced. New colors are always being introduced and other colors discontinued.

I chose sea mist (now discontinued) and turquoise to start. I have since added chartreuse (discontinued color-found mine on eBay), peacock blue and shamrock.

These are my plates. I like the monochromatic look. Maybe in the future I'll add another color.

Collections

I was never really into collecting until my husband and I had our own apartment. All our furniture was family hand-me-downs and we had very little money, and no extra to upgrade the furnishings. Our apartment lacked all sense of a home.This was the 80's and design magazines had just started showing up. I fell for the "country" look in my favorite magazines - Country Living and Country Home. These homes had STUFF, remember country clutter. The articles talked about country collectibles and antique stores. We were living in west Texas at the time and lucky enough to have many antique stores.  I started collecting slowly. A cobalt dish caught my eye, I found out this was called depression glass and immediately purchased a book on the subject. I spent years working on this collection-plates, cups, saucers, bowls and tumblers. Then other things caught my eye (pillows, quilts, pottery, picnic baskets, miniature irons, glass candy containers, flower pictures, children's chairs, tole trays, seltzer bottles, enamelware...). I would stop collecting an item when the price would get too high. I still have many of these collections, even though I am no longer a fan of country clutter. I like to display my collections around our home.

It's these kind of collections that really give a home personality.