EPHEMERAL BEAUTY
Artist and antiques dealer Kathy Myers uses her home as a showcase for her work and a place in which to indulge her passion for the past
We’ve been here for 15 years, but it’s still a work in progress, still evolving,’ says artist and antiques dealer Kathy Myers with a smile, adding that her home in Ontario, which she shares with her husband, Wayne, and one of their sons, Blayne, is a threedimensional canvas on which she can ‘play with colour and shape’. Filled with her huge collection of
objets trouvés and ephemera, and furnished with painted cabinets, antique sofas and chairs upholstered with vintage linens and old postal sacks (often bearing attractive lettering), the house has the magical feel of a stage set or a giant cabinet of curiosities. The same, slightly romantic and eclectic aesthetic is at play in Kathy’s artwork and the ornaments she creates for her Etsy shop and her home: snow globes made from medicine bottles and sepia-tinted photographs line the mantelpieces; decorated eggs, feathers and twine # ll ceramic bowls in a painted cabinet; and wire crinoline frames make ornamental hangings.
‘ I’ve always loved antiques,’ she says. ‘ It’s an interest I inherited from my grandmother.’ One of her prized possessions is the rocking chair she inherited when she was 22. ‘It’s wired, nailed and roped together and I adore
it. I remember seeing it in my grandmother’s room when I stayed there. It’s in rough shape and no one should really sit on it. It’s art now.’
These days, Kathy shares her love of interiors and antiques with her daughter, Melissa Storkson, whose taste is slightly more industrial. They often collaborate and it was Melissa who provided the antique linens used throughout the house. She buys French postal bags and German grain sacks, which she turns into curtains, rugs and cushions. ‘ Melissa is a talented seamstress and I was so thankful that her vision reflected how I felt about the space.’ They both wanted the house to feel light and airy, which they achieved with a simple palette of pale, weathered greys, lilacs and sepia tones.
It’s a far cry from the way it looked back in 2003, when Kathy and Wayne $ rst went to view it. ‘ We stumbled upon the house, took one look and then drove away,’ laughs Kathy. Despite its obvious potential, with a large garden in which they could build a studio, she just couldn’t see past its ‘ Tex-Mex design’. The walls were painted yellow and orange, the "oors were bright red and it was in a very bad state. ‘ It really wasn’t me at all but, in the end, we couldn’t find anything better.’ Having done up a number of homes over the years, Kathy was confident she could transform it. ‘ My homes have all been very different – they’ve each included antiques and industrial furniture, but the scheme is never the same,’ she says. ‘It’s a matter of responding to what is there, in order to make it a home.’
Some months later, armed with sleeping bags and pots of paint, Kathy and Melissa moved in, ahead of the rest of the family. Their plan was to blot out the clashing colours, leaving a blank canvas on which they could start the re- decoration. ‘ But the house was in such a state,’ Kathy recalls, ‘we spent all that time just cleaning.’
By the time the furniture arrived, everything was exactly as it had been the $ rst time they saw the house – just a lot cleaner and brighter. ‘ I decided
to let the house speak to me,’ says Kathy. ‘I like to surround myself with groupings of things and I’m fascinated by the colour friendships this creates, so it made sense to live in the space before committing to a new scheme.’
It was while watching the way the sunlight came through the sitting room window that Kathy "nally understood how to approach the decoration. ‘ I had an epiphany,’ she laughs. ‘ The way that the daylight moved around the room and how I felt whenever I sat in a certain spot suddenly revealed what I wanted to see around me.’ She began by tearing up the carpets throughout the house. ‘ What a difference that made!’
In the hall, a collection of old wine labels inspired Kathy to paint the stairs. ‘ I had these great old labels – and I also love good wine – so I matched the colours to the labels and taped off the pattern.’ It took several days, working only a few steps at a time in order to allow the family access to the rest of the house – although she admits that accidents with wet paint and pets was inevitable.
Kathy worked on the renovation room by room, explaining that she tends to leave the worst till last. ‘ In my head, I believe it’ll need more than just paint and I also need the rest of the home and inhabitants to feel happy before I start ripping stuff up again.’ That said, there are times when marital harmony is put to the test.
‘I had these great old labels – and I also love good wine – so I matched the colours to the labels and taped o! the pattern.’
‘ Wayne and I don’t always see eye to eye,’ Kathy admits. ‘Sometimes I get the look that says: “What are you doing?”’ The kitchen is a case in point. ‘It was something he saw materialise slowly and with great interest,’ she laughs, recalling how she removed almost all of the storage, replacing the wall-mounted cabinets with open shelves and under- counter doors with heavy linen curtains. Wayne can’t imagine living with cupboards now.
A wonderful book of old doctor’s prescriptions was the starting point for the bedroom walls. ‘At first I framed them, but that’s been done and there were so many. They were all so interesting, I decided to use them to decorate an entire wall.’ A stash of old furniture tacks were an attractive, semi-permanent way of putting them up. One quickly senses that, when the creative urge takes hold, Kathy is happy to dismantle even the most elaborate installation.
‘ When something no longer fits, I sell it off and release it to make space for what inspires me.’ She’s pragmatic about such changes. ‘ It’s not an end,’ she says, ‘it’s a beginning.’