I love home decorating books.  My own townhome does not reflect this interest, but I love peeking into other’s lives and seeing what they have done with their living space.  What colors have they chosen, furniture, art, tchotchkes, and the space itself.  Home is personal and it should be.

Here are two of the most interesting homes I’ve read about.

I just found out about the tiny Kyoto house.  It is featured in the Wall Street Journal.  The goal was to seamlessly integrate private and public space.  640 square feet house a couple and their two small sons.  Most amazing to me is that it has NO closets!   And the main area is only 6 1/2 ft. wide.  Passer bys stop and peer in at them through the window and they are usually fine with that but on occassions they wish for privacy, they can pull a giant curtain across the window.

Most interesting for me is the apartment that inspired the Cowboy Junkies’ song “Five Room Love Story”-Joseph Furey’s railroad apartment in Brooklyn, NY.  Grieving after the loss of his wife, between 1982-1988, Mr. Furey covered nailed or glued thousands of pieces of decoupage onto just about every surface.  Unfortunatley the apartment is deteriorating and the Brooklyn Museum of Art is salvaging what they can.

These two homes definitely wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but they work(ed) for the owners.  That’s the whole point of home, to make it your own.

I love that the artwork on my walls is all created by friends.  I know I have one of a kind pieces and I know the stories attached to them.

What makes your home interesting to you?