Collective Soul

HEIRLOOM HOARDER: I feel like a lot of people would describe my style as vintage bohemian, but I would just describe it as nostalgic. I like things that have a story with them.

GLOBETROTTER: There are a fair amount of things in my apartment from when I traveled across Asia. I try to collect little things along the way.

FORTUNATE FIND: I love the hutch piece against the wall that I actually bought off eBay. It was luckily located a couple of hours away and, at the time, I was driving a minivan, which was the only reason I was able to get it back here. It was awesome because, typically, if you find vintage furniture online, the shipping is astronomical.

WONDER WALL: The two things on the hangers are a scarf and collar that I bought in Laos when I was traveling. The portrait is actually just a print I bought off of Etsy, and it’s supposed to be a picture of a mannequin in the 1920s.

GREEN ELEMENT: I really love having plants around. They are supposed to purify the air, and I think they are a nice sculptural way to decorate—and they are pretty inexpensive. I am kind of an accidental plant killer. I replace my plants often when they start to look too pitiful. The fire escape is the graveyard of all of my almost-dead plants. When I feel too guilty to look at them anymore, they have to go on the fire escape. I always think deep down that they are going to magically flourish out there, but they don’t.

SUBTLE CUES: I look to old movies, magazines, and books for inspiration. I have some books of 1930s interiors and, a lot of the time, I won’t literally translate ideas from them, but I will definitely find inspiration.

TRENDSETTER: I have a lot of friends who get their own place say to me, “I don’t know what I want my style to be,” and that doesn’t really ever occur to me. I’m just someone who collects whatever I really love.