this is why i keep crap.

i've been a martha stewart loyalist since the early 90s, when my mom got the very first issue of "living." the colors, style, creativity, photography and articles sucked me into the world of martha and i didn't want to leave. each month, when a new issue arrived, i would flip through and imagine the day i could utilize all her miraculous yet "duh, why didn't i think of that?!" tips, or cook some amazing recipe, or create something beautiful. i have the entire library of magazines since subscribing in '96, including baby, kids, and halloween, and flip through them when i need to de-stress or unwind. i was lucky enough to fill in years 93-95 from a yard sale for $10. that was a happy day. and happiest day of the year? the day her december issue arrives.

i'm serious.

even when she went to jail, i remained firmly in her corner. say what you will about the woman, she's brilliant at what she does and what she's built.

through martha, i became totally smitten with darcy miller, when her work was introduced in the premier issue of martha stewart weddings, which serendipitously dropped the month after i got engaged. her fresh ideas and simple creativity always blow me away.

in a recent issue of "living," there was a feature on darcy's scrapboxes:

now, since i scrapbook, the idea of scrapboxes was instantly intriguing to me. here, at last, was my justification for all the flotsam i've collected through life and keep stowing away in boxes. every time i try to purge, a few items remain stubbornly in the "i can't get rid of that" pile. and now i know why.

my purpose in life is to make a scrapbox gallery wall. and i know just the place for it.

our entry/stairway in the new house looks like this:

so i'm thinking that shallow gallery ledges will create this kind of look ...

on the corner of the stairway landing, with a gallery of framed art and family photos on either side leading up/down the stairs.

sounds heavenly to me.

i take hundreds of photos a year, and yet i display so few in my home. i want our new house to be steeped in all things family. i want it to reflect a casual, comfortable, welcoming vibe. and what could do that better than boxes filled with all the little trinkets and ephemera of our lives that i've so faithfully hung onto over the years?

the only constant i've ever held about my "someday" house is that it must have a stairway. there is something so romantic about a banister. i know, i'm weird. when we started looking at house plans, the stairway was a huge consideration for me ...

(the sarah richardson stairway photo above will be the one i show our builder.)

 

and a good stairway seems like the perfect place to display little snapshots of our life. the scrapboxes will be three-dimensional representations of special moments within that life.

thank you, darcy miller, for justifying the persistent presence of stuff lying around the house that otherwise might get thrown away. i can't wait to turn our life souvenirs into art.

Comments

[Barb]

I'm not entirely sure which stairway photo you meant from the HGTV house, but I'm in love with the one with the numbered steps.

Heck, I'll just take the whole house.

[Nicole]

i'm a stairway fanatic too. probably because i hate mine and would totally renovate it. LOL.
saw the article on scrapboxes and was all over that. tore it out, put it in a safe place. awesome idea.