Sean Scherer's Vignettes | Sean Scherer
Intro: Welcome to the one and only interior design book podcast, Decorating by the Book, hosted by Suzy Chase from her dining room table in New York City. Join Suzy for conversations about the latest and greatest interior design books, with the authors who wrote them.
Sean Scherer: So my name is Sean Scherer and I'm here to talk about my new book, Sean Scherer's Vignettes.
Suzy Chase: The first quote in the introduction goes like this: "The only real freedom we have left is the home. Only there can we express anything we want." By William Haines. After reading that quote, I was compelled to look up William Haines, and now I get why he was talking about the freedom and security we can get inside our home. I'm curious about what drew you to this quote.
Sean Scherer: As soon as I read that quote, it just really hit home with me. And I mean, for many reasons, I think it just feels so appropriate or timely today, as it did then. And his history and everything is just so remarkable. I mean, he was one of the biggest box office draws in the thirties, and he had to stop acting because the studio wanted to force him into an arranged marriage with a woman. And he said he would not do that because he was gay and he was openly gay, and that ended his career. But he went into interior design and created a very successful interior design company with his partner. And it still exists today. And I just think there's so many levels that quote, you don't have to be gay to have that idea of your home as your sanctuary, your home as the only place, but particularly now in our very divisive political times, it felt so appropriate.
Suzy Chase: Your specialty is antiques, and you were born and raised in Miami, Florida. And when I think of Miami, I don't immediately think of antiques or old architecture. So where did you get your love of antiques?
Sean Scherer: Well, in my first book, Creating Authentic Interiors, I write extensively, basically my biography growing up in Miami. And even though Miami is such a new city comparatively to the old world, it's had so many boom and bust cycles. So there still was a level of decay and abandonment with the Art Deco district or the 1950s. So it still felt like I had a lot of history and antiquity around me, even if it was fake antiquity.
That's initially what drew me to this idea of things having a past and objects that are often forgotten or neglected. Because when I grew up in Miami, I was born in 1968, grew up in a real political upheaval and a downturn in the economy. So a lot of these places, like South Beach, like the Art Deco districts, were virtually abandoned. So if you went down to South Beach, nobody was there except for the Jewish retirees who had taken up residence in the old hotels, but there was no tourism. You wouldn't go out at night in that neighborhood and they were in disrepair. So that sense of wanting and that sense of things being left behind, I think is what initially drew me to old objects.
Suzy Chase: So how did Miami influence your sense of color and layering?
Sean Scherer: It's funny, I didn't really realize how much it influenced me until I started writing my essay for my first book, and then I realized that's where my sense of color comes from, which now seems so obvious, but whenever I use a hit of cobalt blue or cadmium yellow or aquas, that's my youth, that's growing up. I left Miami to go to Art Institute of Chicago, so I spent most of my adult life in the Northeast. But when I do return to Miami, as soon as I get off the plane, I'm always shocked. That's like, "Oh my God, everything's in chroma key." It is the color. I forget that living now in the Catskills, which is six months of brown and gray.
So I think the color, and I think a little about the sense of humor or an idea of playing with objects in a kind of abstract way or even a surrealist way, because also growing up in Miami, it was mainly built as a fantasy vacation destination or a fantasy retirement community for people from the Northeast to flock to. So there was a lot of fantasy architecture and all of that in Miami. So I think that really influenced my sense of humor within playing with antiques and vignettes.
Suzy Chase: In the book you write, "A fundamental principle of interior design is that the best rooms reflect the personality of those who live there." So, what does your home say about you?
Sean Scherer: Going back to what I just said, I think it represents my love of objects and art, and again, a sense of humor. I don't take myself or things too seriously. I think it's also why I'm primarily drawn to the more humble or utilitarian side of antiques. The more primitive things like old workbenches or stools or tool totes or things like that, that can be beautiful but weren't intended to be beautiful in a sense, instead of things that are maybe higher end or a little more precious. So I think you can kind of feel that within the interior. It's a very comfortable interior. You are not afraid to put your glass down on any surface. I think a warm, cozy, layered interior that represents many interests and many travels.
Suzy Chase: I think William Haines would love your home.
Sean Scherer: I think so too. I'd like to think so.
Suzy Chase: The big question is, in our home, what is a vignette and what are the elements to make a successful vignette?
Sean Scherer: Well, a vignette can be as few as a few objects, three objects, and a vignette can live on any flat surface. A vignette doesn't have to be a really big statement, while those are the most impactful, but you can have a little small corner of a desk that has three objects. Maybe it's the desk you work at, and that could be a vignette. So I don't think there's many rules in terms of where a vignette can live in your interior. Really, any flat surface will suffice, and basically it starts with your favorite objects.
So you can go around your home and gather objects or mix up objects and maybe put them in a different arrangement and see them in a different light. That's something I'm really a firm believer in my artistic background or my training as an artist. And first and foremost, I'm an abstract geometric painter. So I love modernism. I love contemporary art, as well as loving 19th century primitive antiques. But I love to see things further shape and form and kind of take the object out of its initial context or use. So then again, you can see it in a different light. So yeah, vignette can be pretty much anywhere in your home.
Suzy Chase: In the book you talk about balance and a central theme, and also repetition of form or shape. Does that mean we should group the same sorts of objects together?
Sean Scherer: You can, but what it really means is that you can mix objects or items from many different periods if there is a theme that repeats within them. So you can have a blown green glass, 1960s Blenko vase next to maybe a green glass antique fishing float next to a piece of green glass that's Venini or what have you. So it really is about creating a theme that links. So repetition of form could mean just that, it's the same form repeated, but it also could mean a texture, a pattern, or a color. And within that framework you can really mix things up. And that's where I think is my favorite kind of vignette, is where you combine disparate objects, but there's a connection or theme within the color, texture, shape, or forms.
Suzy Chase: How is the still life an influence in vignette building?
Sean Scherer: I think still lifes are vignettes and vignettes are still lifes. So for me, it's very hard to separate the two. I think vignettes is just a term we use now more to than we do still lifes, because I think people think still lifes are older. They think of old world painting or Renaissance painting or Dutch still life painting of course, but I think they're one and the same. But obviously if you want to study vignettes, one of the best ways is to study the history of still life painting, but not just painting photography. I mean, every artist, almost every artist has dabbled in through the centuries in making still lifes, and people to this day are still making still lifes. Photographers, sculptors, painters. So I think that's a great way to get a history of a sense if you want to get more of a grounding of vignettes, because that's what artists were doing. They were creating vignettes back then.
Suzy Chase: This book pulls together some of your favorite vignettes, plus many new ones created just for the book. Now let's get to building the vignette. So take us through the main furniture piece considerations. Should it always be a substantial piece of furniture to anchor the vignette?
Sean Scherer: It can be, but as I said before, it could be something smaller. It could even be the top of a stool. So it doesn't have to be substantial, but I think you have to initially find out where this vignette is going to live in your interior, because that will help frame the scale. And how big can it be? How big is it against a wall? How big is the wall? So first it's where it's going to live in your interior, and then how much space do you have? So if you have a big space, you might want it to be the top of a dresser or a bureau or a serving table, and that will determine the scope and size.
I also love it when a vignette is on the surface of the table-top, but also goes up through the wall. So that will also help you determine do you have room for a big mirror to create a central focus, and then you can kind of build out from there. So I always say start with a central focus and then build out, and then you can see what you can continue to add in your vignette.
Suzy Chase: Oh, that's so interesting. So you include in the vignette in your thinking about it, the wall too, not just the surface?
Sean Scherer: Almost all my vignettes feature a wall as well as a flat surface, which is great because then it gives you the opportunity to create a vignette on the wall as well, but to also carry it through to the flat surface for the objects. It's a great way to kind of create an overall dynamic feeling, and that creates that kind of, it's really like a 3D assemblage. If you think of it as a collage but in 3D, it works really well that way.
Suzy Chase: Speaking of the wall, no one does a gallery wall better than you do it. Do you have any hot tips for us on how to put together a gallery wall easily?
Sean Scherer: Well, thank you for that compliment. Yes. I think the one thing is to first have a good-sized wall, but also have a good assortment of different shaped frames, but also objects. I think it's really important to add things that have a little three-dimensional character, whether that's like a little bracket shelf you can put a small vase on that you put next to a mirror and to a framed print or a work of art. If it's all flat, I think it becomes too flat, and that could just be the difference between a very thick antique or even gothic frame mirror next to a very flat, maybe contemporary black and white photograph. But that kind of juxtaposition, if you really want to play with flat and textural, modern and antique, shiny, flat, dark, light, things like that. So the more you play, I think that is what creates the strongest and most impactful gallery wall.
Suzy Chase: After a long winter, it's finally spring. So what kind of things can we add in our vignettes to change with the seasons? And this ties in with your flora and fauna chapter. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Sean Scherer: Yes. Well, again, coming from my upbringing and Miami and being surrounded by flora and fauna, I love flowers and I always have them in my shop and home. So that's the easiest way. And even if you don't live like me, I live in the Catskills, so I don't really have a nice florist or a flower market, but I still can do pretty good with supermarket varieties, so people shouldn't be too intimidated that that's their only source. So definitely flowers, plants, especially because right now tulips and hyacinths and daffodils are coming in, so they're the perfect kind of flower to bring into your home.
Usually if you stick with flowers that are seasonal, then it really is bringing the seasons indoors. Colored candles is another way. I mean, candles have come a long way, and you can pretty much get candles in any color and any shape. So I use those a lot. Beeswax candles are my favorite, but colored candles also help bring hits of color, as well as other objects that you can change with the seasons, obviously like pillows or blankets or even a brightly painted yellow box. So anything that has a hit of color can work within the whole flora and fauna theme to bring in spring.
Suzy Chase: So your love of objects is why you opened Kabinett & Kammer in 2007. Talk a little bit about your shop and how it got its name.
Sean Scherer: Well, I moved up to the Catskills a year after 9/11, having lived in Lower Manhattan. And a few years after being up here, I decided to open up my own shop. It's something I really never thought of until doing it, actually. So coming up with the name, I was thinking of what represented what I like. And I love Cabinet of Curiosities. I'm an artist, so I love a Kunstkammer or an art gallery. So the name is German, and it means cabinet and room basically, or chamber. So references the Wunderkammer, the Curiosity Cabinet, and the gallery or room. So it seemed like the perfect name. And my background is about 80% German as well, hence the name Scherer. It's a very common German name. So it just seemed really appropriate.
Suzy Chase: Now to my segment called Home, where I ask you to describe one memory of your childhood home. And please start by telling us where it was.
Sean Scherer: Well, it would be in Miami. It's a little hard for me to pick one because my parents were, I think, way ahead of the do-it-yourself curve because we kind of moved around almost every year or so, and they loved buying houses and fixing them up. But I guess my main memory would be one of the houses in Coral Gables and having such a lush surroundings with live oak trees and philodendrons growing up, the trees and fruit trees and mangoes hanging off the trees and on the ground and that kind of light filtering into the living space into my bedroom when I was a teenager. So I think it's really kind of like light and color that I remember the most about growing up in Miami.
Suzy Chase: Where can we find you on the web and social media?
Sean Scherer: Kabinett & Kammer on Instagram, or kabinettandkammer.com or you can also always search Sean Scherer and you can buy the book through Vendome as the publisher, and it's available on all the online sources, Amazon and Barnes and Noble. But you could also order it through your local bookstore, which I highly recommend. Any bookstore can order it, so you can go in and ask for Sean Scherer's Vignettes.
Suzy Chase: You tell us the place you live is the most important place you can build for yourself. Such great words. Thanks so much, Sean, for coming on Decorating by the Book Podcast.
Sean Scherer: Well, thank you for having me.
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