The owners of this home display their traditional Jewish pieces, which add a beautiful element to this already elegant dining room.
These unique pieces reflect the personality and style of the homeowner in a way that is unlike choosing the color palette, flooring, or furnishings in each room. Tradition, history, culture, and religion are expressed through personal artifacts that honor a homeowner’s heritage.
Personal collectibles often define the spiritual and sometimes philosophical side of the people who live in the home, but incorporated without careful thought, these important items run the risk of being perceived as just knick-knacks or bric-a-brac. So what is a homeowner to do if they want to display cherished cultural or religious items and still have a sophisticated décor? The direction of some professionals might be to do away with those items altogether or relegate them to a private room not often visited by guests.
Recognizing the significance of personal history, religion, and culture, however, many design experts will work to blend stylish décor with the treasured symbols of a homeowner’s heritage. “Many clients collect cultural or religious pieces because it is a part of their family tradition and more than likely something that has been passed from generation to generation. It takes on special meaning in its new environment as it is passed down through the years,” says Inez Schapiro, Associate Interior Designer for Jenkins Baer Associates in Baltimore.
One of Schapiro’s clients from Owings Mills, Maryland transformed her formal dining room and found a place for many of her religious pieces. The room has a hand-carved mahogany buffet, two Louis XV chairs, a ceiling mural, and hand-carved gold-leaf beams. “My dining room is formal yet very warm,” the homeowner says.
The family displays their religious items on the buffet, including five sets of silver candlesticks, two sets made of crystal, a Kiddush cup waterfall with eight cups, a wood and a silver Challah plate and a menorah. Many of the items were purchased in Israel and help them celebrate traditional Jewish ceremonies with family and friends.
Every Friday a family celebration known as Shabbat calls for the use of various religious and cultural elements that have been incorporated into this décor.
“We have Shabbat every Friday night as a part of our Jewish tradition. It has always been a time for our family to be together and we often invite our extended family and friends to join us. We alternate using our Shabbat candles, and sometimes we use several at a time so our guests take a turn at lighting them,” explains the homeowner.
Schapiro placed several religious pieces throughout the formal dining area but put others away to be taken out on special occasions. “All the silver complements the formality of the room. It’s not only beautiful, but it’s functional.”
Schapiro also helped Ernie and Dina Moyer of Pikesville, Maryland to incorporate Dina’s Greek Orthodox heritage into the décor of their stylish and tasteful home. “Dina Moyer and her two children Zsa and Evan are Greek Orthodox and had many Greek icons and crucifixes throughout the home. I thought of putting them all together as a collection to tell a story. There was a space in the kitchen that was starving for three dimensional items,” says Schapiro.
The small niche in the kitchen that displays the Moyers’ Greek Orthodox icons and crucifixes is a unique focal point to the home’s decor and has become an important and daily reminder of their heritage. Among some of their most meaningful items is a red velvet Byzantine cross, icons of The Panagia, Saints Constantine and Helen as well as Saint Nicholas. Each icon has been blessed and has a significance and connection to the Moyer family. “When I walk in and I see the wall, I know I am home. It reminds us of the importance of our culture, history, and religion, and as a Greek you can’t separate the three. Our faith is like our second home-it leads us and it defines us,” explains Dina.
Displaying religious items in a harmonious way makes a statement about the homeowner. It tells visitors and guests about their heritage and their history – it is who they are and what they believe. Others incorporate cultural items that don’t necessarily express a faith but instead give you a glimpse of their heritage.Parrish Construction in Boulder, Colorado recently built an addition for a Japanese-American family that honors the traditions of their culture. The husband brought his mother to the states from Japan to live with his family and paid careful attention to many cultural factors that preserved the dignity of his aging mother.
Dina Moyer proudly displays Greek icons throughout her Pikesville home. The icons have become a compelling focal point to her kitchen seating area as well as a means to honor her heritage.
The original home was built in the 1980s, but the addition was created with the Certified Aging in Place principles (CAP). These fundamental principles complemented the Japanese traditions that honor the elderly and allow them to perform their own tasks while maintaining their independence for as long as possible.
“The bathroom has heated stone floors, a shower with a built-in bench and adjustable shower heads, as well as a control panel that allows for easy operation of the commode features. Having a shower with grab bars and a low threshold provides a safe entry point for the elderly,” says Parrish Construction’s, Loraine Masterton.
All doorways and hallways can accommodate a walker or wheelchair as the homeowner’s mother ages. In addition to these design elements there are other structural considerations that honor Japanese culture. “None of the doors allow you to enter from the north because it courts bad luck in the Japanese tradition,” explains Masterton.
Sometimes honoring one’s heritage is a matter of organizing artifacts from the homeowner’s existing collection. Gina Fitzsimmons, ASID, of Fitzsimmons Design Associates, Inc. in Annapolis, Maryland recently worked with Beverly Parker who had a collection of African artifacts that needed to be better situated into her home décor. “I believe that people should surround themselves with things that they love,” says Fitzsimmons.
It was Parker’s mother who got her started on collecting African art from Ghana. “The statuettes of a man and woman and the family unit were my mother’s. I was lucky enough to travel to Senegal and Mali in West Africa. They do a lot of ironwork in Mali-that’s where I got the small iron statues of a family. I was really interested in the detail work and the family unit piece really resonated with me,” says Parker.
Fitzsimmons began by sorting through all the pieces that had the most meaning to Parker. “I recommended that she go with the most contemporary furnishings because the scale, balance, and proportion worked better with the artifacts.”
Parker is reminded of family and history when she looks at her artifacts. “The cultural items remind us of our heritage and how it has survived through many, many years. I feel a connection to our ancestry and it gives us a larger sense of family,” says Parker.
With the mission of honoring Beverly Parker’s African heritage, designer Gina Fitzsimmons created built-ins to highlight the pieces that Parker has collected over the years.
Designing a room with the importance of religious or cultural items in mind highlights the influence of these elements on the homeowner. “All of the pieces that remind me of our past were here all the time, but when Gina designed our living space, she brought them to life,” recalls Parker.
Jennifer K. Dansicker is Special Projects Editor for ChespeakeHome.
Contacts:
Fitzsimmons Design Associates, Inc.: fitzsimmonsdesign.com or 410-269-1965
Jenkins Baer Associates: jenkinsbaer.com or 410-727-4100
Parrish Construction: parrishbuilt.com or 303-444-0033
