You could say Glencoe interior designer Denise Macey looks to her collection of pique assiette furnishings for inspiration.
Pique assiette, which means “plate-stealer” in French, is the craft of taking broken plates and tiles and reusing the shards to create a new mosaic pattern on an existing object, such as a flower pot, birdbath or dresser. Macey has a collection of more than 20 vintage pique assiette furnishings, including a table, a shelf and numerous memory jugs.
Macey has worked these elements into decorating her own 1920s-era Georgian Revival home in Glencoe. “I don’t want to display it all together, although the decorator in me tells me I should do that,” Macey says. “But I love the pieces so much, I want a few in every room.”
Macey has also mastered the knack of mixing inexpensive with pricier items. Her living room is a case in point. There she has a classic neutral-color couch covered in frieze, a luxurious but comfortable fabric. A glass-on-glass coffee table gives an economical but still elegant look. Dispersed throughout the room are inexpensive end tables that Macey found at flea markets. On the floor is an inexpensive seagrass rug.
Dining room furnishings include a French antique walnut sideboard and Biedermeier furniture.
Macey repeats her neutral color scheme upstairs in the bedrooms and dressing room. “I like a color theme flowing through open spaces so the rooms don’t look schizophrenic,” she says. Somehow it all works, because the dressing room is an oasis from everyday worries with its soothing beige colors and romantic sheer taffeta drapes.
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RESOURCES
Interior design: Denise Macey Design, Glencoe.
Living room: Sconce — Donald Stuart Antiques, Winnetka; sofas — Hamilton through Thomas Job, Merchandise Mart; sofa fabric, Great Plains — Holly Hunt Ltd., Mart; pillows — Donald Stuart Antiques; antique Flemish marquetry chair, personal collection; custom coffee table — through Denise Macey Design; antique Chinese money chest — Golden Triangle; peaches still life and lightning rod finial — Donald Stuart Antiques.
Breakfast room: Chair — flea market find; table — Casella, Winnetka; antique mirror — Antique Heaven, Winnetka; Burmese wood bowl — Bricole, Winnetka.
Dressing room: Houtan rug — Casella, Winnetka; dressing table — Vintage Pine; drapes — fabric, Decorators Walk, Merchandise Mart; chair — Pier 1 Imports; all other furnishings — personal collection.
