How to decorate your home with supermarket finds
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Grocery-store finds, including nectarines and spider mums, decorate Mr Miles Redd’s townhouse in Manhattan.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
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NEW YORK – The price of groceries is up. But, compared with the cost of decorative accessories or professional floral arrangements, the things you can find at a supermarket are a relative bargain.
And that is just one of the reasons you should try decorating with them, say Mr Miles Redd and Mr David Kaihoi.
The pair, who are partners at the New York-based interior design firm Redd Kaihoi, believe that fruit, herbs, nuts and cellophane-wrapped flowers can be just as compelling as rarefied objects when handled in the right way.
“We do this for every client, on every installation,” said Mr Kaihoi, 46. “You’ve got these rooms that have been thought about for years, but then we do a sweep through the grocery store on that final day.”
Mr Redd, 55, added: “You put something in the right cup or five-dollar straw basket, and it transforms it.”
He invited The New York Times into his Manhattan townhouse to demonstrate how they do it.
Go shopping
First, look for freshness in your grocery-store finds, Mr Redd said.
When he and Mr Kaihoi recently visited Whole Foods in Houston Street, Mr Redd snapped up pre-packaged spider mums just inside the front door. “People look at mums as a second-rate flower,” he said. “But they can look amazing.”
They added a plastic-wrapped bunch of cut lilies, and a jasmine plant and an orchid in plastic pots.
A cup of fresh mint – rinsed, shaken and freshened up in the refrigerator – adds visual interest to a side table.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
In the produce section, Mr Redd grabbed two fistfuls of fresh mint. “It’s kind of a go-to,” he said. “I mean, see how fresh that looks?”
Then they spied juicy-looking nectarines and loaded about a dozen into the cart, along with lemons and limes.
Hoping to find walnuts in shells, they proceeded to the snack aisle, only to be disappointed by the shelled versions, which they deemed unfit for decoration. “The nuts,” Mr Redd said, “are a bust.”
The total bill: US$78.70 (S$102).
Eliminate the packaging
Back at Mr Redd’s townhouse, the designers got to work in the kitchen.
First, they removed every trace of grocery-store packaging.
They released the flowers from their plastic wrappers, cut the elastic bands holding the mint together, removed the plastic clips keeping orchid stems upright and unpeeled stickers from the fruit.
“Packaging and stickers are the bane of my existence,” Mr Redd said with a laugh.
Choose some containers
A reused water bottle with fresh flowers can become decoration.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
Mr Redd had a variety of containers at home to choose from, and he and Mr Kaihoi followed a few simple rules when deciding which ones to use.
The container must be the right size: large enough to fully conceal any internal plastic pot, but not so big that it dwarfs the contents.
The material and colour of the container must look good where you plan to install it, so study it in place before you fill it.
Finally, the monetary value of the container is irrelevant. Lavish cut-crystal vases can be combined with recycled water bottles made of coloured glass – and the designers did just that in their displays.
“If you look at condiment bottles and liquor bottles” through a different lens, Mr Redd said, “there is good design everywhere”.
Arrange your finds creatively
A crystal bowl with nectarines decorates the dining table at Mr Miles Redd’s townhouse in Manhattan, on Sept 19.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
To give grocery-store flowers an upgrade, you will need to change the way they are displayed.
Grabbing the spider mums, Mr Redd lopped off the long stems, peeled away the remaining leaves and stuffed bunches of the flowers into silver cups, creating a colourful display that resembled fireworks. “It suddenly becomes not a chrysanthemum, but an architectural piece,” he said. “And a lot less grocery store.”
The mint sprigs were doused in water and shaken over the sink to give them more volume. Then Mr Kaihoi placed them in another silver cup, stowing the arrangement in the refrigerator to freshen it up.
Lemons and limes placed in a basket by Mr David Kaihoi brings life to a living room bar at Mr Miles Redd’s townhouse.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
He also heaped the nectarines in a large cobalt-blue glass vessel, loosely arranging them in a pyramid form. He placed the lemons and limes in a straw basket with an open weave and sliced a couple open, placing them on the living room bar.
Place and enjoy
Mr Miles Redd (left) and Mr David Kaihoi celebrate their decorating efforts by consuming some of the decor.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
As they finished arranging their finds in each container, the designers moved them from the kitchen to the living or dining room. By the time they were done, they had placed one piece on nearly every tabletop and three pieces on the dining table.
Surveying the result, Mr Redd said: “It’s those little details that make you feel so good.”
And do not forget to eat some of your grocery-store decor. He makes smoothies every morning, he noted, and “I’ll use every bit of that mint.” NYTIMES
