Not too shabby
When Sylvia Darcy trains her camera lens on a child, she gets close. Whatever is in the background fades leaving the face, and the individual spirit of the child, to fill the frame.
The same might be said of her decorating style.
Darcy is a photographer who specializes in black and white portraits of children. She lives and works in a small house in Coeur d’Alene, just blocks from the lakeshore and shopping district.
This Sunday Darcy’s home and three other Coeur d’Alene houses will be featured on the annual Shabby to Chic Shoppe Tour of Homes.
When you step into Darcy’s tiny 1910 cottage you enter a spare and serene interior. With cool grey-green walls, white furniture and neutral fabrics, Darcy has kept the focus on the simple lines, what she calls the “bones” of the house, rather than the furnishings.
The large low windows in the living room and the original dining room, which she has converted into an office, are left bare or covered with a sheer white fabric to let in as much light as possible. “That’s why I bought this house,” Darcy says. “It was perfect for my work.”
Darcy’s photographs, framed in classic black wood frames, or garage sale finds she has painted with flat white paint, line the walls.
The house’s original hardwood floors have been refinished and kept light.
The 900 square foot house has two bedrooms, one of which Darcy uses as her darkroom. In the small master bedroom more furniture, also painted shabby-chic white, and sheer floral curtains keep the room airy and bright.
A small back porch with windows on three sides serves as her studio.
Darcy favors clean lines and a minimalist approach to accessorizing, and she shares with Rachel Ashwell, who coined the phrase “shabby chic,” a devotion to finding new life in old furniture.
Like Ashwell, Darcy likes household surfaces to be clear of clutter. “I can’t think when there is too much stuff around me,” she says. “Everything needs to have a purpose.”
Darcy moved to Coeur d’Alene from southern California where she worked an actress and as a photographer’s assistant.
After renting the small frame house for two years, she purchased it in March of this year. She has a clipping file full of magazine pages showing rooms painted with soft neutral colors and furnished with the clean lines and simple design of contemporary furniture.
Darcy believes the fact that her house is so small, and so much a part of her work, helps her stay disciplined. “I know that there is only so much space and no storage for anything extra,” she says. “So I have to choose carefully before I bring anything home.”
But she enjoys the hunt. “I say this is the $20 and under house,” she says with a laugh. “Because almost everything I have, I got at a garage sale and I didn’t pay more than $20.”
The house has a history of hospitality. During World War II, the woman who owned the house slept in the living room and rented both bedrooms to boarders.
When spare time and the budget allows, Darcy would like to expand into the large attic space by turning it into dormitory style guest quarters for friends and family who visit. “You know what they say about Coeur d’Alene,” Darcy says. “We have nine months of winter and three months of company.”