Joni of Cote de Texas fame had a wonderful post last month on the talented Jane Moore and her recent feature in Veranda.  This is a designer I have admired for years.  For her story in a recent Veranda issue visit CDT.

{2008 Veranda cover ~ Jane Moore}

As part of the feature, Joni showed us Jane Moore’s new, edited townhouse… 

{Jane Moore, dining room ~ townhouse}

{Jane Moore ~ Townhouse, kitchen}

Jane says she was ready to completely edit her look when she moved.  The new townhouse is filled with only what she wants in it – no one else.  And she loves it – she looks forward to coming home each day to a place that is filled with pieces she carefully selected from a lifetime of collecting.  Joni, Cote de Texas

This got me thinking, if we made a move to scale back, what would make the cut?  I started with a list of what I felt MUST be included and quickly realized this was much more difficult  than I first thought.  I know it’s just stuff, but it’s stuff I’ve lovingly collected over the years.  Would it be easy for you?  This is hypothetical so it really wasn’t that hard, but it did give me an opportunity to look at my home and possessions with an analytical view.

There are a few pieces of furniture that I believe I’d make work no matter what.  For one our antique china cupboard.  My mom gave it to us when they retired and moved to a smaller house.  She had purchased it in the early eighties at a Los Angeles antique store called Antique Guild (formerly the Helm’s Bakeries building).  The hardware is original and the glass in the doors is beveled.  The only thing damaged on this piece is the lock on the cupboard doors below…they stay closed when not in use so I don’t mind…

{Antique Guild China Cupboard}

…and since we’re in the dining room, I’d want to find a spot for the side board.  The thing is, if we actually moved I could see using some of the furniture in unexpected rooms.  I’ve seen some amazing uses for pieces in unexpected spaces that I wouldn’t have thought about…isn’t blog land wonderful?!

I’m attached to our bed and dresser, mainly because I like the style and it fits in our current bedroom, which is quite small, so I imagine it would fit in any smaller home we might buy.

{It’s hard to see the detail but it’s a bed with headboard, foot board and side boards.  Very substantial but I really like it.}

Our sofa was custom made for the space we have in this house, I’d recover it if it fit perfectly in a new home, but otherwise, I’d consider a slightly larger sofa.  The club chair in our family room is made by Century, it’s been a great chair, found at a consignment store and recovered twice, so I’d make room for it.

{This is a very comfy chair and it has been recovered twice since I first bought it; this is a Ralph Lauren print that works for the room}

Most of the art I’ve used in this house would make the cut.  There are a few paintings (not by anyone famous) that I really enjoy.  There are framed print in almost every room and I might do some serious editing if I had to, but most would find a home somewhere in a new abode.

{I like this print for it’s Union Jack, I’d make room for this}

This lithograph (above) of a print called, “Steady Johnny, Steady” is special because my grandmother bought it for me.  She always thought the elderly Scotsman looked like her father, my great grandfather.

I wish I could take my Viking range, were we actually moving, but in California the range is nearly always expected to be part of the kitchen.

{My Viking is the best range I’ve ever cooked on}

I have 2 Smith and Hawken teak benches that I’d like to keep.  They are impossibly expensive today.  I would figure out a spot in the yard or on a patio.

9 sets of dishes, no, they would all have to come with me! (They are not complete sets, mostly dinner and salad plates for over half of the patterns, but I do enjoy using them all.

Anyway, this was just for fun, an exercise in what if…  Do you ever fantasize about a move and what a new abode might be like?