One Tokyo reader got lucky at the Oedo Antique Market just a week or so ago. She scored a medium size float with its original net and a handful of small ones. I just love the way she displays them on the shelves, with her books organized by color – it makes for such a soothing composition.
The husband of a reader in Singapore knew how obsessed his wife was with floats that for Christmas he bought her a group from a dealer in Alaska. Simultaneously, a friend gave her a bowl from Core Bamboo. She’s combined the two and displays them on a woven Laotian textile in her living room.
Blue & White’s Amy Katoh displays her floats in a senbei (rice cracker) canister on her window overlooking the Sumida River.
And for the most unusual placement, this float joins sea glass on the bathroom wall at Amy’s Tokiwa house.
Elsewhere in the internet, Brooke Giannetti of Velvet & Linen has just posted photos of the Gilt Home Showhouse room she and her husband designed in support of the Demi and Ashton Kutcher Foundation, which raises money to combat human trafficking. Using paintings by her husband Steve and items from her shop Giannetti Home, they created an artist’s studio.
She used a grouping of floats in a covered glass apothecary-style jar, as one of the main decorative items on the coffee table.
Along with the paintings, they really make the blue and aqua tones in the room sing!
For my earlier posts on glass fishing floats please take a look at:
- Buoys, Bottles and Bargains…The Rainy Day Special at Kawagoe
- The Mail is Always Late…more on Japanese Glass Floats and Sudare
Photo credits: 1. me, 2. A. Ridge, 3. A. Wilhoit, 4 & 5. Amy Katoh, 6 & 7. Brooke Giannetti
Beautiful post- love the personal reader notes!
xo
You’re on deck too!
Jacqueline,
Thanks for including my finds in this posting, very sweet! I love the bottles that you have collected and the painted box placed on the floor, did you find that here and particularly love your silk drapes!
The painted box is actually an “antique” Chinese rice bin….I have had it for years. It makes a great coffee table in a too “leggy” room and is great for storage. Probably the only fake antique I have in the house….but I have always loved it.
The aquamarine colors are delightful…there is something very zen and soothing in the all the visual references to the ocean. And yes, your pearl gray silk draperies are gorgeous as well.
The curtains are actually “bluer” than they appear in the photo…
My aunt was the first person I ever knew to use a Japanese fishing float to decorate. She began using her extra large green float to decorate her flower garden in the 1960’s. Love the examples you have shown!
I love floats outdoors…did you see the wonderful loggia with the hanging floats that I showed on the original post “Buoys, Bottle and Bargains….”?
These floats are beautiful and your writing is so informative. I’m already learning so much from your blog! And loved the Gilt mention, too!
Thanks Dalia!
My next quest is one of the large floats like yours in the top picture…I LOVE it! I also like Amy’s display of her floats in the glass jar. Our inspiration for our “Blue and White” table for the Caring For Cambodia tea raffle came from Amy’s book “Blue and White Japan”. Thanks for the follow-up on the floats, and for including us in your post – I feel honored as you are my decorating and home style guru!
I heard raves and raves about the Blue & White table….send photos and I could do a piece on Caring for Cambodia…
Thank you so much for including our room in your beautiful post. The color of these floats is so inspiring. I love finding the beauty in every day object.
Thank you again 🙂
xo
Brooke
Thanks so much for commenting! Good luck on the sale! I wish I could see the room in person!