 Not long ago, a group of fifth-grade girls paid Joyce Christman the ultimate decorating compliment. Joyce was hosting a party in honor of her daughter Kimberly’s students, who were so supportive while Kimberly recuperated from a fractured leg. One by one, with the utmost manners, the girls asked Joyce if they could go to her bathroom. Then, as they were leaving, the truth tumbled out: “We didn’t really have to use your bathroom, Mrs. Christman,” one of them confessed. “We just wanted to see your house.”
Little girls aren’t the only ones curious for a peek at the two-story Colonial in Holmdel, New Jersey, that  Joyce has shared with her husband, Joseph, since 1967. It’s little wonder. The couple, collectors since the early days of their marriage, have filled the charming home to the brim with favorite finds.
One of their most effective decorating strategies is the judicious use of color. “I enjoy using a lot of color,” says Joyce, “mixing patterns, stripes, plaids.”
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It’s easy to become overwhelmed with so many choices, though, much like a kid with a wonderful new box of crayons. Joyce’s remedy is to keep to three basic colors per room, a tenet she applies to the collectibles she chooses to showcase around the house.
The Vistosa china she adores, for example, finds many resting spots; the “where” is usually based on the color scheme of a particular room. Vistosa was made in four different colors, around the same time frame as Fiesta, according to Joyce, who was drawn to its sweet, ruffled edges. Thirty-some years ago, she ran across four plates for 75 cents at a flea market and her fate was sealed. She’s been searching it out piece by piece ever since—and using it to glorious effect.
Joyce also has a fondness for the milk glass that was popular around the time she and Joseph were married. “A lot of my friends who were married during that era received it for wedding gifts,” she recalls. It finds a perfect home in their antique bleached pine hutch from Ireland. Paired with a farmhouse table in the dinette area, the result is a room dressed in a palette of red, navy and white—one of Joyce’s favorite color combinations. Yet milk glass—fast becoming a favorite collectible in its own right—is equally striking when mixed with the black and white graniteware surrounding the black enamel stove in the eating area.
For still another color-coordinated grouping, Joyce joined Depression-era china, canisters and soft green graniteware on a green enamel antique cookstove they bought from a family friend. Nearby, a cabinet bursting with apple green and orange Vistosa adds that needed dose of color.
“My friends laugh at me because I can’t stop collecting dishes,” says Joyce. “We just have a lot of fun collecting.”
And isn’t that what it’s all about? |
