Touring Sally Hollister's Lakewood home is like walking through a gigantic work of art. And if houses were paintings, hers would be a Picasso.
White ostrich feathers accent dark purple walls in her bedroom. Old suitcases support a glass surface to form her coffee table. A painted lady takes a shower behind green curtains above homemade mosaic stairs. And flower arrangements sprout from head-shaped vases in the dining room.
Most aspects of the house would disturb an interior decorator. Hollister has no color schemes and no coordinating furniture, walls, floors or curtains. Neither the sea nor the rustic outdoors, English gardens or villages in Provence inspired the tone of the house. Her style is warm, colorful and eclectic. It's Sally. The interior reflects her personality.
"Practical is boring," she says, throwing her hands in the air. "Practical is very boring."
And Hollister's home is anything but practical or boring.
The kitchen looks like an English tavern on acid. It's dark with strands of fruit-shaped lights draped between cabinets, miniature knives and forks plastered into the walls and a colorful rug painted on the hardwood floor.
The basement has a '60s flair. It's
furnished with a lounge futon, butterfly chair, art deco table and flower-power artwork. Hollister's 11-year-old daughter, Sydney, requested the theme. It is where she and her friends hang out.
Sydney's room is called "the ranch" because of an elaborate mural of life-sized brown, black, red and white horses Hollister painted on the walls. Wood fencing lines the room.
Forty shades of color coat the walls, ceilings, floors and furniture in Hollister's home, including vivid purples, blues, greens and reds colors she says most people are afraid to use. "White walls run when they see me," she exclaims.
Hollister spent a total of about $2,000 on the paint, trim and furniture for her house. Most of her paint, for example, came from the discount bins at Home Depot. Some buckets were as little as $1. "I don't think I paid full price for any of the paint in my house," she notes.
She also saved cash by scouring curbs, garage sales, resale shops, the Salvation Army and discount stores. After her creative touch, an old manual lawn mower became a yard planter for flowers, and a wicker headboard was converted into a large flower box for the porch.
Her most prized project was a freestanding fireplace she found by the curb. She plastered the ugly yellow brick with grout, cement, glass, seashells and pottery that Sydney and her friends broke. "I just used whatever I had," she says with a shrug.
But Hollister didn't choose the cost-conscious decor to save the money she had. She chose it to save the money she didn't have.
The 39-year-old graphic designer is also a single mom. She could afford to buy the house only after applying for a $5,000 down payment through the Lakewood Home Program, a federally funded down-payment assistance program for first-time homebuyers.
She says that even if she had a million dollars to spend, her home would still be colorful. "But there wouldn't be as many stories to tell," adds Hollister. "When you don't have money, it makes for character, too."
A story lies behind almost everything in her home, such as the life-sized papier-mché rabbit that sits at her dining room table. She calls him Howard Clark Hare. Hes dressed in drag today, she says, chuckling at the Victorian dress fitted loosely around his bunchy body.
Howard Clark is my dads name, she explains. He hates his name so it started out as sort of a joke. As part of the joke, Hollister took pictures of her daughter and the hare in different settings. One sits on a column by the sofa framed in an old suitcase.
Creative touches like Howard Clark Hare cost little money, but were expensive in terms of time. Hollister used to spend 12-hour days rummaging, painting and decorating.
Some projects were big and some were small. She gutted her run-of-the-mill bathroom, replacing beige tile with swirls of deep blue, purple and green paint. A freestanding bathtub sits where the embedded one was. An old chandelier and decorative oval mirror replaced the functional, plain fixtures that preceded them.
Every stair riser in the three-story home is altered, mostly with mosaic designs comprising cement, marbles, broken glass and pottery. One riser looks like a table setting, with a broken plate and a knife and fork on either side. Each layer took hours to dry.
But Hollister never counted the hours she spent on her home. I think
its a passion, she says. Instead of going out on a Saturday
night, Id stay home and work on my house.
Her dedication to creativity has a long history. Ive always been
into putting my heart up on the wall, Hollister says, blue eyes flashing.
Its nice to have the more colorful side of me out there.
As a teen-ager, she painted a mural that ran the length of her parents staircase and depicted a man looking at hot-air balloons and funky characters through a telescope.
They let me do crazy stuff like that, she recalls, smiling. As a parent, you have to pick your battles and Im glad they didnt pick those kinds of battles with me. Being allowed to drain her artistic veins at an early age has given Hollister the power to inspire others.
The freeness of her style has transformed the home-decor philosophies of friends and family. Walls of kitchens, once an acceptable bisque or off-white, were repainted bright orange or purple. One friend transformed an old buffet, left for trash, into a colorful file cabinet for her computer room.
Hollisters advice to people in a decorating quandary? Dont be afraid, she says. Be adventurous and follow your heart.