Susan Sully/The Monacelli Press via APIn this age of minimalism and decluttering, the common response to an offer of a family heirloom or antique might be, “I don’t have space,” “It’s not my taste,” or simply “No thanks.”
Well, “pull yourself out of that as fast as you can and start saying yes,” urges Susan Sully of Charleston, South Carolina, author of “Past Present: Living with Heirlooms and Antiques” (The Monacelli Press, 2016).
Unless you find a piece really ugly, she says, just take it.
“What’s so bad about temporarily having too much stuff?” asks Sully. “The worst is saying no and having lost the precious tangible objects that tell the story of your family or a place you love.”
San Francisco decorator Ken Fulk, designer chairman of the New York Botanical Garden’s Antique Garden Furniture Fair, agrees: “No room is complete without something of age and provenance and character.”