During our travels in Asia, we were always struck by the ease with which Asian aesthetics could be blended with a wide range of interiors. The result of mixing East with West added strength, timelessness and often a quietude to many different kinds of homes.
There are few places that grip the Japanese anima as do the mountains. They’re not only a dominant geographical feature of the island nation, they are also deeply symbolic. Shinto spirits of ancient ancestors still dwell in mountain peaks, a place for an escape, for embracing nature and for entering a meditative, spiritual realm.
My husband Paul has always called our Summer Place his reading and writing Yurt, a locus to find solace in a quiet, natural setting that’s miles away from the hustle and bustle. When we moved here from Charleston in 2010 we decided to put our book store inventory online giving us a little more freedom and time to do other things. The inventory became the library of our Summer Place.
Our book assemblage in the Western North Carolina mountains still has a strong attachment to Charleston reflecting the bond between people and places. For years Charleston residents and writers have spent their summertime escaping from the peninsular city heat to their summer places in the mountains of North Carolina.
On entry special collections are shelved on each side of the fireplace in the living area. A mélange of Paul’s, iconography, from Europe, Asia, Russia, and the Americas, collected for his lectures at scientific conferences, adorn the mantel. Vintage Kurdish tribal rugs unify the library and living areas as a working and relaxing spaces. Wicker is used extensively throughout Summer Place, typifying the midsummer bliss of our mountain “Yurt” and reflecting the rather nomadic lifestyles we have enjoyed over the years.
My writing station is nested between the kitchen and the living room.
The library is a blending of our three different bookshops in Charleston. Here we have most of the inventory selections we had in Charleston sans the antiquarian books in antique bookcases we moved to Atlanta with our 18th Century prints and furnishings (see Atlanta Antiquarian, tab).
I liked the idea of having our moutain library as the heart of the house. When you enter into the area books surround you.
There is something about going into a three-dimensional space with books touching the ceiling. A modified Japanese Irori fire pit is the centerpiece of the room.
Books are in constant reach from the book wall on leaving the library to the staircase you climb to reach the cloistered chambers.
An Afghan antique rug covers a favorite reading divan between upstairs bedrooms. Our guest bedroom contains Civil War and biography, while the main is dedicated to fiction for night time reading.
Our Summer Place first editions, new and collectable books are available online at our Amazon link to the Southern Literary Tradition. We also can assist in assembling libraries by state, author, or subject. Just drop us an email.
Although we have always embraced the cool mountain breaks during the scorching Charleston summers. Even so, we felt we needed something to counterbalance the bucolic slopes and streams when our minds grew a bit numb from those long solitary days in the country.
As far as I was concerned there was never a doubt as to what to do. Head for the city and enjoy the best of both worlds. In Manhattan and Washington, DC we felt we belonged in the midst of urbanity. But we wanted to be close to Summer Place. So, Paul started a small enterprise in Midtown Atlanta, a two and a half hour drive, that would allow him to pursue his lifelong interest in science and technology and I moved our print and antiquarian collection to our flat in Midtown where we work with friends to assemble personal libraries or help curate collections. See “Atlanta Antiquarian” tab for details.