hfoaursme Article and photos by indra fortney AsianFlair Elaine Honig, a petite woman like myself, greets me at the door. She may be small, but her energy is huge. Now in its tenth year, Wine, Women and Shoes (WW&S), created by Elaine, is a foundation that raises funds and awareness in style. WW&S events provide a playful backdrop for socializing, where ladies and men gather en masse to taste wine, bid on auctions and peruse the latest in fashion. You might expect a woman with a shoe fetish to have a girly home, but Elaine’s farmstyle house has a simple, pared-down interior with Asian roots. Growing up for a time in Japan inspired Elaine’s attraction to Asian furnishings, and a special fondness for blue and white porcelain. In the 14th century, cobalt blue was such a prized commodity that its value was about twice that of gold. Along with stacked shelves of Oriental pottery, Elaine’s home is dotted with Japanese baskets, figurines and furnishings. A large wooden rice bucket is used as a side table in the living room, and a “money cabinet” serves as a console table. The antique money cabinet has small slits on top where currency would be dropped through to land in drawer compartments below. A bamboo pole was slid through the drawer handles and locked for security. As Elaine delicately put it, when she first bought this house it was “a hellhole.” She stripped the house down to bare walls and started fresh, opening up the low ceiling and creating a more spacious, free-flowing floor plan with new walls, floors and fixtures. 30 www.nAPAVA L L E Y L I F Emagaz ine.com Asian inspired livingroom house + home with an elaine honig Stepping inside the home of
NVLife_NovDec_2014
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