In Joni Sikes’ home, more is more.
Venerable wooden wheels coexist side by side with vivid modern paintings. Empty window frames showcase paper ephemera. Antique Christmas lights glow in the sunlight in a unique tabletop display.
But there’s no discord, no clutter among Sikes’ collections. Each objet d’art looks like it landed exactly where it was meant to be in the two-story home in rural Madison County.
It might be because Sikes has worked as a designer. It might be because she searches tirelessly for the perfect thing - even though she might not know where the perfect spot for it is. Mostly it’s because she loves everything she collects - until she doesn’t. Then it goes to her flea market booth to make room for something else - something she’ll find at a flea market, most likely.
“My husband calls it ‘junking,’” she says of the quest. “I call it ‘treasure hunting.’ But he’s OK with (whatever she finds) as long as it’s not too expensive and he doesn’t have to haul it.”
Even with her expertise as a designer and her passion as a collector, Sikes is nervous about opening her house for the Friendship Club Tour of Homes on Dec. 2.
“I want everything to be just so,” she says. “And I always underestimate how long it will take to get there!”
Sikes actually decorated two structures - her 2,200-squarefoot home and the exterior and upstairs of what she and her husband, Jim, call a barn.
Downstairs, it’s his workshop - read that as “man cave” - and upstairs it’s her studio, a place for her to remodel her flea market finds, create crafts and, right now, teach herself to paint.
“I’m really into more modern art - textured abstracts - and big canvases,” she says. “Then I like vintage flea market stuff mixed in. I love chippy paint and simple lines.” Those concepts are combined eclectically throughout the house and studio. Sikes likes the colors of the 1970s, she says, so there’s lots of orange and green, even in the living room Christmas tree. She’s taken a cabinet door
off in the kitchen to showcase a collection of white china and painted the pantry door with chalkboard paint. In the master bedroom, a vintage map of France reminds her of her military upbringing, and in the master bath, a low rustic wood stand is framed by a massive modern tub. In her sitting room, painted turquoise, a still life of three vintage oil cans carries the color into the bookshelves. And in the studio, an old wire store display shows off family Christmas photos. “In magazines, I love the look of the simple neutral interiors, tone on tone, white on white, but the fact is, I love color,” Sikes says simply. “And I like ‘stuff.’ I like so many
things, I had to find a way to make them work together - because I couldn’t have four houses! “It’s just like holiday decorating,” she adds. “Things that aren’t Christmasy can be made festive. It’s all in how you put it together.”
The home tour is the annual fundraiser for the Huntsville Friendship Club, founded in 1944. Club members-limited by tradition to 25
at a time-work on civic projects throughout the year, including beautification of the Huntsville square, the pavilion children in need, an award at Mitchusson Park and a $1,000 scholarship annually to holiday shopping project for a Madison County student.
Whats Up, Pages 18 on 11/23/2012