“My credo is more is more,” declares Montreal interior decorator and master collector Valerie Laidley-Price, and it takes only a glance around her Eastern Townships country home to see that she is true to her word. Treasures from all over the world can be seen in every corner, from the menagerie of Steiff stuffed animals piled on the sofa to the blue and white china inherited by her husband that graces the countertops. “I've created an unreal space with my collections,” says Laidley-Price. “When I come home, it feels like I have a little cocoon, and can step into another world.”
A vocal opponent of Internet purchases (and, in fact, anything to do with computers at all), Laidley-Price visits flea markets, auctions and antique shops in search of new pieces. “I want to pick the pieces up, touch them, have a relationship with them,” she explains, and personal instincts have always guided her purchases. When an antique shop dealer explained a vase as being composed of “poor man's silver,” she bought it for its funny little stork detail.
Five hundred pieces of mercury glass later, Laidley-Price is still amazed at how candlelight can be caught in the pieces, which include everything from compotes to candlesticks, making them shimmer, shine and dance throughout dinner parties. She hazards an educated guess that many of her prized possessions began life as homemade items, created by skilled Quebec craftsmen for their children in lieu of costly Christmas presents. Her Quebec model buildings get as prominent a placement as her animal prints and vintage Louis Vuitton luggage collection.
This love of homespun creations has extended to her current obsession, the popular sock monkeys that adorn her bedside. “I love their big red lips,” she says simply. In recent years, Laidley-Price has tried to tone down her buying habits, reserving spots for rarer objects, like a piece of green mercury glass. But in the end, a collector is a collector for life, and it may only be practicality that stems the flood of new pieces. “I can't collect as much anymore,” Laidley-Price admits. “I don't have a square inch to put anything!”
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