By Donna Cornelius
Journal features writer
Industrial, contemporary spaces are often the darlings of today’s trendy design magazines. But that doesn’t mean antiques can’t share the love.
That’s the message Susan Kidd, owner of The King’s House Antiques, wants to emphasize at this year’s Antiques at The Gardens show.
Kidd will be a tastemaker at the ninth annual show, set for Oct. 2-5 at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. She and other architects, interior designers and landscape designers will curate themed areas.
Kidd’s display, naturally, will focus on the antiques she loves.
“I want to show that you can take antique furniture and incorporate it into modern-style houses,” she said. “Antiques can be fun—and young.”
Kidd said she plans to create a ladies’ lounge accented with some unexpected colors.
“I’ll be using pink and black,” she said. “I love the raspberry shade of pink because it’s so fresh and happy. I think color’s back—although it’s never left for me.”
For her tastemaker space, Kidd will combine French and English furniture with a Coromandel screen and lots of mirrors, she said. As she does at The King’s House, she’ll bring in newer items as accessories.
“You can put a piece of great pottery on an antique table or use wonderful fabrics on the frames of chairs,” she said. “The most interesting rooms combine the old and the new.”
Up-to-date touches like fresh fabrics and rugs, for example, are smart ways to update antiques without sacrificing their integrity and value, she said.
“Don’t jeopardize the character of fine antiques. With true antiques, you need to respect that age,” she said.
Kidd does encourage giving vintage furniture new leases on life by painting or altering them to make them useful and more attractive. Vintage pieces are those that have been around for a while but whose quality and origin may make them less valuable than true antiques.
One of the things Kidd said she most loves about antiques is their history.
“That’s the most fun thing about antiques,” she said. “Everything had a purpose and wasn’t made just to sit around.”
Her store has a rich past, too. Anne D. Kidd, her mother-in-law, and Jane H. Glasser opened The King’s House in 1972. Susan Kidd joined the company in 1988.
“I taught for 13 years at the Southern Institute of Interior Design,” said Kidd, who is also a graduate of the school’s interior design program.
The King’s House was in Mountain Brook Village, in the building now occupied by Another Broken Egg, for 35 years before moving to its present home at Birmingham’s Pepper Place in 2008.
The store is in an original warehouse once owned and used by the Dr Pepper Bottling Co.
Although The King’s House is more than 40 years old, it’s changed with the times over the years. The store has a website that has proved to be a helpful tool for Kidd and for her customers, she said.
“We try to keep the website updated so customers can see what we have,” she said.
The website also includes Kidd’s conversational blog. Recent topics have included summer entertaining, rethinking furniture placement and even an entertaining piece inspired by TV’s popular “Downton Abbey.”
Currently, Kidd is developing a “Designer’s Corner” for the website that will take viewers from her shop to clients’ homes, she said.
Kidd said she chose most items for the store during buying trips to Europe. She can also discover long-distance finds through the help of an overseas courier, she said.
The personal touch is still a key component of her business.
“My passion is the placement of furniture,” Kidd said. “While I don’t have time anymore to take on big design projects, I can help people find what they need to make rooms more comfortable and enticing.”
Kidd called herself “a big-picture girl.”
“Don’t ask me to measure for curtains,” she said, laughing. “I’m not into those kinds of details.”
Since the Antiques at The Gardens show will be held at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, a short distance away from The King’s House’s former home in Mountain Brook Village, Kidd said she’s looking forward to seeing old friends there. She’ll be on hand at the show to talk with those who attend and answer questions.
While Kidd has participated in the Antiques and Garden Show of Nashville for 13 years, this year marks the first time she has been a part of the Birmingham event.
“I was very pleased and surprised to be asked to be a tastemaker,” she said.
Kidd said event organizers have assembled an impressive lineup of speakers this year. Among experts making appearances at Antiques at The Gardens is author and blogger Jennifer Boles. The King’s House carries copies of Boles’ book “In With the Old,” whose title could be Kidd’s motto.
“Like Jennifer Boles, I’m very much ‘in with the old,’” Kidd said.
But she’s not necessarily “out with the new,” as she plans to show as a tastemaker.
“I hope I can have a display that will interest people—and maybe especially young people—in bringing quality antiques into their homes,” Kidd said.
She’ll have the opportunity to connect with a young audience when she participates in a new Antiques at The Gardens feature: Tastebuds: Define Your Style.
The Tastebuds event, set for Oct. 2 at 10 a.m., is limited to 40 people under age 40. Participants can meet speakers and experts and learn more about personal style tips.
