GRAY No. 3

interiors

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The Aments hired friend and architect Eric Hentz, founder of Seattle’s Mallet Incorporated, to do their kitchen remodel. The floor-to-ceiling bookcase is a new addition designed to match the house’s midcentury styling, while the Pennsylvania bluestone countertop mirrors the original fireplace.

he’s a lit tle bit country, a little bit rock ‘n’ roll. Well, let’s scratch country and

replace that with eclectic. Artist Jennifer

Ament ’s expansive taste and knowledge of

obscure pop culture make her interior design sense, like her artwork, a layered study in sophisticated references.

On her popular blog, Art and Lair, Ament inspires readers by posting a video from thrash pop band DZ Deathrays one day to uploading a painting by James McNeil Whistler the next.

And then there’s the rock ‘n’ roll. She and her husband, Barry—co-founder of Ames Bros Clothing & Design, known for its important contribution to rock poster art— share a love of music that might be the genesis of Ament’s sometimes edgy or irreverent side.

For Ament, easy is boring. She doesn’t appreciate “easy” in art or in interior design. It’s “easy” to buy a whole look from a catalog, but Ament eschews predictability in a way that is completely genuine. In other words, the cool isn’t calculated. It’s tough to cultivate this level of true personal style successfully, but the reason it works is because Ament doesn’t just stop with her first idea—she pushes until it no longer resembles anything status quo.

“I find inspiration in the humorous, subversive, and the GRAY ISSUE No. three

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