The Sunday Digest 108
“You can drive yourself crazy thinking about different things you could have done in the past.”
Welcome to The Sunday Digest — a free Sunday newsletter featuring long (and some short) reads, original columns, things I’ve saved over the last week, relaxing playlists, episodes releases, exclusive product drops, and more. Yes, you can reply to this email. I’d love to hear from you. Or, if podcasts are more your speed on Sundays, we’ve got that too.
Sunday Read: Inside Painter Walton Ford’s Revived West Village Town House
by Sarah Medford with photography by Michael Turek for Architectural Digest
I’ve always romanticized the life of being a painter. Largely, I think most painters struggle to live a lavish lifestyle. But as any artist likely knows, it’s difficult to create good art without some sort of struggle.
While I’d love to sell a company for $100 million and settle down with a brush and a canvas, I simply don’t think that’s a feasible business model or life goal for myself. But if it meant I could live inside Walton Ford’s West Village townhouse, well, maybe that would be a little extra motivation.
While I always look at slideshows and columns from Architectural Digest, it’s rare that I have a reaction like I had to seeing Ford’s home for the first time. As you look through each photo, it becomes harder and harder to fathom that this is the interior that exists in New York rather than, say, France or Italy. And that’s a great thing.
Here’s an excerpt:
Rather than reinvent some glorious past life for the place or enact minimalist perfection, Ford decided to return it to how it might have looked in the 1830s. He wasn’t slavish about this. The living room’s marble mantel, a bit of gentrifying probably added in the 1890s, remained, as did a Georgian-style rear addition from the 1990s. But the wallboard concealing floor joists and fireplace surrounds came out, revealing the sins of past generations. “When they did all that suburban stuff, they would drill right through those beams to put in pipes and electrical,” he marvels. “There were parts that looked like Swiss cheese.”
View in full here.
The Sunday Haiku: At least last night was fun.
A quiet night out,
one more turns into one more,
which turns into bleh.
New Episode › Retail Therapy 095: Burberry, Zyn, and Belgians
A loaded episode of
containing the sudden rise of Burberry, Belgian shoes gaining popularity among those who ~know~, Spotify Wrapped Season, 90s office culture, Zyns being in the bro culture zeitgeist, and more. We also touch on a recent New York Times piece about burgundy, the recent Skims x Dolce & Gabbana ad campaign, denim shirts, and some wishlist items.Listen to Retail Therapy on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube (see above), and anywhere else podcasts are found. And a reminder to follow Retail Therapy on Substack!
Things I Saved This Week
Supplemental Reading
I spent the better part of last week out-of-office playing golf with some old friends. While I didn’t take as many photos with my camera as I intended to, the ones I did take turned out pretty nice. You can see that edition of Postcards here. And you can see the slideshow I posted on Instagram here.
Can I interest you in the GQ’s write-up on the best waxed jackets?
My favorite pair of shoes is my Belgian loafers that I bought ahead of my wedding. While we did talk about this article in this week’s Retail Therapy episode, here’s an Instagram post with screenshots of excerpts that explain the allure of them (because the actual column is paywalled).
“How can I support Sunday Scaries?”
Listen to our Retail Therapy.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Subscribe to all Washed Media Podcasts.
Or, you can simply subscribe here: