Randy Florke at The Blue Victorian Gallery

The River Reporter

JEFFERSONVILLE, NY — According to Randy Florke, author of the newly published “Your House, Your Home”, the big question for most people is: How can one learn to tell junk from treasure? “Relax, take your time,” he said at his book signing on August 6 at The Blue Victorian. “Let experience help you develop your eye and discover where your tastes lie.”

Florke offered other tips at the signing. He suggested that magazine research can be a big help. Tear out photos that appeal and over time a common thread will appear. A notebook of these photos can be taken along to flea markets and yard sales. To Florke, going out unprepared to buy furnishings for a house is “like going to the supermarket hungry. You end up with junk.”

When asked what moves him to redecorate, Florke said “I never redo! Once I’ve put something together, that’s it.” Florke prefers to take the English approach: threadbare means warm and lived in and is, therefore acceptable. In America, threadbare often means old, dirty and unacceptable. Consequently, he feels that American homes are rarely expressions of individuality, of those who live there.

“Do not keep up with the Joneses!” he exhorted his listeners. He urged them to stay away from the “trendy,” deploring the conformity in home decor these days and referring to the over-reliance on Pottery Barn or Crate & Barrel and their “lifestyle” dictates.

Though Florke refers to himself as “a poor dirt farmer from Iowa,” he’s also a long-time resident of Sullivan County known locally as a real estate broker and decorator and a contributing editor at Country Living magazine. And it’s clear that he has a passion for houses. All the houses he writes about he owns and lives in, some of them in our area. He refers to them as though they were characters in a story or family members. For example, his house on Mohn Road in Cochecton he compares to “a well-bred, genteel aunt.” His latest endeavor, in Youngsville, is a factory-made modular structure to which he’s added period details. The overall effect is of a 19th century parish house.