Cy Winship's Quirky Design

In these days of serious big-ticket design, the notion of having a little decorating fun is refreshing. "I know, I know, we all get so serious about decorating and design," says Winship, who is a frequent guest on HGTV’s Decorating Cents. "But it isn’t rocket science. It isn’t curing world hunger. It isn’t about your home looking like you’re smart or funny or rich or looking like a magazine." So what is decorating about? "It’s walking through a room and feeling a little thrill in your heart because it’s beautiful and it means something to you. It makes you happy," he says.

And for Winship to be happy, there has to be a little humor in every room. Perhaps not ha-ha funny like Joey’s ceramic dog, but something. HGTV.com talked with Winship about his quest for the quirky, his love for retro and pop and why we all should stop putting the wrong kind of furniture into wonderful mid-century homes.

How does a former actor/upholsterer get to become a designer with a store called Swank?
I got tired of acting and I taught myself how to upholster furniture. And I studied mid-century furniture, and I became hideously opinionated! So people would want a chair done and then would be lost with the rest of their house, and I would tell them where to put color and furniture. So they hired me for design advice, too, and it grew out of that.

I got together with Annette Hager at Swank. She does most of the collecting of the stuff in the store and I’m out doing a lot of design work. The store is a mixture of original collectibles, crazy ‘60s kitsch, found fabrics and redone pieces we collect. There’s everything from oil paintings of Chinese junks in Hong Kong, mid-century photography and ‘70s chrome. It’s all about helping people inject some sass and color into their homes.