Contra Costa Times

Contra Costa Times

September 4, 2004

Play that Funky Shui

By Lynn Carey

IN A WORLD where Amazon.com boasts more than 5,000 items related to feng shui, it's going to take a lot to get the average person to open up yet another book on a subject that for many is a confusing concept.

But send a "Funky Shui" book their way, and it's a different story.

The cover alone of "Decorating with Funky Shui" by sisters Jennifer and Kitty O'Neil will grab you. Hula girls, Pez dispensers, plastic lawn penguins ... those O'Neil sisters definitely know how to put the "fun" in "funky.""

If Feng Shui is the art of arranging objects to promote harmony," the book begins, "then Funky Shui is the art of arranging objects to make your home and your life fun."

Look at "Decorating with Funky Shui" as a permission slip to make you feel good about adding marabou to that lampshade, or taking that collection of Barbie dolls out of the attic and displaying it in your living room in, say, an "Evening in the Spotlight" shrine.

In fact, Kitty O'Neil, 39, has a mirror in her Orinda living room featuring small Barbie accessories. It was created with love by her younger sister, Jennifer, 35, back "when the hot glue gun first came out," Jennifer says.

You can tell a Funky Shui gal lives at Kitty's, which boasts discussion points in every square inch. The first clue is the array of those plastic penguins in the front yard. Enter the living room, with its bright lime and blue walls, and you can't help but notice the 200 or so Pez dispensers neatly lined up on a shelf above the couch. Lava lamps, neatly lined up dice, fez-wearing monkeys, skulls, cows ... and that's only the beginning of the fun. The bathroom has a red heart theme, as well as red devil duckies lining the bathtub. A hall shelf holds huge jars of bottle caps and bones.

Even more eye-catching are the huge oil paintings, created by Kitty herself. And another artist in the family is represented by enlarged "Blondie" cartoon strips, created by the girls' late maternal grandfather, Chic Young (their uncle now does the strip).

Kitty points to some strips that have their names in them. It was sort of an inside joke in a family that both women freely admit was unconventional when they were growing up in Tampa.

"Mom's kind of a wacky gal. Very playful," says Jennifer. So playful, in fact, that she glued rhinestones all over the exposed pipes in the bathroom, and painted big flowers all over the rusted washer and dryer.

"It turned into something you'd want to show people," says Kitty. "And, she had a big art studio with a cement floor. She painted a detailed Oriental rug on the floor, with tassels. It was very quirky."

The home was creative and artsy, with quotes on the walls and cartoons on the kitchen cabinets.

"It was fun!" says Kitty.

"It all seemed very normal to us," adds Jennifer. "But then we'd play at friends' houses and weren't allowed to sit on the couch in the living room. The couch in our living room had paint on it."

The still-close family -- parents, sons and the two daughters, along with spouses -- vacations together and Kitty and Jennifer, who lives in San Mateo, see each other several times a week. When they aren't together, they're on the phone with each other.

Their similar senses of humor were what led to the book. "We were just joking around, saying we weren't feng shui, we were more Funky Shui," says Kitty. "The more we joked, the more we realized we should write a book on this."

The theme in the book is that if you surround yourself with the things you love, your life will be more fun, Jennifer says, adding that the sisters want to encourage people to bring out the items in the attic they otherwise might consider, well, funky.

"What's kind of our motto is, you should always put out the good stuff. Wear the good wig, wear the good jewelry," says Kitty.

"You wear the glitz all the time," says Jennifer.

The book was written over their respective speaker phones, and it's illustrated with photos taken mostly in their own homes. Jennifer, for instance, has a living room devoted to stuff from the movie "The Nightmare Before Christmas."

Which begs the question: How do husbands like living with Funky Shui?

Jennifer, a former film and television producer who has worked with stars such as Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy, Michael Caine and the "very Funky Shui" Christine Baranski, is married to Rand Hill, an art director for Apple Computer. He loves "The Nightmare Before Christmas" as much as she does, which gives her free rein to collect "and be on eBay all the time," she says.

Kitty, a freelance software game designer, is married to Joseph Knight, an architect who loves the minimalism of, say, Richard Meir.

"It's been a compromise. Every time we move, he gets part of the house to make it a little more austere, and I get part of the house to make it a little more funky. Everything has to be very neat and tidy. The furniture in the living room is Danish modern, which he likes, but I get to decorate it in '60s fabric, which I like."

Knight has told Kitty that if they move again, she gets an art studio in the back yard.

"And name it Kitty's Krazy House," suggests Jennifer.

"I could paint polka dots on everything," says Kitty.

"And you would," says Jennifer.

The joining of art and Funky Shui may have begun when Kitty was 22, and won an art scholarship. She chose to study naive art, also known as outsider art, in the Midwest, with her younger sis in tow. Jennifer collected snow globes from every state when they were looking at things like the World's Biggest Ball of Twine and a dinosaur museum. It was one of her first collections.

Next up for the authors is "Partying With Funky Shui." It features 24 themed parties, such as the "Prom Do-Over" (this time bring a date you like) or a "Bad Art Auction" party, in which everyone brings a piece of bad art (start searching now at thrift stores and garage sales), all of which are auctioned off mock-seriously.

"I bought a piece of bad art, but now I like it too much to give away," Kitty says, pointing to what appears to be a paint-by-numbers raccoon in the living room.

Each party will have themed food and drinks. "The theme is the key," Jennifer says. "We wanted to find new themes for parties."

"And we can turn anything into shopping," Kitty adds.

INTERVIEW

• WHO: Jennifer O'Neil and Kitty O'Neil

• WHAT: Authors of "Decorating with Funky Shui: How to Lighten Up, Loosen Up, and Have Fun Decorating Your Home" (Andrews McMeel, $14.95)

Lynn Carey is the Home & Garden editor. Contact her at 925-943-8112 or lcarey@cctimes.com.