Let’s hear it for the red, white and blue.
And, for Pinky Whelan, too!
Whelan, aka the “Yankee Peddler” (the name of her onetime antiques shop), is a founding member of the Association of the Los Altos History Museum and has received accolades for her community service.
However, she is just as well known for her patriotic home on Orange Avenue. It’s a reflection of her and her late husband Chuck’s New England upbringing. She was born in Springfield, Mass., and spent her summers on Cape Cod. Chuck hailed from New Haven, Conn.
On a nice day, you might find Whelan and a friend or neighbor relaxing on the front porch in bright-blue Adirondack chairs with red, white and blue pillows. A “bouquet” of American flags sits on the table between the chairs and a cement crab guards the front door.
The motif carries over into the two-bedroom house, built in the 1940s. The Whelans purchased it when they moved from Cincinnati with their family in 1967.
“We raised six children in this house, if you can believe it,” Whelan said. “I am so lucky to have landed in Los Altos. I’m glad I grew up in New England, but I love California.”
Patriotic paraphernalia
Truth is, she brought her heritage with her. Think summer on the Cape. Comfy sofas and chairs in the living room are slip-covered in white. Red, white and blue pillows (once again) add color and comfort.
Draped over one chair is an American flag created from ribbon, yarn and fabric scraps. It was made by clients of the Whelans’ daughter, Amy, at The Cedars of Marin, which serves adults with developmental disabilities.
A handpainted blanket chest from Whelan’s parents’ bedroom serves as a coffee table in front of one sofa. Across the room, bent willow chairs on either side of a similar sofa add to the ambience.
The chairs could tell their own story. They were in the back of a truck headed down Orange Avenue. Whelan spied the truck and yelled at the driver to stop. He did. She bought the chairs – and a coffee table that matched.
Alongside one wall in the living room is a credenza purchased in a junk shop in Cincinnati for $1.
“Chuck had a good eye,” Whelan said. “Of course, it needed a little work.”
A pine cupboard is filled with collectibles – vintage tins, mechanical toys, cars, wooden blocks, dolls and patriotic paraphernalia.
The living room boasts divided-light windows and a high-beamed ceiling that she said made her “happy” when she first walked in the door years ago. The walls are painted what she calls “Tuscan Bob,” named for the neighbor across the street who mixed the color and did the painting.
Whelan calls the furnishings “primitive” as opposed to Early American.
The pièce de résistance in the dining room is a dry sink, dated 1765, which her husband found in a farmhouse just outside of Cincinnati.
The dining room table is actually a bench, the back of which folds down to make the tabletop. It is covered with a red, white and blue quilt – surprise! – and centered with a model sailboat made by Peter Landsbergen of Los Altos.
Dining room chairs are white wrought iron ice cream chairs. A vintage wood icebox provides storage but no ice cream.
French doors open to the backyard, where vintage butterfly chairs with red canvas seats continue the Americana theme.
Miss Liberty, a life-sized folk-art lady waving a flag, stands in the utility porch off the kitchen and is visible from the dining room. She was freshly painted and riding in the back of a pickup on State Street. Same story. Whelan waved. The driver-cum-artist stopped.
“He wanted $50 and I said, ‘I’ll take that right home.’”
Another “Liberty” she loves is granddaughter Liberty Herring, a recent graduate of the Chicago Art Institute. Whelan cherishes a framed painting by then-7-year-old Liberty of an American flag.
Whelan converted one bedroom into what she calls her “Red Room,” a combination sitting room, office and TV room. Red walls are the perfect foil for her collection of Jan Meyer paintings.
“They are cute and fun and make you feel good,” she said of the Los Altos artist’s works.
Antiques and art are integral to Whelan’s life. It’s no wonder she helped with the History Museum’s popular antiques shows and was involved with refurbishing the J. Gilbert Smith House, decorating it for Christmas every year.
Speaking of Christmas, her own tree is decorated in red, white and blue.
