at-home: Madeleine Dalkie
Sunday, November 19th, 2023
When you walk into Maddy’s apartment, you will first notice the high ceilings. From there, you may notice the light streaming through the large living room windows, or perhaps the rich colours in the rug. If you have a hard time keeping plants alive, you will notice that hers are thriving. And that she has a lot of them. And then undoubtedly, you will notice the host herself. Smiling, warm and dressed both casually yet elegantly, she will welcome you in and ask you what kind of cocktail you’d like. I choose a gin martini.
Maddy always had an interest in the building and then serendipitously found a spot available. And it feels like her. Art fills the walls- various pieces she has collected over the years and found in her travels. A large bookshelf is packed with titles that I can’t wait to peruse and beside that stands an easel with recent sketches and works in progress. Across the room there is a gorgeous antique table and you can feel all the dinner parties that she likes to throw, with friends gathering around for good wine and homemade food. A playlist queues up Leon Bridges and The Eagles and as I take another sip of gin from the vintage glassware, I notice that she doesn’t even have a TV. She really is that cool.
She curls up on the couch with ease, tucking one leg under the other in the vintage jeans she found in New York. This piece of furniture is the epicentre of the apartment, the place where she edits photographs, reads and eats dinner most nights. It is plush and soft and perfectly contrasts the antique ammunition case that serves as the coffee table in front of it. Every piece in the apartment has a story and I am tempted to ask for a second perfectly-crafted cocktail and hear about all of them. But I have to be on my way and so I say goodbye and invite myself back for one of Maddy’s dinner parties. She is exceedingly generous and so she laughs off this presumption, extends the invitation and bids me farewell. Each time I hang out with Maddy, I leave feeling both inspired and grounded and seeing her at home just amplifies this completely. This friend of mine who is art and creativity and curiosity and pleasure, and who has built a home to match.
Maddy is on Instagram with her photography @madeleine.dalkie