TV presenters Leonid Parfenov and Elena Chekalova discovered the secret of getting rid of depression.
February 5 2014
Elena Čekalina: The pug Motya lives in our country house. And the French bulldog Boniface, or Bonya, recently settled in a Moscow apartment. He is only three months old. When the children have grown up, and there are no grandchildren yet, I want to have someone who needs your care. Lenya and I have long been partial to breeds that descended from the ancient Chinese dog pho. They are great companions.
Leonid: We arranged the space gradually. They wouldn’t have pulled it all at once. We have both antique furniture and high-tech items. This kind of confusion should be treated with courage. Otherwise, it’s boring, hard and like in a museum. And when aluminum and glass are added to antiques, it comes out alive. There are things that have been wandering with us for decades from apartment to apartment. The armchairs upholstered in striped fabric were purchased 30 years ago and restored. They are at the beginning of the XNUMXth century. The table belonged to Lena’s grandfather. And the glass chest of drawers of the Russian Rococo era got to us by accident. Our friend bought it in a tattered state, we helped to restore it. But when it acquired a museum look, the Ministry of Culture prohibited exporting it abroad. So he stayed with us.
L.L .: This is an oak sideboard made by the same master Gams, which is referred to in “The Twelve Chairs” by Ilf and Petrov. More things fit in it than in the walls that have set the teeth on edge. Although in the late 1980s it cost the same 750 rubles in a thrift shop.
Е .: This is one of our first family purchases. Such buffets were in the Metropole, they were thrown out during the renovation, and they ended up in second-hand shops. At the beginning of our life together, when there was no money, we decided not to pursue expensive things, but went to a country furniture store. The buffet was bought in an unenviable form, brought to life. I remember my mother blamed: “Why do you need this bug?” But, in our opinion, such things do not become obsolete.
L.: Issue of the newspaper “Pravda” on January 26, 1960, my birthday. Kostya Ernst gave it to me. On the last page there is a photo with the caption: “A man was born!”
Е .: I designed the bedroom in a nautical style. The bed was ready, but I “changed” it, the bed linen was sewn according to my sketches. Above it is a canopy imitating a sail. In the corner there is a travel suitcase with which they used to move across the ocean. I bought it at a thrift store for mere pennies. He is wearing a porcelain doll – a gift from Leni, next to him are old Soviet toys.
L .: The icon on the left I first saw in Ethiopia, when in 1999 I was filming a film about Pushkin. Christ on it is dark, so he is in the minds of Ethiopians. That year I brought many interesting things from Africa, but it didn’t work out with the icon. When I later saw this in an antique shop in Naples, I realized: fate! To her right is an Orthodox icon of the XNUMXth century from the Vologda region. It is not canonical, it is a peasant painting.
On the shelf is a pair of pigeons bought in the French town of Saint-Paul-de-Vence at the Golden Dove Hotel, famous for the fact that the avant-garde artists Picasso, Chagall, Leger lived there. It is covered with their author’s drawings. There are 11 options for the goat head that stands at the entrance to the kitchen.