MY FAVORITE ROOM: Oh, what my antiques have seen--Vicki Clifford imagines their fascinating past

Jun. 8—Her hundred-year-old adobe cottage sequestered behind a six-foot-high perimeter wall on the East Side is exactly what former psychotherapist Vicki Clifford yearned for when she moved to Santa Fe from Austin. "There's something that's really sacred to me about the feel of an old adobe structure," she says. "It's a sense of peace and quiet and stillness. Adobe is thick and insulating, so it keeps a lot of the sound of the world away. My bedroom is the heart of it. It's the quietest room."

It's her favorite room. "It's a small room. It has the classic, old traditional Santa Fe architecture things that speak to me, like a fireplace and a window seat and big windows. Even though it's small, it's kind of a lot of candy for a dime," she explains. "I feel calm in there. It's a sanctuary. It's an important concept for people to feel held in a safe space, to feel a sense of peace and safety. I have a friend from Texas who says it's like a giant hug."

The 12-by-14-foot room has an iron king-sized bed, striped Mexican Saltillo serape blankets from the 1940s, old Mexican paintings, wall sconces with candles, vintage lace curtains and old Spanish devotional santos. Antiques give Clifford a sense of life's continuum. As she puts it, "They intrigue me. They have a mystery and soulfulness about them. Where have they been? Who did they belong to? What have they witnessed? Who made them?" Explaining further, she says, "They have a gravitas about them that new things don't. There's something about things that have been loved and used. I'm drawn to their energy. It feels like home. A room that is an old room full of old things is just comforting. There's serenity."

Psychology comes into play, too. "I'm an introvert, so I like cozy. I like cottage scale. I like intimacy," Clifford says. "With my background as a therapist, I know how hard life is, how much people suffer and the reality behind the Instagram illusion. I like things that are real. Adobe is dirt. It's real. It's mud. Hand-carved things are real. A real person carved them. They're not mass produced and they're not made of plastic. The things in my bedroom are real."

She continues, "These old santos in my house have heard countless prayers. They've absorbed countless troubles and sorrows and needs. It is a common human need to seek help for and intervention for our needs." Having the santos in her bedroom even helps her sleep, because, she says, "They just have a peace and a presence about them." The bedroom features various iterations of Our Lady santos. "These are all Virgin Marys. Our Lady of Sorrows. Our Lady of Immaculate Conception. Our Lady of Perpetual Forgiveness. These santos are all old ones, not signed. Most are Mexican."

Colors are muted in the bedroom, what with the old textiles and objects. Technology is barred. No TV. No cell phone. No iPad or computer. Track lighting is on dimmers set at 50 percent. One large window shows sunsets; the other looks out on apple and apricot trees. "It feels very much my space. I've been collecting these things for 35 years. You can't just walk into the antique santos store and get them, you know. Each piece has a story that's part of my history. I remember where I was and who I was with when I found it," Clifford says. She's collected most of the art and furnishings at Santa Fe's ethnographic shows, the old Trader Jack's flea market, antique stores and The Raven Fine Consignments.

You could say the bedroom is Clifford's personal shrine to the historic Southwest. Think: Ralph Lauren meets the Vatican here. Except, she points out, "My things were here before Ralph Lauren! The Navajo rugs in my home date to the 1880s. Ralph Lauren is now known for that look, but Ralph Lauren really co-opted it," Clifford notes. "The early bohemian artists who came here after the turn of the century, like Frank Applegate, the White sisters and the Cinco Pintores, collected indigenous art from the area, Saltillo and the Rio Grande, and Navajo rugs and the santos and Pueblo pottery. These folks had all these things in their houses way before Ralph Lauren had even crossed the Mississippi. If there's anything I use as inspiration, it's the historical pictures of the early bohemian houses."

Clifford grew up in Henderson, Texas, later moving to Fort Worth and then Austin, before arriving in Santa Fe with her late husband, Robert Clifford, in 2005. Nowadays she volunteers as a docent at the Museum of International Folk Art and La Fonda on the Plaza. She frequents The Shed and Tomasita's. "Because I love old things, because I love history, Santa Fe was like a dream come true for me. I just fell hard for it. It's my town. It's very congruent with the things I'm interested in." She also happens to be a Cancer, and Santa Fe is a Cancer city, according to astrologers. Doesn't hurt.

What she loves most about her house is that "It's very personal. It's very particular to my life's trajectory. It's very me." She adds, "Some houses are not personal. I think at best our houses should display our personalities and our interests. They should be what we want." Her favorite room has that going for it. "What I like best about the bedroom is it's sweet. It's just a sweet room with sweet light and pretty things in it. It's sweet and comforting."

MY FAVORITE ROOM: Oh, what my antiques have seen

Vicki Clifford imagines their fascinating past