For 25 years Susan and Jerry Lauren have owned a Connecticut farmhouse where they retreat from their jobs in Manhattan. “We love the authenticity of the country life, that we can escape the city and enter into another world full of New England tradition,” Jerry says. Time in the country for the Laurens means shopping flea markets, local country shows, and auctions for pieces of American folk art. “When we started looking all those years ago, we didn’t set out to have a collection of any one particular thing,” says Jerry. “It was a thrill to find something interesting and to learn more about it. As we researched what we were drawn to, we began to really focus in on those things that we loved.”

One love they couldn’t deny was spongeware, which the Laurens appreciated for its forever fresh blue-and-white color combination. “Spongeware has the feeling of great old Americana. All the pieces were made by hand, and each piece is unique, humble, and substantial. Spongeware looks great set against white walls, brick, and wood,” says Jerry. Their collection today includes nearly 600 pieces, and their favorite items are those painted with the darkest indigo blue.

Because the spongeware is so versatile, the couple displays it in several rooms in their house along with other collections of cast-iron windmill weights, hitching posts, game boards, weather vanes, and old food choppers that cover a kitchen wall. No matter what they buy, Jerry says their favorite things share a common design thread: “Each is gutsy and beautiful on its own. We’ve never been attracted to feathery light little things, and we think that’s what American design is all about.”