In the Chicago home of collector, filmmaker, and prop stylist Jeffrey Moss, every corner tells a story.

The first thing you notice when walking into Jeffrey Moss's Chicago loft is the wall covered with old black-and-white portraits of farmers, bankers, cowboys, kids on ponies, aristocrats, sailors, and more. A filmmaker and a prop stylist for clients such as Pottery Barn and Target, Moss has unearthed these photographs at antiques stores across the country. Call it a habit -- or a hazard of the job -- one that developed into a serious passion. "I have thousands of pictures," he says. "Every antiques store has a box of pictures of who-knows-whose family members."

Moss fashioned a makeshift bar out of an old farmhouse butcher block and an enamelware bin, so he's always ready to entertain. He stocks it with a small selection of spirits, rotating them with each season.

Moss creates interesting scenes and vignettes by grouping various items together, mixing a Campaign table, an old skein winder, and a window shade made with an oil-painted reproduction of a Jacob van Strij sheep painting.

Here, Moss grouped Art Deco teacups with folk art plates.

Playing off the neutral furnishings in an upstairs nook, Moss displays glittery portraits of family and friends that he commissioned from Sereno Wilson of Project Onward (an organization of artists with disabilities), as well as a gnome stool by Philippe Starck for Kartell.

Instead of letting vintage architectural models languish out of view on a shelf, he places them throughout his workroom, paying attention to how their shapes work with the furniture. "I have this way of composing that's based on geometry," he says.

Moss keeps his place from feeling cluttered by using a generous amount of white (his favorite color). Although the vintage table and chairs have an ornate shape, he likes that the white paint "makes them look modern," he says.