Kevinpreston3
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2005
- Messages
- 484
Past threads made me think how we don't have TVs or stereos built as furniture anymore...everything is a component. I can understand that, as technology changes, people's taste in furniture changes, etc.
It also made me think how differently people look at furnishings and decorating.
Here are some of the ways I have seen people decorate, and each of them makes me slightly ill:
1) Country/flowers, cat tails in vases, bad oak veneer furniture, neutral colors, safe colors such as blue and "camel". Laura Ashley in the bedrooms, little cartoon elephants/Hallmarkesque drawings in the bathrooms. This was my ex-wife's motif. Yech.
2) White walls, with God forbid a Leroy Neiman print over the fireplace. Maybe other prints on the floor, leaning against the wall, because they saw that on a show. A Madonna coffee table book. An 80s waterbed, but not a cool one. And a cockatoo in the corner who is not well taken care of, with feathers and seed all over the place.
3) The model home look, done badly. This may include vast arrays of glass vases on bookshelves way up high, $300 pillows on the couch, one of those ugly glass coffee tables with chrome cylinders for legs, bottles of potpourri, pressed twigs in glass, an arrangement of books on a bookcase with the last book propped “just so” to act as a bookend, bad track lighting, and a kitchen that has absolutely every gadget you can imagine for food preparation. There is an immaculate Sub Zero fridge and Viking stove, and it stays clean because no one in the house cooks. They order in or go out every night.
4) The HGTV home look. Mustard walls with violet trim, because someone said that it looks good. Everything in the bathroom is bad faux gold. Cheap hanging lamps that are supposed to look cool, but are basically bulbs hanging on wires. Homemade "Shadow boxes" filled with junk, and not very well done. Waterfalls made out of an aquarium pump pumping water down a piece of glass or wood and catching in a plastic tray. Rooms that have a lot of nice furniture in them, none of which are comfortable, and none of them you are supposed to sit in. Walls that have had some sort of straw glued to them and then painted over. Fireplaces that have fake jewels pressed into the mortar. Rooms painted red. Bad striped patterns. Paper cutouts glued to the ceiling and painted. And people who have all this and make fun of YOUR taste.
Things like that.
Now, what kind of decorating do I like?
I look around at some of the pictures of the writers’ homes here. Let me give you my perception of cool--seen here and in other places.
1) Anyone who would take an old streetlight and rewire it, and save it, THAT is cool.
2) Someone who puts a vintage jukebox in his or her living room.
3) Someone who had a vintage 50s turquoise bathroom--and kept it.
4) People who restore a REAL shadowbox and hang it over their fireplace.
5) People with a vintage hi fi in their living room.
6) People with a touch of Polynesia around their wetbar in the family room/rec room.
7) An Eldon Bowl-a-Matic sitting out in the rec room. Doesn't match anything, it's just cool.
8) Heywood Wakefield furniture all through the house, and the owner could care less if any of it "matches". (that would be me)
9) Someone who pulls back ugly, static-y Berber carpet to find original wood floors, restores them and enjoys them.
10) Someone who has a whole basement full of vintage washers and dryers. Very few things cooler than that, except for maybe a garage full of Hemi Superbirds. For me the world breaks down to two types of people. Those who love a basement full of antique appliances, (whether they are the owners or just like the idea) and people who wrinkle up their noses and say things like "what do you want a bunch of old appliances/cars/furniture for?"
Guess what kind of people I like to spend my time with?
It also made me think how differently people look at furnishings and decorating.
Here are some of the ways I have seen people decorate, and each of them makes me slightly ill:
1) Country/flowers, cat tails in vases, bad oak veneer furniture, neutral colors, safe colors such as blue and "camel". Laura Ashley in the bedrooms, little cartoon elephants/Hallmarkesque drawings in the bathrooms. This was my ex-wife's motif. Yech.
2) White walls, with God forbid a Leroy Neiman print over the fireplace. Maybe other prints on the floor, leaning against the wall, because they saw that on a show. A Madonna coffee table book. An 80s waterbed, but not a cool one. And a cockatoo in the corner who is not well taken care of, with feathers and seed all over the place.
3) The model home look, done badly. This may include vast arrays of glass vases on bookshelves way up high, $300 pillows on the couch, one of those ugly glass coffee tables with chrome cylinders for legs, bottles of potpourri, pressed twigs in glass, an arrangement of books on a bookcase with the last book propped “just so” to act as a bookend, bad track lighting, and a kitchen that has absolutely every gadget you can imagine for food preparation. There is an immaculate Sub Zero fridge and Viking stove, and it stays clean because no one in the house cooks. They order in or go out every night.
4) The HGTV home look. Mustard walls with violet trim, because someone said that it looks good. Everything in the bathroom is bad faux gold. Cheap hanging lamps that are supposed to look cool, but are basically bulbs hanging on wires. Homemade "Shadow boxes" filled with junk, and not very well done. Waterfalls made out of an aquarium pump pumping water down a piece of glass or wood and catching in a plastic tray. Rooms that have a lot of nice furniture in them, none of which are comfortable, and none of them you are supposed to sit in. Walls that have had some sort of straw glued to them and then painted over. Fireplaces that have fake jewels pressed into the mortar. Rooms painted red. Bad striped patterns. Paper cutouts glued to the ceiling and painted. And people who have all this and make fun of YOUR taste.
Things like that.
Now, what kind of decorating do I like?
I look around at some of the pictures of the writers’ homes here. Let me give you my perception of cool--seen here and in other places.
1) Anyone who would take an old streetlight and rewire it, and save it, THAT is cool.
2) Someone who puts a vintage jukebox in his or her living room.
3) Someone who had a vintage 50s turquoise bathroom--and kept it.
4) People who restore a REAL shadowbox and hang it over their fireplace.
5) People with a vintage hi fi in their living room.
6) People with a touch of Polynesia around their wetbar in the family room/rec room.
7) An Eldon Bowl-a-Matic sitting out in the rec room. Doesn't match anything, it's just cool.
8) Heywood Wakefield furniture all through the house, and the owner could care less if any of it "matches". (that would be me)
9) Someone who pulls back ugly, static-y Berber carpet to find original wood floors, restores them and enjoys them.
10) Someone who has a whole basement full of vintage washers and dryers. Very few things cooler than that, except for maybe a garage full of Hemi Superbirds. For me the world breaks down to two types of people. Those who love a basement full of antique appliances, (whether they are the owners or just like the idea) and people who wrinkle up their noses and say things like "what do you want a bunch of old appliances/cars/furniture for?"
Guess what kind of people I like to spend my time with?
