It’s been a while since I’ve done a decorating-related post. For a reason. Gah, you guys! Decor Blogland has been swallowed up by a bunch of DIY, Goodwill-loving, garage-salers who love nothing more than to roll up their sleeves and stage, y’all! It seems everybody has hitched their vintage kiddy wagons filled with rolled-up antique quilts to HGTVs Design Star.
I don’t have a problem with the occasional, lovingly placed tchotchke to enhance one’s decor.
Wait. Maybe I do. This should not be considered an enhancement under any circumstances, anywhere. I don’t care if they paid you to take it and it has a Tiffany logo encrusted on the bottom.
But it’s the rooms decked out for a drop-in House Beautiful magazine shoot that really get me. Somehow someone has replaced the need for that lived-in look with the ready-to-entertain-the-Queen-look. I’ve seen home “tablescapes” nearly this elaborate in blogland. In my house, the dishes would just get knocked over by the cats and dust would slowly change that spring green to a muddy-mildew shade.
Decorating for decorating’s sake is so predictable! I mean no one should have 100 pillows on their bed, right? To me it’s especially ironic to have to maneuver around a pile of authentic flour sack/Belgian linen/reproduction nineteenth century pillows that will only end up on the floor. Who has time for that? I just want to curl up with Letterman and snooze. The sooner the better.
Of course Pottery Barn wants you to buy a pillow in every size and color. Have you ever noticed the piles of artfully arranged, grossly overpriced, faux, sea debris they try to stick you with season after season? Pillows are decorating loss leaders, people! Just like cheap milk.
PB’s 100% faux {that’s French for fake} sea debris.
In the decor blog world, when the word “vignette” became synonymous with something that had to be “changed out” with every season or fifth day on the calendar, I got worried that those who might actually have to use their income to pay their mortgage would have to resort to sticks in a vase, to-be-returned library books and Aunt Esther’s ashes or be left behind. Ummmm.
And for those of us who depend on the direction of others to get us through the day, thankfully there’s what I call bossy decor, or BD. BD steps in when we aren’t quite sure which way to turn. For instance, it’s so helpful to tell your friends and family a little about what they are expected to actually do in each room.
Not sure that it’s legal, but this sign requires passers-by to empty their pockets to assist with the monthly mortgage payment.
Apparently one must wait here for transport to, likely, the next stop on the home tour.
Placing this gem in the son’s apartment would guarantee you would never have to worry about your son getting married. Ever.
In conclusion, while I can understand the need to be camera-ready day-in and day-out should the unannounced prospective home buyer or Architectural Digest photographer swing by, I can’t live like that. I like my place best when it’s sporting that lived-in, dump everything on the counter until I need to cook again, wind-swept look.
Oh, and if you get a chance to cook this weekend, be sure and try this pancake recipe! It’s the best I’ve found….yum!
Sewing ephemera and some shots of hip-huggers …. men and women’s versions.
I’m pretty sure I had that pattern with the empire-waisted dresses.
And the legendary crocheted vest! Told you they were big!
A leisure-suit. With a pointy-collared shirt. Hot.
Music memorabilia. Eight-track tapes really were not a figment of our imaginations. Check out the macrame hanging basket.
Remember when the ERA was just a chant?
A stereo AND an eight-track!
The best part of the museum had nothing to do with the dirty politics of the early seventies. And who would have ever considered at the time that one day we would be able to snap pictures, instantly view them, and post them to a blog {if we had known what a blog was at the time, we would never have needed Al Gore to fill us in} all with a teeny-tiny telephone that fit in the palm of our hand. Psychedelically groovy!
