Humerous site poking fun at how styles change.

14 years ago

Okay, I usually lurk and go on, but I came across a different site recently and was laughing out loud while reading. And while folks like my husband just stare at me and wonder, I think many of you will enjoy this link. It just simply shows pictures from a decorating book written in the 70's... with a VERY sarcastic commentary! It makes me think of those perennial threads on here that talk about what is 'in', 'out' or 'timeless'. If you back up onto the home page, has multiple links to similar sections on clothing, comics, vacation brochures, etc.

I think a few of you will enjoy this:

Here is a link that might be useful: Ugly Rooms for the Beautiful People

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Comments (20)

emagineer
14 years ago
But aren't we being flooded with this again? I love red, with those pics it also reads like I should be afraid, very afraid.
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mclarke
14 years ago
Hahahahahaha ha ha...

I couldn't make it all the way through, I started to get nauseous.
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Yikes! It poked back!
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So, we had a visit from Mama this evening. I was working in the yard and thought I saw a chicken run across the yard out of the corner of my eye, lol. Don't ask me why I thought it was a chicken, but that was the first thing that sprang to mind. Thought it might have been the neighbor's from across the street, loose and having fun. So I look up and see this very large rabbit, just sitting there. I don't know why it stopped so suddenly. So I stopped suddenly too, because I didn't want to scare it away. I wanted to watch it go to the nest. Well, that rabbit sat there for almost ten minutes not moving a whisker. I walked closer and got a good fifteen away from it before it twitched a muscle, so I stopped. I didn't want to scare it. So I stood there for another five minutes, then thought if I walked near the nest it might come over. (The rabbit was about 15 feet from the nest.) I walked about five feet away from the nest but the darn thing didn't move. It was kind of funny actually, like it thought if it didn't move it would be invisible. So I gave up and went in the house and called my teenage son. He had much less patience than I and within three minutes walked right up to the nest. I told him to be careful the rabbit didn't suddenly become like the killer bunny in Monty Python's Holy Grail! Then my son started gently poking at the nest, and called me over, saying I had to see this. Well, those stinkin bunnies are sooooo darn cute! They were poking their heads out and have grown so much since last week. Absolutely adorable! After oohing and ahhing over the babies, we finally both tired of waiting for the invisible bunny to move and went inside. A bit later I looked outside and saw Mama at the nest. She heard me from 50 feet away, despite the traffic noise, and looked up and ran off! So I went to take a picture, but the babies were not cooperating. I guess when my son was there, they thought he was Mama, so they were more than happy to stick their heads out of the nest. Now that Mama had come and gone, they wanted nothing to do with me. Two of them actually stood up and turned around and showed me their backsides, lol! Well! Oh goodness, there's at least six of them in there that I can count, squished in there as they are. I can't help thinking they will be a heap of trouble, even though they are so gosh darn cute now!
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Newbie trying to figure or how to use this site
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It doesn't help that one needs to keep disabling these annoying Vibrant linkages. Seems like I have to do it every other day. Sigh. Regardless, my regulars are just as twitchy by the time they leave as they were when they arrived. You'd figure they'd get used to seeing me outside all the time, changing their feeders. I like the migrators better. They're more sociable and more curious. I currently have a juvie male that always stops to check me out when he's at the feeder outside my kitchen window. I also think I have a juvie female (she's short & stout) but always "looks" at me so sweetly. Neither fly off if I move, which my regulars always did.
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Poke Holes in Kitchen Layout
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Comments (17)
For the time being, keep the two door openings in the back wall, and pretend the big pipe is not there at all. Draw something brand new which I will describe. Doors will swing out into the back porch area. First, see jmith's 2 aisles and 2 countertops at http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg010113155592.html jmith has a space about your kitchen's size and proportions. Ah ha. jmith's 2 aisles end at doors / openings (you have this too!) jmith's 2 aisles are 42" (yours could be slimmer) jmith's central counter is 3' (yours could be 2') jmith's central counter makes it a galley, accessible from both ends (yours can be so too) (Get the architect to do this): On a blank slate, draw this without any powder room (lav or WC), for the time being: Where you currently have an intact segment of the back wall is where the central island countertop goes. For now, draw it as a peninsula, touching the wall. It is smack dab in the middle of your long kitchen rectangle. This is the starting point, around which all other tradeoffs are made. Drawing it out makes it a "concept" to view and review. From this starting point you begin adjusting. Later you shall shoehorn in a pwdr room. That will be after you get the ideal kitchen layout, the ideal cross-house views and traffic flow, and the ideal sense of what you want to do with the spaces next to the kitchen and next to the stairs. Or almost. In any case, it is best to begin designing the kitchen. It is more critical. Later you might find you want the powder room to be exactly as shown in today's version, but if that happens, you will find out THEN, when you have finished designing the kitchen. If you copy jmith entirely, you will have a fridge backside facing your living room. This is good. It defines space, it blocks some of the view (adds interest / intrigue), and it can be beautiful because a finishing panel or wall will be made to look beautiful. You can hang art on this fridgeback wall, or put lit shelves holding statues of buddha's, or anything. Raro is a GW member who did this. His fridge is a "viewblock". Eyes hit upon a built in, the backside, and newcomers have no idea what it REALLY is on the other side. They see shelves and buddha's. On the other side, it is a "refrigerator island". It is a cabinet enclosing the fridge. His is L shaped. Yours could be too, or it could be an island. If so, it could be tall but open above, or a column touching the ceiling. http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg060141346570.html 1st diagram. http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0701325331325.html 5th photo posted. Next to the Fridge back island column, you might have an opaque glass door on one side to hide the kitchen sink from view when entering the house. It leaves one of the two aisles visible as the main passage to the back area. Even if you draw it, do a 3D simulation and decide you want it, you might ultimately end up not building...
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parma42
14 years ago
While I would be uncomfortable in most of the rooms, I loved the first one you see, listed under art, and think it's pretty timeless. Gorgeous rug and coffee table, interesting art and cool mirror placement.

Side note--a few of the furniture pieces shown from the 70's are commanding top dollar on 1stdibs (for what that's worth).
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sable_ca
14 years ago
That hilarious site was created by James Lileks, who published the original book, Interior Desecrations, back in the nineties IIRC. James is a writer, social critic and blogger who has published several books, all gently poking fun at and reminiscing about our past. He and his family live in Minneapolis, where they are lovingly tending an original Arts and Crafts home. I'm a fan, although I don't read him much any more, as he now writes sooooo much about computers.

If you open the link, just a warning to crafters, who may not like his "Don't Throw It Away"!

Here is a link that might be useful: Interior Desecrations
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Melissa Shelton
14 years ago
This is HYSTERICAL!!!!! I laughed so hard!!

M
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oceanna
14 years ago
Comments like, "This looks like the bedchamber for a hemophiliac. Even in the worst case scenario, you wonÂt have to redecorate." Whoever wrote this has a grand sense of humor and a very sharp tongue! Hahahaha! I have to admit I was afraid I'd see my room in there, though.
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morton5
14 years ago
Thanks, that's the best laugh I've had in a while!
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runninginplace
14 years ago
"Whoever wrote this has a grand sense of humor and a very sharp tongue!"

It's from James Lilek's website. He has a whole niche to himself making fun of (roughly) MiMo style. Check out his take on recipes/food at The Gallery of Regrettable Food and many more on his website, linked below. Seriously funny guy!

Here is a link that might be useful: More Humor from Lileks
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bluekitobsessed
14 years ago
Further proof that all furniture, decorative items, and photographs of people made in the 1970s should be burned, banned, and never permitted to resurface. I lived through it once, I had an aunt who considered herself up to date on trends (shag rugs! avocado green! rust brown! pumpkin! macrame! plants! op art!) and that website brought back many not-so-fond memories.

Blue
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dainaadele
Original Author
14 years ago
Don't say I didn't warn you. :) Once or twice I almost spewed my coffee over it.

There is also almost a second joke going on underneath: Yes, some of it has come back around again, and looks quite in style. Go figure.
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mjsee
14 years ago
Well...I'm pleased with my bits of mid-century modern that have come back into style. Bought the table off of ebay because I adored the legs. $177 including shipping. Found the chairs at a local resale shop for next to nothing. Found the fabric ON the chairs on ebay--$10/yard...

(We won't talk about what it cost to refinish the table and recover the chairs...)
From chair

From chair
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terezosa / terriks
14 years ago
You have to check out The Gobbler!
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mahatmacat1
14 years ago
mjsee, when did you get that table? It's great. How was its condition? Amazing.
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pugga
14 years ago
terriks, I've been at The Gobbler! Not as a motel guest but we'd stop for drinks when traveling between Madison and Milwaukee. The bar revolved!
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sorriso
14 years ago
I am dying. I am absolutely dying of laughter, out loud, tears rolling down my face. I've lived through this, starting my grown-up and buying furniture life in the late 70s and still have the damned wicker/rattan whatever-it-is trunk with the brass accents and glass top in my living room (but it's replacement is getting on a truck in North Carolina even as we speak) featured in the "ordinary room for an ordinary girl" page.

This has been the highlight of my day off which was supposed to have been the first of three days off but because of this horrible rainfest and the promise of continued rain, I'M GOING BACK TO WORK tomorrow. How bad is that?

Thank you!
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mjsee
14 years ago
flyleft...got the table in March...it needed some (minor) repair and to be refinished. Cost to have it hand stripped and repaired was $600. So... for my "new" dining room set:

$777 for the table
$225 for six chairs
$50 for the fabric for the chairs
$500 for the chairs to get re-upholstered (they didn't need refinishing)
Grand Total:
$1552

I think I did pretty well!
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mahatmacat1
14 years ago
You did *great* :) Beautiful set. I adore James Lileks, and yet I always find myself eyeing a few things in the rooms he bemoans so eloquently...
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palimpsest
14 years ago
Save your West Elm and CB2 catalogs and they will look as funny in 20 years. Its what happens when you do one stop decorating or carry a theme too far. Its very easy to date. If you look at some of the elements--its not all bad.
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mjsee
14 years ago
flyleft--Like that great arc lamp he bemoans in one of the posts? I would ADORE having that. I like to mix it up...you can't see it in the pics...but I have a great Eastlake bookcase (cherry) that I'm using to store crystal and tchotchkes.
Not a great pic...but gives you an idea. The fabric on the sofa is because the cats like to sleep there. And they shed.

I've rearranged a bit since that picture was taken...not much though. One of these days I'll take a new picture...
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awm03
14 years ago
Oh terriks! You beat me to it with your link to the Gobbler :)

Huge Lileks fan here. He is the best humor writer in America today. I couldn't look at his website at work because I'd get giggling fits. Then all my coworkers would know I wasn't on task.

His book The Gallery of Regrettable Food is hysterical.
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Humerous site poking fun at how styles change.

Comments (20)

emagineer

mclarke

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mahatmacat1

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mjsee

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Humerous site poking fun at how styles change.

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dainaadeleOriginal Author

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