Question for Magnaverde -- the challenge of the ugly or trite

13 years ago

What prompts my question (I'll get to it! It's waaay down at the bottom) was your post in makeithome's thread. It's insightful, funny, and so informative, I hope you don't mind me reposting it:

"The reason I could move back, and that I can look at these pics of 1977 & not cringe is that, unlike my friends' houses, I didn't own anything that was "in style" that year. I had no money (I was an art major) so all my stuff came from Goodwill, while my friends who were business or chemistry or math majors, all made decent incomes right off the bat. Also, they all got married right about that time, and they filled up their new houses with brand new sofas & loveseats in rust polyester velour or plaid Herculon, gigantic TV consoles (this was before "entertainment centers") and if they (or their wives) were really adventurous, they might have had smoked mirror tiles or cork squares glued to the walls. Smoked, gold-veined mirrors--on the diagonal--were very popular that year, I will say that.

Let's also say they don't have any of that stuff anymore. Some of them realized how ugly it all was early on, and replaced it all with patchwork upholstery in mauve & country blue--OK, this stuff was all their wives' idea--& big prints of young girls in big straw hats with ribbons, strolling along at the seashore & little arrangemets of country blue silk flowers on all the spindly little oak tables & weird assemblages of heart-shaped wire gizmos with cornhusk dolls attached with gingham bows, and some dangling candles &--get this--wheat: I don't know what the wheat thing was all about. Anyway, the "country" look was very popular that year.

Other couples hung onto their gigantic Herculon living rooms, because as ugly as the stuff was, it was also indestructible. Correction: is indestructible, and it will be clawing its way out of landfills--as colorful & stain-free as ever!--long after we're gone. My friends felt guilty throwing away something that still looked brand new, but eventually, they broke down & bought new stuff,this time, new "Southwestern" style pieces in allegedly "desert tones" of peach & teal, or, a few years later, they went in for overstuffed sofas in large-scale striped damask prints in burgundy, hunter green & navy, with gigantic brass lamps, or, later, they bought "Tuscan" dinettes wih heavy frames carved in China, & curlicue wineracks draped in plastic grapes & ivy, with reproduction wine posters or scenes of ancient castles at sunset, or--do you see where I'm going with this?

If any of them still have any of that that stuff--and if they keep up with the decorating magazines & 'designer' catalogs--they're sick of it, and ready to throw it all over. And for what? Probably some gigantic beigey-tanny-grayish ditressed leather sofa, a table that looks like it was made out of weathered packing skids, a gigantic clock that looks like rusty iron (but that ten-to-one is actually plastic) and a big, old-looking scroll deal with the names of a bunch of subway stops in a city they've never visited. The washed-out, cheerless look is very popular this year. I give it till the next election.

Here's the thing: history has a way of repeating itself, and not only in recycled decorating styles--and here, I'm thinking Mid-century Modern or Jonathan Adler's colorful Palm-Beach-Divorcee style--but also in feelings of embarrassment over the things we used to like, and the hard-earned money we spent on stuff that, these days, you couldn't give us for free because we wouldn't take it. Now, all that constant stylistic churn may be good for the economy--or, at least, for China's economy--but is it good for us? You tell me. No wonder people don't know what they like anymore. New looks are coming at us as fast as the candy on the conveyor belt on that old episode of I Love Lucy, and the only way to keep up with all the new trends is to keep swallowing whatever comes at us.

OR--we could move away from the machine.

And how do we do that? How does one break free of the apprently never-ending cycle--of infatuation with a hot new look, then of boredom with the same look? By doing it the way I did: by NOT looking to mass marketers--TV shows & magazines (at least current magazines) & blogs & trendy catalogs for style guidance. All they care about is convincing you that What You Like is what they just happen to have a whole warehouse full of. A whole warehouse that they need to empty ASAP, in order to make room for the next shipment of something else.

If you want to know what you really like--not what you're being primed to like by what we used to call Madison Avenue--get hold of a bunch of old decorating magazines & books. Here's why: once the temporary sheen of newness wears off things, you can better assess their stylistic value. If you look, say, at a 1989 House Beautiful or a 1963 Life Magazine or a 1935 House & Garden--it doesn't matter which magazine or period you choose, because the principle is the same--you'll see two kinds of rooms & two kinds of furniture, both in the ads & in the editorial pages: stuff you'd like to have today & stuff that's hideous."

But here's the amazing part: back then, to the people who bought those magazines new, it all looked good. Or, at least, they thought it did, because it was NEW. Today, now that none of it's new, we can better tell the good from the bad. And once you've looked at a dozen of those magazines or books, or six dozen of them, you'll have a pretty good idea of what sort of thing it is you really like. How do I know? because that's how I learned. Yes, I have an interior design degree, but they didn't teach any of this stuff in school. This is all stuff I learned before I ever quit my first career and went back to school. So, in the 1976s, when my friends & their wives were looking at 1976 magazines for "inspiration", I was looking at magazines from the 192Os & 1930s, and the stuff I liked had nothing to do with either what was temporarily in fashion in 1976, or what had been in fashion when the magazine was new. I was drawn to stuff because of its innate style, not because it had at one point been trendy. Believe me, there was plenty of once trendy stuff that, like i said, I wouldn't take if you gave me. Anyway, looking at old magazines allowed me to see stuff free from the then-current design propaganda that was trying to get me to buy that Herculon stuff. So when that stuff showed up at Goodwill or yard sales, I already knew I liked it.

I bought what I liked, while my pals (and their wives) bought what they thought they were supposed to like. Big difference. A few years later, my pals hated what they had been cajoled into buying, while I've still got all my stuff, which, incidentally, only cost a fraction of what ended up paying to J.C Penny or Spiegel on the installment plan.

Magnaverde Rule No. 14: If something isn't in style, it can't go out of style. "

And FINALLY my question:

Do you ever get the urge to use something cliche'd or common or ugly like, say, the smoked mirror tiles, asking yourself, "Can I make this look fresh or attractive?" Do you ever challenge yourself in that way?

Just curious. I think this is an attitude many of us get from having moved into previously owned homes with no $$$ for renovation -- what to do with the blue tile in the bathroom, the oak cabinets, even the smoked mirrors. I saw a room with mini-print wallpaper (late 70s fad, remember?) in a magazine several years ago. It looked surprisingly refreshing.

Featured Answer

magnaverde

13 years ago

last modified: 9 years ago

Awm03 asks...

I think this is an attitude many of us get from having moved into previously owned homes with no $$$ for renovation -- what to do with the blue tile in the bathroom, the oak cabinets, even the smoked mirrors. I saw a room with mini-print wallpaper (late 70s fad, remember?) in a magazine several years ago. It looked surprisingly refreshing.
...........................................................

Excellent question, Awm03, so before I answer, let's break it down into bite-size pieces.

Do I ever use something cliche'd? All the time. It just depends on which era's cliches were talking about. The combination of colors in that satin-striped club chair & the rug in my old gray apartment on another thread--terra cotta & hunter green--was a trendy cliche in the 1940s, as was the rug border's lily motif. In fact, the first time my folks came to visit, my mom took one look at that stuff & said, "When I went off to college, your grandmother turned my bedroom into a second guest room and those were the colors she used. I didn't like them then & I don't like them any better, now!" To her, they were 'dated' colors. To me, they were just colors. Were they my favorite colors? They were not, but the rug was only $20 & the chair was only $7, so I figured for that price, I could live with the cliche.

All the bathrooms in that buiding were sleek 194Os beauties--brown & yellow tile or black & green or blue & gray, all of them but mine, that is, where, because it was the original owner's apartment, the bathroom was done not in then-current styles, but in the owners's own preferred colors, which happened to be ones popular in the late 1920s: turquoise & yellow, with pink-&-green feature tiles, and a black-&-gold terrazzo floor. Everything else in the place was sedate: grays wall, gray trim, gray blinds, and in the kitchen, gray enameled-steel cabinets, gray counters, gray trerrazzo floor & a stainless steel backsplash. Very elegant. Then that crazy bath. Its multicolor scheme wasn't anything I would have ever chosen for myself, but, like it or not. it's what I had, so rather than try to tone it down (a hopeless cause) or worse, screw it all up by painting the beautiful hand-glazed tiles a calmer color, I embraced the craziness. Like they say, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. So the cream-colored upper walls got painted Screaming Mimi Yellow, the cream trim got painted shiny black, and I hung a Screaming Mimi shower curtain & a 1920s poster with a cherry-red background. The room soon becasme everybody's favorite room in the place, and eventually, because of the unearthly yellow glow that used to emanate from the hall whenever the bathroom door was open, the door from the living room to the hall acquired a metal sign with the international symbol for Radioactivity. It made for a nice contrast with all the mahogany & damask.

And in a later apartment--1983, this time--when I was faced with a dump of a bathroom that had walls covered with cheap (& mismatched) fake-wood paneling to hide busted & missing plaster & charred studs--somewhere along the way, there had been a space-heater fire--and a floor of stained, scarred linoleum, I painted the floor with gray deck paint, white-washed the walls & hung a bunch of weatherbeaten architectural fragments that I hauled out of the trash. The only thing in the room that wasn't either sun-bleached-looking or scabby with peeling paint was the stack of brilliant white towels, which looked even brighter against all that gray.

My friends all hated the Hardscrabble Farm look, but these days, well, let's just say a popular catalog should be paying me royalties. But, once again, it was all just turning lemons into lemonade, of going with the flow, rather than playing follow-the-leader with already-popular styles.

But what about today's cliche's?

Well, that depends. I wouldn't use those scrolly iron doodads or Wallwords or 90% of what I see in popular catalogs, not because they're cliches (which, admittedly, they are, but that doesn't matter to me) but simply because I don't like them in the first place. But there are other current cliches that I'd have no trouble using, because these things go in cycles, and eventually, the very same trend-driven people who fell in love with Foo dogs & Chinese Chippendale chairs & ikat prints because they saw them all over the place a few years ago, will forget all about them, at which point I can clean up. Sure, a lot of those things are cheaply made, but others are very nice, and the best thing about the trendy cord is they either can't tell the two categories apart, or they simply don't care, meaning that beautiful examples of blanc de Chine & antique suzanis will go for nothing at the yard salse of 2012.

last year, I heard designers whining because Restoration Hardware introduced a line of outdoor aluminum furnitre modeled after an ancient Greek klismos chair. They worried that the easy availability to the masses would diminish the appeal the chair's classic lines has traditioanlly had to a designers. Well, maybe that appeal will be diminished to shallow-thinking people like themselves, who only want things as long as the riff-raff can't get their grubby mittsa all over them. Once that happens, the allure is spoiled for that crowd. Please. That's flat out ignorant, as well as being insultingly classist. I can't stand people like that, and I look at the availblity of those chairs at reasonable prices as an incredible buying opportunity, because when these babies fall back out of current fashionability--and they will--it will be decades before they come back. Now's the time to stock up.

Do I ever use "common" things?
Well, I'd call linen panels from IKEA pretty common (my current LR); as well as $7 closet-door mirrors from Walgreen's (my old DR); $18 file cabinets from K-Mart (ditto); take-out food containers & plastic shower rings from the Dollar Store (my old DR chandelier). Other "common" items that I've used in the past: saucer sleds & hula hoops to make a gigantic Art Deco chandelier; the dead branches I found in the yard after every storm; a translucent plastic water softener tank I found in the alley, illuminated from within by a plug-in Brightstick from the Piggly Wiggly; & a sparkly, clear vinyl kids' ball out of the toy aisle, presented on a bronze tripod as though it were a rare piece of art glass. Kids always recognized it for exactly what it was, so they went grabbing at it, and every time, their folks would gasp in horror, for fear the kid would break my precious artifact. One woman--a very proper Church Lady type even said a bad word when her kid lunged for it. I pretended not to hear,a lthough I guess when she reads this, she'll know I did.

Anyway, context is everything. If you've got enough money, you can buy anything you could possibly desire, so it's what you can make out of nothing that counts. Or, at least, that's the fun part.

do I ever use "ugly" things?
Of course not. Life's too short to be looking at ugly stuff. Then again, ugliness, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, so it's quite possible that other people might consider ugly what I happen to like. In fact, I can gurantee it. Like they say, there's no accounting for taste. Take the rotten tree stump on my Chippendale-stye mahogany table, for instance. I know that some people consider it ugly and yet it was featured front-&-center in a full-page photo in that article in O at Home. Of course, even after that, presented in a beautiful photo by Roland Bello, some people still didn't get it. Oh, well. Their loss, not mine.

My old living room's rug, with its soft-ball sized holes--cut out for floor outlets--and its raveled edges where I cut it in two with an electric carving knife to make it fit the room is also in some people's 'ugly' category. As is the framed full-page newspaper image of Bart Simpson with the headline "Life follows Bart." If my real name wasn't Bart, I might disagree, but it is, so I don't. Like I said: context is everything. "Ugly" isn't always ugly.

So, short recap of a long answer: yeah, I do all those things: cliche, common, ugly. Whatever it takes to make a good-looking room. And thanks for asking.

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Comments (32)

graywings123
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
The first thing that came to my mind was Mag's use of latex paint to turn an old fabric sofa into faux suede.
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Hi Beth0301. Like you say, it doesn't really matter whether this is our style or not, since it's the style that you like. That, all by itself, puts you way ahead of the people who don't really have a clue about what they like, other than whatever they happen to see in the stores or on TV. Even so, I'm a little bit confused, because you say that this is your style, but you then add that you're willing to change it all--to paint the dark walls light (even though you already acknowledge that the room, with all its windows & doorways, gets plenty of light) and to paint all the furniture white. If this truly is your style, why make such major changes to a room that already looks good? Also, you use the terms "shabby chic" & "French country" but I wouldn't say either of those describe your room. 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OK, furniture: yes, high-back pews may clutter up the room visually, but not nearly as much as a bunch of individual (and probably, unmatched) chairs, but either way, your family's & guests' comfort should come first, and aesthetics afterward. I happen to love the simple, clean look of traditional Japanese design, but, hey, I'm not about to make my friends sit on the floor to eat dinner. OK, paint finishes: since the finish of your kitchen cabinetry is already dark & you don't plan on changing that, and your dining room's trim is already white & you don't plan on changing that, and since there's a large opening between the two rooms, let's face it, there's going to be non-matching finishes somewhere. Your job, then, is to make it look like intentional. Painting your furniture white will make the kitchen cabinets--as the only things left dark--look like somebody ordered them in the wrong color, and it will also throw the whole area out of balance. Your husbands's suggestion to paint the furniture dark--even if it didn't have any real thought behind it--turned out to be a good one. Like they say, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. I say leave the furniture dark--changing the brown chairs to match the other pieces--and let the contrast be not between whole rooms but between structure & contents, in other words, between the light trim & dark furniture. And since the other trim is white, the built-in china cabinet should also stay white. It's structure, not furniture. To visually integrate the china cabinet with everything else in the area--and I'm talking both adjoining rooms, here--if you have white dishes that you can display in the cabinet, paint the back wall the black of the furniture and let the dishes' light-color silhouettes stand out. If you don't have enough china to make a nice display in the cabinet, hit Goodwill & yard sales and pick up a bunch of mismatched dishes with interesting shapes but ugly colors--I'm thinking 1970s brown-speckled soup tureens or cheap red-glass compotes or yellow-&-green psychedelic-patterned coffee carafes, I'm sure you get the idea--and spray paint them white. Or, alternatively, paint the same pieces shiny black & keep the insides of the china cabinet white. Either way, go for the same high-contrast look your light-colored dished have against the dark wood of your kitchen cabintes. Repetition of a single idea--even if the colors are reversed--is always effective. OK, curtains: lots of people call straight-hung sheers 'dated' but they're absolutely appropriate for a house of this style & period, and their honest, uncomplicated style is a much better foil for the strong shapes of your furniture, the handsome stick-style stairway & the simple stained glass in your hallway than would be the dainty fussiness of gathered Austrian shades. You say you want to 'pull this room together' and, yes, the details of your new seating still need worked out, but visually, at least, but I think you're pretty much there already. Don't fix what ain't broke. A shorter mirror above the buffet, a white ironstone bowl filled with curly locust tree pods & and sycamore balls for the expannse of dark wood on the table & I think you're set. And whenever that nagging inner voice starts telling you that your room still isn't quite right, that you still need to do something else before you're satisfied, just remember the excellent decorating advice given to Martha the Perfectionist when she was fussing arund, worrying about everything that that still needed to be done: "You're anxious & troubled about a lot of stuff, but only a few things--or just one--are necessary." Now's the time to enjoy the nice room that you've already created. Regards, Magnaverde.
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awm03
Original Author
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
The children's ball on the pedestal -- I am floored! It's always impressive when someone can make decorating lemonade out of lemons, but that takes the cake, if you'll pardon the mixed metaphors. That you can make beauty out of the good, the bad, & the ugly is a tremendous gift. [There you go -- you are the Sergio Leone of decorators!]

Thanks so much for your in-depth reply and photos. It's fascinating to get inside the head a little of someone who can really see & create good interior design. I hope you know how appreciated you are in this forum. (and Pal & bronwynsmom too)
palimpsest
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I think that "ugly" is such a contextual term. Some of the trends that you describe from your friends' houses in the early years, well, they don't look so bad because they are dated (a word I don't particularly like)--I think they look bad because they were always ugly, and they look even worse now because they are not popular any longer on top of that. And, there may be a variety of factors that contribute to their unattractiveness--and always have.

However, there is a fine line between beautiful (and fascinating) and ugly...a look at a high fashion print model will attest to this. But this is not an ugliness that stems from banality, it may be one that stems from uniqueness. I think of the work of Frank Furness & Daniel Pabst of the 19th c., and the work of Paul Evans of the mid twentieth century, and on the surface, much of their work qualifies as "ugly" but there is a great deal of beauty in the process and the craft. Even some of the burl pieces of Nakashima are crafted of diseased wood so ugly it fascinates.

I think a bit of ugly, unpopular, dated, cheap, or pedestrian is what gives a room real dimension and, in turn, real staying power. I see many attractive, pleasantly decorated rooms in these forums that leave me a bit unsatisfied, because they are "just so".
awm03
Original Author
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
"I think a bit of ugly, unpopular, dated, cheap, or pedestrian is what gives a room real dimension and, in turn, real staying power."

Interesting. Also the difference between banal ugly & interesting ugly...

I think my decorating quest with this 60s tract home is to find the right balance between attractiveness and frumpiness.
magnaverde
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I remember when I thought Frank Furness' work was the absolute worst thing ever. Now I like its power. There's a blocky, Lego-looking Furness chimneypiece in about six different kids of contrasting stones in a shop at the Merchandise Mart that I'd really like to have. Too bad it's ten grand.

And one of Nancy Lancaster's best pieces of advice was "A room in which all the "i"'s have been dotted & the all the "t"'s crossed is a room that's lifeless & boring."
carolfm
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I love Magnaverde. Just saying...love to hear your explanations, love your style, love your rules. I'm happy you post here, Magnaverde. I always learn something and I always laugh when I read your posts.
PRO
Lori A. Sawaya
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Love me a meaty thread with wonderfully insightful posts. Definitely want to save this one as a favorite!
franksmom_2010
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Here's what I want to know from Magnaverde, Pal, and all of the others, who, IMO, pull off the eclectic, quirky, interesting, mash-up of style so magnificently...do people ever think you're nuts for doing that? Ever get that "Weeeeelllll, that's different!" kind of response?

I don't mean now, when you've had your own homes featured in magazines, or people pay you for that kind of insight, but way back in the day, before all of that?

Here's the deal. I don't decorate at all like any of my family and friends. They're more the Rooms To Go/JC Penney buy the whole room matchy kind of people, and I'm just... not. I'm more of a thrift store, garage sale, antique mall kind of girl. I have a family member that's alluded that perhaps now that I'm no longer a starving student, I could afford "better."

I certainly don't do anything totally freaky (and gloriously wonderful) like painting a whole room Screaming Mimi yellow, but it's not Silver Sage and Baby Turtle, either.

I also don't think that every house has to be "updated" and every house doesn't need (or want) crown molding, stainless steel, and granite. People think I'm crazy. Or cheap. Or whatever disorder it would be to not want my house to look just like a picture from a catalogue.
magnaverde
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Franksmom, I was exactly in your position for years. Actually, I still am. None of my friends' houses looks anything like mine, so I don't expect praise, or even understanding of what I do. And you know what? It's OK, because I don't understand their interest in fishing or Gigantor-sized backyard grills, either. At least we're past the stage where, back in the old days before I finally found a sofa I liked, they'd offer me their old couches when they bought new ones. Gee, thanks, Wally. Their view was that Herculon plaid might not be exactly what I was looking for, but that, in the meantime, it was better than nothing. My view is it's better to have nothing than something ugly. It was a standoff.

A passage in one of the apostle Paul's letters come to mind. He was speaking of holidays, not decorating styles, but the principle still applies: "Some men consider one day as superior to all other days. Other men consider all days to be alike. Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind."
dianalo
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I am so much more like franksmom and am a wannabe magnaverde in the fearlessness dept than like the sheep I see decorating, with and without money, every day.

I am a real estate agent, so get to see the many ways one can decorate and sell in both modest and in expensive areas. What is saddest to me is the expensive homes with no personal style or imagination. They have interchangeable rooms with their neighbors. While pretty, they are vapid. I don't see depth or character much of the time. When I see something quirky or funky, I want to hug the owner for not doing the expected.

I would love to have oodles of money so I can give lessons about how to enjoy it and decorate with joy and not just copy the latest magazine or catalog.

I am saddened when I hear of multiple people using the same paint color like a mantra. There is a whole rainbow of swatches yet everyone knows the few current safe ones and debates between the most popular and the other top 9.

While tan/khaki/red/gold/sage/cafe au lait/mushroom can be done nicely, they are so overexposed right now, that I want to scream when I see house after house with the exact same palette. Doesn't anyone have a favorite color that is not part of the current trend? How does everyone arrive at the same few colors without noticing that their house looks like every other recently decorated house? Did they name their children by following the top ten baby names of that year? I guess it is safer to follow the herd, but where is the fun in that?

I like my oddball finds and stray pieces of furniture. I hope to have very few matching sets of anything in my house. I am not a bed-in-a-bag kind of gal and like to create a look that is not predictable. My biggest fear is that something I use will end up being popular and will become like an overplayed song. I try not to be contrary for contrary's sake, but I do tend to enjoy going a different route than most people I know in the real world. It is so nice to see some kindred spirits here whose look can be way different than mine, yet can't be found on the cover of JCP catalog either.
awm03
Original Author
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
But to put it in perspective, it takes artistic talent to create a truly beautiful home with personal style and imagination. Most of us don't have the knack, no matter how keen our interest in interior design. I can do color, architectural elements, and have good taste in furnishings. But I'm hopeless with patterns, fabric, scale, arrangement, accessories and pulling it all together in general. An artist can create a room of beauty with the objects at hand, whereas I have a roomful of pretty stuff and can't create The Room. My sister is a graphic artist. It takes much less effort for her to put together an attractive house; I have to work and work and work at it. (She's artistic, and I'm autistic -- that's our joke).

I don't know many people who love interior design. They're interested, but not fascinated. So I suppose most people are content with a neat and attractive, if conventional, style.

Finally, I think the real estate shows on TV have done a tremendous disservice by insisting that a house has to have a certain look to sell -- the neutral wall colors, the rooms devoid of "personal objects," bare & spare & unlivable. Maybe this is what you're seeing, dianalo. Talk about trite...
palimpsest
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
To answer the question about getting negative or confused feedback about the way I have put things together, sure. My apartment is currently on the market and I had to make a conscious decision to *not* "depersonalize" in any way to show it.

So, the piles of objects on certain tables stayed, as did the black hallway with two dozen Keane prints. You are either going to appreciate it--or not. There have been a couple house hunters who did a flyby and clearly did not like it but the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and the realtor said that it not the typical feedback about "nice", it is a bit more enthusiastic.

On the other hand I have had people look at a particular object and say "thats really ugly" or "that doesn't go, why is that in here?" And its there because I like it, or maybe it doesn't go, like the yellow lacquer table that I planned to relacquer and got used to it the way it was. The bottom line is that I don't care that much what people think, but I care very much how it works for me. I am pretty insecure about certain aspects of my life, but I am really secure about making a room work for me.

------

One of the points that I want to make rather briefly is that many people do not really discern between Fashion and Taste. A room in good taste from 1967, 1987 or 2007 is still a room in good taste. It may be unfashionable--it may be outmoded, it may need a change or two-- but it not in bad taste in any age.
awm03
Original Author
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
"I am pretty insecure about certain aspects of my life, but I am really secure about making a room work for me. "

That's a wonderful way to look at it. Rather liberating. Thanks for that.

"people do not really discern between Fashion and Taste. A room in good taste from 1967, 1987 or 2007 is still a room in good taste. It may be unfashionable--it may be outmoded, it may need a change or two-- but it not in bad taste in any age."

That's why you can go see the period rooms at museums and they still knock your socks off:

Here is a link that might be useful: Weil-Worgelt Study at Brooklyn Museum of Art
katrina_ellen
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Magnaverde, your posts have really inspired me. I always admire someone gifted with creative talent. What inspired me so much about your apartment was that it was small and you didn't see that as a barrier to creating a grand style. I live in a very small place and am trying to make it my own but I don't have the creative eye I would like to have. When I moved into it I was going to "update" my look - go more graphic - and after reading your posts I decided that was not the direction for me, that I was going by what I was seeing in magazines and advertisements more than what I really loved. Thanks for your informative posts!
gobruno
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
awm03, thanks for posting Magnaverde's thread. I really enjoyed reading it. It is insightful and gels with how I am trying to approach our house. I also enjoyed the follow up posts. This forum is great.
magnaverde
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Awm03, That room is a knockout, although I'm sure it was considered "dated" by about 1950. Good thing nobody tossed it into a dumpster the way a lot of other great rooms vanished into thin air as soon as styles changed. When I go to NY, I spend half my time in the period rooms at the Metroploitan Museum, but I guess I need to get over to Brooklyn.

And Katrina Ellen, if what I said was any inspiration for you, I'm glad. My old apartment was the smallest place I've ever lived--exactly 547 SF--but in some places, 547 SF would be considered a palace. With that in mind, this week is a perfect time to reflect on how good we have it--Builders' Beige, almond appliances & all.
awm03
Original Author
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Yes, builder's beige, almond appliances, and molded lime gelatin salads :)

Actually I've never eaten one. Maybe they're good and that's why they were so popular? (Keeping with the theme of making the out-of-fashion fresh again)
teacats
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Gelatin salads can be really, really good with cold cuts .... and tomato aspic used to be a VERY classy dish! The spicy tomato aspic (and even better with a really good mayo or garlic aoili ((Sp?)) is lovely and fresh with cold meats or fish -- and looks gorgeous on a buffet table! Haven't made one for so many years ....

And considering how many times I've heard "Your house doesn't look like I expected it to ......"

As for historical inspiration: John Soane's home in London (now a museum) that he FILLED with amazing collections to the astonishment of his friends and family! LOL!

As for "Blasts from the Past" -- one of my fav drinkies is the classic "Harvey Wallbanger!" LOL!

Jan at the rather trite Rosemary Cottage
franksmom_2010
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thanks so much for all of that!

I'm just soaking in all of that vibe, and going right on about decorating our house with my own brand of funk. Including re-hanging all of the paint by numbers right over the bed. Ah...feels good! And I can't wait to hear what people say (or don't say) tomorrow.

And today I'll be making the Jello salad. It's a family tradition. A magical mix of lime Jello, cream cheese, fruit, and pecans. But since I'm in charge of it this year, I'll be adding an extra jar of cherries, just because I like them! Life is good!
mahatmacat1
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
franksmom, you collect vintage pbns too?! I have several, including two gorgeous ones in our master bedroom that my DH found. I think you're the only other person on this forum I've met who does. I also have a few completed vintage needlepoints, including one of--a foo dog! but it was from the 60s/70s, and my DD loves it for the vibrant colors. 60s/70s textile art, too, of which there are good specimens available, since I live in the PNW.

I'd love to see pics of your house, maybe some of the PBNs. From what you write, I think our tastes are rather similar. I too am in the group that gets "o.k., who's the artist here?" responses to seeing the house for the first time. Such a wonderful thread--thanks to awm and magnaverde for it.
franksmom_2010
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
YES!!! I have a love for old and kitch, so the PBN just followed that. I have a handful of vintage ones, but have a new love for the newer ones, too.

Here's the one I painted for our master bath:

The curtain and towels look like this:

For the bedroom, I found, over the course of a year or so, four sets of unpainted kits, so I painted them all myself, put them in mismatched frames all painted the same color, and hung them over the bed.

Our quilt looks like this:

That room is still in progress. *sigh* I think the frame colors are too similar to the wall color, so I'm still not loving it. I'm debating doing a glaze on the frames, or maybe painting them dark brown. I have no idea.

I also have vintage needlepoints!! I found them, unfinished, in a thrift years ago. I finished them, and just the other day bought frames. I love them, but never found the right spot for them. I had bought a neat rug at a garage sale to go in the dining rom, but it didn't look right there, so I put it in our entryway and it looks great! It works well with the needlepoints, so they've finally found their spot! No pics of any of that, either, yet, but I'll post some when it's all done.
awm03
Original Author
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Franksmom, those are wonderful! You painted them yourself?! Wow! The color selection is great. Did you select the colors yourself or just follow the pbn suggestions?
They sure have that great vintage-y vibe we all crave.
palimpsest
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Here is my trite and ugly...although I think they are neither, although the work of MK spawned a lot of trite, ugly imitators.
awm03
Original Author
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
See? When you have the artistic gift, you can make things the rest of us couldn't work with look great. The good color combos, the order of the arrangement, the simple light fixture, the dark walls...and the morbidly fascinating cheerless children... An amazing mix of disciplined good taste and tacky. It sure isn't trite or ugly. Gee, pal, it's fabulous. Thanks for showing.
mahatmacat1
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Oh man, palimpsest - we are not worthy! That is the best display of that style of painting I've ever seen.

And franksmom, those rose paintings are amazing in the grouping. Was the one you painted for your bath already set with the mottled background, or did you do it? It's head and shoulders above the ability-requirement of the others, yes? That one is my favorite of the ones I've seen.

I'll try to post some maybe tomorrow when we get back from our friends' house.
franksmom_2010
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thanks so much!!

Yes, I painted all of those. The vintage ones were either missing their paints, or the paints weren't useable, so I just kind of made it up with acrylics. I did each pair in the same color scheme, but mixed it up between the pairs. More so because I wasn't happy with it until the last set, than trying to be creative. LOL!

That painting for the bathroom had that background drybrushed in the directions, but the whole thing looked a little flat when it was finished. I added a crackle medium to the whole surface, then stained it with a glaze. The whole thing took a few hours of painting each evening for a few weeks. I'm working on one now that's going to take months, if I'm lucky.

Tacky or trite? I don't know, but I enjoy doing them. I have a high-stress career, and I find it very relaxing to just chill out and dabble in the paints. And (to paraphrase Magna) I'd rather have something tacky and trite that I did myself, than something ugly bought from the store.

Pal, that's a wonderful display! A little too dark and brooding for my taste, but you've shown off the art and set the tone perfectly! I love the blonde girl with the black cat. It looks like Frank -my very black cat.
anele_gw
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I needed another MV fix today! I just can't wait for you to finally publish that book . . .
PRO
Lori A. Sawaya
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
A book - or eBooks, or eLearning, or self-published magazine via a service like YUDU.com. I know I'd buy a subscription.

Many options available to organize and archive MV's design insight and decorating wisdom. The forums are lucky to have big M. It'd be a very good thing if his content was indexed and searchable so more people were aware and had access to his point of view.
dianalo
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Franksmom - those strike the perfect balance of pretty yet a little kitsch. I'd gladly hang them in my house ;)

Palimpset - I love the way you featured those pictures, but I think they'd be creepy to pass on the way to bed at night. Our kids would have nightmares, lol. I think the kids are the ones that do not sit right for me. I do have to give you props for style and fearlessness.
sable_ca
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Franksmom - I love those roses! What smiles they must bring to you every day.

And Flyleft - "franksmom, you collect vintage pbns too?... I think you're the only other person I've met on this forum who does."

Meet #3. My favorite uncle took up the pbns hobby in the late 40s-early50s. The family pretty much laughed at him but he went on merrily painting. I grew up, moved on and forgot about it. Then, when my mother passed away in 1993 I discovered a pbns from my dear uncle hidden under another picture among her things. It's very handsome, of an elk trumpeting next to a stream amidst western mountains. It's perfect in our western-y den, and one of my most-loved things. And the only thing that I have from that wonderful man.
palimpsest
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
dianolo,

I don't think that I could hang these anywhere but a hallway or little used spot. There are no kids in the house, but I don't find them so creepy when they are all together anyway. That said, I have a half dozen more large format ones that are not framed because there is something I find a bit disturbing about some of those individual ones.

If I buy the brutalist house, they will be right at home again in one of the stairwells, but if I buy the federal house, I am not so sure what I will do with them...

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