Aging out decor or not?
Annie Deighnaugh
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
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Annie Deighnaugh
4 years agoRelated Discussions
How do you keep your TV from sucking the life out of your decor?
Comments (38)A few years ago, DH asked for a giant flat screen tv for Father's Day ~ so sweetly and pitifully, that I couldn't say no . . . although I wanted to! The problem was that our family room has only one (semi)unbroken wall to it and anything on that wall competes with our hand-painted kiva fireplace in the corner right next to it. AND, to complicate matters even more, that wall (pretty much the entire house, actually) is made of real adobe bricks, which look awesome but are a bear to try and hang anything even kind of heavy on. Too heavy or put a nail in at the wrong angle and you can end up with a 3" wide and deep hole, where adobe dirt and hay fell out of the brick . . . and you can forget ever hanging anything on that brick again, even once it's patched! I really wanted an EC like Goldie's that had a wood back to hang the tv on, but it would have totally overwhelmed the room :~( A great credenza, like Haley's or Bepeace's, would have been nice but I was afraid to hang the tv on the adobe wall and I couldn't find one to hold ~AND HIDE~ all of our DVDs, tapes, and components. I wasn't so concerned with hiding the tv, but thought that the components and DVDs would clutter up the area too much. And then we found a tv lift console that solved all our problems- it hides lots of stuff inside of it and the tv sits down in it, as well, when we aren't watching it. When it's down, it doesn't compete with our fireplace, which is a huge bonus in our small family room! I do have to tell you, though, that it was a huge PIA to actually get that tv hung on the console's hanging bars! But now that it's done, we love it. The motor is quiet and smooth and the remote easy to use. Another downside, for anyone contemplating buying one, is that you can't put anything on the top of the console, decoration-wise, as the back two-thirds of the top section opens up as the tv slides up. We bought a narrow tower to sit next to it and I have a lamp on that. We also have a set of three framed Indian artifacts that we've hung over the console. They were a huge PIA to center, but they work with the kiva instead of competing with it. So, that's one more solution to consider, not so much to hide your tv, as ours seems to be up more than it's down like most people, I guess, but it is a tv hanging/storage place. I do want to make it VERY clear that I'm not criticizing leaving a tv out on display all the time. I think it's a perfectly ok thing to do. I just wanted to show you another option for any flat screen tv and explain why we went with this option. Lynn Our flat screen up, before we hung our art over it: And with the tv down:...See MoreDecorating Trends -- What's in & What's Out
Comments (50)"In" is whatever you see in magazines, period. "Out" is whatever was in magazines a generation ago. Everything else is in between. Some people enjoy being "in". Whether it is the show off factor or flighty tastes or just enjoying the vicissitudes of fashion, they want to be in. That's fine, it comes with a price tag. The price tag depends on how genuinely "in" you want to be or if you are happy to fake it. Trying to be classic is extraordinarily difficult. The entire building and decorating industry is working full time trying to make every little facet of your home look "out". They carefully edit the colors and styles of what is available to buy, so that in subtle ways you are stamping everything you do with a date, whether you chose to or not. Your best hope is to buy things that are not made by US corporations. Buy abroad, by handmade, by antique. That can help keep you from being "out", but it won't make you in, either. If its trendy and inexpensive, i go with the flow and don't worry about it. If its trendy and costly, I try to buy things that I really like. But sometimes it is hard to tell if something really speaks to you or if you are still responding to a trend!...See MoreDo hydrangeas age out?
Comments (2)There's a bunch of reasons why performance can suffer. Cut out as much dead wood as possible as well as any weaker looking portions or permanently wilted foliage growing from old wood. And hit the plants heavy at least once a growing season with 10-10-10, high phosphorus stuff 10-x-10 and/or spent coffee grounds. I make sure mine get a good dose of water at least twice a week. It rained about 6-10" in May here (which required little if any supplemental watering) and while doing some recent transplanting the root balls were fairly dry. So aside from areas with spongy ground or standing water, there's really no way to over-water a hydrangea. It really makes these plants take off! Overall, the soil should also be very dark and rich, heavily worked and somewhat amended to at least a depth of a foot (no huge chunks of clay or tremendous amounts of root competition from trees, etc). Another tidbit on late Spring freezes - they can zap buds that *were* going to become flowers, leaving other ones to just grow foliage alone, even on old wood. This happened with about 30 of my macs this Spring, including an April night of 19F (and 27F once my containers were back outside)....See MoreAging ... our stuff / ourSELVES ...
Comments (112)I have no problem with sexual display as entertainment, and for it being on the Superbowl half time show. I watched similar Las Vegas kinds of programs as a kid, on the Sonny and Cher show, or even Ed Sullivan, for example. But it is what it is, don't pretend it is something else. You are going to have kids see that and become fans of it. I loved Cher, kids loved Madonna, etc. But the ability to also understand that it is fantasy, that it is only one way to be artful, that sex as entertainment is a whole lot different than sex in real life, and that objectification of something for art or the sake of selling a product, is not the same thing as the soul of the real deal. A wise entertainer will make it clear that their onstage persona is not the real them. I don't think Jennifer Lopez or Shakira have ever claimed that it was. The show was very well choreographed and there was a lot of female talent on display, but it was blatantly sexual at times, and I don't think we should pretend otherwise, even for our kids. I know there are a lot of people who don't think words or non verbal images or environment has effects on people, but I'm not one of them. Many of the concepts behind personal fashion and home decorating are built around the science of facts and aesthetic principles indicating that it does, and that it is profound. Sexual display is the purvey of the nightclub, and football is the purvey of stylized territorial conquest, no reason to not pair them for adults. Not sure about the kids . . . probably fine if they have gads of other things going on in their lives. Who didn't grow up listening to their parents George Carlin tapes or records and the seven words . . . another kind of shock. We survived....See MoreAnnie Deighnaugh
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