post off: what’s your decor confession?
Mrs. Blandings just made a confession: She once sold four vintage midcentury light fixtures for a mere $75 and replaced them with lights from Home Depot. I can’t think of anything I would regret quite as much, but I can admit that when I was in my early 20s, I literally had hotel art on my walls. A friend built hotels, and during a revamp he gave me some castoff “art.” So for a couple years I had a horrible mass-produced abstract kind of thingy that can be most accurately described as giant gold clothespins (yes, shiny gold, in a matching frame) marching on a field of mauve. So there’s my confession — what’s yours? –Mary T.
Image via James Lileks’ Interior Desecrations
January 13th, 2009 at 8:11 am
Oh god, there are so many:
There was the black-and-white checkerboard bedding … the Man-Ray and Doisneu prints … the bright purple bath towels … the Levitz couches … the time we painted our living room walls dark green and the crown molding maroon … that whole Shabby Chic phase …
I could go on.
January 13th, 2009 at 8:45 am
The most recent? I pulled a Miles Redd this weekend: I stacked a random pile of books, tower-style, on the floor next to a chair that has lambskin on it. It’s totally overdone and obvious and trying too hard to create a look, but I’m really stuck on this one area of my apartment, and it was the only thing I could think of. Ugh.
January 13th, 2009 at 10:45 am
My current one is that my bed is made with sheets that have sock monkeys printed on them…I know its not very grownup, but they make me laugh…..
January 13th, 2009 at 10:54 am
Lee, I think that’s a GOOD thing! : ) You guys are making me laugh!
January 13th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
I passed up an Eames coffee table selling at a second hand store (in awesome condition!) for $100. It is something like $700 on Design Within Reach website. My husband told me and told me and I didn’t listen. What was I thinking?
http://www.modernests.com
January 13th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Umm, I did that whole sponge-painting thing in a bedroom once. Oops.
January 13th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
I’m using a really ugly plastic tupperware organizer w/3 drawers from Kmart as a nightstand until I can find nice affordable nightstands. It looks funny because I have this gorgeous lamp sitting on top of it that I just got for x-mas. Oy! I also just bought a pair of 5′ tall faux topiary ivy potted plants even though I have no specific place to put them. They were 50% off at Michaels and I’m going to doctor them up to look uber chic.
January 13th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
Oh yes, the sponge painting. And the stencilling. And my late-80s Laura Ashley bedroom where the same floral print had thrown up on everything.
January 14th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
In my first apartment at age 20 I had a horrendous blonde wood headboard with recessed shelves and a mirror.
In my second apartment at age 22 I accepted a couch that had been in someone’s back yard for months, exposed to rain and God knows what else. I threw a slipcover on it and tried not to think about the fact that I felt itchy every time I sat on it.
January 14th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
You know, I think it’s ALL GOOD if it’s in the name of love. It’s only decorating.
January 15th, 2009 at 7:03 am
This is making me feel so much better.
January 15th, 2009 at 8:40 am
OMG… My first apartment had TEAL appliances, aptly from the brand “Western Holly”.
Well, I had the bright idea to paint the whole kitchen a terra cotta color, which sounded good in theory, but applied to a large kitchen in a semi-gloss paint was…well, do you remember “Death Becomes Her”? Well, the airbrushed colors Bruce Willis used on Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn to make them look alive? It looked like that airbrush gun threw up on my walls…
My living room was a soft golden matte color, nice in itself, but my carpet was grey, which I was trying to ignore…it just clashed. (My will was stronger than my eyesight apparently!)
January 16th, 2009 at 9:33 am
I own the teal stove (circa 1962) stove that Holly mentions, it’s amazing, but I doubt it would look so good with Terra Cotta walls *ha*
January 19th, 2009 at 6:18 am
[...] 4. Speaking of bad colors, you definitely have some wacky decor confessions. Holly wrote in to say: “OMG… My first apartment had TEAL appliances, aptly from the brand ‘Western Holly.’ Well, I had the bright idea to paint the whole kitchen a terra cotta color, which sounded good in theory, but applied to a large kitchen in a semi-gloss paint was…well, do you remember ‘Death Becomes Her’? Well, the airbrushed colors Bruce Willis used on Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn to make them look alive? It looked like that airbrush gun threw up on my walls…” Make your own confession here. [...]