So we-are-this-close to closing on our tiny upstate cottage. Between that and the wedding plans, our spending money is just about wiped out. But there a few a necessities that we have planned to get so we can start enjoying the place right away. Namely, a bed for us, and a sofa-bed for guests. Since the house in a rural setting, we’re going to embrace the country-feel and move away from the clean modern lines we have in our NYC apartment. We’ve been eyeing these two Shabby Chic knocks-offs at Ikea and Crate & Barrel. Their lines are nearly the same, but the Ikea one is about $1,000 cheaper. Now, I realize that a sofa is ONE thing in a home worthy of splurge, but I just can’t wrap my head around it right now. Will we regret going with the cheaper Ikea version and saving money? We won’t be there full time, so it’s not like it’s going to get a ton of action. And, we could always order a new slip cover to change the look of it. Do any of you have Ikea sofa beds? What’s your experience with them? — Angela M.

The centerpiece of the Baltimore cigarette row house where chubby honey Tracy Turnblad (Nikki Bronski) lives is a prop: her mother Edna’s iron, the housewives’ hearth. Created by set decorator Gordon Sim, SDSA, for the new movie, Hairspray, it’s the early, pre-Civil Rights, pre-feminist sixties and laundress Edna (yes, John Travolta in a fat suit) wields her hot steel like a scepter above the ever-present ironing board in the cluttered middle-class apartment where she reigns as queen, and hubby Christopher Walken is her befuddled Prince Albert. We can almost wake up and smell the spray starch! This is definitely the pre-MS era: before Martha. And typical housewives couldn’t tart up their pads with decorating tips gleaned at the local K-Mart. Coordinating stripes with prints? Natural fibers? Forget it! So we get furniture built for comfort and distance and stain resistance; browns and greens together that wouldn’t even suit a tree. And then there’s that fabulous unnatural fiber built to last beyond a human-race flattening atomic bomb: Naugahyde! Check out dad’s throne: the tweed LaZboy! Half-full candy dishes are everywhere among the kitschy touches, like a nautical occasional table, along with Tracy’s baby shoes and photos. The apartment says loved, overprotected, familiar and, yes, more than a bit claustrophobic for an outgoing tease-haired teen at the dawn of the sixties longing to do the Frug. — Thelma Adams

Wanna learn more about set decorating? Visit setdecorators.org

Thelma Adams is the film critic for Us Weekly, and writes historical fiction. She lives in upstate NY.

Photo by David James for Hairspray

The centerpiece of the Baltimore cigarette row house where chubby honey Tracy Turnblad (Nikki Bronski) lives is a prop: her mother Edna’s iron, the housewives’ hearth. Created by set decorator Gordon Sim, SDSA, for the new movie, Hairspray, it’s the early, pre-Civil Rights, pre-feminist sixties and laundress Edna (yes, John Travolta in a fat suit) wields her hot steel like a scepter above the ever-present ironing board in the cluttered middle-class apartment where she reigns as queen, and hubby Christopher Walken is her befuddled Prince Albert. We can almost wake up and smell the spray starch! This is definitely the pre-MS era: before Martha. And typical housewives couldn’t tart up their pads with decorating tips gleaned at the local K-Mart. Coordinating stripes with prints? Natural fibers? Forget it! So we get furniture built for comfort and distance and stain resistance; browns and greens together that wouldn’t even suit a tree. And then there’s that fabulous unnatural fiber built to last beyond a human-race flattening atomic bomb: Naugahyde! Check out dad’s throne: the tweed LaZboy! Half-full candy dishes are everywhere among the kitschy touches, like a nautical occasional table, along with Tracy’s baby shoes and photos. The apartment says loved, overprotected, familiar and, yes, more than a bit claustrophobic for an outgoing tease-haired teen at the dawn of the sixties longing to do the Frug. — Thelma Adams

Wanna learn more about set decorating? Visit setdecorators.org

Thelma Adams is the film critic for Us Weekly, and writes historical fiction. She lives in upstate NY.

Photo by David James for Hairspray