Decorating Trends That Will Someday Make You Cringe

First, I want everyone to understand that I am 62 years old. It's important to know that I have lived in houses furnished with the trends of the 'fifties, 'sixties, 'seventies, 'eighties, and the naughts! I have seen what people cringe at years later when they remember how their houses used to be decorated. I have heard people say, "Oh, that looks so 'eighties," as though anything from that time period was anathma while at the same time they were deciding to buy a piece that my mother would have had in her house in the 'sixties! Usually these people are fairly young and I guess that haven't realized yet that everything goes in a cycle. So they will be embracing the very things and colors in 20 years that they are sneering at now. Some of the trends I think that they will be cringing at are as follows:

 Cringe Trend: Painting old furniture from the 'fifties and 'sixties in bright colors.  While I applaud this trend because it reuses and recycles instead of dumping, I think this will be a future trend cringe. What will make this really dated is using very bright colors such as the yellow and the pink that you see here.

Below, you see 2 pieces that have been painted all one color.  The bookshelf/desk could be from anytime in the last 30 or 40 years, but I had a dresser almost like that that I bought in 1970.

Cringe Trend: Making furniture out of old, weathered, marked-up wood without painting or refinishing it. Again, I applaud the recycling, but look at this chair with its markings on the side and the rough, dirty-looking wood and you know that someone just thinks that it is cool as hell. (I really do like the bookshelf built into it by the way). The idea is great, but the unfinished looking state is what is going to be cringe-worthy.

What really strikes me as stupid though is when someone pays an exorbitant fee for this furniture when the whole idea should be to use reclaimed materials to have something cheaper! In the room below, I see nothing that is really inherently beautiful which is why I think someone is going to cringe.

Cringe Trend: Industrial looking lights, lamps, chandeliers.  Again, this is taking something that was basically never considered in the least attractive and using it as though it is.

The lamps above and below are going to be soooooo dated!

And I really don't get this one. Hmmm, we have a chandelier. Let's cover it up!

Trend Cringe: Chalkboard walls and writing on walls.  Chalkboard walls just strike me as messy; as a former teacher I probably have a layer of chalkdust lining my lungs and don't see the allure although I'll bet it's fun for kids.  However, having writing on your walls always has struck me as false cheer. It's probably just someone who wants to fill up a wall space but doesn't have any art.

Cringe Trend: This one is funny because in the early 'sixties so many homes had sunburst mirrors and clocks like this that when I had my own place in the 'seventies, you couldn't have paid me enough money to hang one!  It will be that way again. Maybe you could say they are classic because they go in and out of fashion, but in 20 years no one is going to want this on her walls.

Cringe Trend: Ikat and huge geometric prints.  Been there, done that. Think of flamestitch in the 'eighties.

Please note that I am not saying that people should get these out of their houses. Although there are a few things here that I personally don't care for at all, I'm just saying that in 20 years these decorating trends will look, well, extremely dated and many people will probably say to themselves, "What was I thinking?"!

Wonderful Color!

Above, Charlotte Moss's library in a peachy tone. Charlotte Moss pictures from The New York Social Diary
    I've seen so many white rooms lately that I'm reminded of my love of white in the 1970's. I even had white carpet in my living room! But even then, the white was enlivened by the presence of many, many books in wall to ceiling bookshelves. I must confess that I was afraid of color and never thought that I could do it right. But, after many years, I've come to have more confidence.
     But I am mainly a lover of color because it makes me happy. I do tend to like monochromatic color schemes, maybe two colors at most. This is because we have a plethora of books and art that I cannot bear to put away out of my sight. The things that make me happy do so when I am surrounded by them. So even though we are downsizing, we still have so many things that we will keep that we may have to rotate them. But that's okay. We will keep them because we like to look at our pictures, and we like to read our books (over and over).  They add the color and contrast that make us comfortable and make our home a home.
    Below, I love cozy; sparse rooms are seldom cozy, and Charlotte Moss's bedroom is a classic blue and white with plenty of places to sit, place things, read, and write. I love it! Her library, above, is a wonderful mixture of homey and elegant.  I can't imagine being bored in this room.

Above,Charlotte Moss's living mixes tones of pinks and greens with cream and gold.  Below, another view of that wonderful library (note that no books are wrapped in white paper and there is a ladder so that you can reach the volumes higher up.  I doubt that the ladder is for show.  I love the way she adds paintings to the bookshelves in the English manner.


Above, look at that beautiful wall!

Above, an English country house classic combination: yellow and blue.  Look at the rug!
Below, there's that gorgeous coral color again!  This time the room looks quite contemporary, but still comfortable and warm.  Imagine if this room were all white!
   I have a feeling that in about 15 years, the burlap, stenciled pillows, and flaking furniture are going to look terribly, terribly dated.  And people are going to want their interiors to be anything but white or beige.

More Bedrooms and More Peach!

 I'm still looking at bedrooms!  Above is a favorite because of the wonderful mirrour headboard!  Horchow has a mirrored headboard that I would love to have, but I am loathe to pay over $3,000.00 for it! This mirrour is perfect because of its curve and its spotty antique look. My bedroom curtains should arrive this week and I'm hoping that they are a perfect fit! Below, I love coronas!

Yummy colour! I don't think I'll ever stop loving peach and coral.

Below, this looks very much like our 2nd floor stairway with the exception of the carpeting on the stairs; I've also done a picture gallery although I don't have as many pictures hung there as this. I have "picture galleries" all over my house.

I love this peach colour.

I think this is an extremely interesting curtain treatment and would work for our living room since we have the same bay window - completely rectangular - only larger. I hadn't considered having the curtains come around to the actual wall.  I have side windows, and I don't like that these are covered.

   These balloon shades will go on the stair windows on three floors. They are very simple and will be about this colour, too. These two pictures come from a decorating blog I found called Decorica.  The last post was in November, but I hope she continues the blog!  Check it out!

Home Decor: Noticing a Theme

I'm having a wonderful, albeit at times frustrating, experience decorating our new townhouse.  At my age, one knows what one likes, but unfortunately, I also carry a lot of baggage from years ago, and have to make sure that my interiors don't look too dated.  I am certainly not a slave to trends and deplore  following the latest new fad as though it's the Second Coming! However, it is good for me to remember which century I live in and make sure that small details, as long as I find them attractive or functional, keep my interiors from looking stuck in some time warp.
Having loved French and English furniture for so long and adoring the English country look, one lesson, especially since we are also downsizing is to reduce clutter: Less is More.
I love the serenity of the bedroom below - and two tones, with one of them being an off-white suits my design sensibility perfectly! New touch I should consider: adding a padded headboard - and this one is my all-time favorite!  What is already in my bedroom: similar curtains and rods with clip rings, mirrors chandelier, soft off white slipper chair to the side of the bed, different bedside tables, offwhite spread and the same bedskirt.  I am also thinking of adding a half-canopy.  I do like the one here although I'm very fond of those that curve.

Below, yes to the chandelier; it's smashing!  The curtains are to die for! Wonderful tailored spread and bedskirt.  Love the ornate mirror and the moldings in the room. I believe this bedroom from 1962 is an all-time favorite of mine.  Mirror, half-canopy, padded headboard, French furniture, lovely soft colours, two-colour scheme. Of course, it's Jackie Kennedy's bedroom in the White House.

This New Orleans bedroom is simplicity itself. I love ballon shades!

Very luxe!

Below, the ceiling treatment is wonderful! I do love colour, and this is magnificent!

This all-white bedroom gets its colour from the outside world. Nothing competes with the view.

 

This living room is so elegant  with its high ceilings, and drapes and wall colour the same muted colour that seems to glow. I love monochromatic colour schemes; the window treatment is perfect for this tall room with its smaller, slipcovered furniture.Although the wallpaper has a pattern, it blends perfectly in colour and works perfectly here.

More on Bedrooms

I am finally back from Africa where I had a wonderful time visiting my family. We spent Christmas at a wonderful resort in Swaziland after spending some time at their home in Mozambique and touring some beautiful countryside in South Africa. We went swimming on Christmas Day; it was hot and fairly humid. I am glad to be back in a colder climate however; I don't want to miss the snow for anything! I've made New Year's Resolutions which include getting the townhouse very clean and very together!

Our guest bedroom, a work in progress. The curtains are a faux silk moire; the walls are pale yellow and the curtains have pale yellow checks. Scalamandre fringe trim in blue and yellow will go on the edges. These are simple rod-pockets from Country Curtains. I had originally planned to let them hang straight, but decided against that once that were hung. There is a shade that matches the beige in the curtains that will totally black out the room.

My bedroom is slowly coming together. Above is a gold leaf candelabra with an icon I bought on the Greek island of Patmos below it.
Below, we will have matching lamps in the bedroom and different bedside tables.  These are a stopgap until I can go "shopping" at our house in Arkansas. Oh, and the "bump" in the bed is Cluny the cat.  He loves to crawl up under the covers and nap, and I didn't have the heart to move him because he is so happy there!

The curtains here are temporary. They are not lined (although because of the shades and because I like the lamplight from outside coming into the room at night, they don't need to be)and were a great bargain at Marshall's. I decided to go ahead and hang them from the special rods I bought (they are keepers) because I was tired of bare windows with only the shades. They do provide a more relaxing ambiance and can be replaced as soon as I find my dream curtains.

A favorite painting by Eleanor Cooperman that looks perfect against the pale peachy-pink walls of the bedroom.

I was out and about today in the November drizzle, going to the post office, dropping by Filene's to see if anything I couldn't resist had suddenly appeared on the racks.  Despite its being November and the rainy day, the temperature is in the 60's, so it's actually quite pleasant.  It's a good day to work!
     I've been trying to make up my mind on curtains - for every room!  Thank goodness the bedrooms and bathrooms have shades or we'd be living our life on a stage (that's what it looked like from outside the breakfast room before I put the simple curtains up there).  I happened to look up one night when walking back from a restaurant after leaving the light on and was shocked - it was just like a stage!  Inexpensive linen-weave curtains went up that week, and I didn't make anymore midnight forays into the kitchen dressed only in my gown or pajamas! Below you can see the trees turning through the breakfast room doors, and the great chandelier that I had rewired ( a better picture is coming).  It was in my husband's grandfather's farmhouse dining room many, many years ago. 

I finally got our electrician over to install the little chandelier in the guest room and the front exterior light. In the guest room, a little Maria Theresa chandelier works well with the French beds and the flower prints I bought in Paris.  I am thinking about using checked blue and yellow silk curtains at the double windows.

Above, Cluny is talking to me. He doesn't really like it when I am up and down around the house. He prefers that I stay in the living room where he can curl up in a chair in the bay window, or on the fourth floor where my studio is and I spend hours on the computer. I have a cat tree for him there and he's very fond of it.

Finally, another decorating problem involves the fourth floor.  To the right is a wall of bookcase and the large flat-screen tv.  At the opposite end of the couch is my studio.  I put some of my favorite paintings here (2 by Val Blackwell, including the large center picture) so that I could look at them often.  The problem here is that the ceiling is slanted.  The wall goes up as far as the blue, then for 3 feet it slants before it hits the ceiling.  I wanted the painter to take the paint all the way up 3 more feet, but he said that the edge would not be straight since there was a slant, but no molding.  Hmmm, maybe I just should have painted the ceiling blue, too?  But the large room is wonderful, full of light with large sets of windows facing both south and east. When I sit on the sofa in the summer evenings working on the computer, I can look to the east and see the full moon rising. Beautiful!

Life in the Townhouse

I am blissful this Fall season as I enjoy the crisp Fall weather and rainy days here in the Washington, D.C. area in my own townhouse.  We can see lovely trees outside almost every window of the townhouse; the leaves have turned yellow, gold, red, and a pretty chestnut colour.  I can hear cars go by constantly, a sound I love, since we live on a major thoroughfare. I never feel alone because of the city sounds and the many buildings surrounding me.
   My two cats are jubilant.  Because the townhouse has four floors, they have stairs galore!  And each flight of stairs twists and turns so that Cluny and Cuervo have a ball chasing each other up and down.  And sometimes, the exuberant Cuervo just runs up and down for fun. 

 You can barely see Cuervo on the landing.  We are having difficulty finding window coverings for the large stair windows since we want to preserve light, yet also have privacy at night; the situation is more complicated because of the position of the stairs.

 No curtains in the bedroom yet, but we do have accordian shades for total privacy.

 I love the mirroured wall, but am having problems with the placing paintings on the left wall.

     Cuervo peeks through the third floor railings watching for people to come up the stairs.   
The townhouse is coming together and I'll be posting pictures.  Trying to get all of our furniture in the smaller space is challenging, and, of course, we'll never get all of it in here; we won't even try.  I still want to keep the grand piano though, and when we finally move it up here, it's going to be an ordeal!