We hadn't caught up in ages so we had a little chat and she asked me how the renos were going.
I said to her the hardest part was (a) hoping my choices all turned out ok, and how my forte
is fixing up and making pretty the bad space .. NOT .. doing things from scratch .. i'm micro,
not macro .. the big picture is scary .. best focus all energy on knobs, then you can move
onto tiles .. and hope .. all those micro moments = a big picture that "goes together"..
In the course of this, I mentioned it's also hard because "I like everything" .. I mean,
I could fill a seaside home with this look, then my inner city pad with another, and of course,
there would be my country house .. all completely different and all would make me happy.
I mean, by by-line has always been "I Like Stuff".
It's true, but it's also ambiguous, and as I thought about it, also a big fat lie...
Because I don't like everything, in fact, i'm quite opinionated on what I like and don't like.
Why I *think* I like everything is because I surround myself with people of good taste
( ho ho - that would be you, if you are reading ;), and so I find myself gasping and agreeing
and nodding along vigourously with them.
What i'm forgetting is that there is whole other worlds of people "not like me" admiring
and vigourously nodding over ornate gold tapware and ugly bling-y things.
I remember Kyle Sandilands and Tamara Jaber's house was like that - all money, money,
and no taste, taste. According to me, anyway, and they'd probably find my style "homey"
and "boring" perhaps..
And recently, I was overwhelmingly bored to be shown Matt Damon's Miami Beach Estate.
What's up with the downtown brown Matt? Could it be any more blah? Maybe it's cliched,
but seaside living should be all breezy gauze white billowing curtains,
Brett Whiteley artworks on the walls, potted plants and rattan. Light! Bright! Breezy!
Words to live by:
You know the garden's full of furniture, the house is full of plants
( thanks James *mwah* )
Ok, so now Angie said something to me by the Size 12-2 socks that made a lot of sense to me.
She said she had stopped asking her clients what they liked .. because it was too all over
the shop, and now asks: Tell me what you don't like? She says while people are
wishy-washy and inarticulate about what they DO like .. they are quite definite in things
they dislike .. things that make them recoil, wince, shudder, vom, retreat in horror..
So I thought about the things I can't stand and came up with this:
I even used a Papyrus font, because I don't like that either, and it goes with all
the other things I dislike.
So this was an interesting project, because I just randomly thought of stuff I don't like
and popped it into a google images search. But look how well it all goes together?
It could someone's LIKE board it's so cohesive.
Starting top right and working clockwise:
Tiled floors
I hate tiled floors. I know people like them when they live in the tropics, but I don't like them ever.
Same goes for slate tiles in the country. Love slate, love tiles .. but not on the floor thanks.
Dark Rooms
I can't live in dark houses, even if they're all swish.
Deep dark leather lounges, black furniture .. all wrist-slashing depressive territory for me
Tribal Art
do.not.like. Unrelated, but I don't like seeing white New Zealanders doing the Haka
at sporting matches either. Seems wrong. My mum used to be into a whole native
American Indian vibe. To be fair to her, it actually suited the house she lived in.
But ochres, rusts and blacks = not me.
GOLD!
Always believe in your sooo-oo, you've got the power to know .. you're .. ugly.
Sorry Gold. I don't mind a bit of Spandau Ballet, but I don't like you.
Aboriginal Art
Ok, so this could go under "tribal" but I note a lot of people seem to loooove this stuff.
I know it's a good investment, so perhaps that's why, or maybe they just like it,
but I can't stand it. It also ruined my wedding 20yrs ago. True story.*
Overtly Branded Stuff
WHY? Why would you want this Versace bedspread? It looks cheap and tacky and everyone
thinks it's a ripoff anyway, even if you did buy your Louis Vuitton handbag from the
Paris Flagship store and not on eBay from HongKong. Note also the use of black & gold.
Not a winner.
Apricot Verticals!
Ah yes, funnily, when I googled, I assumed i'd get a lot of images people had taken
of the horror of their pre-reno spaces, but no, I got a lot of current curtain supply stores,
and this seems to be still a bestseller. mmMmmmm .. muted peach tones ...
and finally..
Visible AudioVisual Things
CORDS and WIRES, powerpoints .. all should be hidden if possible, minimised at least.
Also, more black furniture here. No. My family sometimes leave their charges
and earphones laying around and the cat chews through them. I shrug uncaringly.
Shouldn't have left them around.
* what happened was, we booked a venue and they mentioned the art collection on the
walls is always changing and it would be different when it was our wedding
( I think there were Impressionists up when we looked ). That's fine, we said.
It was a beautiful old house built in 1856. When we were married, it was a collection
of Aboriginal Art, which didn't suit the venue at all, IMO, and it peeks out awfully
in the background of all the photographs thus ruining them for me. Yuck.
Let's end on a high note though .. Celeb Homes I do Like ..
click through for two different kinds of awesome:
Elton & David in Beverley Hills
Ellen & Portia in the Country
( to offset the ANTI- of this post .. i'll do another tomorrow .. a storyboard of things
I *do* like .. promise! x )
