Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Stylish? Get back to me on that.

According to a recent Bloglovin' article, we vintage lovers have finally arrived. Once outliers operating on the design fringe, we are now au courant. I ticked off everything on the list, and I bet most of you could have too...years ago.

Listed in "7 Things Every Stylish Person Has in Their Home"* are the following:

1. A mix of vintage and new furniture...Check!
2. A gallery wall...Check!
3. A statement rug...Check!
4. Houseplants...Check!
5. A carefully styled bookcase...Check!
6. Sculptural objects...Check!
7. Mixed materials...Check!

Funny thing, though.  Being "stylish" wasn't my goal when I started buying vintage furniture and accessories. I just loved the stuff. I think I liked it better before everyone jumped on our bandwagon.


New/Vintage/Rug/Mixed materials/Houseplants:
New Joybird chairs and vintage Paul McCobb table
with a 9' x 12' "statement rug" and Ficus elastica (rubber plant)

Houseplants/Mixed materials:
 Dracaena marginata in living room,
textiles, wood, glass

Houseplants/Vintage/Mixed materials:
 Architectural Pottery, bullet planter,
Sansevieria (mother-in-law's tongue or snake plant)
and Beaucarnea recurvata (ponytail plant)
in my bedroom

Sculptural object/Mixed materials/Vintage:
Metal, wool, wood, glass, ceramics, brick, tile,
and another vintage Paul McCobb table

Gallery wall:
Prints by artist friend René West

Styled bookcase/Mixed materials:
Sculptural objects, metal, pottery, wood,
glass, woven natural material, brick, stone


* The grammatical error in the title of the article drives me crazy, but I taught English for a living, and I know that I care more about the number of pronouns and antecedents than most people do.

6 comments:

  1. And the value will go up not down for mid-century furniture.

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    1. I think nice pieces by famous designers will certainly continue to command a high price, because even after the fad fades, there will always be true modernists who value them. On the other hand, when mid-century decor ceases to be trendy, run-of-the-mill furniture and kitschy items will end up in a garage sale or a landfill.

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  2. I was distressed that I didn't also notice the grammatical error...thought I'd spent too much time in my engineering world, where poor writing skills are almost a badge of honor. Then I realized it's just that I read too much Internet. In my line of work, when we write a proposal for a customer, we switch between writing in the first person plural and third person singular. Sometimes in the same sentence. It gave me a headache at first, but I made fast friends with the tech writers when I complained about it. :)
    Oh and I love the vignettes from your home. The fireplace is probably my favorite. It's all looking good so far! Is the front door painted? I hope you finally got that figured.

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    1. It's hard to break the habit of "grading" what I read after 30 years teaching English. I have to remind myself that much of what was considered indisputably incorrect 30 years ago has almost become acceptable today. For some reason, though, it still grates on my nerves when errors involving indefinite/distributive pronouns occur, even though I know that's the most nit-picky thing in the world, and I need to get a life. I can imagine that you scored major points with those tech writers when you complained. Would they like my thoughts on parallel construction and tense shift? :)

      I'm glad you enjoyed a few more shots of the house. That fireplace is a favorite of mine too. It won me over the first time we looked at the house. And, no, the door is still unpainted, but now that the weather is cooler, we've almost decided to paint it ourselves.

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  3. All your beautiful pillows jumped out at me. :)

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  4. It's wonderful! I agree about getting on our band wagon...It's driving the price of real vintage pieces up.

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