DECOR
Why do some people get so upset about decor?
To me, it seems entirely natural that all we would want would be to have our our furniture, all of our many possessions available quickly and conveniently arranged..That would be proper. Any kind of decor idea beyond that practical, utiliitarian level can only be done with check book in hand and a well-fed bank account..
My idea of proper residential decor is wrapped up in the motto:? a place for everything and every thing in its place.? Neat, clean, ,inexpensive and easy to do. It is not a household problem about which people should worry, fret and double their trouble.
All too many people, out to equal or excel friends and neighbors start off with great enthusiasm and end up being so-so. Many a home which the owner's think of as perfect is really ?1943 Ho-Jo? at best. There are many types of home re-doers: There are the:?Granny's Attic? people who are happy with organized clutter. Others choose to excel ion some special way :Dan'l Boone-ers? may allow no Persian rugs in their home under the sturdy, solid wood and unpainted chairs, tables, beds and benches. Establishing n historical feeling or selecting a section of the nation as typical of the life style you enjoy.
I remember visitmg a home years ago which was owned by a husband and wife who ran a furniture store in a nearby city. They had funished their large house ?by the book?. It was a deadly place to visit. Every room - upstairs and down, looked like a display area in their store. It was not the placefor an entire week-end. I would have been better off in fheir store.. At least, it was what it was - iot pretending to be something it could hope to become
We have many type of decorators. You can build a Spansh home which may turn out to be more Mexican; an Oriental may conjure up more of a G&S Musical Comedy than ut does authenic Asian living. Or, you can always choose mod or futuritic. Be ready for the mod house to look like something out of a Buck Rogers comic book or prepare youself so se your futuristic home of glass, stainless steel, colorful plasfics and paints with elegantly reostated lighting tucked away in cracks and crevices.
.I think of one decoration job I saw many years ago which impressed me. The house was at the far end of our little town, but the railroad tracks; so close. In fact, that the house trembled when a train passed.. The small frame house was owne by a negro couple both of whom did odd job and house work for the town dwellers. In those days,.as a youngeter, I delivered the town's weekly paper. That family was one of my better and most appreciative customers. I always enjoyed my brief afternoon visits. The house was set within a wrap-around.white picket fence. A green grass lawn ws the only one in that end of town - bushes cllipped back neatly, too.. The four widows across the front of the house were,I remember one year, wore the most beautiful green drapes I remember ever seeing. .Imagine my surprise when I found them to be made of inexpensive crepe wrapping paper. A wide strip of the green tissue paper, attached to curtain rod at the top, fell down the sides of each window. They were gently tied back with a thin, silvery string and a white platsic harp was fixed to the string on the widnow I examined c losely. So much of the decorqtion of the house had a personal touch not that you thought of fhem as being home-made at all.
I ofen think of the couple's home and I think I find something which seems to keep telling me trying to tell me that so may of us go about this decor bit backwards.
The furniture, the decorations. the colors do not make up the real decor of a home,.Only the personal pretense of the living, loving people who dwell there and use and enjoy their holdings give the place a special aire, a unique aura, a rich, encrusting patina which bring it forth wearing a happy halo setting it apart from all others..You don't buy d?cor, you live it.
A.L.M.. March 27, 2004 [c735wds]
