spiregrain's Profile

Dudes. You would all die of aesthetic shock if you entered the semi-furnished house I currently rent (it was what I could afford while on hiatus from work to care for my infant son). I think it literally contains every allergy thing listed here... maybe thats why my "snobby high horse" list was so freakin' long! As I type this, I grind my teeth and stare at the living room wallpapered in hunter green damask and decorated with not one but three taxidermy ducks. Behind me looms a three foot by four foot realistic original oil painting of a dark dirty barn crowded shoulder to shoulder with fuchsia hogs (at least 18 faces are shown, but the hogs go on forever onto the darkness of the endless barn). This is my reality! I'll still invite anyone over. Maybe you AT folks can help me find a way to embrace these stomach churning elements -- after all, it's this kind of stuff that leads me to this website, thinking, "maybe I can find a way to make it work on AT!"

I'm seriously mystified by those who are like "I would never be so shallow as to not like something in someone's house and if anyone ever didn't like my house I would never speak to them again or I would physically hurt them, and knowing that this happens somewhere (far away, possibly in another country) makes me want to stop talking to people forever." Yikes, crazy! I am glad I don't know anyone who is totally unable to maintain a friendship that includes at one point a mild form of conflict over likability of a material item.

- Poufy anything
- Cheap things that have a lot of detailing so that they will look more "fancy"
- Ikat print (actual woven ikat is awesome though)
- Kitchens that are themed around a farm animal (chicken, cow, duck)
- Totally square totally brick single family houses that look like municipal buildings
- Really dark rooms (either through poorly done predominant dark colors or through insufficient lighting)
- Wallpaper borders
- Sponge stenciling
- Painted over ceramic or stone surfaces
- Toilet seat covers, especially squishy vinyl ones
- Maroon or mustard yellow tiles, solid tiles with a stripe of patterned tiles, 4"x4" tiles in general, painted over tiles, tiles that are mostly all the same color but occasionally a random one is another color, obvious grout accidents on tiles especially around the bases of toilets, it's hard to even imagine anything this awful but alpine green tiles would probably be my nightmare scenario
- Toilets or bathtubs that aren't ivory or white
- Fiberglass bathtubs and shower stalls with a lot of "helpful shaping" on them
- Kitchen sinks that don't have a freakish capacity for never ever splashing onto your stomach when you do dishes
- Crappy cabinet doors (peeling, won't shut right, wobbly ass hardware)
- Messed up formica (bubbling, peeling, etc) or "wood print" formica
- Contact paper, although I am holding out for the designer that can make some that isn't totally sickening
- Everything in a room being square/rectangular/right-angled
- All switchplates in a room must match -- none of this crap where one is beige with scrolls, one is brown with columns, one is smooth and white plastic, and one is white enameled metal, one is wood with a curvy "country style" edge
- Tons of stuffed animals when you don't have kids living with you
- "Country style"
- "Lodge style"
- Anything quaint

This is by no means an exhaustive list for me but I have to take some deep breaths and read Dwell for a while now. Haha no but actually.

It seems like people of my generation (X) value having an individual voice a little differently than boomers, and Gen Y seems even more like this to me. Not that boomers don't value it, but we just show it differently. Also, I suspect that we, on average, have a different response to gardens displaying ubiquitous plants, which is what tends to be available at most of the entry-level places. I don't really want a Nikko blue hydrangea next to my white New England cape house, and I don't want to sit in one of those white plastic chairs to look at it. But that's what you can get at the entry level type stores, thats what you can get on the salaries available to most of our age groups. I think that when Gen Y spreads their wings, they will have really cool gardens, really innovative, all different. This idea that we (X, Y) *don't* garden is just another "kids these days" curmudgeon-y thing. If this is a real thing that industry people are complaining about, I'd see that as an industry that can't adapt to the new market bitching and moaning because they don't get it. But is it really true that this is a complaint? Like, I see Williams-Sonoma launching their Agrarian stuff... and lots of people on Pinterest repinning their chicken coops! Are you telling me anyone thinks that interest is coming mostly from 60-70 year olds, and that the product launch is directed at them?

Interesting how polarized people are about this house. Personally, it's one of my favorites on AT -- it's all I can do not to creepily beg for a real live house tour (don't worry, I live in New England). I grew up with Sunset and a kind of longing for a mod aesthetic (but we made due with whatever was cast off and free). And my extended family had kitschy cottages up in Maine which gave me an appreciation for like, the linoleum you don't really want, but it's there, and after a while, you kind of start to feel like it's your buddy. Anyway, I love it, and I can't stop thinking about how bad I want TUBES behind every shelf I own!

Someone says this is their NIGHTMARE home?! Hahaha people are crazy dramatic!

I agree with msjessica about the curtains. Wall-color-wise, I would consider a shade of blue similar or lesser in depth than the tone of the wood. If you want to do something fun -- not beige/white -- yet still relatively safe, I would stick to a cool palette and see how your favorite shades of green, grey, or blue look in the room. These colors will make the wood really stand out, without being too over-the-top. Shades of yellow, red, orange, brown -- all could be done but they will be more finnicky to get right.

And yes, tell us what kind of furniture you've got! What is your style? What kind of a mood are you going for?

If you go to benjaminmoore.com, they have a tool where you can upload pictures of rooms and use a color replacement tool to see how stuff looks. Or, if you have photoshop, you can do it there. I find tools like that helpful in picturing what the room would look like in some particular color.

I love the pink bath too -- actually it is the color theme of my bathroom! Pale pink and bright orange. Good to have a little validation. :)