Wednesday, April 7, 2010

What's Cool Again…


The older I get the more I can relate to my Mom’s early decorating growing up. She made some really cool choices way before I was old enough to notice…

Starting with seating...

My new sofa, which I shopped for for many months, is actually quite similar to the one we had in our living room and our family room sofa was straight out of Jonathan Adler – a dead ringer for his now discontinued Woodhouse sofa with the bolsters on each end. She also had these cool barrel chairs that I wish I had today. I probably wouldn’t repeat the gold and avocado color scheme, but other than that I can relate.

In our house wallpaper was king. We had many patterns including a fuzzy wallpaper damask, quite similar to the beaded paper in my last apartment. I think it was called flocked back then. Whatever you call it, it was pretty….

The only thing I can’t reminisce about is the floors. I remember moving into shiny pristine wood floors which were traded away for comfort - wall to wall everywhere, including shag in 3 colors. OK, I take that back - do Love shag…

And like most houses built in that era, our family room came with Brady Bunch wood paneling. This I would normally call a no-no in design … well until I saw it's more modern little sister by Maya Romanoff. She makes a series of wood 12 x 12 square tiles that are cross cut and placed in a pinwheel design (the starburst blonde veneer is shown). It comes dark and bleached. Imagine a wall of that – now that I would do…

I had another reminder of home at the recent Architectural Digest Show. The New Traditionalists had these mod glasses in the china cabinet – a green and gold lattice pattern. I was shocked. Besides our house, I’ve never seen them anywhere, and not for a very long time… Now discontinued, I looked them up and found they were a favorite of a very retro Bond - James Bond.

Mom, you were right on the money. Funny how what’s old is cool again…

5 comments:

Dreams of Perfection said...

I can hear my dad saying that about clothes. Crazy isn't it? But you can't beat a good timeless design.

How do you sleep at night with all the info you know going through your head? I would be up for hours bursting at the seems with ideas!

A Perfect Gray said...

such a wonderful post - 'what goes around, comes around' yes?

sari said...

A wonderful post.you truly inspir
my in many ways.
אני לומדת ממך לחשוב ולא לקבל דברים כמו שהם. אם החלון לא יפה למצוא דרך
לעקוף ולמצוא פתרון לחלון מענין יותר ויפה יותר.אני יודעת שאת עובדת admirer קשה אפילו קשה מאד ןמעריצה yous

Kelly Giesen said...

Clothes, now that is another great inspiration - I absolutely love vintage.

I have a lot of ideas in my head but no way to try them all...

Glad you liked the post - its fun thinking back. I can remember the details of our old house like it was yesterday.

Hamptontoes said...

My mother had the same kind of wallpaper and now I see it in the D & D all the time. Cyclical, yes!