I have just written a post of such all-surpassing boringness (mirroring my life at the moment) that I deleted it. Posting every day for NaBloWhatever is all very well but I decided that I couldn't inflict quite that much tedium on you. So instead I decided to embrace the unexciting, and write about neutral decor, as illustrated above. (That is not my sitting room.)In my somewhat restricted life at the moment, I quite like those daytime telly programmes in which people buy run-down properties and transform them to sell or rent at humungous profits. I tend to make soup or wash the floor while such a programme is on, to justify my keeping an eye on what they're doing. And they always use neutral colours.
Now, I quite understand this and would probably do it myself in those cirumstances - a blank canvas and all that. And in some people's houses, I do rather like the effect. It's just that I could never manage to restrain myself in such a way in my own home. I like colour. I'm fine with cream or white as a background but I don't really go for decor with fawn as its main theme. Fawn and brown were fashionable in the 70s, when we were setting up home, and I didn't like them then either. Maybe I feel that way because it was also fashionable in the 50s, when the war was just over and it was hard to buy anything. Fawn was king.
It always amuses me when I read articles in such magazines as "Good Housekeeping" in which the writer waxes lyrical about neutrals and lambasts the taste of previous generations. At the time, however, avocado baths or frilly curtains or wallpaper borders were thought just the ticket, and I'm sure that in ten or fifteen years, today's neutral schemes will have scorn poured on them in much the same way.
Could you live with that sitting room above? Or would you be impelled to add some patterned cushions, a stripy rug, a few pictures? Is it tasteful? Or just a bit boring?
Rather like this post. Sorry. (Just imagine how yawn-inducing the deleted one was.)
Not boring at all. I love neutral backgrounds, only because I can toss whatever colour I fancy into the room and it will always go. So we have the 4 seasonal changes in decor here, which you will have seen through the year. And if I feel like another colour, I only need to make some cushion covers, buy a candle or 10 and the room changes. I LOVE colour!
ReplyDeleteWe did a post at beforeourtime.com about colour schemes and what they say about the times we live in - and I was just re-reading it minutes ago! Freaky.
ReplyDeleteIn my current home, we have an absolute riot of colour in our artwork, so we tend to keep the walls and carpets ralatively neutral. But, in previous homes, we've had everything from pumpkin to lime green painted on the walls! I think neutral is fine provided there are accents of colour in some way. I don't think I could ever live with neutral on neutral on neutral.
I have just moved from a house that I decorate in whites and grey carpets - I was thinking 'gallery' to display our pictures. I was so glad to move out (rather than have to redecorate)Far to cool to live with. Now living in shades of 'beige' house - much more homely not boring - but I do have bright cushions
ReplyDeleteYou can actually see the carpet and there are no Nerf guns in that room, so, no, I can't imagine living there. I tend to think the world is divided into people who notice decor and those who don't. I am one of the latter, I am afraid. The curtains in my bedroom, for example, came with the house. In other words, I am supremely unqualified to comment on this topic. (Hasn't stopped me though, has it?!)
ReplyDeleteIt's a bit blah, isn't it? Perhaps one would need to have a beige personality to enjoy living in that room.
ReplyDeleteI think I'd have to have a red wall!!!
ReplyDeleteI do understand, though, that in doing a house up for sale, they are catering to potential buyers who often do not have a lot of imagination, so cannot 'undo' in their heads what a homeowner has done.
Paint is paint - for having fun with!
Sorry, Isabelle, you are just NOT a boring person or writer at all.
ReplyDeleteI like blue myself, and neutral would be very boring. Although I can live quite happily with white or neutral walls, as they do allow a lot of scope.
I do know someone who has cream, cream and cream all throughout her luxurious apartment, and she has another friend who used to have her carpets specially dyed to her exact shade. As a lesser, and un-rich person, my mind did a lot of boggling with these people, although I said not a word.
I think the future will be very cruel to our current monochromatic design. It is just SO stark.
ReplyDeleteWell, that's just a hideous room with hideous furniture in a hideous layout. Etc.
ReplyDeleteAll white, all cream, can be gorgeous, breezy, wonderful; but it has to be done well, and with a good eye. I don't think the colour's at fault - it's what's done with it.
Says the lady with the pink terrace.
Coincidentally, this morning I read a quote from a Western Australian designer named Anna Chandler which goes "Living in a beige house is a lost opportunity for the joy that colour brings."
ReplyDeleteI tend to agree with her.
I have to have color! Bright, bright colors at that. No neutrals for me.
ReplyDeleteAfter years living in various sorts of school accommodation painted universally in Magnolia, we couldn't wait to add colour here. Neutral or not, no room in this house would ever achieve that degree of tidiness!
ReplyDeleteThe house we rent out is decorated in pale pastels which has attracted three lovely girl tenants.
A few red cushions, some pictures on the walls, and it will be quite soothing.
ReplyDeletezzzzzzzzzzzz........ sorry, what?
ReplyDeleteNot keen on neutrals...I have to inject colour. My current rented house has unremitting magnolia walls which is ookaaaay but I'm already plotting a paint job. Sunny yellow and cool greens...
ReplyDeleteI like neutrals if they tend towards creams and white,s but I am definitely not a fan of "fawn" or "beige" as the main colour.
ReplyDeleteWe like bright, rich colours in our flat. We have the California sunlight to brighten our place up so I was unafraid to paint the wall by our front door a burnt orange/carnelian shade, and our dining area & kitchen both have a cobalt blue "accent wall". The other walls are a shade of beige to balance out the brights. Our furniture is mostly dark wood and muted colours. Shades of orange and rich yellows in the front room seem to be quite popular among my neighbors as well. We all get the same Mediterranean light. I'm not sure the exact same shades we have here would work well in Scottish light, but I'd give it a try!