On Decorating, Personal Style and the Difference between Hobbiton and Johnson County
While working on the apartment today this occurred to me...
For some, people make a home, not a place. Doesn't it have to be both? A perfect home should contain qualities of hobbits (creature comforts) and elves (arboreal, artistic and elegant), and maybe room for orcs (the nasty, messy pit with creaking wrought-iron door where one could conduct cock fights and cleanup afterward would not be immediately necessary).
Of course, when one has a roommate, she may disagree with your taste. Execution at dawn not being a possibility, you might want to get a roommate who allows you to go hog wild with the decorating. Such a roommate would also provide dumpster-dived but comfortable orange couches with cat claw marks so that your own furniture would not be similarly destroyed. *toothy grin of both satisfied cat and human whose antique velour couch is safely lodged in a garage* She would also not mind if you told her that her art lacked je ne sais quois, and allowed you to put up posters by properly fucked artists many of whom liked "dawgs".
As Aristophanes says, a home is where you prosper. A prosperous home is a place where pleasant fulfilling accomplishment happens. Therefore a home must also be filled with books and reference materials (in case the internet goes down) and perhaps a phonograph with pre-vinyl recordings of Arturo Toscanini conducting the Chicago Symphony. Minimalism is also good, as most people tend to function more efficiently with a minimum of distraction, but finding a way to minimize with large amounts of books, DVDs, CDs and games has eluded even rocket science. Not yet having developed a space portal capable of acting as a personal intergalactic bookmobile, a bibliophile's space must be more crowded than the average Shinto monk's. *sigh*
Maybe a perfect home also has the space required for indoor archery, epee or 16-gauge shot practice? Naw, that can be done outdoors, at a gym or at a range.
Most of all, a perfect home must be a reflection of the self. A person's identity is not always tied in to his dwelling--for example, I may hate the suburbs but find living there more affordable or convenient--but interesting people tend to have interesting homes, or at least interesting stuff in their uninteresting home. Ever been in a home that reeked of money but lacked anything personal or unique? In Ukraine, some German teachers invited me over to their room to do painting to decorate the rather plain ugly walls. We flung acryllic paints Jackson Pollock style, the splashes and dribbles alternating with a trebuchet style throws, and ended up with several really colorful examples of outsider art done inside. It made our rooms so much more lively, and cost only the price of the paints. Obviously, we could have replaced it by properly fucked artists later...
Here are some links to homes which attract me for aesthetic reasons:
A Hobbit's Home for Slightly Bigger Folks
Hvittrask, a classic of Scandinavian architecture, plus this site has great photos overall!
For some, people make a home, not a place. Doesn't it have to be both? A perfect home should contain qualities of hobbits (creature comforts) and elves (arboreal, artistic and elegant), and maybe room for orcs (the nasty, messy pit with creaking wrought-iron door where one could conduct cock fights and cleanup afterward would not be immediately necessary).
Of course, when one has a roommate, she may disagree with your taste. Execution at dawn not being a possibility, you might want to get a roommate who allows you to go hog wild with the decorating. Such a roommate would also provide dumpster-dived but comfortable orange couches with cat claw marks so that your own furniture would not be similarly destroyed. *toothy grin of both satisfied cat and human whose antique velour couch is safely lodged in a garage* She would also not mind if you told her that her art lacked je ne sais quois, and allowed you to put up posters by properly fucked artists many of whom liked "dawgs".
As Aristophanes says, a home is where you prosper. A prosperous home is a place where pleasant fulfilling accomplishment happens. Therefore a home must also be filled with books and reference materials (in case the internet goes down) and perhaps a phonograph with pre-vinyl recordings of Arturo Toscanini conducting the Chicago Symphony. Minimalism is also good, as most people tend to function more efficiently with a minimum of distraction, but finding a way to minimize with large amounts of books, DVDs, CDs and games has eluded even rocket science. Not yet having developed a space portal capable of acting as a personal intergalactic bookmobile, a bibliophile's space must be more crowded than the average Shinto monk's. *sigh*
Maybe a perfect home also has the space required for indoor archery, epee or 16-gauge shot practice? Naw, that can be done outdoors, at a gym or at a range.
Most of all, a perfect home must be a reflection of the self. A person's identity is not always tied in to his dwelling--for example, I may hate the suburbs but find living there more affordable or convenient--but interesting people tend to have interesting homes, or at least interesting stuff in their uninteresting home. Ever been in a home that reeked of money but lacked anything personal or unique? In Ukraine, some German teachers invited me over to their room to do painting to decorate the rather plain ugly walls. We flung acryllic paints Jackson Pollock style, the splashes and dribbles alternating with a trebuchet style throws, and ended up with several really colorful examples of outsider art done inside. It made our rooms so much more lively, and cost only the price of the paints. Obviously, we could have replaced it by properly fucked artists later...
Here are some links to homes which attract me for aesthetic reasons:
A Hobbit's Home for Slightly Bigger Folks
Hvittrask, a classic of Scandinavian architecture, plus this site has great photos overall!