Ladies seem to enjoy looking at pictures of well-arranged rooms with sentimental objects. As we go Into the beautiful month of October around the world, I am enjoying the feeling of newness and brightness all around me, especially in the morning if I rise up earlier than anyone else and can walk around in quiet shoes, both indoors and out, to see what is new, what it all looks like in the special first light of the day.
While looking at my living room, I thought back to how I first became interested in room arrangement, color, mood, and theme. I do not know if anyone else remembers some of the first exposure to interior decorating was from pictures in catalogs that came in the mail. There was also a Rit Dye ad in the ladies magazines that gave us lots of inspiration. Although I did not use the dye in those days, the ads gave me ideas about putting "like" colors together, and I suppose that the 40's and 50's homemakers, as well as the 60's and 70's, were the original "Shabby Chic" decorators, because often we painted everything from stools and chairs, to tables, white! Not all my ideas came from the commercial exposure; I often paid attention to the things other people were doing to make their houses lovely. What I learned the most from, was what people today might call "the Granny Look" because it used the basic things, like quilts, gingham, calico, braided rugs, crocheted pieces, lanterns, cushions, tea sets and hand painted scenery pictures.
Is anyone besides me old enough to remember these colorful ads?
I used to stare a lot at these, when I was a child. As a teenager I became fascinated with a new commercial color called Apricot, and I decorated my side of the shared bedroom with it, finding things in that shade. I painted the walls and dresser in peach.
Yes, there really are pink pumpkins at the farmers markets, but this year they sell pink banana squash, as well as
white pumpkins and lovely sage-green squash. I did not see any Cinderella pumpkins, which I think are absolutely wonderful.
The ones I like are pale in color with a hint of green around the top area.
This month I began searching for a new screen door and in the process am enjoying looking at doors of all kinds,
such as this one with the lovely white railings. I did get a new screen door, and it looks like this:
I hope one day to get a picture of the door on my house. I am waiting for the outside wall to be painted.
Pictures of rooms with comforting, familiar things in them always give me a needed boost to fix up my own house. Sometimes magazines will feature lovely rooms, but have something garish or shocking in them, for drama. In this day and age, I do not need any more drama, so I prefer to have understated rooms that just say "restful haven."
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5 comments:
Note, the change in writing size has nothing to do with expression or drama. I am still struggling with a blogging program and trying to get it to so what I tell it to do.
I DO recall those ads! I recall my first time of seeing a room in a magazine and wanting to make my room look like it. It was in SEVENTEEN Magazine when I was in Junior High--there was a room set up in a way that just delighted my heart. Nowadays, I love to look at magazines, books, other folk's homes, and of course, right here on you own lovely blog. Oh--and I understand about the changing in writing--sometimes the programs just decide for you what to do!
I remember in the early 1950's when my mother used RIT to dye my white sheets pink, and how thrilled I was. She dyed many other things after that, but I will always remember those lovely pink sheets!
I remember in the early 1950's when my mother used RIT to dye my white sheets pink, and how thrilled I was. She dyed many other things after that, but I always remember my joy at seeing those lovely pink sheets!
Yes, I too remember getting things dyed colors when I was a child and its still useful today.
By watching those home improvement shows years ago I learned its less costly to change a mood in a room with the use of wall paint and sofa and chair covers.
My personal preference is muted solid colors on interior walls, sofa and chairs. Seasonal spots of color in small things like cushion covers, flower arrangements, mantle decor, hand towels, pot holders, cookie jars, table clothes, door wreaths and porch decor.
My favorite music for years has been hearing a songbird early in the morning, listening to crickets chirp in the late afternoon, or church chime bells playing an old hymn way off in the distance.
Mrs. J.
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