You can’t curl up in aesthetics.

I was talking to our buddy Slicktastic last night. His friend recently bought a condo and got it featured on one of those ‘Have A Designer Decorate Your Condo’ shows. He was telling us how amazing her bathroom fixtures were, and how they still had the little rented touches around (like plastic flowers).

Which led to a bit of a brain dump by me (which he was on board with btw – so I wasn’t *just* ranting), about how while I like capital D Design in theory, it doesn’t work for me in practice. I can walk into a space and admire lines and style and form. But it almost never looks *comfy* to me. As in, yes, that is a beautiful bar stool and it really goes with your granite counter, but I wouldn’t want to eat my french toast there. Or, yes, that recliner is a nice modern urban take on a traditional recliner, but I don’t think it would work for sprawling out with the paper on a Saturday.

Often “well-designed” furniture just plain looks too small. I need to look at a chair and be able to say to myself “yes, that could generously accomodate my ass”. My home furnishings and “style” are built around bad posture and lying down. If I can’t lie down in it – or slouch really badly, I’ll probably never want to sit in it. Pretty much if I don’t want to be on my feet, I want to reeeallly not be on my feet. I don’t want to be perched on the edge of a beautiful plastic doohickey of a chair. Other than the once a month I’m dressed up and headed out the door and need to perch on something pristine while CPwr grabs his wallet, I don’t need that Piece Of Style in my home.

Home is a big part of this idea. I don’t identify these immaculate spaces as Home. They are where you live, your condo, your flat even, but not a Home. Home is mismashed – it has knickknacks and mementos that don’t “go” with anything, it has blankets that don’t all match and tables that are worn from putting your feet up on them. I feel sad for people who feel they have to hide away all the bits and pieces of their lives because they don’t fit a theme. And that’s the first thing they do on these design shows – “remove the clutter”. I say if your granny’s teapot has to be put in a cupboard to make room for a decorative bowl filled with wicker balls from Ikea, it may be time to take a step back.