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#MicroblogMondays 135: Decorations

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I am not a fan of decorating.  We are not tchotchke purchasers.  We do not like flourishes.  Instead of operating from a place of “that’s beautiful,” I come from a space of “that’s not ugly.”  I like things plain.  Plain, plain, plain, plain, plain.

I am not enjoying bathroom renovation decisions.

Some people love going to open houses to see how other people decorate their homes.  Or peruse home goods catalogues.  Or watch decorating shows on television.  I do not do any of these things.  If we had the money, I would pass off this decision-making process to a decorator.  I would tell him/her, “Aim for plain. Think boring and then take it one step beyond that.”

Do you like to decorate?

P.S. We are moving from the steampunk bathroom idea toward a more spa look.  The Edison lightbulbs hurt my eyes.

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1. Mali (No Kidding) 10. Traci York, Writer 19. Jess
2. Mali (A Separate Life) 11. Kathy 20. Middle Girl
3. I Want To Be Her | Naba 12. Empty Arms, Broken Heart 21. Chandra Lynn (Pics and Posts)
4. Tas IVFer 13. Charlotte 22. Chandni
5. Turia 14. Loribeth (The Road Less Travelled) 23. Lori@ Laughing IS Conceivable
6. Journeywoman 15. Risa Kerslake 24. Melissa N.
7. Unpregnant Chicken 16. I wrote for myself today, feel free to ignore. | TaU 25. Microblog Mondays: Xenophobia
8. Stephanie (Travelcraft Journal) 17. Karen (River Run Dry)
9. Isabelle 18. Virg� nia

31 comments

1 Nabanita { 03.27.17 at 5:50 am }

I’m very bad at decorating. For me clean and plain is the matra. Always has been.

2 Mali { 03.27.17 at 5:56 am }

I love to decorate, though I have little reason to these days. I love helping others decorate, if they ask for advice. I like taking their styles, and getting them excited. But I haven’t done any decorating for a long time, except for a recent light purchase replacing a broken fitting. I don’t update our look regularly, just to have an excuse to redecorate. After all, if it’s a choice between spending money on decorating or travel, travel wins.

3 Beth { 03.27.17 at 6:42 am }

I appreciate decorating in simple, small doses. I am not naturally gifted in decorating, however, and take a very long time to make decisions. Definitely no tchotchkes or knick knacks.

4 TasIVFer { 03.27.17 at 7:44 am }

I like to decorate, but I don’t like to be a fashion victim. For example when we have renovated bathrooms, we’ve kept it quite simple and white – then added colour with towels. And I always think about how things will wear or clean. I don’t care how trendy little tiles are, who needs tonnes of grout to clean?!

5 TasIVFer { 03.27.17 at 7:46 am }

(Eek – sorry Mel – I can’t edit my post to link back to yours on my phone in bed; I’ve set a reminder to myself to edit it tomorrow!)

6 Journeywoman { 03.27.17 at 7:58 am }

I don’t like decorating because I don’t have the money or the patience to do it perfectly. I also don’t understand people who throw out perfectly good furniture because they don’t match the decor. But I admit that I am weird.

7 Turia { 03.27.17 at 8:01 am }

I like the idea of decorating, but the actual decision making process would send me into an anxiety-filled paralysis. I have a couple of friends who have built houses from scratch and made all the decisions from the outside stone/brick to shingles to floors to appliances to fixtures and just hearing about it made me feel stressed.

So yeah, if we ever have the money to renovate this place on a big scale, I would have to budget to hire someone else to turn my ideas into something real.

8 a { 03.27.17 at 8:10 am }

Hate decorating! But I don’t mind painting, and I have picked up a thing or two over the years. I was going to suggest that you might not like a steampunk bathroom after a while, and that soothing, spa-like neutral might be better.

My next suggestion is that you take lots of pictures of your space and send them to Mali and let her decorate for you. 😀

9 a { 03.27.17 at 8:11 am }

We built our house and choosing everything was awful…And I am a pretty decisive person!

10 Stephanie (Travelcraft Journal) { 03.27.17 at 9:58 am }

Plain and simple can be really lovely. I thought of Shaker style, and found this image: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/319966748498261556/

I’m linking to the pin, because of the rest of the post seems like too much and probably not what you’re going for. But the spare, muted bedroom seems very calming to me.

11 Ashley { 03.27.17 at 10:35 am }

I like decorating, love watching the decorating shows on HGTV, but I can’t do much in our home for a few reasons. One, the two c’s – cats and children. All of my decorating decisions are based on how breakable something is and if it has anything about it that might attract the cats. Two, our house is small and mostly I’m just trying to wean us down to minimum items so it doesn’t feel so stuffed to the gills. Also, number three reason is I have Champaign taste on a beer budget, so unless I can do it myself, it probably isn’t getting done (so no renovations because I’m rather inadequate!). I have to figure out how to replace our broken toilet and it’s giving me heart palpitations. I would love to replace the ugly stuck-on faux tile we have on our floor in the bathroom and kitchen, but I don’t think I could do anything that would be an improvement, so it stays…. Best of luck on your renovation!

12 Kathy { 03.27.17 at 10:40 am }

#1 – Totally didn’t know that tchotchke is how that word is spelled! 🙂

#2 – I sort of life to decorate. It depends on my mood and the room and what kinds of decisions I have to make. We are currently looking at new window treatments, which I find overwhelming. I had no idea there were so many different options.

13 Kathy { 03.27.17 at 10:41 am }

PS – I sort of like, not life to decorate. 😉

14 Kathy { 03.27.17 at 10:48 am }

Of course the day I decide to try it, its not working and I thought I was doing something wrong… 😉

Kathy (Bereaved and Blessed)

http://bereavedandblessed.com/2017/03/microblogmondays-week-1-is-done/

15 Traci York { 03.27.17 at 10:59 am }
16 Traci York { 03.27.17 at 11:04 am }

I like decorating when the mood strikes – if I “have to” (like with your bathroom renovations), I find it becomes an undesirable chore. Good luck finishing the project!

17 Cristy { 03.27.17 at 11:21 am }

My head hurts just thinking about decorating. Because it’s never as easy as people dream it will be. May it go swiftly. And may there be a big reward at the end.

18 charlotte { 03.27.17 at 11:33 am }

I am with Journeywoman on this. I don’t have the money to do it “correctly”, and I definitely don’t care about things matching just so. I have zero patience for interior decorating. I don’t know how. I definitely see things here or there that I like, but like it for someone else, ya know? Not for my life. I think right now my life feels to busy to have all those busy patterns and designs in the background. I need plain and simple, so mind can rest.

p.s. I used the word tchotchke recently to someone at work, and they were like wth is a tchotchke? Thanks for reaffirming that I didn’t make that word up!!! For the record, I don’t have a lot of those around my house, either.

19 Lori Lavender Luz { 03.27.17 at 11:53 am }

I’m like you. I don’t like to decorate, don’t like comparing what seem like minute differences (I know some could write masters theses on them) and basically, don’t like making so many decisions that I’ll have to live with until I can afford the next remodel (like, 20 years). We had to pick out a porch light this weekend to replace the old one and there must have been 200 options. I selected a plain one after a 30 second scan.

20 Shail { 03.27.17 at 11:58 am }

Sometimes I like it. Mostly I don’t. I’d rather go read a book.

21 Risa Kerslake { 03.27.17 at 12:13 pm }

Ha ha! I do love decorating. Am I good at it? Debatable. But I still like doing it.

22 Vaibhav { 03.27.17 at 12:41 pm }

Yes, because beauty primes beauty. It’s a bit of effort, but the mental payoff over a long term is much greater. I feel better when I walk into my room and the colors work well with each other, but that may just be me.

23 nonsequiturchica { 03.27.17 at 2:47 pm }

Spa for a bathroom would be better than steampunk (especially for resale value). Do I like to look in magazines for design ideas? Not really. I have spent some time on Houzz to get some ideas but they are not cohesive. I am definitely the type of person that needs to see everything together- my dad can just view everything in his brain and have it all look amazing. I didn’t inherit that.

24 Nicoleandmaggie { 03.27.17 at 8:27 pm }

Are you me?

I prefer to think of my decorating style as clean or minimalist and form follows function. But yeah, plain is another way to describe it.

Though we do have a lot of books, even some in the bathroom.

25 Jess { 03.27.17 at 8:37 pm }

I enjoy decorating, but I also enjoy when it’s done. I loved the paint and hardware and granite decisions with our kitchen, and I loved putting our nursery together, getting all the colors right and tying stuff together. I am also a sucker for candles, and can go the opposite of plain pretty quickly. I like pinterest for decorating ideas, and have a bunch of books from when we redid our bedroom and bathroom upstairs. There is something immensely satisfying in having a vision for what a room will look like when done and then seeing it realized. I love our bedroom because I wanted it to look like a New England coastal inn room, maybe from a farmhouse on a tidal river or something, and that’s just what we have now.

Oh, I’m sad to see the steampunk go, but spa is lovely too. A good bathroom respite is lovely. We have one edison lightbulb, in a wall fixture in our bedroom. It’s like a nice nightlight but it’s in a nook so I don’t have to look at it all the time.

26 Chandni { 03.27.17 at 10:30 pm }

I love decorating..we hired a decorator to do up our new home last year and I drove them nuts coz I wanted to be a part of every little thing – laminates , fabrics , design .. everything!
I wish i could take over your decorations project so that you could lounge away in your pyjamas and do what you do best.. blog!

Talking about blogging , I am never able to link up my posts to your link. coz I am never able to see it!!
Here’s the post I wrote and linked to your category URL instead

http://chandnimoudgil.com/2017/03/27/saying-goodbyes-microblogmondays/

27 Middle Girl { 03.27.17 at 11:27 pm }

I like decorating. But as I have very little budget to do any actual make-overs, my decorating is mostly theoretical. 😉

28 Chandra { 03.28.17 at 1:19 am }

I like “the idea” of decorating and I have a TON of items to decorate with (in boxes, leaning up against walls, etc.). Like you, I’d rather pay someone else to do it.

29 Melissa N. { 03.28.17 at 3:05 pm }

I vividly remember accompanying my parents to open houses when I was a little girl — not to buy but to get ideas about renovating our house. They especially loved visiting model homes because I think they liked envisioning a space as they would decorate it and other people’s decorating choices and tastes got in the way if they went to furnished homes. While they had their fun imagining the “what ifs,” I would often find myself playing hide and seek all by my lonesome in the various closets and cabinets and hideyholes. I’ve always had a good imagination so I’m guessing I wasn’t unhappy about having some playing time to myself. Good luck with renovations!

30 Jamie { 03.29.17 at 2:54 am }

I love decorating and house projects! My favorite store is The Hone Depot. I get more excited than my husband when we go shopping there. I could spend hours in that store. From my point of view, I see home decorating like art, which I find relaxing. My home is my masterpiece. I love color and having a variety of textures and patterns that go together, not necessarily match, but go together. I have sort of an eclectic, but classic taste–classy, but cozy and inviting.

However, I like to go neutral with the more permanent things, such as tile, countertops and flooring. I feel those are investment pieces. It is easier to change the look of the space with the paint on the walls, fabrics and accessories. Plus, I am a big fan of blending both masculine and feminine qualities in a space.

I have a friend who has always been more neutral and white with her decorating. She commented once that I do color really well and it would be too overwhelming for her to do. But, I told her that there is something clean and refreshing in the more plain, white/neutral color palate that she uses. Her home has great natural lighting and her decor palate makes the space vibrant and warm. The spa idea sounds nice and relaxing. And for all of the stuff, I tend not to collect things just to collect them or to fill the space. I like things that are utilitarian, to serve a purpose and look nice. Or the item makes me happy, like photos or something associated with a memory. Hope your bathroom turns out nice!

31 Geochick { 03.30.17 at 9:34 am }

Steampunk is the opposite of plain! If you like plain, spa is the way to go. I’m with you on decorating too. I wish I had a decorater bone in my body but I do not. I keep it minimal and that makes me happy.

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