Funky Shui
Working in the business that I do, I'm OFTEN confronted with new decorating trends. I was there when concrete floors started becoming a thing. Way cool track lights. Stainless steel kitchen cabinets. Some of the stuff I like. Some of it I just can't.
More often I find things that I like, but don't know that I'd want them in my own space. Looking at them day in and day out. Funky things. Kitschy kinds things. Weird things. (But not Highlander. Weird though he is, I like looking at him day in and day out...;)
Things like this tiki fireplace.
The freaky kid in me says "COOL!!". The Old Boring Mom in me says "I don't think so."
I'd love to walk into someone else's house and see this. It wouldn't make me want to run right out and get one of my own. I'd just like to see it. And then, I'm pretty sure I'd be over it.
And while I collect Pez dispensers, I don't know that I'd want to go as far as this. But, I might.
This is one of those projects that I'd love to be involved with in some capacity, but don't know if I'd want the finished product in my own driveway. It would just break my heart if I had to watch it in a hail storm!
I've done some theme rooms for my kids in both their dad's house (which I used to share) and in our current digs. But nothing as extreme as either of the above photos.
The littlest of my girls has a ballerina room at our apartment. Full of lace and frill, it's all girl. And it's all her. A pretty quilt with appliqued ballerinas dancing all over it (like this one). A dozen assorted stuffed ballerina dolls perched on top. A pair of toe shoes hanging from one wall and pictures of ballerinas dancing on the other walls. She loves it. Which is, of course, icing on the cake. But I love it. I enjoy doing it.
At her dad's, it's all about fairies. I painted a wall full of flowers and butterflies and fairies that I hope remind her of me when she's there. It took me a good while to do it. It kept growing and growing. Starting as just some butterflies and then adding the fairies and then the vine with the flowers. Her room there is yellow and purple and blue. At my place it's all pink.
My older two share a room both here and at their dad's. Their room here is all about comicbooks. A side effect of their exposure to my delightfully young-at-heart beau. Posters of the Fantastic Four, the Avengers and a nice Alex Ross print of the JSA and JLA (this from my oldest daughter) are on the walls, along with some sizeable wood wall plaques of the X-Men logo, the Green Lantern logo, and the Flash logo. There is a Superman clock, a Supergirl bobblehead doll and a really cool Superman Carousel (here's a pic of one) that Highlander badly wanted to misappropriate before I could give it to the girls. Their beds have Spiderman and Batman fleece throws on them and an assortment of stuffed dolls (Hellboy and Green Lantern and Hawkgirl) and throw pillows (Hulk and Batman and Spiderman). Highlander says it's the room he wanted when he was a kid. Maybe it is.
But the room they have at their dad's is the room I wanted when I was a kid. And when I was decorating it, I couldn't have felt more close to them. It's a music-themed room. With posters of rock bands and stars on the walls, along with a few framed album covers (including The Rolling Stones "Some Girls" and Aerosmith's "Toys in the Attic" and Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road").
My ex helped me hang 12" vinyl albums around the entire (really large) room as a border at the ceiling. Looking through thrift store bins for unusual labels and colors was interesting. The end result was very cool. Er...well, I thought so, anyway. I'm trying to remember exactly how many albums it took, now and I just can't. But the room is like 12' x 21', so it's a great lot of them, believe me!
Three years ago, as one of my Christmas gifts to the girls, I put a collage together for them with ticket stubs from concerts my ex and/or I had attended, various patches, stickers, a pin, a postcard, a Grateful Dead bandana, and an actual photo my ex took at a Kiss concert. It was a fun project to put together and it turned out really well. And it works really well in the room. (Sorry about the glare!)
The architects around my office all think I'm pretty lame when it comes to decorating. And, hell, I probably am. It's certainly not my field. But if the finished product feels comfortable to me (and Highlander and all the kiddies), that's all I really need. As long as I've got my Funky Shui going, and everybody's happy, I don't need somebody else telling me what's supposed to be "in" or "cool". I couldn't care less. I'll be glad to come look at the hip stuff at their house.
More often I find things that I like, but don't know that I'd want them in my own space. Looking at them day in and day out. Funky things. Kitschy kinds things. Weird things. (But not Highlander. Weird though he is, I like looking at him day in and day out...;)
Things like this tiki fireplace.The freaky kid in me says "COOL!!". The Old Boring Mom in me says "I don't think so."
I'd love to walk into someone else's house and see this. It wouldn't make me want to run right out and get one of my own. I'd just like to see it. And then, I'm pretty sure I'd be over it.
And while I collect Pez dispensers, I don't know that I'd want to go as far as this. But, I might.This is one of those projects that I'd love to be involved with in some capacity, but don't know if I'd want the finished product in my own driveway. It would just break my heart if I had to watch it in a hail storm!
I've done some theme rooms for my kids in both their dad's house (which I used to share) and in our current digs. But nothing as extreme as either of the above photos.
The littlest of my girls has a ballerina room at our apartment. Full of lace and frill, it's all girl. And it's all her. A pretty quilt with appliqued ballerinas dancing all over it (like this one). A dozen assorted stuffed ballerina dolls perched on top. A pair of toe shoes hanging from one wall and pictures of ballerinas dancing on the other walls. She loves it. Which is, of course, icing on the cake. But I love it. I enjoy doing it.
At her dad's, it's all about fairies. I painted a wall full of flowers and butterflies and fairies that I hope remind her of me when she's there. It took me a good while to do it. It kept growing and growing. Starting as just some butterflies and then adding the fairies and then the vine with the flowers. Her room there is yellow and purple and blue. At my place it's all pink.My older two share a room both here and at their dad's. Their room here is all about comicbooks. A side effect of their exposure to my delightfully young-at-heart beau. Posters of the Fantastic Four, the Avengers and a nice Alex Ross print of the JSA and JLA (this from my oldest daughter) are on the walls, along with some sizeable wood wall plaques of the X-Men logo, the Green Lantern logo, and the Flash logo. There is a Superman clock, a Supergirl bobblehead doll and a really cool Superman Carousel (here's a pic of one) that Highlander badly wanted to misappropriate before I could give it to the girls. Their beds have Spiderman and Batman fleece throws on them and an assortment of stuffed dolls (Hellboy and Green Lantern and Hawkgirl) and throw pillows (Hulk and Batman and Spiderman). Highlander says it's the room he wanted when he was a kid. Maybe it is.
But the room they have at their dad's is the room I wanted when I was a kid. And when I was decorating it, I couldn't have felt more close to them. It's a music-themed room. With posters of rock bands and stars on the walls, along with a few framed album covers (including The Rolling Stones "Some Girls" and Aerosmith's "Toys in the Attic" and Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road").
My ex helped me hang 12" vinyl albums around the entire (really large) room as a border at the ceiling. Looking through thrift store bins for unusual labels and colors was interesting. The end result was very cool. Er...well, I thought so, anyway. I'm trying to remember exactly how many albums it took, now and I just can't. But the room is like 12' x 21', so it's a great lot of them, believe me!
Three years ago, as one of my Christmas gifts to the girls, I put a collage together for them with ticket stubs from concerts my ex and/or I had attended, various patches, stickers, a pin, a postcard, a Grateful Dead bandana, and an actual photo my ex took at a Kiss concert. It was a fun project to put together and it turned out really well. And it works really well in the room. (Sorry about the glare!)
The architects around my office all think I'm pretty lame when it comes to decorating. And, hell, I probably am. It's certainly not my field. But if the finished product feels comfortable to me (and Highlander and all the kiddies), that's all I really need. As long as I've got my Funky Shui going, and everybody's happy, I don't need somebody else telling me what's supposed to be "in" or "cool". I couldn't care less. I'll be glad to come look at the hip stuff at their house.
posted by SuperWife | 4:00 PM
7 Comments:
If my math is right, it took 66 albums! Cool room. My son took some of our old LPs back to college with him to decorate his room, but he puts them up in the jackets and rotates them periodically.
I did a wonderful ocean-themed room for my daughter a couple of years ago. The only cool decorating I've ever done in my life. And now she wants to paint the whole thing lime green. Sigh.
I think it's great you and your ex get along well enough to decorate the kids room together. My parents couldn't be in the same city together after they split.
Oh I so wish I was still that person who would do the tiki fireplace thing. I know she's in there, somewhere, but cant' speak --too busy being smothered by the pillows from the beige Room & Board sofa (and not the wild shaggy magenta one she thought she'd have as a little girl).
Bluegrass Mama -
Thanks for the math. As soon as I read your note, I went DUH! All I can say about your daughter's room is take a picture and both of you will have the memory. Don't ya hate it when the grow up on ya. Just when you get 'em broken in, they gotta do it.
Moe -
Sorry to have misled you. My ex and I did the rooms at his house when we were still married and did them together. It used to be "our" house. When we split, he insisted that there was "NO WAY, I was ever gonna live in that house without him!" (you should have seen the marriage counselor's jaw drop when he made that booming declaration!). I decided that, much as I loved that house...much as I was the one who picked it out...the bottom line was that it was a house and I could be happy anywhere. My girls would spend two weeks a month there with or without me. It just wasn't worth the fight. Of course, he screwed me on the purchase price (I ended up with $4,000 as my half of the $15,000 in equity we'd built up together there). But that's another story. More of the "Tammy bending over backwards to try to stay friends thing." Don't try it at home, kids. You'll be sorry you did!
We try to get along now, but it's definitely strained. Lately, the different city thing sounds more and more like the plan we need.
Mom101 -
Yeah, I'm right there with you. I wanna be that girl again. But sometime, when I wasn't looking, she split on me. She's probably somewhere looking at beaded curtains and lava lamps.
I'd kinda like the Tiki fireplace if you could control the smoke coming from the nostrils and it was wired for sound so you could talk into a microphone and have it come out as a booming voice from there, to freak out company.
I AM THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TIKI!!!
I kinda like it, too, Tony. But I'd like it better if it said "BRING ME DICK CHENEY'S BRAIN!!!"
Okay, it's like 11:30 and I've been up since 4:45 this morning. Cut me some slack...
Your decorating it really cute! I love the vinyl records border. That would be great for my basement rec room.
As far as the teen driving thing--well when you start, it's really nervewracking. But it gets better as they learn. I can almost let go of the door handle now, after 11 months of her driving.
Our insurance hasn't gone up yet. That will happen when she's turns 16 in a few weeks. I dread making that call to my agent. I've heard teen boys' insurance is higher, but teen girls' insurance definitely isn't cheap.
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