Sunday is the day I reflect on the goals of the blog blah blah blah. When I studied journalism in college, I learned about being a columnist and immediately thought, “How horrible — to have to have an opinion all the time.”
As a result, I vowed to keep it to once a week and then, to try and keep it light and not preachy. I am actually very worried about this.
So here goes…my opinion today is: There is no need to take any of this retro renovation stuff too seriously. Yours, mine or anybody else’s.
So what if the 1961 Formica kitchen above is ridiculously over the top? Like, so over-the-big-top it’s blown out the bulb on my scanner. It’s a kitchen for gosh sakes, and frankly, if it (or one like it, I acknowledge this is an ad) made its owner happy, then who else should care?
The postwar period was full of lots of “kitsch” that high stylists sneer at. Frankly, I think this says a lot about them. And it isn’t good.
I say: Life’s a big canvas, throw on a lot of paint. Let us enjoy our dinnerware collections, our flamingos and boomerangs, our useless but wonderful estate-sale treasures– that is, let us have fun with our homes, usually on a tight budget and infused with lots of creative joy. Sometimes the project goes sideways and it turns out…well, tacky…but hey, it’s only a house. It can be fixed, and it makes for a much more interesting story than expensive retail perfection, any day.
You know, the more I look at the pink carousel kitchen, the more I actually like it. Why not? Seriously.
This post was first published Dec. 16, 2007.