Shall I whip out the magazine clippings my grandmother dutifully scrapbooked in 1937 to help create the "correct" home for entertaining? Shall we delve through old Better Homes & Gardens magazines for examples of refitted homogeneity seventy years gone? Shall we delve into the radical sameness of countercultural design in an era now reduced to kitsch? It isn't "Airspace" it's "minimalism" and you can't claim it as a new thing when the only design it embraces is stuff older than your parents. I know it's heresy to trash Saint Kate but fuckin' A: home improvement and renovation is nothing new and that Hunter Green study you painted in '98 was worth colorwashing in 2002 and is totally ready for white with a slate accent wall now because that's what we do. We try out new trends and get rid of old ones while certain stuff we retain and celebrate. Know what's rad? I can google image search "ridiculous travertine coffee table" and find the one I bought in 2003 (and got rid of in 2007) but I know I don't have to know what a Barcelona Chair is called because if I go to DWR.com and browse "living room" it will give me a treatise on van der Rohe's Barcelona Chair (1929) while trying to sell me one for six grand. If you have formica counters, there's something wrong with your house. I have formica counters. They fucking suck. Anybody who thinks they're okay doesn't cook or clean or live in a house where cooking and cleaning happens. I also have mahogany panelling on my lofted ceiling and I don't give a fuck that it makes the room darker it's authentic, it's original, it's 1951 and it's dope AF, just like the three-sided brick fireplace that produces minimal heat. Some trends are good. Some trends are bad. Renovation is the process of making trends fight to find the winners. As a media professional I could say something about the media-industrial home improvement complex but I ain't gonna because This Old House turns 40 next year.
This was my living room for a couple of years. I (unsurprisingly) don't have many pictures. The wood panelling was permeated by the 20 years of smoke of the pervious tenants and the "double living room" setup made it a pain to entertain. It was basically a glorified hallway and I never spent any time there. You better know I love my white walls and open kitchen/living room layout now! I'm probably not the main demographic of this post... I was considering getting some eucalyptus leaves to put in my bathroom. Because I saw that on instagram and it looks dope. And you bet I'd buy a bunch of midcentury modern furniture if I had the money.
Eucalyptus should be bought fresh-cut because it smells awesome. PROTIP: if you can find a Russian spa that puts a couple sprigs by the steam outlets in the steam room? heaven. I'm not sure about the availability in Toronto but it shouldn't be to expensive...? The more durable midcentury items (end tables, etc) have been pretty convincingly ripped off by any number of fly-by-night Chinese manufacturers. You can find a passable Noguchi table, for example, for $200 any day on Craigslist.