So as some of you may have noticed, this has been the longest span of time without a blog entry from me. There is a good reason for that. I have been utterly boring in the last month, singularly preoccupied with one thing – furnishing my new apartment. Last week, I finally moved into a proper one bedroom apartment, in a nice doorman building, where the faucets all work the way they should.
Anyway, I’ve spend an abnormally large amount of time thinking about how to furnish and decorate my new place. Any free moments I have had in the last 5 or so weeks has been spent shopping or surfing the internet for design ideas, color palates, furniture, rugs, lamps. I think I have sat on and tested out every single sofa in Manhattan. You see, I had this desire to have the place look nice, and not cookie-cutter like every other West Elm catalog. I scourged E-bay for antique furniture on the cheap, and turned to Dwell Magazine and Design Within Reach for ideas. Most of them were too expensive for my budget, but it was fun to see what I can’t afford.
The one thing I can’t help but wonder is, why does everyone want to have furniture that is shabby chic? Isn’t that just a euphemism for, “I found it in my grandmother’s attic and am trying to sell it for way more than it’s worth on E-bay, and hoping that some Manhattanite yuppy will use it to impress their Crate and Barrel loving friends?” Have people always overpaid for furniture that is chipped and uneven and broken? What is it, exactly, about distressed wood that makes it seem somehow wiser than fresh, newly painted wood? I really don’t know why exactly it’s so fun to have your high-rise, downtown city apartment look like a country cabin on the inside, but for some reason it really just is.
I know I have been putting way more thought into all this than a rental apartment deserves. But I can’t deny I’m a little worried about it, because people notice this kind of stuff all the time. Think about it, if you go over to your new date’s apartment for the first time and find everything is black leather and glass, you might, say, categorize him into a certain style of person. Ok, let’s be frank – you’ll judge him for it. He went from that nice guy you were picturing introducing to your best couple friends to, to that kind of cheesy guy who clearly lacks any taste.
I guess what this all means is that I’m afraid of being judged. What does my furniture say about me? Am I modern, distinctive, classic, or retro? (Ok, not retro – that stuff is just plain ugly.) Should I put a motorcycle in the middle of my living room? That always seems really cool for some reason. And what exactly is a sconce?
Anyway, here I am, in my nice new place with some oldish-looking furniture, and some more modern stuff in the mix as well. Shabby? Chic? You all can be the judge; housewarming party coming soon. I’m gonna go find that old motorcycle on E-bay.
Half way...where? 