November 01st, 2018

We are all susceptible to the allure of being fashionable.  Even when a person isn't a hard-core fashionista, when shopping, we can only choose from those items in the store for sale, right?  And to one degree or another, most of what is available is what is currently on trend.

If you walk past the television and spy on the screen a man wearing a light blue leisure suit ( in a non-ironic way), you know immediately that movie was made in the 70's right?  It's not even a question.  Saddle shoes and poodle skirts?  1950's, daddy-o.   Love beads and nehru jackets?  Well, that was the Age of Aquarius.

Fashion is fun!  And it's possible to just participate in a trend without emptying the piggy bank.  Sure there are some folks who completely overhaul the contents of their closets with each changing trend. But most of us real people, just dabble a bit.  We stick mostly to the classics which never really go out of style and only replace or add to our existing collection once in a while.  The newer items of course, are more on point current fashion wise.  But it's a gradual transition from narrow ties to wide ties to no ties at all (except for formal occasions of course)

And I don't know about you, but when I look back at old photos and what I'm wearing sometimes the question,  "What on earth was I thinking?" is running through my head.  I'm sure that at the time, that gawdawful hawaiian muumuu looking thing  was all the rage. But it wasn't particularly flattering.  I'm sure, at the time, I thought that when I wore it, I was all that and a bag of chips.  I was wrong.

The same thing happens with decor. Fashion trends come and go.  And while some things are just classics and always look good, other things look dated very fast.   I see it on those house-hunting shows on HGTV all the time.  People walk into a 20 year old home that was never updated and while it is clean, kept well maintained and serviceable the first words out of the potential buyers mouths are, 'It's dated".  Yup.  It is.  Very. 

So because the house is "dated", the price is much lower so the people buy the house and the very first thing they do is make it look current.  And for a long time current seems to have meant, sleek and grey.  So they fix it all up so that it looks very  modern and new and  very grey and the new owners are happyhappy. Which is a good thing because all that renovating and redecorating cost a fortune and they won't be able to afford doing it again for a very long time.   Much like the previous owner.   I guess it doesn't occur to the new people that what is super fashionable now in decor will be super out of fashion in 10 - 20 years when they are ready to move on.

I have always maintained that people should just be who they are.  If you like neutrals, if that is what makes you happy in your home, that is what you should do.  If you prefer colour, then you should do colour.  Wallpaper makes your heart dance?  Wallpaper the bejeebers out of the place.  It's your home.  Decorate it to please yourselves regardless of what the current style is.  Feather your nest, your way.  Unless you are planning to sell your home, apparently.  Then it could be an issue.  Oh dear.

I actually do kind of understand, at least intellectually, the whole idea behind using neutrals to decorate.  If the walls, floors, ceiling and furniture are very  neutral, the smallest pop of colour really stands out. Everything kind of goes with a neutral.  And neutrals have always been very popular.  I remember a time when white was THE neutral.  Then it was beige.  Then grey.  Nearly every model home we have visited in the past few years has been a study in greys.

So imagine my surprise when I got my weekly email from Houzz talking about the Next Big Colour Trend.  They call it Colour Maximalism.  I call it Yikes!  (the photos at the top of the page are examples)

Now in our house, we are not afraid of colour.  There is not one single room in this house that is white, beige or grey.  We have a red leather sofa in the living room.  The backsplash in the kitchen is seagreen glass tile.  Our family room walls are robin's egg blue. We like colour.  But this maximalism idea feels a little much even for us.

Maybe it's because this new idea is the polar opposite of what has been the fashion. It's almost shocking.  There was no gradual transition into this world of So. Much. Colour.  And so much.....stuff!  Very busy.  My eye doesn't know where to go in the room.  I think I would feel crowded in one of those rooms even if I was completely by myself.

So this is a decorating trend that I will obviously not be participating in. Although, now that I think about it.  We did use colour on our walls.  I suppose we could consider our house to be a watered down version of this Colour Maximalism thing.  How 'bout that.  For a change, just doing what we do, we may actually be currently almost in style.  What a surprise!  Unintentional I assure you.

But seriously follks, I dunno.  I'm not sure how I feel about this whole maximalism thing.  How about you?  How do you feel about it?