Yesterday I came across this page in the book Decorate Fearlessly: Using Whimsy, Confidence, and a Dash of Surprise to Create Deeply Personal Spaces. I photographed it because it seemed to me to sum up all that is wrong with decoration as is frequently portrayed in blogs and books – the room, the shelving unit especially, has been created for the camera alone. It is as meaningful as the decoration of a Christmas tree and as ephemeral and relevant as twinkle is to the twig.
At the very least, a design for a room must have some basis – a conception that it will be used, not just gaped at. Decoration is not just about embellishment, whatever the proliferation of sub-Hicksian colors and graphic patterns might suggest. Neither is simulation innovation, however celebrated the source of "inspiration" or "homage" as we say nowadays.
This is where a room begins, on paper with a pencil in hand, brain in gear and client requirements fully appreciated. It does not begin on the shelves of what once was book storage.
In conclusion, this note:
The profession of 'decorator' is is not legally defined. Here is what ASID states about decorators, and it's as barebones and self-serving a definition as one can get.
The profession of 'decorator' is is not legally defined. Here is what ASID states about decorators, and it's as barebones and self-serving a definition as one can get.
A decorator works only with surface decoration – paint, fabric, furnishings, lighting and other materials. Because no license is required, upholsterers, housepainters, and other tradespeople also claim the title “decorator.
According to ASID, the difference between a decorator and an interior designer is as follows.
Interior designers are professionally trained in space planning. In 18 states, they must pass a strict exam and be licensed. While both designers and decorators are concerned with aesthetics, style and mood, interior designers have comprehensive training and command skills that may include an understanding of:
flame spread ratings, smoke, toxicity and fire rating classifications and materials
space planning for public and private facilities
national, state and local building codes
standards regarding the needs of disabled or elderly persons and other special needs groups
ergonomics
lighting quality and quantity
acoustics and sound transmission
All images other than my own photograph and Mr Mark Hampton's floor plan* found on Tumblr sites.
*Mark Hampton on Decorating
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Your first picture is a particularly *lovely* illustration of staging, using all the creative elements required for such fakery! Faintly tolerable if not uninteresting in a real showroom, (selling oranges perhaps?), but too ridiculous for the real world.
ReplyDeletecolumnist, thank you. Not the suburban pied a terre of a modern Nell Gwynn, as you might first have thought. Perhaps the fruit was autographed and handed out to clamoring fans.
DeleteThank you, you are my hero. seriously! Now can we send this excellent essay out to some of the worst offenders? I wish I were so brave. There is nothing wrong with being a decorator and I wish a lot of these self-professed "designers" would just get with the program. Designer/decorator is like nails on a chalkboard (the same as the use of home/house)
ReplyDeleteArchitectDesign, thank you. Yes! House/home. A home is what one makes of a house. One does not purchase a lovely home one buys a handsome house. Don't get me started!
DeleteUsing books as decorative objects in such an overwrought manner ends up looking ridiculous and heavy-handed. I think "interior decorating" should be like ballet; You should see the graceful beauty without seeing the effort behind it. I have never cared for rooms that looked "decorated." Books are quite lovely lined up on a shelf without covering them in paper, stacking them in pyramids, or matching them to bowls of fruit or antique croquet balls. Such tortured arrangements of books annoy me almost as much as images of front hall umbrella stands filled with polo mallets. A home library, be it an entire room or a few shelves, should not be at risk for fruit flies or knocking over an alabaster avocado when reaching for a book.
ReplyDeleteMrs. S
Anonymous, Mrs S, thank you. I could not agree with you more – especially your last sentence! A home library "should not be at risk for fruit flies" indeed.
DeleteI shall never consider childhood's joys mislaid, in their sympathy for the Christmas tree. Even then, of course, I hadn't thought I were creating an environment. Well done.
ReplyDeleteLaurent, thank you. We should leave the annual recreation of childhood joys to the Spirit of Christmas Past's descendants, the malls.
Delete"This is where a room begins, on paper with a pencil in hand, brain in gear and client requirements fully appreciated. It does not begin on the shelves of what once was book storage."
ReplyDeleteI did just that when planning out my postage stamp living room, which must serve multiple functions. Oddly enough, I saw my mother do it when I was a kid, and then much later read about it in various designer books I acquired. It's so basic you'd think this way of thinking about space would be ubiquitous. Your posts prove otherwise!
Love your writing and the way you turn a phrase. Really, there's a book in thar hills!
Daniel James Shigo, thank you. It is so basic that you'd think students would not be resistant to learning the process but not so – all they wanted to do was head for the computers as if that tool would think for them. Once I made a whole group not use a computer for a full week and they moped and sulked and gracelessly grumbled their way through this basic process of using their brains and eyes.
DeleteWe'll see about a book. It seemed such a good idea at one time but .... read my next post and see what you think.
There is so much fodder for this post, Blue. Thank goodness you don't do "giveaways" or you might find yourself hawking stuffed velvet pumpkins in fall colors to nestle on cocktail tables and/or book shelves. Trust me, it's out there. As to decorator/interior designer, many people today don't want to take the time, spend the money or study to pass a licensing tests to verify their qualifications. It's so much easier to operate out of the truck of one's car.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, thank you. I have seen the stuffed velvet and shiny linen pumpkin pillows (with stalks to boot) – they are all over the place and are, I'm sure, considered to be just darlin'. Don't these people get it? (Rhetorical!)
ReplyDelete