Decorating For Real People

Decorating For Real People
By © LaJoyce Kerns of www.decorate-bedrooms-for-less.com, Fri Dec 9th

I spent a recent weekend curled up with a stack of decoratingmagazines. I read them cover to cover - usually back to front,but that's the way I read most magazines and newspapers. Istudied each photograph and tried to determine the particulardesign concept that was being presented. I looked at the numberand placement of accessories, how and where arrangements ofitems were hung on the walls, choices of color and texture, andflooring selections. Each photo was scrutinized in the minutestdetail. At some point I started to wonder for whom theseabsolutely gorgeous rooms were designed.

Bedside tables held no alarm clocks or clock radios. While therewas usually an abundance of decorative items, there were notissue boxes or eyeglass cases. Dressers displayed beautifullyarranged floral creations and perhaps a cut glass perfume bottleor two, with ornamental stoppers. No jewelry boxes, no lotionbottles, none of the everyday stuff of life. I don't know aboutyou but I want a telephone at the side of my bed. And someplacehandy for the TV remote.

And the bathrooms! Don't even get me started on the bathrooms!Do the users of these bathrooms ever need to replace the toiletpaper or the hand soap? Do they have their hair done weekly(maybe daily?) at beauty- or barber-shops and thus have no needof shampoo and conditioner bottles? Toothbrushes, toothpaste andfloss? The men don't have to shave and the women have no need ofmakeup? Streamlining and organization can only take you so far.Sooner or later you need a place for feminine supplies, roomdeodorizers, and the extra cotton balls and swabs that don't fitinto the pretty little designer containers. And I can't be theonly person who thinks that a plunger should be stored someplacehandy to the location of possible need.

No cords for the lamps, no tangle of wires for the home officecomputer system. One photograph featured an elegant "work space"with a large bouquet of flowers drooping fetchingly over theprinter. I could imagine spent blossoms dropping into the works,and I couldn't imagine how to open the paper tray withoutknocking the vase over. I suppose the person who would work atsuch a desk would have no need of a mouse pad, paper clips, or apile of sticky notes. I wish I could work like that.

I want to know what the rooms in the photographs look like aweek later. Are the same three Granny Smith apples still inperfect position on the glass-topped table? Is the fringe on thecashmere afghan still draped just so over the arm of the rockingchair in the baby's room? Does the kitchen counter look barewithout the tureen of soup and the matching soup bowls? I mean,the soup was eaten, wasn't it? Am I losing my perspective here?

Show me a playroom after the children have been forced to putaway the toys. I'll bet there are no cunning arrangements ofstuffed animals having tea, and the blocks aren't stacked intojust-right pyramids with one block placed in front and a littleto the side. The pillows are all over the

room and the bedspreadis trailing onto the floor. That's real.

I realize that the decorating magazines present rooms andarrangements that are idealized and stylized. They are intendedto give our imaginations a jumping-off point; we are meant toadapt their ideas to our own needs. They do a wonderful job andI will continue to peruse the glossy pages of each publication.Occasionally, however, I'd appreciate a view of a real room,spiffed up for company, perhaps, but real. I want to be able toimagine waking up to the clock radio, to see myself sitting atthe computer and actually getting some work done, to know whereI would store the supply of makeup without which I cannot facethe world. I want to think that I could actually live in theroom. Isn't that the point of the whole exercise? Don't we allwant comfortable homes that suit our life styles, organized andbetter looking, maybe, but still us?

Go take a look at the pictures in a decorating magazine. See ifyou agree with me. I think I'm going to go clean out a couple ofdrawers and straighten a bookcase shelf or two. It won't end uppicture perfect, but it will be real.

About the author:LaJoyce Kerns is the creator of the website:www.decorate-bedrooms-for-less.com. She provides tips, ideas andtechniques on decorating bedrooms for real people. LaJoycebelieves that you can achieve beautiful results without breakingthe budget.