This is my house . . .
Posted: November 24, 2013 Filed under: Decor, Fun Finds, Lurayville | Tags: Color, souvenir plate, this is my house, yellow is a happy color 4 Comments
This is what’s over my kitchen range, smack in the center of the house. Hard to miss, that is.
I found this plate a long time ago. It was already broken and mended by a previous owner who perhaps loved the sentiment as much as I do.
You can find these plates pretty easily. Janeray has one at This Old Row House, too, with a much cuter design than mine. (Post a picture, Jane!) The saying must have been popular in the ’50s and ’60s, maybe as a way to shrug off your sink full of dirty dishes or your piles of unfolded laundry or your neatnik mother-in-law’s raised eyebrows.
For me, though, this plate is a sassy retort to all the lifestyle “experts” out there. Why do they get to say which colors are hot this season, what clothes are in style, what projects are worth making? I don’t know those people and they don’t know me. Why should their opinions carry so much as the weight of a raisin in MY house?
They say pale neutrals are fashionable. I paint my rooms sunny yellow and deep green and hot peach. This is my house, I’ll do as I darn please.
They say the “in” color is emerald. I’m wearing my favorite pale aqua cardigan, with battered jeans and a vintage Vera scarf. This is my house, I’ll do as I darn please.
They say vintage china should be perfect, or don’t bother buying it. I’m totally keeping that broken-and-mended plate over my stove. This is my house, I’ll do as I darn please!
What are you doing at your house to proclaim your independence from other people’s taste?
luray
janeray
dish sisters vintage home and housewares 
Over the weekend Joel painted the den (I call it the Africa room) warm, happy peach on 3 walls. He is painting the 4th wall, around the fireplace a shade of moss green that is also the color on one wall of our living room and dining room. But our bedroom and kitchen are sunny yellow! I love all those colors too. I think having an Africa room is what I do in the face of convention. People think I am a little nuts to keep one room of my house covered in African paintings and souvenirs, but when I get out the elephants and put up the monkey curtains and add a couple of potted palms, this house will finally start to feel more like home.
Phooey on what people think. You’re the people who live in the house! It should make you happy every single time you look at what you’ve created.
I’m sad I can’t show you the plate. I don’t have it anymore!
As far as decorating, I think it’s challenging to decorate outside the trends. Paint is easy–you can get whatever you can imagine. And I paint almost all my furniture. But I had a really hard time finding upholstery and rugs in the colors I wanted. I enjoy decorating the house, so it’s been worth the bother. What I don’t have patience for is clothing. Solid colors, everything mix and match, no brainer dressing is good.
[…] Why? See this post. […]