The current deluge of magazines pushing the religion of consumerism is nauseating. I received a mag recently called The Nest. I did not sign up for it, just a sample copy as a result of being on some list. The mag had nothing but cliches for articles and the pages were littered with ads for home decor and appliances. BLEHK! I tossed it.
Now I do subscribe to Domino and that was a mistake but at a dollar an issue, for one year it's an alright mistake that will be corrected when the renewal comes. I get two other mags as gifts from my mom and sister and they do come in handy for recipes and info. They are not decor mags. Mags that push me to furnish my home with the newest and trendiest...fuck off!
We choose to decorate as we like with what we find where we find it. It's a nice house. No mag has been able to showcase a home like ours with a couple like us, interested and collecting what we do and how to integrate what we own into a form follow function layout for each room. Even if they did, I doubt it would be as cute as what we have already done.
Take for example NEST! They said to take little plastic toothbrushes and display them in a shadow box lined with textured fabric that we then hang on the bathroom wall. WHAT?! That is almost as ridiculous as this line from a Monkees episode: Davy says:
"Why not take little metal bottle tops and nail them to your living room floor. It gives you the impression that you are walking on little metal bottle tops."Now why would you want to go out and buy all you need for that work of shit art when you have a perfectly offbeat relic lingering somewhere in your house or apt that would work. I bet you do and I bet it's hanging in the bathroom right now because it is perfect there and no on needs to confim or validate that for you.
I encourage you to challenge yourself if you are into these mags to put them down and cancel one subscription. This goes for fashion mags as well (Man! Lucky is pushing $500 shirts and the models look like a three year old having fun in Mommy's closet ordered them to put on what they have just for shits and giggles. You can't do better than that?) I can guarantee you will be able to survive, you will come up with your own decor, designs and finds from your own inspirations in your own life and be successful at it. I will even say, your friends and family will marvel at what came out of your own creative mind and do the same at their own abodes or with their own fashionable finds.
This goes for those Trading Spaces shows and HGTV programs as well. How many times do you have to see someone in California plant a garden, put down rocks just so or landscape a 5x5 yard in a way that pleases them and brings them joy before you go out and try the exact same shit on your own yard. It's like OZ, you had that power of design all along. You can do it all by yourself. Now there are those who just don't want to put aesthtics into their lives, they don't watch these shows, read these mags, they don't care...I'm not talking to them. I'm preaching to the the ones who appreciate beauty and have a sense of aesthetics and but feel they don't measure up or can't do it without a model room or feel like what they have done doesn't measure up because it isn't emulated in those mags therefore making them them feel not up to par. Those that have nice abodes yet feel the need to purchase still more and again and again until it's that perfect mix of hip/trend/retro and art. It's already there, I am sure. It's called the Joneses and they shop exclusivey at Crate and Barrel, West Elm....Check out Room Service, Goodwill, estate and garage sales and you'll be on your way to style, cool decor and at the same sticking it to the man and his religion of consumerism. You don't want to keep supporting this monster (corporations), noooooooooo, it's not even decent.
