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A lot of people (including myself!) hate decorating. Hate picking stuff out.
Don't get me wrong, I love to BE in a nicely-designed space. I can tell when a space is well-designed versus when it is not. And I know what I want my house to look like. But I have no interest in actually putting it together.
So I can see the tendency to fall back on what is in right now. If you go with the current paint color/cabinets/floors, you will end up with something that most people think looks nice, and for most people, that is good enough because they actually don't care that much about it. They just want a pleasant, livable space that has at least a baseline of current style.
Talking to the wife of a jeweler. . . She said over the years her taste has gotten gaudier. She likes the solid in your face jewelry, not the understated stuff. And I read someplace that as we age our color pallet changes to want brighter and bold colors and patterns.
So tastes change and I knew exactly what she was saying. My house is designed by function and not to impress. It's what works for us and for our pets so everyone lives harmoniously. If you want your home to look like a show piece it takes money and frankly I'd rather our money spent elsewhere!
Here is a Victorian interior that I am sure would have been quite stylish in its time. To our modern eyes, it looks hideous. But the Victorians did like excess.
Bad taste differs from generation to generation and between cultures. Perhaps Shaker interiors comes the closest to being in good taste no matter the time. But most of us really do like more comfort than Shaker offers.
For universals, I like simplicity and purity of line. I think if we can find furniture like that, we would probably have things accepted by almost everyone as being in good taste. But everything else is subject to the whims of fashion, IMO.
See I dislike Shaker-styled furniture/cabinetry/etc immensely. Give me excess, give me color, give me curves, give me something that looks alive. Give me something influenced by people who didn't exterminate themselves with celibacy
A lot of this stuff is much deeper than just "what you like" and goes into your philosophy of life
It is deeper than what we like,I like minimalist restrained things,in muted colours only (sage,Ivory)I think that's just my English restraint from my ancestry.But it's important to still have character, so I like some olde world prints and patterns.Sometimes I go into a rustic country cottage mode and that's another aspect of the personality that's more simple and carefree.
Peoples houses should reflect their own character and soul.
There are lots of people who might not like muted tones or minimalist decor, but they would probably never call it "bad taste"... "boring" maybe, but not "bad taste".
I think "bad taste" is reserved for the excessive and unusual.
I find some things to be absolutely outside of my taste. Like heavily patterned granite countertops and glass backsplash tiles. But I know that to many people, these are gorgeous.
Growing up I was surrounded by spare Scandinavian design. I hate this look. But it's the height of chic to many. In fact I recently saw an identical chair to one in our living room selling for thousands at auction.
So I ask...is there such a thing as abjectly bad taste? Or is this always a matter of preference?
I believe that there is. However, not all "good taste" is your taste. I can appreciate taste that I do not prefer to decorate with, or live with - and still know that it's good. It just is not mine.
I also grew up with spare Danish Modern Mid Century Modern design. My parents had that for the first 10 years of my life, when we moved from a MidCentuy Modern home to a traditional center hall colonial.
They changed their style from Scandinavian modern to traditional and included more family and collected antiques.
Both were in good taste. But I preferred - and still prefer - the Mid Century Danish Modern.
Bad Taste seems to have some commonalities that separate it from good taste.
Here is my take -
1. It is overtly flashy. Ostentatious if you will. It tries to hard to look posh and bespeak wealth.
2. It is trite and tacky. It may have signs that tell you that the family is happy. Or too many religious artifacts. A forced "hominess" - eagles, Americana, overly sweet nick nacks, cluttered collections of dolls, Precious Moments, Hummels, snow babies - but lacks humor.
3. It is never eclectic. It abides by rules. Everything is matchy and part of a set.
For example, when my parents decorated in Danish Modern, we had hardwood floors and oriental carpets. Oriental carpets are classic and they combine well with a variety of styles.
4. Eighties decor. No decor in my lifetime exemplifies bad taste more than he decor of the 1980s - cutesy or fake modern wall paper boarders, over stuffed couches with those three balloonish over lapped cushions, brushstroke wall paper, glossy laminate bedroom furniture in black or almond, oak tables with gold trim. Mauve, grey, black, almond. And there was the country - with the country blue ducks, curio cabinets, and sentimental ruffled curtains.
I think there is bad taste and good taste. Good taste need not be YOUR taste. If you have good taste, you will know it when you see it, and bad taste will hurt your eyes.
There are lots of people who might not like muted tones or minimalist decor, but they would probably never call it "bad taste"... "boring" maybe, but not "bad taste".
See I dislike Shaker-styled furniture/cabinetry/etc immensely. Give me excess, give me color, give me curves, give me something that looks alive. Give me something influenced by people who didn't exterminate themselves with celibacy
A lot of this stuff is much deeper than just "what you like" and goes into your philosophy of life
You could certainly use Shaker furniture with as much color as you please.
Are you someone who dislikes subway tile because of the name? Disliking Shaker furniture because of celibacy practice is odd. You were using overstatement, right? OK, i'll chuckle.
I don't think color and excess is wrong. We get to decorate how we want to decorate, and with what we can afford. I do think the lines of good Shaker furniture represents a certain purity of design that I both admire and find slightly boring. I was trying to get at the irreducible nub of good taste. Maybe that is impossible.
And to another post, i want to say that i can definitely imagine a dull room decorated in poor taste. In fact I am sure the I've been in such a room.
Perhaps poor taste is manifested in the tacky. Think of the leg lamp in A Christmas Story. If we could all agree about tackiness, maybe that would be a way of thinking about not good taste.
So I ask...is there such a thing as abjectly bad taste? Or is this always a matter of preference?
Yes, there is such a thing as abjectly bad taste. Judgment on taste is also a matter of preference. The two are not mutually exclusive and do not need to be presented as a false choice between the two.
The relativistic nature of judgments does not negate the existence or utility of good or bad tastes. Many operating principles in our daily lives derive from broad consensus on opinions that are relativistic by nature (e.g. morality, taste), and some principles enjoy so much consensus and importance that they are codified (e.g. prohibition against murder, theft). Taste does not enjoy such broad and essential consensus, nevertheless there is enough consensus that guidelines have been in place (and evolved) throughout civilization and people talk about it.
So yes, there is abjectly bad taste. The better question is whether you care about how others perceive your taste, and whether you are going to do something about it in response to the judgment of others. Do you?
Last edited by hellopity; 07-24-2017 at 04:03 PM..
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