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I used to prefer the "real deal" and "better quality" and tried for a while to achieve it as best I could, within budgetary constraints. However, I found over time my tastes change and I was never able to recoup nearly what I paid for things once they were no longer brand new. It was painful to sell pricey, high quality furnishings for pennies on the dollar, simply because I wanted a change or they didn't fit into a subsequent home, (like our original bedroom set, which was too large for our next master bedroom). I also found over time that while I can afford more, I've become a bit more frugal.
I no longer consider things made well enough to pass down to future generations, (since I didn't wind up keeping those things anyway), and buy what I consider "disposable items". I wouldn't spend more than $1500 tops on a sofa, for example, so when I tire of it in a decade or so, I can donate it without guilt and simply buy something else I want instead. Also, we're on our 5th and probably last house. Each house has a different feel to me. Things which worked perfectly in one space do not necessarily work well in another.
The bottom line is I decorate with what makes me happy. When that no longer does it for me, I just replace what I want and will generally change colors and style completely then. Fortunately, DH doesn't care what I do in the house, as long as he has a comfortable bed to sleep on and it doesn't add to his honey-do list.
I do buy quality and keep it forever. I have couches and chairs that I have had reupholstered many times because I bought classic styles that will always work - I never tire of the style but sometimes tire of the fabric. We have been able to make these furniture pieces work wherever we have lived. Good furniture will last a lifetime. The problem of course is being able to afford good furniture to begin with....I've bought a few pieces when I had money and over time have acquired enough to furnish a large house.
I find changing accessories and paint can alter the entire look of a room without chaning out the furniture - a new area rug, pillows, different artwork, etc. I tend to choose things I love and keep them forever. I have lots of antique tables, chests, and sideboards that I use for multiple purposes throughout the house....I have an old dining room server in my bedroom that looks very similar to a tall dressing table and would fit perfectly in almost any room in the house. I mix antiques with newer things and it all seems to work and gives me that eclectic style that I love.
I'll bet nobody here has a fake fireplace, like I do! It is just a mantle with a decorative metal thingie where the fire would be. My 1972 house has never had a chimney or real fireplace, and it was here when I bought the house.
I kind of hate it, but didn't remove it because I was a little worried about repairing whatever I might see behind it, once it is removed, and had plenty of other projects with higher priority. Then I got used to it, put pretty sculptures on the mantle, and forgot about it.
Sure is the weirdest fake decor item I have ever had.
Also I have to admit that even though I hate it and made fun of it for years, I am now using only Corelleware. It is light, making it easier to wash them, and it doesn't break easily. Being older and clumsy, it makes sense for me.
Like others here, I have my share of posters instead of paintings because I can't afford a genuine masterpiece. The only real oil paintings I have were done by local artists and were under $150 (mostly under $100). I love searching for the one in a million that I love among all the horrid cheap paintings that are available. In a sense, I enjoy the search more than I would enjoy buying a museum quality piece if I were wealthy. Paying a lot for artwork would be too easy and would take the fun out of it!
For example prints vs real paintings, or plastic vs glass, veneer vs solid hardwood, ect.
Does it make a difference to you?
Is it silly or mabye even a bit "snooty" to insist on the "real deal"... or is it better to go "fake" for price or even better damage control with kids or pets running around?
Everyone has a different opinion. Personally, if it isn't 'real', I would rather have nothing. A few really 'nice' things is better than a house full of trash. It is not 'snooty', it is an appreciation of high quality. A polypropylene rug from Home Depot is not a fine Persian silk rug. It isn't, and will never be. Laminate flooring is a picture of wood. Crown molding should be made of plaster. Raised-panel wood should be exactly that. Vinyl siding is just a type pf plastic. Fine furniture is, well, fine. Like we used to say in engineering 'it is the appearance of rigor', about questionable engineers.
An appreciation for nice things (like black walnut and mahogany antiques), which are more visually appealing than formica-covered particle-board Ikea stuff (IMHO), and all of them cost about the same, if you are good at picking.
We rented a house in Tennessee that had a fake Southwestern/adobe style fireplace in the carport that had been converted into the dining room. It was twice the size of the townhouse we had been renting for not that much more money, but dang, it had a weird layout.
When I was a kid, my parents had a fake fireplace in our house! That post just brought it back to me. It was an ordinary wooden mantel with sideposts, painted to match all the woodwork in the house. But it had this fake log-thing in it with a light inside with a metal thing that would spin in front of the light bulb to mimic the flickering of flames. Probably the height of 1970s high tech, in our 1920s house.
I remember my parents trying to explain how Santa Claus will still be able to get into the house...
Last edited by Tracysherm; 06-18-2012 at 09:22 AM..
When I was a kid, my parent had a fake fireplace in our house! That post just brought it back to me. It was an ordinary wooden mantel with sideposts, painted to match all the woodwork in the house. But it had this fake log-thing in it with a light inside with a metal thing that would spin in front of the light bulb to mimic the flickering of flames. Probably the height of 1970s high tech, in our 1920s house.
No doubt invented by, or inspired by, the aluminum Christmas tree with a rotating four-color wheel.
No doubt invented by, or inspired by, the aluminum Christmas tree with a rotating four-color wheel.
Oh geez... does THAT bring back memories... The tinsel Christmas tree with the color wheel... I was just a little kid then... the color wheel was neat, but the tinsel tree was a little bit (well, very) tacky.
I remember going to see a house in a nearby town that had an absolutely ridiculous number of Christmas tree lights outside (as in thousands), ornaments, outside lighted figures, etc.... He needed 400A service to run it all... The neighbors complained, as there was a constant line of cars coming down the street at night to gawk at it... but the First Amendment held, and they could do nothing about it. As usual, I digress, and back to our regularly scheduled topic.
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the Fake Fireplace!!!
