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Home improvements you find tacky
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JackTaylorFan wrote: »That was kinda my point, actually.
Yeah its kinda a catch22 as you said earlier,
its like the law of diminishing returns, space is nice, clutter is not,
Junk seems to expand to fill the space available to accommodate it.0 -
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+1000 *same wavelength goin' on*Mountainsandh wrote: »I get the over-doing a theme Boo, but I actually like some of the crafts/transformation things.
Can be very very kitschy alright, but sometimes, in small doses, I like it. There's something very folk-sy about it. It's like in the area where I live, people exhibit the best quartz rocks they find on top of piers, in the garden, by the front door... it's naive, and lovely imo.
There's a shell cottage in Dungarvan, these places are fascinating I think. People pushing their quirkiness to a point where it's not ridiculous anymore, it's interesting.
http://www.rte.ie/archives/2016/1011/823113-shell-cottage-in-dungarvan/
I knew a man (RIP) whose cottage was unbelievable. It was like he set out to make it as kitsch as possible, except he just thought it was beautiful and interesting.
His garden was full of gnomes and statues, with mad hedges that wrapped around his cottage door. Every time I visited, he proudly turned on the water fountain, you should have seen the glint in his eye. The doors inside the cottage were all "fake wood" decorated, you know the thing you do with a comb sort of implement. His Mum had done every single door like that. She had also painted the old iron fireplaces decorations (the grand garlands of flowers) in gold, over white. He had hundreds (really) of ornaments. He tried to have pairs. The 2 dogs (http://bbandghome.com/images/F61579.jpg), and anything that he thought beautiful, lots of china, crystal, metal, plastic. He had plastic pound shop frames from the 80s with the original display pictures inside, of models with perms. He had little Christmas baubles, the shiny metal ones, all hanging up in rows along the ceiling beams (very low ceiling !). He had a pair of intercoms that someone gave him, he put one on one side of the big open fireplace, and the other one on the other side.
This man was like a magpie.
His cottage was more a museum, than a house you live in, but he loved it and lived in it. He loved people visiting and admiring his work too.
Anyway, of course these are not places you or me could live in, but it's just to illustrate how I like the folk-sy appropriation of anything and everything, magpie style. Within reason The houses and such I like overall are just like you describe. Those that are a reflection of the person, their mind made flesh. Some are my "taste", but more often they're not. Which perversely I like. For me the best homes are someone's personal "Harem of Things"(tm) that reflect who they are and how they think and where they've been. Maybe because that's how I view my surroundings?
Me earlier. The guy on the extreme left with the pointer...
Not so removed from reality..
TBH I revel in clutter. My clutter.Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.
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I don't want to clutter the thread with pics so I have made an album on my Flickr for anyone interested in a dive into tacky-land : Larry's house.
It's only a selection of pics. He had a small upstairs, but he didn't sleep there, he slept downstairs in a little corner in a small bed that was more like a bunk. He had a pile of colourful fancy ties hanging off the back of a door. He worked with the council as a general road hand sort of guy. He lived at home with his Mum for years, and when she passed he just kept on adding to the cottage, as far as I know.
In the little room upstairs, there were ginormous washing powder barrels covered in wall paper, lots of bedspread sets (Indian/Asian style !) still in their wrapping for some, but on display. On a ledge, for some reason, there were pictures of A-Ha and other boy bands !
Wibbs you might enjoy this.
https://flic.kr/s/aHskRAih6J
One thing I noticed in his house, that is guaranteed tackiness, no matter what way you twist it around, is rugs over carpet. Of course, tackier when it's pattern on pattern.0 -
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Mountainsandh wrote: »I don't want to clutter the thread with pics so I have made an album on my Flickr for anyone interested in a dive into tacky-land : Larry's house.
It's only a selection of pics. He had a small upstairs, but he didn't sleep there, he slept downstairs in a little corner in a small bed that was more like a bunk. He had a pile of colourful fancy ties hanging off the back of a door. He worked with the council as a general road hand sort of guy. He lived at home with his Mum for years, and when she passed he just kept on adding to the cottage, as far as I know.
In the little room upstairs, there were ginormous washing powder barrels covered in wall paper, lots of bedspread sets (Indian/Asian style !) still in their wrapping for some, but on display. On a ledge, for some reason, there were pictures of A-Ha and other boy bands !
Wibbs you might enjoy this.
https://flic.kr/s/aHskRAih6J
One thing I noticed in his house, that is guaranteed tackiness, no matter what way you twist it around, is rugs over carpet. Of course, tackier when it's pattern on pattern.
That is awesome.0 -
Mountainsandh wrote: »I don't want to clutter the thread with pics so I have made an album on my Flickr for anyone interested in a dive into tacky-land : Larry's house.
It's only a selection of pics. He had a small upstairs, but he didn't sleep there, he slept downstairs in a little corner in a small bed that was more like a bunk. He had a pile of colourful fancy ties hanging off the back of a door. He worked with the council as a general road hand sort of guy. He lived at home with his Mum for years, and when she passed he just kept on adding to the cottage, as far as I know.
In the little room upstairs, there were ginormous washing powder barrels covered in wall paper, lots of bedspread sets (Indian/Asian style !) still in their wrapping for some, but on display. On a ledge, for some reason, there were pictures of A-Ha and other boy bands !
Wibbs you might enjoy this.
https://flic.kr/s/aHskRAih6J
One thing I noticed in his house, that is guaranteed tackiness, no matter what way you twist it around, is rugs over carpet. Of course, tackier when it's pattern on pattern.
WOW, i love it.:D
Larry had style. May not be everyones style, but he had style.
Seems like not a shyte did he give about interior trends, or grey paints He put up what he loved. Thats the spirit.
The two busts at entrance to front door, is that Elvis or Liberace or who?? 0 -
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Mountainsandh wrote: »OP is going to end up getting a wrap around bed press in powder pink and gold plastic handles, he/she'll feel so liberated !
And hate this thread from that day forward.:D
No thank you 0 -
Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,125 Mod ✭✭✭✭ Join Date:Posts: 59054
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Mountainsandh wrote: »Good question ! I don't know ! Could it be someone like Beethoven ? It would possibly make more sense that it'd be someone war-connected, but it didn't seem to have to make sense to Larry, as long as it came in pairs. I had it in my head it was Napoleon, but it doesn't look like it. I'll check other pics.
edit : Actually I realize too that I stamped Waterford all over it, when really he was possibly in Tipp, hence the colours. We live very very near the border of the 2 counties, not sure what side Larry's was.
Is Larry's house open to visitors? I just noticed the people inside look like they've come specially to have a look
I would love to go, if it is.
It's like the museum of country life in Co.Limerick, but better because it was someone's home and pride and joy.0 -
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Widdershins wrote: »Is Larry's house open to visitors? I just noticed the people inside look like they've come specially to have a look
I would love to go, if it is.
It's like the museum of country life in Co.Limerick, but better because it was someone's home and pride and joy.
No, and it's such a pity.
Larry passed away, I can't remember exactly, maybe 5 or 6 years after that visit. He did go into a home for his own safety and health, just a few months before he passed.
A relative (of his) got the cottage. I haven't been back there since. I think she tried to keep it true to the spirit of Larry, while at the same time clearing everything so she could use it for other things. So it might be structurally pretty much the same, but empty ... not sure.
It's a tough one really, you couldn't expect someone else to live in it the way it was.
The people in it were myself (I was pregnant and due the next day !), Mr M, and my Mum who took the pictures. We knew Larry from the local pub (which is a whole tacky story of its own) and music sessions, and he would very simply invite people who showed an interest to come over and have a look. He knew us well from the pub, we called him Larry, but he would always call me "Mrs M". He'd be like : "Mrs M, come over here have a look at this door, my own mother painted it".
Candie yes, it's fascinating isn't it. He even displayed the irons, even the modern one he would have been using ! And all the little ingenious touches, like scissors and hot water bottle hanging off the wall...0 -
Special Circumstances wrote: »I know someone with such a mortal fear of clutter and knick-knacks that those pictures of Larry's house would bring her out in a rash.
NO YOU DON'T KNOW ME
But Larry's house is so over the top that it's kinda awesome again.
When I first came to Ireland I had to learn about the obsession a lot of people have with carpet flooring. I cannot stand it and I dread it since it's like the dust generator of the century. A lot of people don't bother maintaining them properly... oh god, I get goosebumps just talking about it. If I have my own house one day, they'll be removed, burned, buried and afterwards burned again.
Also these ornamental-floral wall tattoos. Why would you do that?
And don't get me started on dark leather couches (I know I'm walking on thin ice but lemme explain). A couch has to pass one test in my world: the napping test: Once I can nap on it without feeling miserable after it, it's a good couch. Leather couches aren't because every time I wake up on a leather couch I feel clammy and maybe even stick to it. Huge impact on my naptime. Not acceptable!0 -
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that stuff is mad ! Big slats of shiny plastic.
Don't judge, but we used it in an upstairs tiny cubicle of a shower, on the ceiling. Don't know why it had to be that, I think because of the light feature, or in case of leaks or need to access the ceiling or something ?
I kind of like it in that tiny cubicle, on the _slanted_ very low ceiling, it feels very "campervanny", and I'm a campervanner.
But I knew someone who had it all over the walls in their rather large bathroom, that was strange. Very shiny. Maybe that was the reason, that the bathroom was large so it cost less than tiles ?0
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