I'm Thinking…No!

I saw an article in the newspaper recently – it was in the home section – about making your home “timeless”.  Can we do that?  More important, do we want to?  Several television channels and their programming thrive on “make-overs”, and they do it by pointing out what’s wrong with what we have.  Change is good.  Keeping up with the trends is tied to “market value” and resale.  Popcorn ceilings are just wrong.  Oak flooring is a disgrace.  In fact, we’re probably losing money on our home even as I write this, although Donald Trump’s economy and the cost of housing enables it to still be worth more than we paid for it.

Our parents and grandparents bought property largely without much concern for any of its features being “dated”.  I remember my mother’s last major renovation project before we all left home and they moved to an apartment.  Anyone remember those “avocado” kitchen appliances?  Or you could choose “harvest gold” ones instead.  Stainless steel was but a distant dream.  Wall-to-wall carpet, or as it’s called it in the UK, “fitted” carpets, were all the thing.  Until carpet came up short, replaced by hardwood.  Unless you’re at the beach, in which case tile floors rule.  “Dated”, along with “updated”, are words we hear regularly on “House Hunters” and anything else relating to real estate. Laminate countertops in the kitchen were acceptable until granite, marble, and quartz became the standard for anyone in the real estate market.  Kitchen cabinets were natural wood, then white, now colors like navy blue and olive green. People, particularly young people starting out, want to “put their stamp” on it, to “make it their own.”  As I recall, we did it without expressing that idea.  Nobody talked about a “gut job”.  That phrase was reserved for antacid commercials. We slowly and, as money allowed, made changes.  Took out the orange carpeting (a refugee from the ‘70’s) in our first house.  We took down the wallpaper and painted, because it was, quite frankly, very ugly, although, in truth, wallpaper wasn’t fashionable them.  Who even knew about “accent walls”, which, although I’m not completely certain of this, were invented by the Property Brothers.

Taste, as it always has, comes in and out of fashion.  Queen Victoria lent her name and presumably her influence to a period of elaborate ornamentation, both inside and out.  It was also a period of unparalleled clutter.  Yes, if you happened to be a resident of Versailles, there were a number of trinkets scattered about, along with beaucoup furniture and decorative touches.  There were many mirrors on the walls, too, because those French nobles liked to look at themselves often.  One might say, too often.  Styles changed, though.  Just as artistic trends, so too did home designs, home building, and home furnishing.  

We look back at a number of different styles.  Shaker furniture, “prairie” style, “mission” style, Art Deco, all with their distinctive features.  And, ironically, many that are prized today if they’re still around and in fairly reasonable shape.  Folks that specialize in rescuing true period pieces like woodwork, stained glass, clawfoot tubs.  One of the things I like best about the renovations done by Ben and Erin in Mississippi on the show, “Home Town”, is that they rescue and reuse so many materials and make those things beautiful.  “This wood floor came from . . . . . .”  Their clients are always appreciative.  

So, we’re now in a period where, in possession of a true period treasure, we feel a responsibility to preserve it.  That’s a sacred trust if you’re in an authentic craftsman bungalow, but if you dwell in a fifties or sixties ranch, strip it to the studs and start again.  Nothing is worth keeping, and more than likely, the wiring and plumbing are shot too.  Start again, reconfigure, strip the tiles, paint the brick fireplace, or better still, cover it with something else.  Rip up the old carpet, because there could be a beautiful hardwood floor underneath.  Although there seldom is.  You’ll reveal square yards of . . . . plywood underlay.

In another genuflection to irony, any folks moving abroad, again particularly young people, because they seem unconcerned about employment or its opportunities, are often telling their agents that they want something “with character”.  That usually means that they want a “two- bedroom flat” that looks like a suite of rooms at Windsor Castle.  Stone walls, mulled glass, exposed wooden beams that have been holding up the place for four hundred years.  Of course, amongst all that historical grandeur, it also must have lots of closet space, guest quarters for all the visitors that will be making the transatlantic flights to visit regularly, at least two bathrooms because they hate sharing, and a large, American-style kitchen because they love to cook.  They also need a large gathering space because they’ll be entertaining a lot – in a new country.  

Back here in the old US of A, we continue in our “dated”, or as I call it, “timeless” abode.  I like to think of it as a time capsule, where future generations will marvel at the preservation of, well, the 1980’s.  Our design style is best described as “eclectic”.  We subscribe to the notion that “good anything goes with other good anything.”  If it doesn’t, we’ll live with it. We’ve redone the bathrooms, more for utility than striking design.  I painted over the ‘80’s “Euro” kitchen cabinets to a dark gray, more because we like it than an urgent impulse for change.  We’ve repainted to colors we like, only because our predecessor favored dark colors – hunter greens and burgundies.  We’ve replaced appliances as they break down, not because we’ve developed a new “design strategy.”  In truth, we like most of the furniture that we’ve accumulated over the years.  Some wore out and needed to be replaced.  My dear late sister-in-law was what one might call a “compulsive” redecorator.  When she needed a change of color scheme, out went the old furniture along with the wall colors.  We’re the recipients of a lovely living room chair, and the Princess has her perfectly good recliner in Atlanta.  Its only fault was not matching the new navy blue and white décor.  My favorite wing chair was looking a bit tatty a few years back.  It had been recovered a couple of times, and now wears an inexpensive slip cover that does the job.  “Timeless”?  Absolutely.  And the furniture store where we bought it went out of business decades ago, along with the one where we bought the couch.  That same sister-in-law used to tell us that it was “broken down” and needed to be replaced.  What she meant was that we’d had it too long and she was sick of looking at it.  I’ve thought, though, that it matched my contours remarkably well, and it’s still here.

So, where we’re “timeless”, “vintage”, or merely “dated”, and we’ve probably been called all three, the fact is that we’re comfortable.  It’s familiar.  Do we have too much stuff?  More than likely.  Her Ladyship and I have never been accused of being minimalists, and the basement of full of a lot more.  In truth, everything old becomes new again.  When we built a house back in 1993, Herself wanted white kitchen cabinets.  That went out, but now, it’s back again.  Any time a home buyer on House Hunters sees maple or cherry cabinets, they remark that they’re “not the white cabinets I wanted”.  Painted cabinets are showing up a lot, too.  As I said, dark greens and navy blues, or two tone – white on top with an “accent” color below.  They’re beautiful, but will buyers shun them in a decade or two, stating boldly in a disgusted tone, “that’s so 2020’s”?  We put in that house a big jetted bathtub in the master bath.  I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times we actually used it, but now homebuyers everywhere are in awe of them. 

The question, then, in home design, as in everything else, in this.  Can we come up with something that is truly and completely timeless?  I’d say, no.  We can make our surroundings comfortable, pretty, something we enjoy.  But we humans are a restless sort, and like jobs, modes of transportation, food, and politics, we’re after change.  We want something different, and in that process, what we have can become old and stale.  It needs to be replaced with something new, exciting, and will remain that way . . . forever.  Until the next taste or style change comes along.  Then, suddenly, we’ve become “dated.”