Here's another home thread. How do you mod/decorate your home? Are you traditional, contemporary, modern? Paint or paper? Neutrals or bold colors? Fabric or leather?

Originally our home was decorated with a "country" look. Very popular in our area. I think tastes change over the years. As I re-decorate, I'm going with a more traditional look. Antiques here and there if the space allows. Colors can't be too bold for me. I like a calm soothing room.

I've always liked wallpaper. I like the colors and think it adds some warmth to a room. I'm not very good at adding accessories, so the wallpaper has done some of my decorating for me. You don't see a lot of wallpaper on HGTV. and I no longer have it in the kitchen or bath. The man who does my painting/papering tells me he still hangs plenty of wall paper. Sometimes folks paint a room, only to call him back to wallpaper it. As I redo a room here or there, I have to decide which way to go.

Paper or paint?

Also, if you are not the decorator, do you care how your spouse decorates? Rick doesn't and could probably not even tell you what color curtains (if any) hang in our bedroom.

 

I've decorated my two condos and previous two houses pretty much the same way. I'm not into wallpaper. I paint the walls antique white, and the doors and trim shell white, because I want to decorate with color (artwork, etc). In the current condo, there was a lot of salmon colored ricepaper wallpaper in the living/dining area and the hall. As an experiment, I had the painters paint over it to keep the texture. It looks wonderful. Ceiling white on the ceilings. And put down neutral carpet (in the condos - wood floors in the houses). I'm also not a fan of window treatments, other than maybe some vertical blinds where necessary - no curtains. I like alot of light to come in.

Traditional furniture - antiques from my aunt's house in NC and antique clocks my dad gave me over the years. Oriental carpets. That's about it.

 

If I modified my car(s) as much as we modify our houses, I'd never have anything to drive around in.

We're currently on our fourth house and nearly finished -- with the inside. The outside is still in the landscaping project stage.

We seem to purchase homes that were built in the '70s and are thus ripe for remodeling or upgrades (or both) and always need new paint and window treatments. I've become rather handy at some obscure things -- pigtailing aluminum wiring up to code, for example.

We go with neutral for everything permanent (walls, floors, window coverings) and with area rugs and artwork for color (the Navajo rug collection we started in Santa Fe is now on a big wall -- it brightens things up considerably).

The single most important thing? A very good stove. I'm delighted to report that newer electrical ones are almost good enough these days. HPH

 

We are a paint kinda family. When the kids moved out our priorities changed. We (Beth) is changing things the way she wants them. This is great until the grandkids start coming then it's back to little plastic things in the electrical outlets!

 

[QUOTE=MsPerky,Apr 7 2006, 03:34 PM]II'm also not a fan of window treatments, other than maybe some vertical blinds where necessary - no curtains. I like alot of light to come in.

 

Mostly paint here too, reminds that this year I plan on re-painting most of the ceilings and a couple of rooms. When we 1st moved into our current place in 1990 I did a lot of work outside like planting shrubs and trees, but the past few years I've been content with just mowing the grass. About 10 years ago we built a family room with bar in our basement but really havn't done much with it since other than decorating for the occasional parties. We've had lots of our furniture for quite sometime, it should be consisered antique any day now.

 

+1 likes wallpaper and I hate it. HOWEVER, we have a lot of wallpaper in various places and paint in others. I love the warmth of wood, so our downstairs rec room has pine panelling which has acquired the patina of 50 years of age and I love it. Most people (especially the kids) hate it, but my house is here for my comfort and since I, +1 and my pets live here, and they don't, I'm keeping it. I prefer the less is more kind of thing, but I love primitive things, so my downstairs with its casement windows (that have NO CURTAINS, BLINDS OR ANYTHING COVERING THEM AT ALL -- also to my taste) is decorated with a leather couch, two comfy loveseats, a chinese rug and two gabbeh rugs with primitive patterns, primitive art objects and books, books, books and more books, a chinese writing desk and my laptop computer. I love it and once again, blah, blah, I live here and its for me . . .
Upstairs we have pastels and light colored things along with cream colored carpet, orientals and once again, hated by my children, but once again . . . I live here etc. The only windows in my house that have miniblinds are the bathrooms and bedrooms. All the other windows are just (hmmmm how shall I say it) just windows with no draperies, window treatments or anything. That's the way I like it. We like contemporary art, so we have some of that in the living room which is all in pastels with cherry chippendale tables with glass inserts because I like glass. My dining room also has a glass table because I like glass. I have a lot of little tschotzkes and I try to amass them in corner cabinets because I hate a lot of stuff just sitting all over the place. I guess my taste is more contemporary with a little traditional splash here and there and an elephant sitting around anywhere there's space for it.

 

We have hand painted murals on walls Our front porch is "under the water"complete with pilings, fish and coral reefs. Our back sunning area has a two sided view from an old castle looking at the volcano on Monsurat before it blew. In our great room, all the window and bookcase and bar trim is done in custom bamboo.

You mean stuff like that?

fltsfshr

 

I like contemporary and Martha likes updated country. Paint. Bold or white.

Fabric. I only wear my leather undies on special occasions.

 

I like wood, the more wooden surfaces the better. I have redone a couple of older houses, sometimes stripping the old wall paper off the shiplap walls and ceilings and refinishing them. I sometimes look for old baseboard trim and other used wood from salvage companies.

Chris likes contemporary. She likes to change the paint colors every few years to stay current. She and her buds go open house lurking on Sunday afternoons, looking for ideas... You can image how much I have to say nowadays about the mods in our house!

My research for years has been with a primitive Amerindian tribe in Mexico. So I do have many items from that culture throughout the house and especially in the Colorado house where there is also lots of wood all around.