The house I grew up in was a ranch style bungalow that was decked out in Danish modern teak furniture, wall to wall shag carpeting, all green, gold, and orange. My mother abhorred antiques and the colour blue. So in my early adult years, my rebel decor style was antique chic…an eclectic mish-mash of furniture found in dumpsters and junk shops. If I didn’t paint a wall blue, I painted it purple. It wasn’t until this house I’m in now that I actually gave thought, planning, and a decent budget to my decor.
Funnily, the junk shops on Queen Street East are now high style “antique” stores that sell all that Danish teak furniture I spat up on as a child. My house is from the 1930s and there are some deco elements in the rooms, rounded corners and original textured wallpaper. The living room and kitchen are all open concept. I found original 1970s wallpaper from Germany on line and I used it as colour inspiration, green gold like my childhood kitchen! I even put in a shag rug inlay in the living room that matches up with the rounded corners of the ceiling.
My kitchen cupboards have a smooth teak look and an orange tile counter top. I kept a couple of my old antique hutches and they seem to stand in well with my 1970s revival theme. I did paint one wall blue, a warm aqua shade because I do think blue can be cold and detached. I like to mix it up, the new and the old, there are elements of each era that mix in harmoniously. The shag rug inlay was a fun idea for about a week until things started getting embedded in it and the dog thinks it’s grass….some things are best left in the past!
Kristin is one of the top real estate agents in the Beach area of Toronto. Check out My Toronto Eh! for more musings.
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[…] slap on is alright by me. The same must be true about decorating style. Last week, Diana at Flohaus asked me to write a piece for her blog about my decorating style. She actually came over to […]