Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Shelter


I confess.  I have a porn problem. 

I love looking at beautiful creatures, working their way to an impossibly fantastic fruition.  I can’t turn away.   I huddle in my bed, flipping through magazines, filled with desire.

No, it’s not Pornhub, Tube8 or Fleshbot.

My porn of choice is This Old House Magazine, Pinterest,  Apartment Therapy, and Young House Love. 

I want my life styled and curated: I love charming vignettes, beautifully organized spaces, and “before and after.”  The latter is a huge part of my addiction to shelter porn: I’m convinced that with some paint, molding, and elbow grease, my builder grade colonial will have charm and wit of a deco era house in San Francisco.  I'm a New England girl, it's part of our culture to pursue endless improvement of ourselves and our homes.
Home sweet home.  A year later, the room looks the same.  
  • If I were a little more organized, maybe the rest of my life would not be so chaotic. 
  • If I can only figure out the right paint for my dining room, it would look less messy and more expansive. 
  • If I only scoured Craigslist more diligently, I would find those Wegner chairs for $20 each.
  • I should hand sew Halloween costumes for my kid.
  • I should change my pillows with the season. 

A little porn might spice up your life, but after a while, it’s simply not good for you to ingest mass quantities.  The fantasy is just that. . .not real!  No one, expect maybe Martha and her army of minions, lives in the photo shoot.   Constant projects and tweaks can be exhausting.  Life isn’t all shiny surfaces and instant gratification.  Homes need to mellow over time, and sometime all one needs is a frenzy of cleaning after a period of calm.  The money saving DIY projects ofter consume more time and resources than one realizes, and creates more "stuff."  There is a cost to everything, even self-improvement.

At times, stillness in world full of change is the shelter we need. 


3 comments:

  1. Okay after seeing this post I've decided that when I move int he spring I am hiring you as my decorator and organizer!!!! You are amazing!!!!!

    And yes a little porn is good for the soul ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Amy you are so sweet! you just didn't look carefully to see the crushed Happy Baby O's all over the floor. . .

      Delete
  2. I find that I am constantly moving furniture and rearranging art/photos. I get this from my mother, a New Englander at heart. It makes my husband (a true Texan) crazy. I'm always looking for something else to create/transform. Pinterest has made it even worse for me, though I find comfort in knowing that a non-family member is so similar!

    ReplyDelete