Have you ever stared at your bedroom dresser and thought “hey dresser, you know what you are missing? Vintage porcelain legs.” Listen. I was going through my “body part” phase. I live in a state of phase, after phase, after phase, and having this blog amplifies it because I see my own house all over the place. Which makes me want to try something different much faster than most of you. It forces me to take risks and be weird, and then I find myself in Pomona splurging on some Art Deco stocking/pantyhose department store display pieces.
When I stumbled upon this image the other day I was like “GAH!!!” It’s certainly cuckoo despite the fact that I like everything in it, including those legs. I actually love those legs.
But the legs weren’t the only thing that really kicked this vignette into crazy town. It was the fact that everything was decorative and nothing was simple in shape, style or color.
So, friends. Here is the lesson: If you want to do crazy (with body parts for instance) you absolutely should. I do all the time. But you need some non-crazy in there as well to round it out and keep it from looking like an insane person lives there. I think this vignette could have really been helped by a simple shaped lamp, a modern jewelry holder (like mine now) or even a really graphic piece of art (although I love that piece, and still own it which is saying a lot about it). Perhaps all these things could have survived if the color palette was more pulled back and sophisticated, but there are a lot of bright, saturated, and risky colors here – hot pinks, mustards, blues, greens, turquoise, etc., which add more contrast to the already busy vignette.
What do you guys think? Are crazy legs truly only for a crazy person or would you have them in your own home? What would you keep and what would you say ‘no thanks’ to? In case you are craving more posts where I critique my own work head on over to, ‘the good bad and the oh my gosh‘, ‘three rooms I forgot I designed’.
*Photos by Laure Joliet
