Over on Re-Nest, our sister site that puts the focus on making environmentally conscious choices for your home, we spotlit furniture designer Nightwood, whose furniture is "reincarnated" from old wood. Browsing their website we fell in love with the setting in which the furniture is shown, especially the imperfect paint job on the wall...
A wavy brown line forms a chair rail dividing a blue lower half from a cream top half. Yes, it's a look that can only work in certain homes but it's a reminder to take a second look. Here, a paint job that could happen in any home while testing paint colours becomes the final look. A ladder leaning casually against the wall holds pieces of fabric: are they on display or drying after being dyed in the bathtub? The furniture placement is off center as is the art (some of the pieces are not even framed), nothing is symmetrical and yet, somehow, it all works (of course, starting with a home with great bones helps!). Is there something in your home that's off? Perhaps, instead of fixing it, it's time to embrace it wholeheartedly. Go for broke and consider breaking the rules. Be bold and embrace imperfection.
What do you think of this look?
[image: Nightwood]
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If that's a look, then my house is complete.
Embracing imperfection is one thing. Giving up halfway through is another. This looks to me more like the latter.
Not a fan. I could not live there with so many "unfinished" projects all around me.
Definitely not a look for me. But hey, if you love something . . . go for it!
I just don't see the appeal...
isn't this called shabby chic?
I think it would work better if the incomplete paint were limited to one wall, almost as if that wall were a giant canvas for an abstract.
This is just a lame excuse for not finishing a project....not cultivating an unfinished look.
I think, to be effective, it needs to be MORE imperfect. It does sorta look just unfinished, and not as purposeful.
no, that's just "shabby".
that couch looks kind of cool...
but the walls make it seem like you live on a job site.
Joan A: That's hysterical!!! So much so I forgot what the heck I was going to write. Pity. It was damn clever, although the simple "goddamn that's hideous!" is perfectly appropriate.
This really does not work for me.
not my style but I think it's pulled off well here.
In the words of Design Star, "this could have been done by a gradeschooler".
Oh, man. I've got enough unfinished projects taunting me at home as it is. Those walls would haunt me to the point where I could never relax.
i actually really like it! i think it totally works in this setup. i don't think it's something to try and "recreate" or anything, but it looks cool here.
i think i would like it if only one or a select few aspects were "unfinished"... that would make it look more like a conscious design choice, and less like laziness.
Looks like the London squat I lived in back in the 80s. If the floors were beautifully polished, the paint on the wall above the band was well painted and the plant looked healthy I think this would work better. As is, it looks like an unloved, lifeless room.
Loser.
I can understand how this appeals to some people, but it's not ever anything I'd strive for. It's more like what I get on the way to striving for something else.
What a mess.
No. Please, no.
And are those two different shades of white on the top part? NO.
I try to be open-minded, I really really do, but I can't get behind this. (But I do agree that if the rest of the room were more polished, it might work.)
This isn't "unfinished." It's a self-conscious pose at being non-bourgeois, sort of like $500 ripped jeans. Pretentious.
"It burns! It burns us!" I am glad I am not the only one who feels uncomfortable at the site of those walls.
VCO-free, at least. I hope.
It reminds me of my student dorm room. I just did not see the "imperfections" back then, I did not pay attention. It was so much going on in our young souls, so much conversation, so much thoughts, the surroundings did not matter much and somehow even played the role of "prefect" background for all the inner happenings. Night long existential conversation or solving a stubborn math problem (what a joy it was to finally win the battle)..., the ugly color of the walls just contrasted the beauty of the feelings. The imperfection of the look of the room was not created, it was not smooth and romantic, it was pure and real, real life.
Thank you for the reminder.
I have some paint that is torn off in my room from when I was younger and used to tape posters all over the place. Although at some point I'll fix them, for now they just remind me of how much I've grown and changed. Back then I didn't think nor care about whether the tape was going to mess up the paint on my walls. It's an imperfection that captures growing up.
This gives styling a bad name. You can claim 'shabby chic' and 'lovely imperfections' all you want, but everyone knows the emperor has no clothes.
Bleh.
as lisa (montreal) says it's just too contrived & self conscious. pseudo artsy & pseudo bohemian.
this looks like the third world.
i think this would look better not half way up a wall but would look more finished and "on purpose" if just the edges of the wall were left undone, creating a rough looking square.
Are you kidding? It looks like someone interrupted a major house cleaning and redoing and will be back in a minute to continue (and I hope they will).
I like it! Not for my own home, of course, but somewhere else... like maybe in a furniture showroom where they were showing off "reincarnated" wooden furniture :)
Actually I really do like the walls. It could be love if there weren't the two colors of white.
this would drive me crazy. i'd feel like i was living in the projects downtown.