What happens though to those that don't follow their parents style? Thinking of my own, my family would decribe me as an oddity and the dark horse in that area.
Are you your mother's daughter?
My mom has sort of "bunnified" her kitchen with power blue striped wallpaper and dried flower arrangements. Plaid couches and the various "country farts" sort of follow suit throughout the house. It's perfect for her but not for me. My dad and step mom sort of follow the same plan, my step mom often says that things need to be the color of "dirt" on the farm so you can't tell it's dirt when it really is. Their place also involves some plaids, some olive green, some oak furniture sprinkled throughout. If you talk about taking the plaid couch away, my dad breaks out in hives and rolls his lip in a snarl. He loves that damn thing -it's all him.
As a child, I had a family friend who's mom was one of the most glamorous women I knew. She often took my girlfriend and I on shopping excursions with her and I marveled at how she picked sectional couches, chunky legged furniture, wild plants and flowers and things I had never seen in any of the homes I ever was exposed to. Of course, I now know that couch was Roche Bobois and that I was witnessing a great eye for detail.
I feel sort of bad that I can't say that I've learned any of my style from my parents [but did learn great work ethic and values!]... but I did from my friend's parents. All the rest of the things I like now sort of grew out of admiring homes as an adult and figuring out the things that were catching my attention.
So dear readers, what - if any design style have you adopted from your family? and if you've scrapped all of it and started from scratch where did you begin?
photo via Swardrawsvia Flickr
Comments (4)
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I definitely did not get my sense of style from my mom. She has a midwestern (read boring) sense of style. However, she was always cool about letting me do my own thing in my room. I loved purple in grade school, which went pretty well with my princess, faux- Louis 14th furniture. When it came time to replace my bedroom carpet in junior high, I asked for a dramatic navy short-pile and she let me have it. She always says she doen't know where I got my artistic ability and sense of style.
view angelcitydesign's profile
I love thinking about this stuff. My mother is an artist and architect, and has really good taste. She is always designing impossibly chic kitchens or somesuch. I trust her opinion way more than I will ever admit, and I'm still learning all the ways she's influenced me.
My 'rents (and grandparents too - my mom designed their house) have chic houses with lots of Danish modern and mid century stuff, as well as a lot of objects and furniture acquired during travels to India, Japan and other places - including some amazing antiques. Their homes are eclectic, but sleek. My mom is always remodeling, repainting or simply rearranging furniture - she definitely taught me that anything and everything can and should be redone. She also mixes styles with impunity. In the house, an antique Japanese kimono hangs on the wall - a few feet from a homemade tie-dye panel. Yeeeah.
Growing up, we hardly had any "kid" furniture - it was all Scandinavian designs, creaky antique dining chairs, equally creaky Danish beds, antique Oriental rugs, etc.
I will always associate Scandinavian-style stuff with home, and find myself gravitating toward Danish-made furniture - preferably vintage (I like slightly scuffed, lived-in furniture).
At this point in my life, my taste skews sort of feminine and Victorian - very rococo compared to what my parents have (possibly because I am a female living alone). Still, I mix in Danish modern pieces to temper the girliness and make me feel at home.
In summary: my family (especially my mother) is wholly responsible for my addiction to hardwood floors, flokati rugs, DIY, Scandinavian designs, and cool vintage finds. I like to think that good taste runs in our family.
view mmadden's profile
My very best furnishings come from my parents and grandparents, who all love (or loved) Danish modern design. I have an incredible walnut wall unit from my parents and two Risom chairs and a Robsjohn Gibbings tripod table from my grandparents. My parents, of course, are hanging on to their original Aalto dining table and buffet and their Cherner and Wegner chairs. I can't have everything!
So it's really no surprise that my style tends to follow in their footsteps. The biggest difference is that both generations lived with all white walls, in part because my parents are both artists and have a huge collection to fill the space. I have color EVERYWHERE, but am slowly building an art collection myself. My favorite? A 1951 Hundertvasser print given by my grandparents to my father when he opened his own business. How apropos...
view liseah's profile
Thank you so much for mentioning My Marrakesh here! I am feeling super cool being on AT LA:-) You guys are fantastic!
PS When are you coming to Marrakesh?
view Maryam in Marrakesh's profile