Friday, May 27, 2011

It could only be worse if taffeta were involved

As a child of the 80s, I recognize a recent resurgence of the elements of my teen culture... Jellies--shoes and bracelets; leggings, which have evolved into a scary thing called "jeggings;" and side ponytails/updos. Those of you who made it through the 80s and came out the other side sans scrunchie may agree that there are some things that should be laid to rest forever. For exclusion from future trends, I present to you the color peach. Here it is on the wall that divides our foyer and dining room:

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^The color peach has me so thoroughly riled up that I find it annoying that it translated rather inoffensively in this photograph.

I'm not sure why peach was so big in the 80s, but oh how it was, and our home is swathed in hues of pallid salmon as evidence. At some point, every single room was peach. I found traces of it under the A/C register in the only non-peach-painted room (which is, thanks to the previous owner's change in taste, now a flat blue that shows every Magic Eraser mark the G Family has made--and with four kids and a bucket of markers, that's a shocking number, people).

Peach + darkness = dingy. In my first post, I mentioned the lack of windows on this house, save for the casements on each side of the front door. This results in a pretty weird aesthetic, first and foremost, and a void of natural light once you get over the initial "Why the hell would someone build a house without windows?" perplexity.

The G Family is a lot of things, but dingy ain't one of them.

In order to create a fresh, crisp entry, I did something I never thought I'd do. I intentionally bought a bucket of white paint. White, like what's in the space below this paragraph:







As a courtesy, I will give us all a moment to mourn the absence of color.

...

Now let's celebrate the clean look of Martha's Tailor's Chalk white, as pictured below, following one coat of primer and two coats of paint.

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[You may notice in the photo above that our wood blinds are installed. Yay! BG did a fantastic job getting them in place. They are Levolor, real wood, Cinnamon finish (Auburn was a might too red, as it turned out).]

Please ignore the missing switch plate in that photograph. I am planning to hit the Home Depot's switch plate aisle pretty hard this afternoon. "Why not reuse the originals?" you may ask. And I answer. Just as any good bridesmaid in the 80s matched her dye-able shoes to her taffeta dress, when the walls of this house were drowned with vomitous pools of anemic apricot, so too were the switch plates.

Chant with me now: DEATH TO PEACH.

8 comments:

  1. That divider wall has exquisite windows! The design is... dare I say it?... a bit art nouveau. The white paint and blinds are beautiful!

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  2. YES, DEATH....Said the girl who wore a peach dress to her prom circa 1988. Oh Yea, I did. And probably had a matching scrunchie too.

    I LOVE white for walls...especially when you have pretty wood blinds to go with it :) I love this blog!

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  3. I was born in the 80's, and I dare say I was peach at some point. I'd ask you to corroborate, but my childhood is a void to you, so take my word for it.

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  4. With all that gorgeous wood, the white is a perfect clean, quiet complement.

    My bedroom was peach and sea green. It was totally tubular.

    But wait, are you telling me I can wear a side ponytail again? Rock on!

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  5. Sarah, side ponies are officially back in! Just ask our teenage neighbor ;) Our little V has taken to wearing them herself, in a full-on stalker salute. She thinks they're "Meagan's Ponytail," but I remind her that Mom wore them first :D

    P.S.--My parents had a peach and sea green bedroom. *vom*

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  6. EB, art nouveau is a big yes for these windows! And they've inspired me to add more botanical touches to the house :)

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  7. Delilah, in a conversation I had with my mom tonight, I remembered that I too wore a peach dress to prom (junior prom). Dear gawd, what were we thinking?! :D

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