Drown wintertime blues in bucket of taupe paint
It must be the cooler winter weather that turns women into nesters. Either that, or I just happen to be surrounded by Midwest versions of Martha Stewart.
Instead of Martha talking about hosting a fresh lobster roast, my cohorts talk about hardy hot dishes ready in a pinch. Instead of organizing rolls of ribbon threaded with genuine gold, my crew worries about how theyÕre going to organize boots and scarves in small entryways.
But it's almost beyond that. The whole principal of home life has changed from what I can tell. YesteryearÕs goal of a clean and efficient home has morphed into the ideal of having a beautifully fashionable home. I don't disagree with that goal.
It's just something about this winter that's gotten my friends' creative juices flowing. It's a trend of home redoing and updating that can largely be blamed on HGTV and the glut of magazines that push fashionable dŽcor. ItÕs "paint everything white" one month and "rustic wood is it" the next.
Sunday afternoon, I visited the beautiful, newly-built home of a co-worker. It looked finished to me, but she's still pondering some finishing touches. Another co-worker has been talking about her painting techniques and trials - and the finished product sounds wonderful. Yet another is talking wainscoting, and a different friend just repainted her basement.
This is far from being a local trend. Watching shows like "Trading Spaces" on TLC could soon replace baseball as the national pastime. (If my source is correct, the program airs weekdays at 3 p.m.; Saturday at 10 a.m. and 7 p.m., and Sundays at 11 a.m.)
Just one "Trading Spaces" search on the Internet gets thousands of hits. There are official and unofficial fan sites, chat groups and information pages dedicated to the program.
For those who don't know, the show is essentially an up-close view of people redecorating a room on a budget, which most can identify with. The show is set up like this: Two homeowners give up one room to a designer. The designer works with the opposite set of homeowners and redesigns the room with help from a carpenter, which both homes have to share.
The best part is that the show pays $1,000 for all the expenses. The worst part is that the homeowners are stuck with what the designer and their neighbors did to the room.
The finished rooms definitely have a "look" to them. The designers typically don't consider the style of the rest of the house and barely pay attention to what their friends suggest they'd like.
People who follow "Trading Spaces" have their favorite designers and track their work. Fans remember success stories and failures. Who could forget the purple harlequin-patterned wall that made homeowners laugh and cry at the same time? I believe it was the same room that had hand molds as mantle decorations and made the man of the house say it looked like Beetle Juice lived there.
I also remember an episode where a homeowner looked at the finished room and walked out of camera range. You couldn't see her, but her whimpers were clearly audible.
It's obvious that I fall into the habit of watching these shows and that I covet room arrangements in magazines. Sharing the acquaintances I do doesn't help either - it's swag this and paint swatch that.
I try to remind myself that some people in Asia sleep seven to a mat so I shouldn't worry about which shade of butter yellow would look best on my walls.
I know that my home will take a lot of work and thought to get just right. But in the meantime, I'm comfortably nested in for the winter and I go to sleep knowing that home is really where the heart is.
Send Sara an e-mail