Friday, August 15, 2008

White Walls


While the bloggers of The Cut are gratuitously ogling the bulges, guns and abs of the Phelps from all around the world, while Bryanboy is yapping about latex leggings recently seen tightly hugging the barely-there thighs of an Olsen, this upstart is knee deep in white paint. And no, I am not trying to do a Jackson Pollock.

So many words, and so much more names, but do these things and these people really mean anything to me? Not really.

Because somehow, I have managed to cut them off from my life for what seemed like decades, but was really just two days. As I have said, I was knee deep in white paint - painting every square inch of my brand new bedroom. 

And now, it's finished.

What has amazed me though, apart from the discovery that my tears of disappointment seem to dilute oil-based paint, is that achieving white walls is one of the harder things to achieve in interior design. I am of course speaking as an amateur, a charlatan who knows nothing about interior design. 

Being ever so quick in transmuting from confused to Confucius, I realised, from my sparklingly anal white walls and the metaphor that has arisen from it, that simplicity is one of the harder things to achieve.

My walls took four coats of paint in order for them to to fine. And another two to make them fabulous. All in all, I have added a depth of two inches to my walls, and consequently reduced my room in that proportion.

Similarly, simplicity takes a lot of coats to master. It requires considerable precision and restraint. You have to know when to put down that brush, otherwise the walls would be too white - if ever such a thing existed.

And clearly, this drunken fool has not yet mastered the art of writing simply. Why use just one word when you can use ten to beat around the bush with?

Photo Souce: nymag.com

Monday, August 11, 2008

Severe Opulence

It was a considerable challenge to my creativity when I was given a bare, blank canvas of a room, which I could decorate in whichever way I pleased. I was given this liberty not just because I have impeccable taste and humility, but also because this room would be my own.

I say that decorating a room considerably strains one's mind because of the multitude of design concepts that rush into the brain in their millions, leaving one confused and suicidal. Well, perhaps the latter was a wee bit of an understatement. 

I think it would be the easiest thing thing to decorate a room opulently, filling it with everything that one could possibly think of, from favourite picture frames in their thousands, to comfy, fluffy, pillows in their hundreds of millions. That would be staying in your comfort zone. That would be easy. With this upstart of a principle in mind, this upstart decided to go against first impulses and instead go with the direction of fashion - severe opulence. 

This is the phrase that Tim Blanks of Style.com has coined for fall/winter 08-09. Collections such as Balenciaga and my personal favourite, Yves Saint Laurent, have strayed far far away from the blings, rhinestones and ruffles and went back to basics. Inspired, I decided to go minimal with my room. 

That meant white walls. Blindingly, Im-afraid-if-I-touch-it-it-would-stain white walls. Fabulous.

Though it may not be opluent, it definitely is severe. And austere. And Jane Eyre-at Lowood-like.

Non-sense ends here.