agrarian chic

The latest issue of Vogue Living Australia proclaimed that  "farmers will become the new elite."  My knee jerk reaction was adverse, which is a sure fire sign that a trend is-a-comin (oh, yes, all you Wearstler Bravura Modernism haters, mark my words, you will love it soon enough).  I also just think that I didn't like the word elite.  Not to sound like a jerk. Once I thought about it, I realized, that, yes, of course!  Farming and all things rural are about to be SO HOT.   Here's my list of why it's about to rule with an intermittent slideshow.  Enjoy:

1.  I hate the thought of it.  A trend is never born from something you live indifferent to for years then suddenly MUST HAVE ALL THE TIME.  No, a trend is generally something that you've hated for a while but are suddenly able to see in a new light.  One extreme begets another.

(scanned from vogue living australia)

2.  We've been chasing around all things tribal and ethnic for the last 4 years, as much as I hate to see this day come, it just may be time to move on.  We need the exact opposite (another trend pre-req) you can't get further away from tribal beading then with a good old fashioned milk-maid icon.

Farm, by Studio Job

3.  Part of what we loved about the tribal / ethnic thing was the handmade nature of the trend, with the economy in shambles, the environment going to hell in a hand-basket and an increased awareness of our food's history, the idea of sourcing your own food / clothing / furniture is only going to become more desirable.  Voila: farming is la perfect next big thing.  

City Farm by Etsy user Soop

4. One word:  Grunge.  You know it, I know it, we all knew it 15 years ago.  Grunge has died, Grunge has risen, Grunge will come again.  Those plaids will fall in line with the whole farm thing all too well.  And you know what the grunge kids love?  matching.

various designers from NY fashion week fall '08

5.  No one can afford to travel anymore, we need to make staying home and driving biking through the countryside look cool, or, even better: ironic.

Indigo Farm Pop Up Shop at Fred Segal Man in Santa Monica

6.  I really can't wait to see an over-reaching hipster in overalls.  

tattooed pig at Artfarm

7.  Do you see how many of these companies even use farm in their name or for their line?  I guess everyone is sick of studio and salon.  I'm down with that.  

The Farm Life Display by Veuve Cliequot at Maison et Objet

8.  All these dang flags that keep popping up everywhere are just adding fuel to the barn fire:

Paul Costello Photography

9.  Do you see how smug and excited people get when they've brought their own bags to the grocery store and they spot some looser with plastic?  Now, imagine that person gets to shop green at EVERY KIND OF STORE.  Green is here to stay.  

(don't get me wrong, I think it's a good thing, but I can live without the condescension)

Now, every trend has it's limits and I'm certainly not suggesting that we run buck wild through the pastures buying up every wooden goose in a bonnet we can get our hands on.  May God strike me down if I ever so much as contemplate a country kitchen motif.  Alls I'm sayin is, you may want to buy a flannel and toss a couple of milk jugs up on your window sill.

Can't See the Forest For the Trees

Sorry for the late post this morning, but I'm a little tired and under the weather from some of my weekend adventures, one of which involved a first foray into the world of wallpaper. Yes, my Cole and Son Trees wallpaper finally arrived from Merry Old England, and Hunny Bunny and I wasted little time in slapping it up on the wall. Which is kind of scary, honestly, when you're dealing with a $100 roll of paper, and, uh, you don't really know what you're doing. Ok, I've assisted my domestic diva of a mother with wallpapering a time or two, but this wallpaper is abnormal.

Here's a blurry picture of Hunny Bunny wrestling with wrapping the paper around a corner in the dorrway. If you've ever hung tradtional vinyl paper before, you know that you usually paste the paper, book the paper, hang it, then paste the top again. But this paper is super duper stiff, and you paste the wall instead of the paper, which is kind of awesome, but also kind of painful. It's really hard to keep the paste from touching the top of the paper, and it's hard to get the paper into corners because it's not very flexible.

The new breed of nonwoven papers are supposedly removable in one piece, and that was definitely a deciding factor in my choice of papers. I don't think I'll be pulling it off the wall anytime soon because it was a lot of work, and also because the band aid beige wall underneath is nauseating.

Drill, baby, drill! Light fixtures, that is. I have two sconces wired into the wall, and it was kind of heartbreaking to cut into the paper and screw them in. Actually, I couldn't watch at all. It looked like some kind of creepy surgical procedure.

Sconces are implanted installed. Don't worry. I already have 800 pairs of better ones that I'm watching in Ebay. What I really want is something like this, though:

All these beauties are from Circa Lighting, and if I had $500 burning a hole in my pocket, I'd already have a pair ordered for the hall. Alas, I am agonizing about spending $50 for a pair. The real world is crappy.

Anyway, here's a bad picture of the finished hall:

(Sorry about the lighting... no natural light in the hallway, and I'm too lazy to drag out my light kit. And, no, my bathroom is not actually poo brown). All things considered, I like the paper a lot. I know, I KNOW. It's so overused. But it's nice and quiet, and in real life it feels very naturalistic, with quite a bit of depth.

So, I dragged all the stuff I used to have in the hall back into their respective places.

Hunny Bunny and Karly hate it. "It's too much stuff... it's covering up the trees... blah, blah, blah." In my weakened state, I have to admit that I'm beginning to agree. I hate it when they're right. Or maybe they are just objecting to my cheesy foo dog?

I did try restyling, though, because I have a stupid attachment to that display case. Don't ask me why.

Everyone likes mannequin arms, right? Sigh. Oh, and I forgot to duck when I took that picture...

Wish I could put my sexy Milo Baughman chair there, but it's too darn deep. Or my hallway is too darn narrow. Gosh darn it, doggone it, you betcha it sucks.

Ok, how about this?

This is just a wee art deco mirror top table. I guess I could drop the mirror down lower and paint the table...

Are you sick of looking at bad pictures of my hallway yet? Only one more to go, because I'm running out of small furniture pieces.

The mirror is a no go here. I could maybe hang some spiffy artwork? Something VERY simple and graphic?

Help, people. I don't feel well, I'm tired of moving furniture around, I'm indecisive and I can't let Karly and Hunny Bunny be the only bosses of me. You do want to get in on the action, right? Here's your chance. Tell little Erin what to do.

End of Weekend Bonus: Fix Up Look Sharpie

I think we may be developing an affinity for decor developed with sharpies.  Who knew? You all may harken back to the luxurious sharpie Lamborghini we posted a couple of months ago and are still very much drooling over.  Now we have a second sharpie spotting that we just have to show you (if we get a third it will officially be a trend).  My brother sent me this link last week and, despite the icky furniture, this room is pretty awesome:  

Charlie Kratzer of Kentucky covered every square inch of wall space in his basement with his own sharpie art.  For $10 worth of marker, Kratzer depicts

Georges Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. There is Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Winston Churchill, and the Cornell Law School, of which Kratzer is an alumnus. There is Kratzer's dad. There is the harlequin pattern — alluded to in culinary culture today by the Panera bread bag — and a fake fireplace facing a real one.

There are both The Walrus and the Carpenter (from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There), and William Shakespeare. The Marx Brothers peer around a corner. A flip-top garbage can is transformed via marker art into Star Wars'plucky little beeper R2D2.

For the full story, check out the  Lexington Herald Leader  

Oh, and,  P.S. I'm sorry, but that's probably my very favorite post title eva