Wednesday, January 15, 2014

more and less for 2014

I want to see more:



{white walls} I used to feel like white walls meant a naked boring undone space (or even worse, I felt like whoever lived there was too lazy to bother), but now the idea of clean white walls has really grown on me. They offer the perfect backdrop for any colour of furniture, textile, or artwork imaginable and allow you to change the look of your space instantly just by changing out throw pillows (for example). For the first time in my life, I'm actually rather pleased to be living in an all white apartment with an all white kitchen (especially since the white walls really reflect what little light we get!).


{geometrics} Obviously, I'm still in love with anything faceted or geometric. They're so clean and natural looking and they really fit into any space or type of decor.


{grey-based pink} This is a personal choice since I know Pantone's colour of the year was decidedly... bolder. I'm just overwhelmingly in love with this colour. I want it to be in the textiles in our apartment in large and small doses (with grey, white, and black mixed in, of course).


{copper} I like how copper isn't brass (this is still too old fashioned looking for me) and it isn't clinical stainless steel. The warm pinky hue works with pretty much everything.


{furniture transformations} Before and afters, hacks of IKEA stuff, or thrift store junk that goes from blah to stunning will always be a welcome sight. You may not do it exactly as you see in inspirational or diy tutorials (which is sort of the point, I think), but every example gives you a new way of looking at a piece you may not have seen otherwise. I also love when transformations are easy on the pocketbook.

I want to see less:

{art collage walls} Along the lines of clean white walls, I want to see less diys and inspirational posts about collaging stuff (and I'm talking about massive hoards of art taking up half or all of a wall). Having a clutter of artwork on the wall has been done to death and it's starting to look very tired and dated. This year, pick one or two special pieces to showcase (at the very least, keep your collage to 3-5 pieces) and spend less time meticulously arranging oodles of artwork on the floor.

{piñatas} I swear if I have to see one more piñata tutorial I will scream. Don't get me wrong, most of these piñatas are really pretty and amazingly well done, but the whole concept of "I spent three days making this amazingly perfect and pretty piñata just for you to whack" really kills me. (Ditto for piñata food items, too.)

{photo booth backdrops} I don't know who's having all the parties to necessitate the photo booth backdrop tutorial a week, but it's certainly not me. I don't really need to see another example of how polka dots (or anything else for that matter) were added to a canvas or backboard, and I extra don't need to see examples of the photos that were taken (person in front of polka dots. That completely matched my expectations).

{instagram anything outside of instagram: photo walls, magnets, marshmallows, etc.} I know, we all love Instagram (me included), but they're really just tiny squared pictures. There's nothing super special or new about them. And who really wants to eat their photos, anyway? So let's just keep Instagramming to the online world and leave everything else alone.

{garlands} I liked these, too, the first couple times I saw them, but last year (and probably halfway out of the year before), I just kept hoping the posts on these would end. We really don't need another tutorial on how to string things in a straight line. Pick a thing, put it on a string. There. I diy'd all the garland tutorials for you this year. So next time you think, "Hey, how do I make a garland out of these pompoms?" You should just remind yourself that you CAN do it without reading a thousand blog posts on it. You are capable and smart enough to thread things on a string without detailed instructions, despite what the crafting community continues to tell you.

{inspirational quotes} Please please no more quotes! I liked the few well-done ones when they first came out but now they're everywhere. I can't go anywhere on the internet without stumbling on another inspirational quote poster or picture or wall sticker or suggestion to follow the wise words of such and such inspirational quote. Now my eyes just glaze over when I see them, and I don't even read them anymore. The inspiration is gone and in its place is apathy.

Those have been my likes and gripes for the last year (and beyond). Do you have anything you'd like to add? Is there any particular craft or diy that you'd like to see more or less of in 2014?

No comments:

Post a Comment