Pictures like this really don’t need much commentary.

Someone either loves the U.S.A. very much or they just plain like red, white, and blue. I’m all for big gestures, so I can’t criticize this kind of paint job.

But I can say that if you’re going to go all-American on your ‘hood’s ass, please don’t decorate with a couple of these:

Or this:

Or, for the love of all that’s beautiful, an entire set of these:

Happy Fourth!

Modernization was the buzzword — if they indeed had buzzwords — in the pre- and post second world war years. Design, architecture, and urban development bordered on futuristic during the Mid-Century Modern (MCM) period, yet the philosophy incorporated natural shapes, simplicity, and democratic design.

I’m not always a fan of modern design because I think too much of it is what it is because its creators were hoping to attain the right look, I do like MCM homes. When done right, form and function balanced each other out. There’s no bulk for bulk’s sake — spaces and furniture were (and still are) designed to be open, accessible, functional, and pleasant.

Mid-Century Modern Furniture describes the MCM movement thusly:

A time when new technology combined with the sensibilities of the day allowed for a myriad of possibilities. The result: an “honest” design philosophy that has withstood the test of time. Fifty years later, the works of these groundbreaking architects and designers, including George Nelson, Charles and Ray Eames, Mies van der Rohe, Eero Saarinen, Harry Bertoia, Jens Risom, Florence Knoll, Isamu Noguchi, Jean Prouve, and Verner Panton among others, are more popular than ever.

Plus, you can’t beat the colors…oh, how I love the colors!

I hate to admit it, but I’ve always kind of hated textured walls. They drive me a little crazy, partly because my eye wants to see patterns even though there aren’t any actual patterns there. They’re also hard as heck to get really clean. I know this because I have six younger siblings, and I watched them turn my father’s walls into something less than lovely.

On the other hand, adding a little texture to a wall or ceiling is a great way to camouflage voids, dents, dings, and other imperfections if you’re not keen on making actual repairs. Adding texture can be easy and it can be difficult — there’s textured paint, textured wallpaper, stuccos, drywall compounds, and fabrics.

There’s also this. The SS-Seesaw panels from Inhabit are designed to expand in any direction with an automatic pattern repeat. They’re visually interesting and they have an actual pattern? I’d say ‘sign me up’ if I wasn’t so fond of a nice smooth wall. I’m also a touch lazy when it comes right down to it, and slapping on a coat of pretty paint is so easy.

Or maybe it’s because I grew up in a house that had walls that could rip the skin right off of a misplaced elbow?

It’s official — we’ll be spending half of the money we recently received on a patio set big enough (as y’all so rightly suggested) to accommodate guests and putting the other half toward a proper Dutch door.

For the curious among you, Dutch doors were originally used — and still are used — to keep farm animals in farmhouses while keeping wild animals out of farmhouses. They originated in the Netherlands, but it’s not hard to see why they became popular elsewhere! With a Dutch door, you can let light and air in, but toddlers and pets cannot escape.

Plus, they’re tremendously inviting. I’m imagining myself chatting with a neighbor or the mailman over the bottom half of my pretty new door. In this fantasy, I’m also wearing one of my aprons and the ::incredibly clean:: kitchen smells of freshly baked pie, but I’m no domestic goddess, so make of it what you will.