The manly abode
By Christa TerryDecor tends to be a lady’s concern. There’s plenty of frippery and frills out there in furniture shops — florals abound and pastels float in and out of style in a never-ending cycle. Furthermore, a lot of gentlemen are not at all concerned with the outward appearance of their domiciles. All they want is a roof that doesn’t leak and working appliances.
To illustrate my point, let me take you back a few days to Saturday afternoon. The Beard and I were standing in front of a huge display of light fixtures. I was nattering on and on about the relative pros and cons and each, and kept asking him which he preferred. His answer? “You care a lot more about this stuff than I do,” he said. “So why don’t you just pick out the one you think will look best.”
That’s not to say that all dudes don’t care about decor, but I’m willing to bet that a great deal of them have no opinion one way or the other. Maybe they’d care more if they saw a few more masculine interiors like these?
This living room, put together by one Stefan Tyra and featured in The Sydney Morning Herald, was actually crafted with a mix of lavishness and frugality. Two-dollar mirrors hang over accent cushions upholstered in $2000 a meter fabric! How’s that for mixing and matching?
Danish modern decor (this this dining room from Skovby) was omnipresent in my upbringing, being that my European grandparents had a real fondness for it. Much of the furniture I remember from childhood was passed along to me by way of my mother. The Beard and I had a couch set with wood railings that lasted ages before going to pot, and out TV lives to this day on two Danish dressers.
This bedroom from GI Designs is a little on the stark side and definitely brings to mind the heavy metal of the other day, but it does shout “man.”
As usual, the standard disclaimers apply — some gentlemen love frippery and some ladies adore a dark, modern look. Me? I like both, though I do lean a little more toward a girlish, countrified aesthetic…probably because it’s the polar opposite of the decor I grew up around. The Beard doesn’t care much one way or the other what I do to our little cottage, so long as he has some space of his own. Lucky me, right?
March 3rd, 2008 at 1:28 pm
In my family, the guys like strong colors. My son’s choices for his room were golden yellow for the ceiling and forest green for the walls. Sort of gentleman’s club meets National School Bus, but I found some plaid fabric for the curtains and the bed cover that has both colors in it. My husband likes brights also, but he’s willing to go with “toast” or “bisque” or “pecan” for the walls as long as the upholstery and drapes a jumpin’. The only room with a white wall is the downstairs bath – and even there, the tile is black, white and red.
March 3rd, 2008 at 5:00 pm
I actually probably like that first room more than Mr. Twistie would.
I remember when we first moved into this house and started redoing the bedroom, a friend of ours was horrified when she realized I’d used purple trim and had bright fuschia curtains with sylized gold floral stamps on them hanging in the windows. She was certain that would be far too feminine for Mr. Twistie. In fact, when I was wondering whether the curtains were too much, he was the one who said he really loved them. Besides, the gold flower stamp is a near perfect match for the brass inlays on a chest of drawers Mr. Twistie’s mother brought with her when she emigrated from Japan.
My brother, OTOH, would probably find that Danish modern room too fussy. After all, there’s a rug adding some color to the scheme.
One day I will have my Yellow Submarine kitchen…and Mr. Twistie will have his historically accurate Victorian front room. The great thing is, we’ll like each others’ rooms as well as our own. We’re both terribly eclectic people.
March 3rd, 2008 at 7:29 pm
My dad was a bit freaked out when my mother painted the living room of their vacation home a rich golden yellow, but he’s gotten used to it. My sense of decor varies widely with the location. For my own bedroom in the vacation home, I chose lace curtains and a pale pink and yellow quilt dotted with tiny flowers–but it fits with the the house and its rural setting. My renovated 1940s apartment in the city, in contrast to the country cottage, got a black, white and pale wood treatment all over with hints of red in the living room and blue in the bedroom, all clean lines and angles with nary a filigree bedpost or floral print in sight.
My husband, thankfully, mostly shares my taste in decor. He actually likes floral prints a bit more than I do, though–the homes of the women in his family seem to have chintzy curtains everywhere it is possible to put a curtain (including the shower) and he’s comfortable with that. Me, not so much.
March 3rd, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Gay men have such excellent taste, don’t you think?
March 9th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Great scott! $2000/meter?!? Unless it’s woven from hair taken from baby angels’ first haircuts, there is absolutely no way it sould possibly be worth $2000 per stinkin’ meter! Oh! I need to go lay down…
March 11th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
I make it a rule never to trust men who display idols of religions to which they do not belong. They wear too much cologne, too.
March 14th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Raincoaster, in this example, as far as I can tell, we do NOT have an instance of a man displaying an idol of a religion to which he does not belong. He said he bought the statues locally; not that he did, or did not, worship … anything, including Terpsichore,* since the statues displayed are simply dancers, not idols.
Sarah, what’s even scarier, is that I’m pretty sure I recognize the fabrics, just from the description. Handwoven silk velvet, and unlike most of what is sold as “silk velvet” (which is usually 20% silk (base fabric), 80% rayon (pile fabric), both the base fabric and the pile fibers are silk. And did I mention hand-woven? Handweaving velvet is no easy task; it’s woven with a supplementary weft, and then the threads have to be cut. On each row. I don’t have the money, and I might not pick the leopard (unusually, since leopard is one of my favorite colours, but there are some FANTASTIC fabrics on that website), but there were handwoven silk velvets that I would gladly buy, if only the money fairy would come and live with me.
*technically, a muse and not a goddess
March 14th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Wayne’s taste is evident in a discreet arrangement of religious statues and icons; an interest he developed while living and working in Russia. From the article. Unless he’s converted to Russian Orthodox, I’m sticking to my guns. You’re right about the dancer statues, though.
July 7th, 2008 at 12:09 am
Hi all, Stefan here – and yes, that was my home in Sydney. Thank you all for your kind words and to put everyone at ease, the statues I purchased were purely decorative and have no religious significance – my now EX partner who loved his iconography (which is why I grouped them together discreetly because I found the whole thing disturbing and somewhat tasteless myself) kept the apartment – I have moved on to bigger and better things and look forward to decorating purely for ME 🙂
July 7th, 2008 at 9:33 am
Thanks for weighing in, Stefan — I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of your fab designs in the future!
July 10th, 2008 at 4:34 am
Thank you ‘Never the Bride’ once again………. am working on my new home as we speak – and………. does anyone know what’s with the “pillow punching” sentence thing that appears when you place the cursor on the image??? lol hilarious – for those who don’t get it……… it helps when you sit down and the cushion actually moulds against your back (apart from looking attractive) – and for the record……. if there’s one thing I cannot tolerate – cushions/pillows on their angle – what the?????
November 22nd, 2008 at 5:02 pm
I love all of these interiors, but the chrome bed really does it for me. Cushion punching, though…what the hell is up with that?
January 21st, 2010 at 1:54 pm
QJ: “I don’t really even NEED Chuck.”