antiques and decorators

A friend gave me some gorgeous magazines to peruse.
The kind of magazines with every page a thick glossy feel and gorgeous colors to get your attention.
My hands caressed the pages as I started to actually read the reasons why this color or that color had been picked for this "English look".
I checked article after article on the homes in Western Carolina.
I had no idea that we have so many interior decorators in this small town.
Truly, this is not Charlotte, not even close to being Asheville.
Are there so many people who do not know how to put a room together?

I am glad that they obviously must have work to be represented in such magazines and contests. Contests for the best room, the best house for the year, the best windows, you name it and they have a contest for it.

I have known interior decorators in my business, they were all diva's.
They would empty half the shop on approval and then return 99 percent of it way past the return date.

Can you imagine a house with 10 rooms to be done and each room has a different decorator. The prize is to be published and free advertisement.

I can't begin to think to see 10 divas plus staff milling around that house.
Trying to see what each one is doing would be called spying but when they come over with a smile and a glass of wine how can you hide that "find" which makes the room.

When I finished two such magazines and perused all the photos I noticed how much everything is changed.
Art: my husband's gorgeous work of trompe l'oeil panels and still lives were not in style in these homes. Decorator "garbage" I call it which you can buy by the ton at Pier I. We had some of that at Steinmart too. I did not see original work on any of the walls. Husband would be starving if he was still alive.

Antiques: My big love. Here and there I saw a table, an accent, a breakfront repainted in white with faux streaks of grey here and there , the background was now covered with chintz, Breakfronts in solid wood can be had at thrift shops for 400 bucks , you redo it and charge your client 1500 for this accent piece. In one cupboard I saw what they called Wedgewood china. It was all white without much decor at all, the idea was to have this all white. The word Wedgwood added class but in this case was not needed.
In other words people now need someone to tell them what to look at and live with the rest of their days. People need gurus in every shape of their life.
Gosh I must have missed so much guidance in my 80 years.
I just followed what I liked and what my soul required in comfort and looks.
If I was still in business I would be starving, well, come to think of it, I thought so in 2001 when I closed up shop, the trend was then visible in the Atlanta Wholesale Market.