Modern/Classic/Cheap or Chic?...Tell me...

[dropinthe]

If you could sum up the "Style" of your house-if you have one-what would it be?
Mine is shabby chic with a few classical wood bits I've bought from second hand shops along the way. I would love to have masses of antique pieces if I could afford them and I think my ideal would a very Homes and Country kind of look with a few modern twists!
Remember I live in a South London "UnLeafy" suburb so an ideal is all it will ever be!



What about you?-What have you got and what would you like ideally?

[dropinthe]

Whats the matter-you ashamed?

[zippy539]

I live in a Victorian tenement and I have absolutely no style whatsoever. The entire flat is a mess of jumbled together bits and pieces plus jam smudged walls and grubby floor boards.

In an ideal world I would live in a hyper modern, glass walled house with huge colourful contemporary wall sized paintings and hardly any furniture or else a huge Edwardian garden flat crammed with french boudoir style furniture... Ah... dream on....

[zippy539]

Mmmm... just realised that if my ideal walls are all glass I'll have no where to hang my wall sized painting....

[Whizzz]

Modern-ish - or Classic Ikea !

[dropinthe]

I don't shop there-know its cheap but never have any money on the odd occasion I do go there-end up buying a £2.00 vase or something for the kitchen! Never furniture.

[Whizzz]

Dropinthe - you saying my house is cheap ?

[dropinthe]

No,but mine is!
The only expensive items I have is the obligatory brown leather "shabby but chic" DFS sofa and a lovely,ornate carved,Indian bookcase I wacked on the ole credit card because I fell in love with it and just had to have it.
Everything else is either second hand,donated,inherited,given blah blah...

[Whizzz]

It's scary how much Ikea we have now I've thought about it :
2 sofas,pouffe & drawer unit in conservatory
Sofa, bookcase & TV unit downstairs
Upstairs - DS bed, 4 sets of drawers,desk, shelf unit & a wardrobe

[dropinthe]

Don't be shy now!

[Whizzz]

That wasn't a boast - quite the opposite, I was just at how much we had accumulated.

[dropinthe]

I wouldn't be boasting with a houseful of Ikea either! lol!

Now,a houseful of Dansk then maybe!

[Passionflower]

Working towards shabby chic in our victorian house. big squashy chesterfields, loads of clutter, wooden floors. Bits that DH picked up in south africa and zimbabwe. Books and toys everywhere. After three years in the house though we're only about a third done. My project this winter is finding some door knobs, curtains and light fittings (still got paper B&Q jobs!)

[dropinthe]

Thats more like it-sounds quite like us!

[moondog]

For reasons of convenience and necessity I live in a new house,although my last was a lovingly restored Georgian townhouse.God,we spent so much time on every detail-dolly switches,wood and ceramic light fittings,slate kitchen,even little signs on the taps that said 'poeth' and 'oer'!

My present lifestyle porn is The French House Catalogue who also have a website I believe (www.thefrenchhouse.net)
I love that whole scene. My sister's place in France is great as it really is what so many trendies in Britain try to do-heavy metal French windows,shutters,rambling apartment,armoires,old beds,intersting old chairs and pictures,pink and black original Art Deco bathroom.

I hate soft furnishings.Everything I have has to be moveable so that I can give it a damn good clean. (How sad is that?)

I've got a lovely huge wooden kitchen table surrounded by funky Air chairs in different colours,second hand armchairs (Edwardian)Iron Bed Company beds and not too much else. Try to keep the clutter to a minimum.
Am carefully adding to my Turkish carpet collection which is fun.

My pride and joy is my little library area on my landing-rugs and cosy chair to drop into to peruse my mammoth collection of cookery books.

[dropinthe]

I was in Turkey recently and had my eye on a tiny rug-think the size of a baby's changing mat-silk,with the most minute details you have ever seen-I spent the whole 2 weeks drooling,no slathering over it only to find out it was a cool £700.00!

O well-I'll have 3 then!

NOT!

[Hulababy]

Our apartment is pretty modern. Have bought a new town house (2 weeks till we move ) and taking all same furniture, plus new ones - again pretty modern styles. Have a range of pieces from cheaper items from places like Ikea to more expensive designer type items.

[paolosgirl]

Oh, cheap. Like me

[moondog]

dropinthe...I live in Turkey (don't know if you knew that.)
Just had four kilims handmade for us in Hakkari (very near Iranian border) which cost uis $100 each. Was worried about ripping someone off,but as my dh works with the workshop owner's nephew,figured it was ok.

Had a whole day in an amazing place near us recently. Never really 'got' the silk carpet thing until then. There were some amazing ones which have a different shimmer/sheen depending on how you look at them. Also some antique Armenian ones which were rich and flowery (not in a naff way,the sort of thing you can imagine an eccentric and very talented Eastern European ballet mistress having in her 'rooms').

I'm working on dh..starting very low level of course....

[dropinthe]

Where are you? Am now V V V !
I was in Kalkan-such a beautiful place!

[moondog]

dropin..don't get too excited.It's Van,right up in the East by Iran and Iraq (where George Bush would have put thousands of American soldiers during the war,had the Turkish government let him.)

Kalkan is lovely.Went there about 12 years ago.Never thought I'd end up living in Turkey though!
Great food,nice people,loads to see,fab carpets...
What's not to like???

[steffee]

My house is modern mixed with classical (read dated). Bright red three-piece, gorgeous curtains that were probably my most expensive buy ever (also red), cream carpet and cream shades on the walls and dark oak furniture (tv cabinet from auction, bookcase from auction, corner unit from... you get my drift). Coffee table I bought from new and is also dark oak. Modern widescreen TV, dvd, video and unsightedly speakers all over the room.

Kitchen is boring, cream and stainless steel.

Bathroom is all white, furniture, tiles, even the towels.

Bedrooms are painted walls and plain pine bedframes and wardobes with themed bedding (for the kids).

Garden... ha ha

[vickiyumyum]

my house is a shambles!

we moved to a bigger house and coveted an old house after having lived in several new ones. so chose one with picture rails, cornicing, fireplaces etcetc, but had loads of wood chip and heavily patterner textured wallpaper with about 50 years worth of paint on it! moved in started to strip the walls, all sorts of huge cracks discovered. think it was only the wall paper and the paint keeping it together!

have now lived here 2 years and have only got a s far as decorating the living room and laying new hard wood flooring throughout downstairs with new carpet up stairs.

so at present have some lovely furniture, nice sofa and chair, lovely oak coffee table, mexican pine dining table, new beds, wardrobes for the kids rooms and antique mahogany wardrobe and drawers in ds2 bedroom (goes perfect with his little tykes blue plastic racing car bed ), but an ancient beige mealmine kitchen, with beige formica worktops, beige flowery tiles and a lovely french navy bathroom suite with lovely pale blue flowery tiles and green walls and as i am a student at present and dh not very much work on at moment (self employed) too skint to do anything about it.

so if i call it shabby chic do you think i will be fooling anyone?