"A sumptuously styled bedroom on any budget," you say, Canada's Style At Home (July 2009)? I would love to have a sumptuously styled bedroom! And yes, it is a lovely room. Let's see - the High End Room has:
1. A rather lovely bed and at $2799 it had BETTER be lovely.
2. $280 a roll wallpaper. REALLY?
3. Wee, adorable silk pillows that cost $145. Each. Perhaps they sing you gentle songs as you fall asleep with a big chunk of money clutched in your fist.
4. A chandelier that costs $1800. Well, it IS pretty.
.... and more crap, including $300 fitted sheets and an $8000 rug, with a final tally of...
$20,398.
But it is a VERY pretty bedroom. Just lovely. Take heart, though, my fellow non-wealthy people who comprise most of Canada! We have been promised an equally lovely bedroom at any budget! Are you ready to hear about our inexpensive, money saving options? Here we go!
1. A rather lovely bed at $2099. Well, it DID save me $700.
2. Pillowcases that cost $91 EACH. BARGAIN!
3. A piece of $540 art, since nothing says "I am on a tight budget" like spending half a grand on art for one's bedroom, SURE.
4. A few $200 silk scarves tossed casually around.
And oh, let us not forget every penny pincher's friend,
5. The $995 chandelier. For one's BEDROOM.
And the grand total - are you ready to hear this frugal, For-Any-Budget amount? - is $6714. For a bed (but not a mattress), bedding, lights and a nightstand.
And yes, $6714 is quite a lot less then $20,000. Certainly. But doesn't it suggest that someone is slightly out of touch with current economic realities to say that a nearly $7000 budget for a bedroom is within everyone's grasp? Because we have a weekly home decor budget of about $15. We bought some curtains the other day and they cost nearly $100 for both windows and we felt like we'd foolishly tossed our money away like giddy, drunken sailors. AND WE HAVE A MIDDLE CLASS INCOME. WTF, interior designers?
I mean, COME ON. If you can spend $6714 on a few bedroom pieces without wincing or going into significant debt, you're not middle class - you're rich. Or at least well-off. And I certainly don't begrudge you the nice bedroom - no, and I'd also like to be your friend - but let's not pretend that all of us have that kind of money lying around, or that the second option listed is in any way the budget option. It's still for well-off people only, REALLY.
I got the magazine (my mom ordered it for me for free from a cereal box promotion) out of my mailbox today with a little lift of my heart. Won't this be pleasant to read after I clean my house? I thought, cheerfully and sat down with it as planned... and realized after flipping through it that I was really quite depressed. All of those rich people and their pretty lives! And for only $6714 we can join their club - or live lives of grim, unrelieved ugliness, I guess.
:(
You know what this reminds me of? This reminds me of right before the French Revolution, and a queen so clueless that when told her subjects couldn't afford bread, innocently suggested that instead they eat (so the story, which is almost certainly untrue, goes) cake. There's a monumental failure at a certain level of society to realize how hard things are at almost all other levels, a failure to see that for most people, a thousand dollars for a bedroom chandelier might as well be a million and that their industry will almost certainly be affected by this unless they start making suggestions that are for people with realistic budgets. Think it's gonna happen? Neither do I.
Friday, May 22, 2009
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51 comments:
I don't think we even have $15/week to spend on interior decorating. Unless the new cleaner I bought for potty training accidents counts.
Oooh. This reminds me: i need to save that box of Cheerios -- I want to use my coupon, too!
This reminds me of the US election when John McCain commented that of himself, Biden and Obama only Palin was middle class and so she could better understand the struggles of the average American. Small glitch: Palin and her husband's combined income: $160,000 per year! WTF?
I hate all design magazine/shows (other than This Old House). They fail to acknowledge that REAL people make "design" decisions based on the placement of electrical sockets and where the cable feed enters the house. Sorry, Lynda Reeves, having my tv over in the corner might eff up my room's balance and flow, but I'd rather that then risk the kids tripping all over the cords!
The word of the day: reminds!
Great points! I think the same thing whenever I read Elle Decor (still am not sure why I get it each month?)
I also think the rooms are completely unliveable and I'll never be able to "edit, edit, edit" my home enough to conform to thier ideals.
I don't know why (I guess the idea of excess) but this reminds me of why I hate Vegas. There is just so much. SO MUCH.
We usually go with Paul once a year b/c he has to go for work and it means the kids don't have to go 11 days without seeing him (and I don't have to 11 days alone with them). One of the last trips we went to a buffet and I just felt ill. Hundreds of pounds of food that doesn't get eaten. Blech.
I did find out later that they sell the food to pig farmers or something. But it still just doesn't do it for me.
(This from the lady with too many TVs and two nice cars. So, please feel free to ignore me.)
I hate that magazine.
Mary-Lue, I found out something equally horrible - I spoke with a man who works at the bar at Chateau Lake Louise and he said their fine-dining restaurant preps a certain amount of meals per day, and if there are not customers to eat those meals, all the food gets THROWN OUT. Some of the staff are able to eat it but mostly it goes to waste. Expensive, fancy food. In the garbage.
I remember reading somewhere, some time back (yeah, I know, super-specific citation there) that the definition of poverty in the United States has been continuously defined upwards to where it's meaningless, compared both to the past and to a worldwide scale. And I have a hard time taking reports of hard times seriously when everyone has cell phone plans, cable TV, larger-than-necessary homes, etc. Of course, people do need phones to get by in our culture (and make a living) and the homes were bought in sunnier economic times, etc., but I still think that a few months spent somewhere like Haiti could change our idea of poverty a LOT.
It's also true that people, and especially children, do still go hungry in the developed world, but it's usually not because food couldn't be made available to them if their caregivers weren't neglecting them due to some handicapping circumstance such as addiction. I'm not saying that cutting back and changing lifestyles aren't hard things to do, but I still think that most able-bodied, determined people willing to make changes and work hard can still keep their kids fed and clothed -- which is not always the case easy in some parts of the world.
P.S. When it was new, In Style magazine used to show budget versions of designer styles that truly were budget versions and were purchased at places like K-Mart or Old-Navy. Now the baseline prices of even the budget versions have dramatically increased.
Ah, yes. Design on a (one-of-a-kind, gold-plated) dime. No one in my circle of friends can afford the "cheap" version of those designer rooms.
The most we ever splurged was on our couch, for like $1000, because we plan on having it for 20 years.
We have some seriously wealthy friends and the things that they think of as "inexpensive" are always boggling to me. It's like the possibility of existing on less is unthinkable.
Which gets me thinking about my family, and our income, which seemed SO stratospherically unreachable when we were first married, and my gripes about how hard it is to get by these days. Food for thought. My walk to the store to buy ice cream with my kids is many people's equivalent of the "cheap" $500 art for your bedroom...
That Beck. She can't ever just leave me sitting comfortably where I was before I opened her blog. Even when she's just sniping about home decor magazines. :)
My bedroom chandelier only cost $800. What? They should TOTALLY ask me for budget advice. My wee adorable silk pillow was a steal because the silk is faux-silk, and you can't even tell.
Sigh.
I know poor Americans, and honestly, poverty in American does not even come close to poverty in Africa, except where people have made choices (drugs, etc) that put them in those positions. Hey, WE'RE "poor" in America, and honestly, we are anything but.
Magazines, shmagazines. I bet your bedroom has personality! That's more important in my book.
I HATE those magazines. I just want to scream at them "WHO are you? WHERE do you people come from? Just who the heck do you think your audience IS?" And then I give it back to the friend from whom I borrowed it. Cuz I can't afford a magazine subscription.
CLUELESS magazines!!
I so agree with you about the French Revolution. It is this kind of materialistic excess that makes middle-eastern terrorists feel totally justified in bombing us off the face of the planet. I love a pretty room as much as (or more) than the next gal, but when we love to adorn ourselves with lifeless things more than we love the poor and the needy, we are a society in major trouble.
My sister just bought a "charming" 1940's bungalow in a neighboring small town. Charming in real estate language = tiny.
And THEN she got pregnant unexpectedly. So yeah. We've hit Cottage Living along with all the magazines with covers that say anything at all about "small spaces" and "budget makeovers."
But not only do they not comprehend what "budget" really means, they also cannot seem to get their heads around the word "small." SMALL! If I have a storage problem, just don't insult me by writing up a column about it with pictures of a walk-in the size of my current bedroom.
It's all too shocking for words. I have yet to see just ONE "normal" closet in a single issue of any magazine.
Seriously - it makes me wonder how they would physically react if they actually came to Jan's house and saw her closet space (or lack thereof), along with her budget for a re-do. Now THAT would be an interesting reality show, right there. ;)
In the end, she made the space for her family, along with all the accompanying baby products, in the "charming" bungalow. All by herself. She did it beautifully and although it's "cozy," it feels a bit like Mayberry... and HOME. :) Maybe the magazines should give Jan a column of her own.
I have the SAME THOUGHTS when I see "fashion on the cheap" articles.
"Instead of $1200 for this sweater, you can pay only $189!"
Seriously?
I mean, seriously?
It amazes me that these tiny chunks of urban areas are so COMPLETELY out of touch with real life.
I saw an article recently (can't remember in which magazine) with a "Save On" and "Splurge On" feature - so the idea is to splurge on a really good-quality couch, and then save on the rest of your living room furnishings. Except some of the "Save On" options were crazy - a $495 end table for instance, or a $1200 area rug. Saving your way into the poorhouse is what my mother-in-law calls that.
It is shockingly funny to me. We have NEVER had a decorating budget. We just splurged big time on some paint and then on flooring (the very, very cheapest we could find) so we could redo the girls rooms, and now we are even splurging more so we c an get them windows (they have those old metal ones that leak horribly and don't actually close and necessitate putting a pile of blankets over them all winter.) And in order to do all this we are putting off getting a car (we just sold our junker to a salvage yard for $100.) And we are better off than we have ever been, ever. We are, in fact, doing REALLY well, because this is the first time we can actually afford to replace those windows at all.
And all this is on my mind because we just had a huge yard sale to pay for the paint and flooring and whatnot and the thought of paying $2000 for a bed is just shocking (we have mattresses on the flor because we hate the fact taht beds off the floor attract junk under said beds.)
And yes, I think of the "Let them eat cake" thing everytime I read one of those articles (which I generally don't because we don't get magazines. :))
I can't get my head around these prices and the IDEA of having a chandelier in my bedroom.
Suspect we'll be sticking to Ikea and second hand stuff. ;-)
Amen!
This is why we do not even have a head board :)
Wow, Beck, you made my day. So true and funny.
Hey, I'm getting that mag for the very same reasons you are, except that it was ME who ordered it, not my mum. I like it, even if they are out of touch with us Riff Raffs. Rich people don't decorate themselves; they hire people to do it, so what do they need a magazine for? I like watching Sarah on HGTV, even though my husband reminds me how much I hate her penchant for weird patterns. I like watching the snappy repartee between her and Tommy.
My first thought was just like Kelly's: this reminds me of "budget" fashion spreads. I didn't realize decorating mags were the same, but of course, why should they be any different? I don't know what planet the fashion writers are from, but wherever it is, they're livin' it up with the interior decorators!
Long ago, I stopped reading fashion magazines because all they did was make me feel: fat, unhip, poor, pale, and zitty. Nothing good could come of it, so I quit reading them and liked myself a lot better.
I'm considering stopping my subs to House and Home and Style at home, because mostly what they do is make me feel like my house is: old and crappy, unhip, poor, pale, and has patchy plaster.
Life's too short to allow magazines to make us feel inadequate all the time. Yeesh.
Just think. By not redecorating my bedroom I'm saving my family over $20,000. Am I good or what.
Joy. Mismatched sheets, duvets missing buttons, no throw pillows. Clearly I've missed some boat or another. Yet, not being in debt to the tune of $6K or $20K makes me sleep blissfully well at night.
That is my beef with "What not to Wear" too. I wish someone would nominate me. I do! I would take that $5000 in NY city and get a bus to some suburb and go ballistic at WalMart and Kohl's and Old Navy. $5000 for a wardrobe... yeah.... That is REALLY realistic for most of us.
That's why I shop at thrift stores.
I came across this today and just had to scoot it in here. The author is unknown to me but the person quoting this unknown author was Paul Tripp.
"I read a book on stress a few years back, and the author made a side comment that I thought was so insightful. He said that the highest value of materialistic western culture is not possessing. It's actually acquiring."
aha, maybe THAT's it! We possess - we just cannot continue acquiring at the pace of a monthly magazine. :)
Yes, my version of bargain and magazines' are very different things.
I'd be happy for a little bit of joint compound and paint at this point. To heck with all the expensive stuff my kids will destroy anyway.
Wow! For that kind of money you could buy a foreclosure WITH a butler.
I once bought two bolts of material on clearance, then recovered two iron couches and made curtains for 6 windows-each of them 5 feet tall. And, I spent $60. Even if I had the money, I would never waste even $6000 on furniture and pillows. Think of how many people you could feed for that amount of money.
We have a hand-me-down theme in our budget-friendly house. They should do an article on begging usable furniture off your family and friends. LOL. We DID buy our sofa...a splurge at the Habitat for Humanity USED store. Oooooh, we are fancy!
People have chandeliers in their bedrooms? Obviously I'm not of the designer crowd. I have the standard 3 light fan which according to designer shows is for hicks. I've quit watching all those shows. And rarely look at the magazines. I could probably redo my whole house including the basement if someone would be gracious enough to hand me $6000.
:( indeed!
No matter how bad the economy gets, there will always be people who don't live in the real world.
Anyone who would spend almost $300 per roll for wallpaper sure doesn't live in MY world.
I very much enjoy decorating and very slow accumulating pieces here and there from Goodwill. Yes, that is out of touch. It's the ideas that are helpful, not really the products. The now defunct Domino Magazine was really good at this. It inspired me to decorate my house in interesting ways because the CONCEPTS were so interesting and lovely. I also like the selby (TheSelby.com) because it shows real, messy houses. But they're... pretty. You can take the idea, know generally what type of couch or chair or whatever you are looking for and where in a room you want to put it and then FIND ONE AT GOODWILL or whatever local thrift store you have for like $10. Anyway, I think decorating can be very creative and satisfying and accessible to all. I hope this is helpful and encouraging.
Wow, somehow my first few sentences got all mixed around. That was supposed to say that yes, that article you read it out of touch and it was supposed to be the first sentence. Anyway, you know what I mean.
I think along these lines when, every few months, our weekly issue of TIME magazine arrives with a special!bonus! magazine shrinkwrapped with the regular issue. It's basically a "lifestyles of people who have WAY MORE money than you" glossy. I always wonder, what are we supposed to do with this information? How is this helpful to us, to read about Mario Batali's favorite four-star hotel to stay in when he's in London?
Plop! Into the recycling bin it goes.
I feel like that when I read magazine articles about clothing and style on a budget and I still grimace at $50 jeans - um no! That's not in MY budget!
I had to stop my canadian H&H subscription as it was driving me INSANE with wants and I do not want to want a $145 pillow.
Interstingly though a student's home was profiled a few years ago and one of the things mentioned was the grandmother, who is a designer, pulled the dining room chairs out of a dumpster.
i feel this way anytime I read a fashion magazine. Dude... i get my clothes on the clearance rack and Target and the thrift store. I rarely pay more than $10 for anything.
That reasonable "must have" pair of shoes (in pink?) at $75. ha ha ha
bite me.
Yes Yes and Yes!
A good reason not to read decorating magazines...unless one comes out for people with real budgets.
Hey, if the fashion industry still hasn't figured out that the average woman is 5'4" and about 20 lbs overweight, then I don't think there's hope for any kind of reality check in any industry.
Hey, my word verification is "stommin", as in "stommin the Bastille."
I usually just rip pages out of the home magazines that I like and then recreate on the cheap. For example, $2000 on an area rug that my kids are going to press sticky jam fingerprints into? No thanks. I pulled my area rug out of the clearance section for $300.
That said, it's a recession. Many people are struggling to make enough for groceries each month. I think the home magazines are going to see their subscriptions for everyday folk take a nose dive.
I was just thinking about this as I leafed through some old design magazines my m-i-l gave me last weekend. They were circa 2005-2007, and the frugality, frivolity and average price points were downright offensive.
I was embarrassed reading them, and assumed that things had gotten 'better.' Silly me.
Um, yeah. My currently underway bedroom makeover involves $50 for two new hampers, $130 for a pair of chairs off craigslist, and a small roudn table yet to be purchased because I haven't found the right table/price combo just yet. that, and moving my bed about 8 or 9 inches to the left.
Or save on the makeover by not doing one. That's what we do. Yep, we are out of style, too bad.
this reminds me of the Oprah episode in which she informed me that she did not care about my brand of lotion or shampoo, that I shouldn't leave them out in the shower or counter, as if she cared to know, but rather put them into canisters - because, clearly, the only reason I would not have canisters is so everyone can see my 2.99 shampoo from Trader Joe's, not because I can't spend $6.99 on canisters for lotion, soap and shampoo (x multiple bathrooms + conditioner + other kid soaps and shampoos)
Because, Oprah may just stop by to tell me she doesn't care about my brand of dish soap.
maybe.
I saw a post that talked about a frugal shopper picking up two tops because they were only $18 a piece. All I could think was, "$18? Two? At the same time? Not in this lifetime." Times are tight, makes me bitter. Yuck.
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