beauty lies in the imperfection

Mom and I have been talking a lot about how we grow and change every year.  Our tastes change, they mature, they digress, they take a side trip. One of the things I've come to realize I find to be a cornerstone in the style of design that I like is imperfection.  We see so many images every day that anything unique and slightly imperfect makes it feel more 'real'.  In my own corner of the world, I see way too much stagnancy - retail box rooms, out of date furniture, grey and white everything.  But even if a room has any of these 'offenders', I find myself still loving it if there's something imperfect or off about it. An off-center picture, an old moody portrait, a misshapen slipcover. Shows character and ability to think outside the box.

My mom has a story about one of our dear friends, who always looks perfectly pulled together and coiffed.  She once told us she couldn't put together an outfit if she tried, her trick was to buy the outfit in the window or on the mannequin, that someone else put together for her so the equation always worked. We see this translated into design - a perfectly pulled together room can soothe the eye but can often leave you feeling unfulfilled. It looks loved and lived in when things are slightly off.

I love seeing Jeffrey Alan Marks' home office area like this.  His stuff everywhere, his home really being used the way it was intended to be. Mismatched chairs, a screen packed in the mix to hide his mess.  It's delightful because it's how he really lives, I'll bet.

See this? This could never fly in my house.  For starters, whenever I make the bed ]to my standards, my husband runs and jumps on the top just to tousle my feathers.  Plus, these two bulldogs could never abide by the all white perfection.  They'd sloth their muddy toes across the bed despite my best efforts.

Aside from that, the symmetry, the matchiness of it all really underwhelms me. A model home is like Eva Longoria. She is stunning, her face almost total perfection.  But personally, I'd rather look at Sarah Jessica Parker's quirky nose all day long because there's more to study.  When I can't find something to situate my mind on in a room, it becomes a bit boring and I'm ready to move on.  We spend way too much time running around trying to be perfect - putting away the laundry so it doesn't sit in your living room, cleaning up after messy meals, putting on makeup to go out... Sometimes I think true beauty lies in the imperfect.