Toodle-oo, Textiles
Executive summary: I periodically unearth pain points in our home as my life, needs, and pet peeves change and evolve. Some can be easily remedied while others are out of our control. This time, it’s the former category — we are waving toodle-oo to our textiled wall decor.
Every year, I am so over summer by the time September rolls around, even though technically autumn doesn’t begin until the equinox midway through the month. It’s not that I want to rush headlong into the rainy winter months, but because fall is my favorite season and the chill that comes with pumpkin spice everything and colorful foliage is a welcome change from the hazy skies and heat waves of summer (that this year have persisted into October, so I’m even more ready for “real fall” to start). Recently I caught myself eyeing orange and yellow wreaths, wondering if I should bring a touch of the season inside. But (1) I am terrible at rotating decor in and out — I really do just want to hang it up and be done with it (contrary to whatever my husband may think), and (2) I am currently questioning every textile and “soft” piece of wall decor in our home (the kind of behavior that leads my husband to think that I live to switch things up).
I’ll explain. The advantage of soft wall decor is that they offer an interesting contrast to all the rectangular frames throughout our space; it helps to break up the monotony. Another advantage is that they can go above our beds: soft decor won’t gouge an eye out if it falls on our faces during an earthquake. But the problem is that I haaaate dusting, and wiping down something soft and amorphous is way harder than cleaning a solid rigid surface (it’s also possible that I’m just doing it wrong). Thus, I am reevaluating every textiled wall hanging we have (plus the DIY tassel chandelier in our dining area), but also unwilling to make any major changes, as we may move within the next year (in line with my husband starting at Stanford and acquiring faculty housing). At least in a 1-bedroom apartment, we don’t have a lot of art or, well, anything, so thankfully there’s not too much to adjust.
As much as I like this look, I should probably move the framed canvas to a spot that’s not hanging over our heads in earthquake country. The hoop textile next to the bed was a DIY I made a few years ago that is now home to countless dust bunnies.
Not for the first time, I spent a week racking my brain (and Google Images) for ideas on what we can tweak; the result is that I’ve brought in a new poster and wall sculpture (I call them a birthday present to myself), moved a framed canvas, and bid farewell to a felt ball garland in the kids’ room and a DIY textile piece that you can see in the picture above in our sleeping space. (Behold the one in, one out rule in play here!) In all fairness, I still like both pieces and have been happy with them, with the exception of the dusting issue. I don’t want to know how many pounds of dust are hiding in there, and now, I’ll never have to find out.
Here is the new art configuration in our sleeping area: lightweight (and corner-less) sculpture over the bed, framed canvas scooted to the adjacent wall, and no more DIY textile (RIP — I really did like you, I just never wanted to touch you)
I’ve also discovered over the years that I am particular about the art I display in my home. For a while in my late 20s-early 30s, I was experimenting with my taste in decor, but the more I bought big box or generic art, the less I liked it. Not that Target and IKEA don’t usually have good taste, but I discovered that artwork feels very personal to me, and I want my space to be more collected/curated. Especially for the pieces that aren’t multifunctional (e.g., I’m less particular about my wall hooks or clocks), whose sole purpose is to be looked at, it had better make my heart (eyeballs) sing. To that end, I have DIYed a few items (automatic personalization!) and been more finicky about art that can be purchased (although I’ll be the first to admit that my impatient nature still leads me to quick fixes instead of slow searches). And now I’m also calling textile and “soft” art into question, which greatly reduces my options for the kinds of objects that can hang over our beds and heads in this earthquake-prone state. No macrame, juju hats, baskets, faux plants, garlands, or any other dust-catchers for us. So that autumn wreath I was eyeing was doomed from the start (unless I can find a minimalist wood or metal one, hmmm …)
The kids room got a tiny tweak too: goodbye felt ball garland that was beginning to double its weight in fuzz, hello poster in magnetic frame. The DIY Star Wars canvas (made with nothing more than peel and stick paper) gets to stay because it’s rigid and therefore easy to dust.
The other DIY and textile art in our home got a pass from me … for now. I don’t know what decor will fit after we move, so I’m trying to keep everything as static as possible until we know more (which could be a year out). But it seems that we are getting a tiny dose of fall decor after all, in the form of a mini (real) pumpkin: my toddler is obsessed with them at the grocery store and has probably touched every one of the dozens on display out front. My husband finally allowed her to bring one home, after trying to explain it’s a one-time exception. If she doesn’t understand that, we may end up with a mini pumpkin patch in front of our door … but hey, pumpkins are rigid and therefore able to be dusted, so maybe they pass the test?