The Chicken or the Egg ? Analogy

I think the weather all over the country has been quite curious these last few weeks, and once again, we were homebound due to ice and snow this week.  (Soooo weird for Texas!)


I had a generous amount of time to read the blogs while I was holed up, and the more I looked, the more a question kept coming up for me.....


.....Are bloggers trend setters, or trend followers?


Since there are so many of us who are reporting on on our own design esthetics by way of "The Blog", how much is original inspiration?  Do we fall in love with a trend because we see it in our mailboxes so often, or are we inspired to create new and different because we're tired of seeing  the same thing all the time.


Case in point:
I began blogging almost a year ago.  I did read a few of the popular blogs prior to starting my own, but for the most part, I was primarily interested in exploring what I loved about design.  I think my earlier posts reflected that.  But as I continued to expand number of blogs I read, I began to see that there were a few "camps" to which the blogs fell into.
1.  Blogs who were written by designers and decorators like myself
2.  Blogs written by design enthusiasts ( who maybe should be designers!)
3.  Crafters and Etsy shop owners  (I long to join that group as well)
4.  Blogs that loved to combine design and fashion


I loved them all and the list of blogs I follow grew and grew.   The more I read, the more I began to see that so many of them wrote about similar themes.


All white kitchens

Bohemian, Frenchy-lofty NYC apartment looks

Perch in NOLA

Gray

Aqua bedrooms

Jmac and Kennedy ID

Gallery walls

Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware 

....just to name a few.


Which came first, the trend or the blog?  
They say you should never ask a question that you don't have the answer for, and while I have an OPINION...I have no real facts to support it.  But one thing I know for certain, the design pendulum doesn't swing small.....whenever something becomes oversaturated,  we do a 180 and go in the opposite direction.   


What do you think?
And what's next?
(Stenciled walls?   Saturated color?  Wallpaper?   Shabby Chic and cottage?  Maybe even florals!!)


You tell me....I'm dying to know?

Where are you, Sally J?

It's official.
I have not died.  I am still here.
Let the posts continue!!

I'm sorry for being absent last week.  Some weeks just take the wind out of our sails, and such was the week I had. 

Do you do too much sometimes? Do you take on more than you should...mostly because you know you can? 

It made me start to think about how my design eye has changed over the years.  It's like I started out in the Victorian period...lots of stuff, lots of competition for what to look at...lots of busy-ness!

and like the Craftsman period that followed, I've needed to pare down and focus on the beauty of space and light and singular things that I love.

"Falling Water" house - Frank Lloyd Wright

Isn't that usually the way things go?  Especially in design, the pendulum doesn't swing slow.  It usually knocks us in the head as it's moving from one direction to another.  We get caught in the middle...not sure we're ready to leave the comfort of what we know, but ready for something new and exciting anyway.

As a designer, I never want my clients to be on the end of a trend.

Remember when this was new?  Oak cabinets, little blue flowered wallpaper and matching border?  How many homes built in the 80's go on the resell market still looking like this?

I think this is why we have so many painted kitchens these days.

Traditional Home Magazine

We go from dark to light, light to dark, cluttered to minimalist, curvy to straight lined, open to closed... etc, etc, etc.

So where in all the shuffling around do we find our own design aesthetic?
Is there ever a time when we stop chasing a trend and settle of what's "just right" for us?

Perhaps that's why we settle with "traditional" and "classic"....not because it's what we love so much, but because we just don't want to have to change it in 5 years.

This is beautiful.  We know that we can live with this for many years, and that pleases the husbands who can't believe what you spent to get this look. 

But is it US!

Do you wish to get on the Mid-century train for just a little while?

Kasey McCarty, Interior Designer

Or pehaps you'd like to visit the 60's again.  (Having lived with it the first time, I'm not sure I can do it, but Jonathan Adler is a master at it !)

Jonathan Adler

I have great remembrances of the Bohemian look from the 70's, and there's a large part of me that embraces that look even today.

Better Homes and Gardens

I am really in awe of people, designer and clients alike, who are sure of what they love.  They are sure of themselves enough to plant themselves firmly in one camp or another, regardless of trends and current styles.

That can be good and bad.

In the meantime, where I'm living today, I'm loving being here....

Lisa Caldwell Flake, Interior Designer

and here.....

Emily Walker, Interior Desiger

and even here.

Rod Mickly, Interior Designer

They say that life is a journey,

And so is design.