2.2.10

Money Used to Go Further

From an article in a 1919 House & Garden, an $850 decorating job.  That's a lotta lacca povera for the lolly.


8 comments:

  1. You would be amazed what I could do with $850...

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  2. i was just reading an issue of new york magazine from 1979 late last night stating the average job by a high-brow designer in NYC was $1,000-$5,000 (not including sister parish who sometimes needed the client to pay for her helicopter ride to survey the building from a birds-eye view.)

    good lord, and the price today? oh, the price of everything today...

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  3. At least it's still possible to copy the interesting color scheme. When I hear talk about how people used to be "afraid of color" I always wonder when, exactly, they're talking about. Obviously, not whoever created this room.

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  4. Oh, Janet, out loose with the glitter gun again?

    Soodie, are you sure it wasn't 10,000-50,000? Wow. That would be an impressive escalation.

    Magnaverde, like you, I consider myself to know more than the average puppy about the history of design, and I agree. I think the use of color in the past, just as now, was a matter of personal taste. Some people love bright green, some love soft beige. A lot of graduate students try to put everything into hard and fast 'rules' for what people did. I don't think so. The remaining evidence, and logic, say otherwise.

    Excellent point.

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  5. Man, if this were 1919 I wouldn't be poor! That'd be nice... : )

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  6. I remember when!

    I wonder too, Magnaverde, what people mean when our ancestors are accused of being afraid of using color. I think it is probably the language of self-promotion justifying the use of too little color. Whenever I hear the description "earth tones" my heart sinks - the use of color in today's interiors, with few exceptions, is very boring.

    Albert Hadley said once in an interview that today's newly-minted decorators don't use enough color. I actually think that is a product of design school teachers who themselves have little knowledge about color and how to use it. The teaching of so-called color theory is a total cop-out.

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  7. How did I not know about your blog? I love it.

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  8. But, Toad, I did not know about yours until yesterday, loved it, and instantly added it to my blogroll. What a coincidence!

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