Results – Design Voice Survey #18

Last week we talked about this living room:

(click on it to get a better look)

The home of Janet Rice via dustjacket attic.

Here are the results for our gut reaction to this shot:

• Despite the fact that our gut reaction was pretty favorable, not a one of us felt that we would ever decorate in this style. 9% undecided, 55% probably not, and 36% definitely not.
• We were all across the board in our opinions on how much of this room is attractive. The most common answer (46%) was “A lot of it“, but a significant number of people were less generous.
• The most liked items in the room are the window curtains and the striped chair in the foreground. Meanwhile absolutely no one likes the pillows.

Here’s the responses to:
“Do you like the effect this bold wallpaper has in the room?”

• Many mentioned the wallpaper as something they’d like to change in this room. Painting it a dark color instead was a popular idea.
• When picking something we’d like to keep for ourselves, the window curtains and pink chairs were favored the most.
• The highest ranking feature of the room is its functionality, and lowest is the furniture pieces.

I found it pretty interesting that none of us would choose to decorate in this style. We’ll happily borrow from it, sure. But as a whole it’s not quite our jam. It seems the wallpaper is a major sticking point. Personally I like it, but wouldn’t choose it for my own home (that seems to be the theme here). A couple of participants suggested instead painting the walls dark blue or black, which I think would be fabulous.

I like pink way more than I used to, but I just can not get over the intense girliness of the chairs in this room. Feminine color + feminine shape = Too much feminine for me. The current wallpaper only adds to that femininity with it’s scrolling curves. I might be able to handle the pink chairs a lot more with a solid painted wall.

How funny is it that not one of us likes the pillows? My major qualm with them is their small size and apparent lack of cushion. Don’t they seem quite thin? I think this makes them look flimsy and out of place on the large sofa. On top of that, their pattern is very reminiscent of the wallpaper and while I think repeating a wall pattern elsewhere in the room is a good idea, in this instance they’re placed so close to the wall that they don’t get to feel like a distinct moment unto themselves. They end up sort of melding into the wallpaper which is visually confusing.

So what say you? Were we too harsh on this room? I mean clearly someone with oodles of taste and panache decorated this, and I really do think it’s nice. But the surveys do not lie; we’re just going with our gut here. Tell me what you think!