Apartment foo-nishing

[archetypal_yuppie]



Great walkways from nothing to nothing.

 

[Hayward]

We have a ConTrad shrine here in SF as well. It's pretty awful.

 

[sugarbutch]

*shudder*

 

[Hayward]

It could be worse. I used to work in that monstrosity owned by the Trinity people across from UN Plaza. All white marble and green oxidized copper. Plus Angelo has a fetish for Romanesque statuary. There was even a coffee shop in the lobby that blared three tenors music 24 seven. You could avoid most of it by going out the back, but then you'd be fighting off the junkies. I actually walked that way out to the parking lot with my boss one day and we found a marital aid on the asphalt which was the size of one of those Ground beef sausage things you buy at Safeway.

 

[Hayward]

Which strangely brings us back on topic: Matt, you admit your apartment is indeed ConTrad, Why not go all the way?

You could go to those horrible stores in Chinatown and buy some of those horrible bonded bronze statuary things that look like bad copies of Remington, But in giant fun size. Most of those stores are owned by Albanian/Chechen/Balkan gangsters, you know, like in season two of The Wire, so I'm sure they're easy to negotiate with.

 

[TheFoo]

Truth: unless you start from scratch, ConTrad is almost impossible to entirely avoid. Afterall, it is the default aesthetic in America.

In New York, it is escapable when you rent or buy pre-War, which often nets you a traditional setting. However, when pre-War apartments are renovated, or when brand new apartments buildings go up, they are almost always finished in ConTrad livery.

 

[Fuuma]



Trick question. I thought part of the definition of ConTrad is that it is not good? Or are you stipulating it is possible for good ConTrad to exist?

ConTrad is basically Foo's adaptation of "middlebrow" to a specific use (int. deco).

 

[Fuuma]



Also, only anal on the couch?

Did I ever tell you about this girl I know who was ********** of the backdoor persuasion in her parents Parisian apt and had an "accident" on the Persian rug then proceeded to blame the family dog when her parents came back and the poor beast got euthanized?

 

[TheFoo]



ConTrad is basically Foo's adaptation of "middlebrow" to a specific use (int. deco).

Big, important question: is there middlebrow interior design that isn't ConTrad?

 

[itsstillmatt]



Big, important question: is there middlebrow interior design that isn't ConTrad?

Sure. Hi tech modern.

 

[Manton]

If I understand this properly, then ConTrad is an aesthetic. It's not simply about when something was built or made, nor is it synonymous with "middlebrow." So, e.g., my in-laws McMansion is definitely ConTrad.

However, I know it's possible to build pure trad today. It may not happen often but it is possible. I've seen it. For instance. some years ago I went to a party in Carmel Valley. The home was a gracious spanish Hacienda that looked like a Wallace Neff from the 20s. I asked the owner when it was built and he said 1995. Amazing to me. It was a perfect rep in every way of "Old California Romantica."

 

[Fuuma]



Sure. Hi tech modern.

Design-mag mid-century: the aesthetic for single men who want their living space to look like the lobby of an advertising firm.

Cutesy hipster girl design: why hang one vintage portrait frame when you can fill your wall with them.

Those were the days: men who build their cigar lounges with all that nice aged wood and those padded chairs.

"Kitsch is the absolute denial of ****." -Kundera


Is hi-tech modern what you and I would call "hotel chic"?

 

[dopey]

Is Con-trad UHB?

 

[Manton]



Is Con-trad UHB?

no it's too nouveau

 

[dopey]

Which? UHB dates to 1990 Con-trad dates to 2013, so I assume you mean Con-trad. But why can't UHB evolve?