On beauty

[constance]

Most people who've known me will know that one of my great guilty pleasures in life is the Pottery Barn aesthetic. The stuff's nice enough, and when I go to PB stores, I always enjoy poking around, but in the end, it's the catalogs that really send me. The whole of the catalog is infinitely more than the sum of its parts: the tidy, color-coordinated rooms carefully strewn with thematic knickknacks, the "quirky" mass-produced odds and ends, everything mix-and-match, everything pretty and put together. When I look at the catalogs, I have to admit, it's not the sofa or the behooked magnetic board I want--I want to take the whole room, including the floors and windows, and transplant it. I gather, from a little informal research over the years, that this is all anyone wants from Pottery Barn.





It's a shot from the Holiday catalog, and isn't it all so nice and clean-looking? Mmmm, it looks like a peppermint candy you can sleep in. Here's the thing, though. The person who decided that the sensible aesthetic thing to do for this shot would be to turn all the books on the shelves spine-in? GENIUS, man. Forget Barcelona chairs and everything Raymond Loewy designed. Forget streamlined stereo equipment. Forget, even, inflatable furniture. I think we're looking at the wave of the future, here, when it comes to beautiful, comfortable, practical design. I'm going straight home to fix all my books, right now, and I hope you do the same.

Comments

[aubrem.livejournal.com]

The Pottery Barn catalog always has the BEST color aesthetic and this current love affair between dark reds and yellows is to die for. I think it works so well because they use so much dark wood.

I hadn't even noticed the books were spine in - and of course they look FANTASTIC. : ) Completely useless but useless in beautiful cream tones. hahahahahaaaa.

Pottery Barn also seems to sell a lifestyle of casual gourmet dining with bright, engaging friends and much sitting around after, sipping good coffee in beautiful, comfortable living rooms. And really, life SHOULD be like that, shouldn't it? Combine the Pottery Barn and Williams Sonoma catalogs and you have my dream life. Hey, I'm working toward it! : )

[tofty.livejournal.com]

I know exactly what you mean about the PB Friends! Those summer parties are especially seductive for me, everyone wearing white and going barefoot on an immaculate lawn and the enormous umbrellas and the lake views and clearly no one is sloppy-drunk and the weather is exactly right and there is impeccably tasteful music playing in the background.

Yeah, my life is not too much like that. But a girl can dream!

And hahahahah you're right--the books are very pretty, aren't they?

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

Can I just hire the catalog designers to fix my house up for me?

*looks around at unaesthetic jumble*

[tofty.livejournal.com]

THAT IS NO JOKE, MAN. You should see my cluttered-up apartment!

Cap't Chris again

[(Anonymous)]

I saw the Dolly interview too.....It was super good and JS seemed to be a bit flustered. She is a music icon and I want to make a song with her. Tiff and I both think she is more of an old aunt than a sex goddess ( horny goat?!?!)

HI :D:D:D

[tofty.livejournal.com]

JS is usually pretty unflappable in his interviews, but every now and then he gets really schoolboyish about someone, and Dolly Parton was one, you're right. It was a very endearing interview, I thought.

But then, she is almost always endearing--she is auntish to me too. She is like that eccentric aunt you maybe were a little embarrassed by when you were a teenager but when you were young you thought she was the coolest person of all time and now that you're grown up you feel that way again.

I would totally buy Dolly Does Dylan, and I would buy your duet also, and be prepared to love both.

[leestone.livejournal.com]

Dolly Does Dylan

you're kidding.

[tofty.livejournal.com]

Ahhhh, excellent icon, man. :D

I only wish there were such a record. DP was on The Daily Show on Monday night, and on it she claimed that the only person who turned her down for her latest collaborative CD was Bob Dylan, which prompted much >:O from Jon Stewart. DP went on to say that she'd once had an idea for a Dylan cover album--Dolly Does Dylan, of course--but that she figured that was a no-go now.

Actually, it was a terrific interview. You should catch it if you can!

[somniesperus.livejournal.com]

Didn't he have O'Reilly last night? Was it awesome? Was it the smackdown of which I dream? *runs off to check the show's site*

[tofty.livejournal.com]

He did have O'Reilly on last night, and though it was a good interview and JS did ask some great questions, I'm sorry to say that Bill O'Reilly was in no way smacked down. I think he is too shameless and loudmouthed to be smacked properly.

[tofty.livejournal.com]

The audience did boo him, though. Loudly.

[somniesperus.livejournal.com]

I saw! True, no smackdown. But he did get laughed at and mocked, and I think--no, I know--that's what he would hate more than anything else. He would have loved for Jon to get all worked up in a righteous froth. I think he haaaated that Jon just sat there and laughed at everything he said--especially because it was the "what you are saying is so patently stupid it doesn't even deserve a response" laugh.

I would do Jon Stewart in a heartbeat. I have to admit this. ("Just make the joke about 'freedom lies'...say it! Say it!")

[tofty.livejournal.com]

I like to think that what you say is true! I would find this really satisfying.

Also, hahahaha I think Jon Stewart could get laid by about 95% of the women I know! He is just that fabulous. I'd do him for his dirty little GWB snigger alone.

[somniesperus.livejournal.com]

O'Reilly feeds off anger. He loves to work people up and piss them off. This makes him feel important. To be laughed at, I'm thinking, is anathema to him--he's a little man, and little men need to feel they're being taken seriously. I loved it when he called Jon a pinhead and Jon just cracked up because it was so lame.

"Henh henh henh henh henh!"

[tofty.livejournal.com]

*faints with lust*

[laurelwood.livejournal.com]

The book spines were the first thing I noticed, and immediately I had to try it myself. Behold:



Now I want to do the other 19.5 shelves, too!

[tofty.livejournal.com]

*laughs and laughs and laughs!*

Oh, man, I do love you so.

[miraminx.livejournal.com]

And also, stashing the books behind the bed? Storage genius. Who needs easy access to their books anyway?

P.S. I'd do Jon Stewart too. Not quite sure how that came up, but of course my eye flew to the one sex-related comment in this entire entry.

[tofty.livejournal.com]

hahahahahahahahaaa for the JS comment--it came up because Telanu and I were discussing the O'Reilly interview from Tuesday night, which came up because I was telling Seri about the Dolly Parton interview from Monday, which came up because I alluded to that interview in my choice of "music."

It is all very complicated. But this proves my point, really, that many, many of my friends would do JS in a second.

:::

And yes! You're right, the books-behind-the-bed storage solution. I've long wondered about that. I mean, usually people only do such a thing, stick a bookcase behind a sofa or bed, when they just have more books than space, but I always think when I see an example, "OMG HOW CAN YOU STAND IT."