Is decorating your home in a steampunk style any more silly than a [faux] country style?
I spent the weekend visiting family in some very nicely decorated country style houses, and it struck me that it was just as much of a fantasy style as steampunk, just with broader appeal.
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I wholeheartedly agree.
I don't think it's any less or more silly, personally. It certainly appeals more to me than the country kitsch thing, mostly because that's what my mom and her family were into: powder blue wooden decorations and barnyard animal-shaped cookie jars. Great for she and her sisters, but barf for me.
To each their own, for sure!
While I love Steampunk for its aesthetics, I personally wouldn't do my whole house in that genre, or any other one genre for that matter.
My, my wife's really, design style is more eclectic than anything else.
We take a little from lots of different styles to make our own.
If I had to put a name to it, I'd have to call it Comfortable and Warm Eclectic.
Take a look.... http://members.oldhouseweb.com/schag/myoldhouse.html
Realizing that country is no more or less silly than steampunk was a great revelation to me -- it definitely frees me to be less serious. :) Thanks for your comments, jenbug and randem.
Happy -- your house is lovely -- such great bones! I'm jealous of the floors and the arching room dividers. I like the dining room -- with the combination of Chinese and Victorian, and the wonderful red walls, it feels pretty close to steampunk to me.
You got it!
Consider the Land of Lost Décor Styles.
--Colonial Modern (golden maple, chintz with ruffles, including on the La-Z-Boy, turnings on the TV cabinet)
--Mediterranean (dark wood, fretwork, wrought iron scrolls, red or olive green, probably antiqued)
Back when they were popular, anyone decorating in Victorian would have to find originals (not hard) because no one wanted that junky old grotesque stuff. Ditto that ugly Craftsman stuff. No one had heard of Shaker.
Now the furniture stores are full of neo-Victorian and Craftsman and Mission style. Mediterranean? They never heard of it. Country has taken the place of Colonial Modern, and there's not a lot of difference, except more painted furniture and lighter structures.
Steampunk as décor is simply minority taste, like that for Oriental Modern or Gothic Revival.
We decided to do the new apartment as steampunk sets and found you while hunting resources online. So this seems to be more a spontaneous "I want to move into a steampunk world!" sort of thing than "Ashley had her frontroom done in this, and I saw it on HGTV, and now I want it." An internal drive, rather than external itch to be fashionable and/or fit in.
Still, we spotted some really useful stuff on HGTV: simple stained glass involving wood frames with art glass behind them, furniture from plumbing, &c.
I actually think I'd abandon the style if it were too popular and I could just buy a boxed set that made things steampunk. It's partly a yen to be not quite fashionable, maybe not fashionable at all, but to re-iterate our non-conformity.
Which is just as legit as decorating to re-iterate one's conformity.
Decor is personality statement.
Country says you're a warm, folksy, family-oriented person, and can be trusted to be conventional. Modern is for the swiftly-moving, clean, sleek, today person (as they picture themselves) and confessedly is usually easiest to clean. Neo-Victorian confesses a romantic yen for grandeur, detail, and opulence.
Steampunk is romantic in that we want to move a little outside reality. It's more playful, too.
Sara, I did some research for re-doing my shower and just wanted to pass along a link to what I think to be the most Steampunkish shower faucet that I've run across.
http://usa.hudsonreed.com/product/Twin_shower_valve_with_Grand_rigid_riser_kit/308/40004.html
I would have emailed you, but I couldn't find your contact info.
Personally, I don't think that Steampunk has to always look old and tarnished. It just has to have a beauty in the craftsmanship.
Happy -- I added the shower to the ever growing kaboodle list of steampunk stuff (see link at the bottom of the page). I just wish it came in brass!
I a neightboard that use the plastic bottle of viagra online, juice, soda, etc etc to make stuff for the house, like furniture, small tables, etc etc and it's very nice and many outsiders came and buy.
Thanks
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