Vintage Chaos....

Is it just me, or is anyone else slightly sick of blogs and lifestyle magazines featuring perfectly arranged interiors of vintage collections of this, that, and the other? I mean, I love an old biscuit tin or two, and I'll pounce on anything remotely folk, or handcrafted if it's knocking around in a bargain bin or an op shop, but do I showcase my pickings in beautifully positioned piles around the house? Do I artfully hang old white linens and lace in front of bright white window frames, stack pre-war china on ideally situated pine dressers, or fill up expensively tiled fireplaces with rusty old watering cans teeming with dried flowers? Er, no. I do have an old painted butterchurn in one of my fireplaces, but I also have three children whose chaotic trails of dolls, blocks, cars and books invalidate any attempts at tasteful presentations, even if we do clear up before bedtime. Not only that, but I also look around me and find that I have built up an utterly idiosyncratic collection of stuff over the years, from far flung places such as Mongolia, Iceland, Indonesia, and a variety of other continents and countries that are only characterised by fitting a folk description. There's nothing uniform about my tastes at all.

Now don't get me wrong. I do love vintage collections and often admire the displays I so often see inside, well, every single house, home and fashion magazine available (not to mention the blogroll). But I am beginning to think it's all (dare I say it) becoming frighteningly homogenous. Where's the individuality in all of this? And what about the constant emphasis on Stuff? Sure, we all like to decorate our homes and make them comfy and cosy and personal, but does anyone really need an entire room of vintage nightdresses, or a whole shed full of antique gardening tools? When do we draw the line and say - actually I have enough! And I am sick of shopping!

So - too much consumerism, too much materialism, too much old stuff which is, most of the time (if you choose to get your stuff from admittedly lovely, but frankly overpriced emporiums whose owners no doubt make regular trips to the tip shop and spruce up their findings...) simply superfluous. Not enough representations of real homes belonging to real people, with real messes and real lives. Not enough individuality. I really would like to see a change.... which is why I've posted the above picture of my distinctly imperfect, overly-cluttered, thoroughly chaotic workspace. Bring on the mess!