Smart home décor items
Trends in home décor are constantly changing and evolving to meet homeowner’s wants and needs.
A new trend in home décor is a bit out of the ordinary, although it could help some people to become a bit more cultured and educated.
According to a December 8, 2006 article by Christina S.N. Lewis of The Wall Street Journal, “It’s the thoughts that counts,” explains how people are turning to home décor items that have an intellectual aesthetic.
From books that have pictures of human anatomy, to stuffed insects, homeowners across the nation are looking to decorate their abodes with items that have some sort of intellectual component.
“Sadia Bruce never studied natural history in school, but here's what she wants for Christmas: ‘Cabinet of Natural Curiosities,’ a $200 oversize book of plant, animal and insect illustrations from the collection of an 18th-century Dutch pharmacist. ‘It might give the idea that I was cerebral,’ says the 26-year-old standardized-tests tutor, who lives in Montclair, N.J.
“Buying smart is taking on new meaning. From shadow boxes of beetles (pinned and labeled) to replicas of gibbon skulls, home-decor items and other gifts with an intellectual aesthetic are big sellers this season.”
The interesting thing about this new trend is that many of these people do not even understand the things they want to adorn their home with, and they had no previous interest in before; it is all for show.
“Retailers and marketers say the interest in things that make people look smart is partly a reaction to the Internet, which has made hardcover encyclopedias, maps and models obsolete -- and hence more desirable. Baby boomers, in particular, are keen on items that make them seem well-educated, well-traveled or well-read.”
“‘They aren't hesitant to try to communicate that,’ says Stephen Gordon, chief executive of the Sundance Catalog, which this season is selling refurbished manual typewriters from the 1940s, including the Royal Arrow ($695), ‘a steadfast companion during Hemingway's frequent stays in Havana.’”
Dictionary sets of languages such as French, Italian and Spanish are also becoming more popular, although many of the buyers for these products do not even know how to read them.
Although the trend seems to be proliferating quite thoroughly across the entire nation, some people are vehemently against it, calling those people phonies.
“Not everyone approves of decorating to look brainy. ‘Queer Eye’ interior designer Thom Filicia compares it to wearing eyeglasses without a prescription. ‘It's creating a façade,’ he says. Literary and culture critic Harold Bloom is similarly unimpressed. ‘I find it too absurd to stimulate me to any comment,’ Mr. Bloom wrote in an email.”
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