Daffodil Sheets Meet John Deere

I was watching television the other day and saw this pretty terrible advertisement about a pretty terrible spaghetti sauce, or nowadays "red sauce," that comes out of a jar.  You all have seen it, the one where she wonders what other bad choices in life she has made. Apparently hers are limited to bad hair styles, while the rest of us have to wrangle with things such as bad husbands and unappreciative children.  Which made me wonder about the worst  home design choices I have ever made. All right, that wasn't the smoothest segue but work with me. 

No one really ever wants to admit that they have made enhancements to their abode that, well, just didn't make the cut. Mine was (and I am not making this up cuz there is a picture to prove it......) back in the '70s, there was this decorating idea I am sure was found in some savvy home decorating magazine, about using sheets as drapes and pillows for the living room. At the time, I was living with my younger sister and our living room furniture consisted of some old platform beds that were about 18" off the floor, covered with bright yellow textured vinyl, and had fake brass ball feet. We had purchased this fine furniture at the now defunct Levitz Furniture in Atlanta. I know it is hard to believe that, after selling quality furniture such as this, they went out of business.  So....... we go to the discount linen store and found what we thought were the perfect sheets to make covers for the mattress forms on the beds and fabulous drapes for our living room.  We had visions of all the interior designers in Atlanta calling our style all the rage and magazines clamoring for pictures. What could go wrong?????? Apparently plenty. Just check out the picture here and you can see why, even through the smoke and mirrors of the 70's, our friends laughed and laughed at our design faux pas (which were not even words in the English language back then). 

Actually, I can blame that whole nightmare on my sister, after all, that is what sisters are for!  As you will see in the examples below, there is plenty of sisterly love going around.  To my sister's credit, she did not let this Daffodil Disaster stop her resolve, and she went on to become an award winning commercial textile designer.  I chose the path of least resistance and went into the cosmetic business.

 I decided to get some expert advice (actually, other people with Etsy stores....) and see what experience they had in home decorating nightmares, just hoping that somewhere, someone had a story that was equally as bad.  And they did not disappoint...........

If you are reading this and thinking boy, that whopper I laid back in 1972 was pretty bad and no one can top it, well, sister, you are in for a rude awakening. People did things that you cannot imagine.  Below are a few stories/comments submitted.  In order to protect the innocent, some names have been withheld.

justgivemepeace   https://www.etsy.com/shop/justgivemepeace

My sister painted her living room Fuscia.....baseboards to ceilings.... AROUND the furniture.  Her hubby had no idea she did that until years later when they got a new couch and went to rearrange the furniture.

OR......

Covering the cracked and yellowed bathroom walls with liquid nails using a cake spatula to mimic stucco....and then painting the walls a myriad of yellow, greens, browns, and blues to look like....
"Mildewed old walls"....

CarolBradley https://www.etsy.com/shop/CarolBradley

Using the "sponging" glaze technique in a (fortunately) small hallway - with beige over white. It looked like a smelly diaper had exploded.

Designer Dwellings LLC https://www.etsy.com/shop/DesignerDwellings      

When I first bought my house I painted my bedroom "Sultan Red" thinking it would be glamorous. It wasn't - my head vibrated when I entered the room. So I picked a different color "Snugglepuss" maybe it was the paint fumes or the fact that I giggled at the name but I thought this rich purple (what we are now calling radiant orchid BTW) would be a good choice. *Sigh* no, it was even worse. Like trying to sleep in a giant Easter Egg.  I have learned from my mistakes and gone on to become an interior decorator.

FabFunky https://www.etsy.com/shop/FabFunky
About fifteen years ago I decided I wanted to build a wardrobe in my bedroom. There was no recess, so it would just be built against (attached) to the wall, and would go about half way the length of the wall. I decided that I wanted it clad in tongue and groove. And also it wouldn't go right to the roof, so I could store stuff on top. So I set to work and built my wardrobe. I should mention I had done nothing more than hammer a nail in a wall before. It took me about a week, but finally I finished. I remember clearing everything away and taking a step back to look at my amazing, incredible and very stylish creation. And that was when I realized that I had in fact built what looked exactly like a shed in my bedroom.  I never lived it down....

And last but not least, my favorite offering was this post. This unfortunate incident gives a new meaning to "Dear John".......

MelaniesApothecary   https://www.etsy.com/shop/MelaniesApothecary

Painting my bedroom a very dark green because I loved the name of the color... I thought I was going for forest-y, pretty, tranquil, peaceful.... instead I got the inside of a John Deer Tractor... and I had nothing to tame the green down as far as pillows or curtains. It just looked terrible.

If you would like to visit the wonderful and creative Etsy store owners who provided these stories, please click on their name and it will take you to their store. Feel free to tell us your worst home decorating story, if you dare........ until next week!!!