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Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Serious Trepidation

The Panda gave me some glass samples (bronze tinted glass and clear glass) and asked me to hold them up against the light next to a slice of brown aluminium frame.

"Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaay... so what else do you expect me to do now?" I asked.

"Do you like how the frame matches the glass?" he asked.

I kinda felt that there was something I was missing because I had told him quite clearly a good while back that I wanted to match brown frame with bronze tinted glass. But I said "Yes, I do. What's wrong with it?"

"Ummmm... the aluminium guy said that no one matches brown frame with bronze glass. It has never been done" he said, quite adroitly laying the blame (for this gentle critique of my lack of good taste) at the door of the aluminium window supplier.

I was puzzled. Someone told me decade ago that if I can't match stuff, just choose things that have the same basic tones. Brown and bronze should match if one follows that principle no? "Really? It has never been done? Why? The 2 colours match what?!"

The Panda sidestepped the question and offered the comment, "Nowadays, people choose clear glass. That is the fashion"... to which I countered "I dun wanna be fashionable."

*Silence for a bit*

In reluctant bits and pieces (phrased very carefully so that dear Mrs Petunia Lee who makes yummy roast chickens wouldn't get offended and thus stop making yummy roast chickens) I began to get the picture. Brown frame and bronze glass was the fashion of the 1980s. The heyday of Boy George, the Pet Shop Boys and Cyndi Lauper. The Panda didn't want to embarrass me (and himself) by building a house that looked old before its time. I'm wondering if Grandpa Panda had anything to do with this. Grandpa Panda has been a little more direct about some undesirable features of my house. For example, he commented "You cannot have such a narrow door at the Master Bedroom that opens into such a large room. If people know that I built such a narrow door, I would be quite ashamed." Oh well... ok. I 'm good with a big door.

I still can't really visualize the glass and the windows and the 1980s look but it must be something awful for The Panda to broach the sensitive topic. So I chose clear glass instead. That's probably the first fashionable choice I have made thus far.

Now, I am worried about all my other choices. Oh dear! This is worse than giving birth and wondering what the baby looks like. At least, if one's children look ugly, one can blame Providence but when your house looks ugly, you can only blame yourself.

Wail! Wail! Wail!

3 comments:

Blur Ting said...

Haha, don't need to cry. If the house is ugly, then you make the interior furnishing stunning. I am sure you've seen how some lofts in NY look so run down outside but when you enter, you're transported into another world!

Petunia Lee said...

Ting - That is a comforting thought. It should be easier to do that because at least the furnishings can be changed at little cost. One can't change a roof that easily.

Open Kitchen Concept said...

Another thought - instead of old fashion.. think vintage? And any house would look good in a beautiful garden which I'm sure you'd have..