Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Faux? ....or Naux!

Blogging numbs your inhibitions. Big. Time. A person can almost forget that, even though they are typing alone .... late at night....in his/her pajamas, someone(s) might actually SEE what they've written.


And then the giddy-after-midnight blogger might even regret the decision to divulge her innermost secrets.

Last time, it was underwear I was flaunting (not mine...I'm not THAT uninhibited!), and today I humble myself by showing you my faux plates.....or Not.

I'll let you decide. (And no fair postulating, if you've been to my actual real-life home and touched them!)


These are on a shelf above a small window-filled alcove off the kitchen. (Don't you love the pickling on the woodwork?! Try to look at it instead of the old, ugly fan.)





What about all these roosters? Are they paper, too?



Most of the plates shown in the pictures above are "not real", aka fake, aka paper.

Fake seems like such a harsh word to use for such beautiful (at least the price was) decorations. But that is an accurate description, as noted at thesaurus.com.

Main Entry:
fake
Part of Speech:
adjective
Definition:
false, imitation
Synonyms:
affected, artificial, assumed, bogus, concocted, counterfeit, fabricated, fictitious, forged, fraudulent, invented, make-believe, mock, phony, pretended, pseudo*, reproduction, sham, simulated, spurious

Notes:
a fake is a work of art that is deliberately made or altered to appear better, older, or other than what it is; a forgery is a fraudulent imitation of another thing that already exists.



At this point you may be skeptically asking, "Why is such a savvy, classy decorator like her, using paper plates?"

Excellent question.


It all started when we were getting our last house ready to sell and I had to turn my school room back into it's original use as a dining room. It had a built-in hutch that we had repurposed as a book shelf/school supply cabinet. We took off the glass doors and put in the books.



Unfortunately, our public-school educated realtor didn't think most people would appreciate a dining room with a hutch full of play dough and geography games.

So, off came the maps from the walls, the solar system from the ceiling fan, and the encyclopedias from the shelves.


And in came the cute dining table and rug; the obligatory floral centerpiece -and the china cabinet was reunited with its glass doors.


But something looked amiss with the empty china cabinet.

And my fix-the-house-up-to-sell budget was so LOW.

So.....I went out and bought the cutest paper plates I could find. I splurged and got 16....as a show of confidence that the house would sell.


And it worked :) In fact, it worked so well - and looked so tasteful and cultured (if I must say so myself...) that I told several of my friends. They were justifiably amazed.


When we moved to our current house, I used the same paper plates, being the frugal decorator that I am, but my kitchen kind of morphed out of the red and blue cottage stage and became more red and yellow, black and white traditional.

So, I bought these:






The red and white ones are real, as well as the bowls and roosters - but all the black and white plates are paper. (and here's where I DO NOT agree with thesaurus.com when it gives 'flimsy' as a synonym for paper).

The only downside to paper plates is that if you live in a humid climate they might start to curl in a bit. In which case I highly suggest......Throwing Them Away. Because you can. Because they are cheap.

And non-breakable. Which has been tested several times by my sons.



How about that platter above my sink? Faux or Naux?


I'll never tell!

8 comments:

Moriah @ Please Pass the Salt said...

I love the black beadboard!

Anonymous said...

if anyone asks you if they are real, just say "they are real.... special." i use that line for all my "real... special" jewelry items...

Anonymous said...

Did you make those curtains? I didn't realize the b/w plates were paper...so I have no idea about the platter behind the sink. I'll have to come and inspect it for myself. In June.

Heather - Hopelessly Flawed said...

OK, I think you are amazing. I LOVE this idea! Every momma needs disposable, non-breakable home decor!

Laura said...

Love it. Is the platter one of those new plastic kind? I've seen them and entertained the idea of using them. I think it would be "tray" chic!

Kahlua Keeping Koala said...

I never knew...

Anonymous said...

I enlarged one of the photos on my computer screen and STILL couldn't tell!
:o)

Julie said...

That is the coolest thing I have seen in a long time! Where did you buy such pretty paper plates?