Tag Archives: glamour

A Bit of Frippery

One of our favorite chapters in “The Perfectly Imperfect Home” by Deborah Needleman is titled “Glamifications.” She says that amid all the “mundane tasks a house must perform, a bit of frippery is actually a necessity.” Glamour isn’t necessarily something either of us aspire to in our own homes, but we take to heart Deborah’s missive that “[s]implicity and glamour, hand in hand, make for a fresh and chic combination.”

When it comes to glamour, you can’t just stick a toe in. As Deborah says, glamour requires guts “because you need to express it with a bold stroke, not a tentative gesture.” The glamifying elements she identifies include wallpaper, lacquered walls, mirrors, “drippy chandeliers,” old fashioned writing tables, a little animal print, and shiny objects. Here are a few rooms that go all in with a lot of glitz:

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from “Beauty at Home” by Aerin Lauder, image found here

If full-on Regency isn’t your thing, glamour works wonders in smaller doses. One elegant gesture might be enough, so long as it isn’t too timid. Here are more humble rooms with just a few glamifications sprinkled in:

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from “Beauty at Home” by Aerin Lauder, image found here

Of all of the glamifying elements listed in this rich chapter, the one we love the most is old-fashioned writing tables. Here is what Deborah says about them: “Why bother with a quaint relic of a time when people communicated principally by letters? This is why: because like lunch on the lawn or a candlelit dinner, sitting down to a proper little table is entirely gracious. It is about the necessity of charm.”

Here are a few delicate writing desks that have us charmed (and convinced that they belong in the same category as chandeliers and gold gilt mirrors).

We might add one thing to Deborah’s list of glamify-ers, thick black and white striped upholstery:

What’s your approach to glamour? Do your rooms drip with elegant enchantment, or are you more of a glamour by degrees sort? Have a great week!