Northerners & Southerners Different Taste in Home Furnishings

breadlinebetty

cwcw wrote: »

:rotfl::rotfl:What complete tosh.

Decor has nothing to do with geography or weather, more to do with age and fashion. The weather being 1 degree cooler and 2mm more rain per year than a few miles down the M1 has zero bearing on interior decor!

Perhaps another possible explanation is that, after paying £350,000 for their shoebox 1 bed flat in an over populated and polluted city and working 60 hours a week (plus commuting another 20 hours per week on overcrowded public transport), that Londoners simply have no money or time left over to decorate and minimalism is borne out of necessity!

If you haven't guessed, I live in the north (however that is defined..), and voted plain.

Although culture, age and environmenr does dictate decor to a large degree, I think the weather does have an influence too. You only have to look at countries around the world to see how they lean towards a particular style and use colours appropriate to the light and weather.

That 'couple of degrees' colder up north compared to the south actually makes a vast difference, not forgetting all the extra rain the north gets......so it stands to reason that decor will be different according to the different light. Also, when skies are grey and depressing people possibly want to over-compensate by decorating in louder colours and having lots of frills and flounce

I'm not sure why some northerners are under the impression that London is polluted? Some even refer to London as the Big Smoke still!:rotfl: The smogs died out about 50 years ago or more! lol And with all the strict controls on cars, fuel and emisiions etc, London is certainly not some fume-filled pullted city! lol The government is very strict on keeping London clean

Neither do most Londoners work 60 hours per week.......the average is just under 40 :money: And neither do Londoners spend 20 hours a week commuting to work! :rotfl: It does not take a whopping TWO hours each way to get to work if you live in London.....the average commute for a person living in London and travelling to the centre is about 30 minutes.

At least they have jobs to commute to in London.................

johnmcga

Um, just saw the poll and skimmed through the thread and, er, do you fancy generalising just a bit more?

I live in London and will continue to choose my own style, neither frilly nor plain, as I'm sure will most of the rest of the UK.

!!!!!! is 'frilly' anyway?

breadlinebetty

Lizling wrote: »

There's a problem here with the question. No one is likely to say that like 'frilly' any more than they're going to say they've got bad taste. It should have been a more neutral choice like minimalist vs cosy or modern vs a vintage/classic look.

I think it's quite likely that tastes do vary by region. For one thing house styles and sizes are different, so it makes sense. E.g, I'd definitely go ultra-modern in a little flat in a big glass central London tower block because it suits a modern building and it makes the rooms look bigger, but if I lived in a big house in the countryside I'd go for a more traditional look.

Who suggested frilly was bad taste??:o No-one on here from what I can see.....

On the subject of frilly I wouldn't really compare frilly nets, crocheted loo roll covers, loud patterns, overstuffed cabinets full of frilly-looking ornaments, fake brick fireplaces with fake living-flame electric fires, and big fat fluffy bedspreads with deep frilly frills, pillowcases and pyjama covers as being vintage or classic!:(

meer53

breadlinebetty wrote: »

Although culture, age and environmenr does dictate decor to a large degree, I think the weather does have an influence too. You only have to look at countries around the world to see how they lean towards a particular style and use colours appropriate to the light and weather.

That 'couple of degrees' colder up north compared to the south actually makes a vast difference, not forgetting all the extra rain the north gets......so it stands to reason that decor will be different according to the different light. Also, when skies are grey and depressing people possibly want to over-compensate by decorating in louder colours and having lots of frills and flounce

I'm not sure why some northerners are under the impression that London is polluted? Some even refer to London as the Big Smoke still!:rotfl: The smogs died out about 50 years ago or more! lol And with all the strict controls on cars, fuel and emisiions etc, London is certainly not some fume-filled pullted city! lol The government is very strict on keeping London clean

Neither do most Londoners work 60 hours per week.......the average is just under 40 :money: And neither do Londoners spend 20 hours a week commuting to work! :rotfl: It does not take a whopping TWO hours each way to get to work if you live in London.....the average commute for a person living in London and travelling to the centre is about 30 minutes.

At least they have jobs to commute to in London.................

Utter !!!!!!!!. What are you on ?

I'm from the North and you're a snob.

Saturnalia

One thing I have noticed is in the North they tend to go in a lot more for the professionally-done family photos on display on the walls. And older folk have all the kids & grandkids graduation photos in a row along the mantelpiece.

BUT: when I visit friends & family in the north, theirs are family homes. Most people in my old town live with their parents until they are ready to move in with a partner, then they buy a house - there isn't the house-share culture we have here in London. When I visit people here, they are usually in rented homes that they can't decorate (or won't waste money on someone else's property they could be asked to leave at any point). So you see a lot of bare white walls & plain furniture. So maybe London family homes have all the photos up and more decoration too. (Especially since I'm in the East End, where people do still seem to live by the idea that family & community are most important things.)

Born-and-raised Cumbrian, lived in Yorkshire a few years, been in London 6 years and in the East End for 2 years.

ash28

breadlinebetty wrote: »

Although culture, age and environmenr does dictate decor to a large degree, I think the weather does have an influence too. You only have to look at countries around the world to see how they lean towards a particular style and use colours appropriate to the light and weather.

That 'couple of degrees' colder up north compared to the south actually makes a vast difference, not forgetting all the extra rain the north gets......so it stands to reason that decor will be different according to the different light. Also, when skies are grey and depressing people possibly want to over-compensate by decorating in louder colours and having lots of frills and flounce

I'm not sure why some northerners are under the impression that London is polluted? Some even refer to London as the Big Smoke still!:rotfl: The smogs died out about 50 years ago or more! lol And with all the strict controls on cars, fuel and emisiions etc, London is certainly not some fume-filled pullted city! lol The government is very strict on keeping London clean

Neither do most Londoners work 60 hours per week.......the average is just under 40 :money: And neither do Londoners spend 20 hours a week commuting to work! :rotfl: It does not take a whopping TWO hours each way to get to work if you live in London.....the average commute for a person living in London and travelling to the centre is about 30 minutes.

At least they have jobs to commute to in London.................

Well can you explain why when I had to work in London, I didn't live there btw, when I got home in the evening if I was wearing a long sleeved blouse under my jacket the cuffs would be filthy - and if I was wearing court style shoes and no socks with my trousers the tops of my feet would be black - I was really shocked at how dirty I was.

I used to travel from Reading to the Gherkin.

That was 2 years ago and I can't see that it would have changed much.

London has the worst air quality of any capital city in Europe - and is among the top end of all cities in Europe for poor air quality - about 4th I think.






The photo was from April last year.

Saturnalia

Just to add - I find London winters extremely cold! But it is a dry cold, we don't tend to get the rain here. In Cumbria it rains all winter long (and most of the summer). What do you think makes all those lakes, after all?

But London summers are humid with no breeze blowing and it feels much hotter than it really is.

PasturesNew

South, minimalist.

Less to buy, easier to find, easier to match/no matching, less to clean.

Imp

Northerner living in the south in an old house that moves all the time, so I have decorated with patterned wallpaper throughout to hide the cracks.

ash28

I'm originally from the north, spent half my life in the south and now live in rural Lincolnshire.

I don't do frilly (I think) - nor does anyone I know - though my sister in law who is 85 has a crocheted toilet roll cover in her downstairs toilet in a very fetching shade of lemon.

Our house is real mix - 2 of our bedrooms have hard upholstered pelmets and one of them is shaped and comes to about 2/3 the way down the window and has a roman blind behind it. The other has an upholstered box pelmet with curtains and the room is shabby chic - with white and blue painted furniture.

The curtains in the house are all full length triple pleated and dining room has a goblet heading with buttons on each "goblet".

2 sets of roman blinds (we have them in 3 out of the 5 bedrooms) have beaded tassels along the bottom.

The curtains with the exception of the study all have tie backs and they are all fancy - ranging from feathers to long silk tassels and 2 sets have beaded tie backs.

Am I a closet frilly?

I also have 3 metal sculptures - does that compound the frilly?