My Taste, Their Taste

NOT our bedroom!

       Coming from Japan after spending so many years there, I must've absorbed a lot of the Japanese sense of design. I really do love their "wabi-sabi" approach to things--ceramics, furnishings, clothing, etc.  Here in Malaysia, it's been hard for me to decorate our new home with that sensibility.  The prevailing decor style here is something I've personally decided to call "Singapore modern."  It involves lots of metal, hard plastic, sparkle, and very uncomfortable chairs!  The bedroom suite pictured here is a rendering of this style in a furniture showroom.  I don't hate it, but I wouldn't want to live with it.  It's too hard and harsh for my taste, and Hubby's, too.  

NOT our bedding!

    Bedding, in particular, has been problematical.  They have LOTS of bedding here in Penang, and it's always on sale, up to 70% or 80% off sometimes.  Here in Penang is where I came to realize that high thread count sheets are well worth the money.  (So is high-quality toilet paper, for that matter.)   So, lots of the bedding sold here feels nice but, oh my, some of it looks . . . . .well, let's just say that it isn't suited to my taste at all.   


    It's so relentlessly cheerful and bright, like this orange ensemble here, which must be for a kid's room.  It surely would shock you into wakefulness in the morning, wouldn't it?  Or keep you awake at night.

Our bedding

      There was, however, one set of tasteful bedding in our local "departmental store."  Guess who got it?  We did!  And here it is.  (The one with leaves on it, in case there's any doubt.)  
It's the best we could do here in Malaysia and we do love it.

 Cinderella's furnishings after marrying the Prince

       








     The other day a new furniture store opened up in the nearby mall.  (By the way, within two weeks of opening, they were having their first "clearance sale.")  This over-the-top blue-and-silver plush stuff they have in their show window typifies the decor style that many Malaysians favor.  


          I ask you, who could possibly choose to live with furniture like this?  Cinderella or one of the other Disney princesses, perhaps?  Certainly not me!