One of the perks of moving all around the world with our home on our back (read: 12+ trunks or 4 cubic meters) is that we get to have a brand new home and interior décor every 2-3 years on average. Well at least that is what I tell myself when I cry over everything I have to leave behind each time (and I’m not only talking about my clothes, my shoes, my bags, etc... I’m also thinking about my kids belongings but not so much about Jeff’s stuff since we are here because of him in the first place (well I’m whining but I love it!!))
So back on the matter at hand : Interior Design.
We have so far lived in a “rod-iron style house” in Buenos Aires (we even had one or two pieces of furniture made with it to bring back, so apparently we kind of like it). It was a nice apartment with wooden floors and a view over the garden of a Covent and we still have fond memories of it. In fact we had moved from a 30 sqm in Paris to a 150 sqm in Buenos Aires; not bad of an upgrade, don’t you think?
Then we were on our way to Aberdeen and little did we know that we were going to live in a style that can only be describe as a Thailand Nightmare (Tapestry and Elephant momentum absolutely everywhere). We actually had to pack most of it up and put in the attic after a few weeks, we couldn’t take it anymore!!!. But on the plus side when you have flowery carpet and a toddler that tended to leave tracks of food behind, it’s a nice thing: crumbs don’t show as much when you have a patterned carpet.
Our next move was just a few blocks down the road (it had already been 2 years in that house and we didn’t want to lose our touch of packing every couple of years. Plus baby n°2 was on the way so we needed to have another room) and for the first time we got to live in a “Total” look (and by Total look we mean TOTAL® look). Well that was a first for us. Until now we had been lucky that each time we got to have a house that was personal and not entirely furnished by the company and by entirely I mean ENTIRELY: from furniture to dishes, etc, which makes it interesting when you go to your friend’s houses and you feel almost at home because they have exactly the same stuff!
We then had to go back to France, for a short time as you all know, and for the first time we got to pick our own furniture (the 4 years in Paris and student furniture in a 30 sqm apartment doesn’t count as ’to furnish a home”). We actually had to furnish an entire home from top to bottom; everything that you think of, we had to buy it (that was painful, not only for the short time allocated but for the wallet too). But after less than a year in our growing collection and beloved, hard-found Antiques in France we had to move to new Interior Design adventure.
Which brings us to now and our new slick, modern and minimalist look in Beijing. We had visited quite a few apartments and after seeing a lot of horrors not to our taste decor, we settled for an empty apartment to be furnished by the owner according to our guidance. We were so afraid of going too Chinese (think dark lacquered wood, fluffy cushions), too Middle-East (think too much gold) too... too… too everything that we told them that modern was the best choice.
The conclusion of this life style is that I’m glad I didn’t get to pay for all the disastrous décor mistakes over the last few years and that I can go back home with a good idea of what we like and dislike
