Design and Ethnicity

A while back I was doing some shopping with H. He was looking for a lamp, since his old one broke. Since I was spending significant time at his place and had the car we drove to Cambridge where I remembered a bunch of furniture stores. Now H. happens to have nice enough furniture it's a mix between Japanese and Hemingway type stuff. So when we got to the furniture store and H. disliked all designs calling it "too modern." I was perplexed. Turns out the boyfriend and I don't have the same taste in furniture. Minimalism and cute things weren't his bag. In fact it was suggested at one point that Jews love the fifties furniture look (H. says it's more Swedish/euro style, rectinlinear and simplified in geometry, plus the colors -- which tend to run to the sandy/desert side of things -- brown, sand, orange, etc.) while someone else (me) suggested that the Laura Ashley floral sofas, so popular with the WASPs, wasn't the height of chic interior decorating.
I wasn't put off by H. comments (his not Jewish and told of me of his observations rather cautiously not wanting to offend) - I knew what he meant. I remember showing an Israeli friend my home and him remarking on how "Russian" it felt. I think my feelings were a bit hurt since my family prided itself on not seeming stereotypically Russian. Yet there our home stood, the archetypal Russian kvartira (apartment) with heavy furniture (although no rugs on the wall) and the chachckas on the shelf. It seems each culture prefers its own decor, nothing wrong with that.

Here are some random things I like (and he probably won't):

The French might be off putting.


I really like the ladybug details.



Who knows maybe in time our tastes will rub off each other. Specifically my taste! :)