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1965 boho chic

Well, I’ve put up a trial version of my fake transom windows over the new bathroom door. I used matching garage-sale picture frames with “stained glass” cling film on their glass.

Currently they’re simply sitting on nails half-driven into the wall. Not permanently installed. Proof of concept and all. But so far, so good. They let a pleasant, muted light pass between the bathroom and the rest of the house and vice versa.

But they have this vibe of “broke bohemian college student ca. 1965” about them. Long before cling film existed, college bohos managed to fake this same stained glass look. Plus they had tables made out of wooden cable reels. And … somewhere on the wall, inevitably, something from Picasso’s blue period. That bent old man playing the guitar, usually. Him.

And if not that, a bullfight poster. Preferably featuring that romantic young matador who got gored to death and died right in the pages of Life magazine.* What the heck was his name? Ah … Manolete.

(You can have “Paris at Midnight” in the 1920s if you want the bohemian big time. I give you San Jose State College, three blocks off frathouse row, with people who were soon to decree their abode a commune.)

Ahem. Anyhow, cheap, pre-hippie boho wasn’t quite the effect I was going for, but for now this will do.

Unfortunately I haven’t the skill or the camera to capture the effect in situ with light shining through into a dark room, but here’s a shot of the “windows” in the kitchen with meek and wimpy sun shining through them.

Bathroom_FauxTransomWindowsNotYetInPlace_030516

And while we’re on the subject of art, I just happened to look down into my kitchen sink one night last week and spotted this “dishwater art.” Couldn’t have designed that if I’d have tried.

DishwaterArt_0316

More of substance tomorrow. Really.

9 Comments

  1. RustyGunner
    RustyGunner March 7, 2016 10:52 am

    Dollar-store Mondrian! Yay!

  2. MamaLiberty
    MamaLiberty March 7, 2016 12:17 pm

    The window is beautiful. Greens are my favorite colors, so I’d love that. But I’d rather leave it in the kitchen, myself. I spend a great deal more time there than in the bathroom. 🙂

    The kitchen sink art is very interesting too. I would probably never even notice such a thing. 🙂

  3. LarryA
    LarryA March 8, 2016 8:11 pm

    [pedantic]
    Your windows may be fake stained glass, but if they’re set above the strengthening crossbar over a door they are really “transom windows.”
    [/pedantic]

  4. Laird
    Laird March 9, 2016 2:29 pm

    They look beautiful to me. But then, my brother-in-law still has one of those “tables made out of wooden cable reels” in his living room, so perhaps my opinion on matters artistic isn’t too useful.

  5. Frank
    Frank March 10, 2016 3:03 am

    The ‘stained glass’ looks great so install it already !! 🙂

    I used a “wooden cable reel” for a kitchen table in an old 1920’s duplex I lived in many, many years ago. Did a lot of partying at that table, too! 😉

    No Picasso but I do remember having a Santana poster (probably from the Abraxas album) over the fireplace and I had an old, working barber chair in the living room!

  6. Dan
    Dan March 14, 2016 10:44 am

    Inside the square dish looks like a picture of Jesus with a dust mask !………prophecy ?
    (never a tongue in cheek emoticon around when I need one)

  7. Claire
    Claire March 15, 2016 11:18 am

    OMG, and I washed Jesus down the drain! Sacrilege!

    I didn’t even see him. I just saw abstract art. But … what if it was Jesus in a gas mask instead of a dust mask? World War III coming — and I ignored the signs???

  8. Dan
    Dan March 16, 2016 7:53 am

    We’re both doomed either way….
    (cue the suspense music circa ’54)

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