The Grannycore aesthetic

Taylor

This is on the way out

Mother and I love this.

Maybe I can finally do something with all the antimacassars my grandmother crocheted that I've had stored in a linen closet for - oh, let's see - almost 50 years?

That will be especially handy, R4, if your gentleman callers have already embraced grannycore practices to the extent of using macassar oil.

I don't know anyone who decorates this way outside of the senior community.

Its a reaction to all the griege and all the intensely dull soulless HGTV style interiors out there. It can also be done on the cheap to a fair extent as you can find lots of this stuff in op shops/ thrift stores etc for very little. Its also a good way to have a distinctive look as opposed to mass market stuff that looks exactly like everything else, and it appeals to those that wish to recycle / reuse rather than buy new stuff that goes out of style

I'm excited!

An esthetic for my age group!

[quote]Its a reaction to all the griege and all the intensely dull soulless HGTV style interiors out there.

Those are the same people that insist that I have "too much brown furniture".

Me wee Scots Gran would be 133 if she were still alive and I still have some of her oatmeal-coloured crocheted doilies. I think all of her 11 grandchildren have a comparable collection. They are indestructible.

Mostly they sit in a drawer but some of the simpler, larger, pieces come in handy for family gatherings as placemats for hors d'oeuvres. Yeah, funerals. Some are quite heat resistant.

My favourite piece was one she made for my parents as a wedding gift; they were married in 1945. It's an almost art-deco pattern of squares and rectangles, forming diamond shapes, a huge net like beast of a bed cover. Very heavy. We still use it occasionally in cold winter weather (Quebec) and it looks nice over the plain white duvet cover.

The cats and dog love it for some reason.

Decades ago my late Mom used it as a table cover and part of it is still stained with red candle wax. I pick at it but have never managed to get it all out. Not that it matters - one of the cats usually covers the spot.

R11

It's probably way (way) too late, but on the chance that it isn't, you may want to put that bed cover in the freezer (if it can fit.)

Frozen candle wax is easier to pick away. Though only if the dye in the candle hasn't hasn't seeped into the fabric.

But if it happens in the future...

Thanks r12. It's probably too late. It's not a big stain, maybe 3 inches in diameter, but in an inconvenient place. I used to pick at it with tweezers but came to the conclusion I would rather have it intact with the stain than damage the "matrix"

Call it provenance.

I think its a comfort thing. Grannies homes are usually cozy and comfortable and people are trying to recreate that in their own homes .Probably because the world has sucked so bad since 2016.

Social media for adults is too much.

I know a gay couple who have this aesthetic. I stayed over their place for a weekend--there were 5 weird looking dolls at the end of my bedroom.

If it's good enough for Babs, it's good enough for you!

[quote]As the Los Angeles Times wrote in 2001, one of the guest houses on Barbra Streisand's property is "decorated in comfy New England style and filled with the figurines and family photos that grandmothers favor." Harper's Bazaar remarked that the abode is "a cozy cottage filled with quilts." And Oprah. com noted that it's a "Cape Cod cottage-style" home. Naturally, it has been dubbed "Grandma's house."

SINFUL

R6 I doubt this.

Quiet. Hospital Zone.

[quote]What is driving this obsession with chintz, lace doilies and quilts?

A lot of people have FAR too much time on their hands.

The fancy version of this style has traditionally been associated with interior decorator Sister Parrish

Is this an extension of coastal grandma?

Quiet. Coffin.

R22 fuck that's cool

you figure there is a generation or two that didn't grow up with any of this shit...

I have a very old family quilt that I hung on my living-room wall above a steamer chest from the 1880s that my mother's family brought to the U.S. from Denmark. I love both, and I'm not getting rid of them or hiding them because of the latest frau craze. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a mug to cradle.

It falls in the same plane as the "cottagecore", "tradwife", and homesteading/traditional skills mania. It's a desperate desire to go back to a time before technology and hyperconsumerism sucked the soul out of everything and to escape the existential sinkhole left in its wake--wanting to be surrounded by things that are old, made by hand, have a story...following traditions instead of trends. It makes sense that this nostalgia for nostalgia would especially affect young people who were raised by iPads.