The Register-Guard

August 22, 2004

It's simple: Home decor, and life, should be fun

by Susan Palmer

Eugene, Oregon

Pssst!

Hey, you.

Yes, you, lurking in front of all those House Beautiful decorating magazines at the bookstore.

You're secretly hoping that those magazines will save you from your style-impaired self. The truth is, you don't know your country kitchen from your Victorian pantry, your engineered wood floor from your 3/4 -inch red oak. Draperies frankly scare you.

And paint? Who knew there were 100 different shades of white muddying up the color wheel?

But fear no longer. We've found two antidotes to your decorating angst.

The first - a book - turns decorating into personal diversion. The second - a magazine - offers "relief from house, food and garden perfection."

The book, "Funky Shui" by sisters Jennifer and Kitty O'Neil, transforms feng shui - the Chinese art of arranging objects to achieve harmony - into a celebration heavy on flea-market kitsch.

It promises to help you "Lighten Up, Loosen Up, and Have Fun Decorating Your Home."

The O'Neils clearly never met a primary color they didn't like, and the book's many pictures might alarm those of us with a personal palette along sage-and-rose lines, but that's no reason to be scared away.

It's the text that really matters here, and the sisters think decor starts and ends with the stuff you like.

"If you boxed up travel souvenirs and photos from your honeymoon in the Big Apple, you're stifling your honeymoon mojo. And that generic art from Pottery Barn is squeezing out space for your own precious memories," they write.

Their rules: Find your playful center, brighten up with color, choose delightful lighting and celebrate your favorite things.

In other words, don't be afraid to show off your lawn penguins, nodding hula dancers or even that box of old Pez dispensers.

Thus, you'll find an old chair re-upholstered with fake grass and put to use as an occasional table, or you'll see an empty Spam can doubling as a pencil holder.

But life isn't all kitsch, even for the O'Neils. They're not against a little elegance.

In fact, if elegance is your thing, you should indulge in it more often: "Saving your finest china for a special occasion wards off the special occasions awaiting you at every meal," they write.

Best-case scenario: The book will help you start seeing your own funky shui possibilities without your inner Martha Stewart tsk-tsk-tsking in the background.

If the O'Neils' tongue-in-cheek approach doesn't set your own decorating mojo in motion, then try Rescue magazine.