YHL vent

[sailorgray]

Jan 18, 2013 9:27:56 GMT -5 hesitantbride said:

Jan 18, 2013 9:22:59 GMT -5 munkii said:

Maybe your annoyance with YHL is less about this room and more a build up of disgust on their upward mobility in the design world when they clearly do not know what they're doing? They curate shops for Joss & Main, stores work with them for promos, and they now have their own lighting line. All of this is based on a design blog about bad design, but a pp makes a point that they and their home are relatable. Their home looks/feels normal to most people and also looks good to most people. As long as people continue to enjoy their work, they will continue to make bad decisions. And as long as the masses continue flocking to their website, other stores will continue to promote them.

  This is well said.  They have generated a huge public platform for themselves (New York Times bestseller!), and yet they don't have a design sense that is something that should be awarded.  I've made this point before, that there is a huge disconnect between who becomes popular and who actually has talent.  I acknowledge that their home is relatable, and that people can go to Target or IKEA and mimic their style.  But they are not arbiters of good taste.  It is bad design.  They traffic in their adorable child and dog and their own personalities--which make for great PR--but behind that is not good design.

So they win at capitalism, but not taste, in my opinion.

ITA with both of these statements.  I think we need to blame the readers and not YHL, though. Hell, if I started a blog on stuff that I was interested in and it became hugely popular and huge companies were coming to me with ideas and wanting to plaster my name on their stuff, I'd be all over it. 

I remember having this debate quite often on TN when a former nestie started a design "company" without any formal training. If people are going to pay, then they should probably do their research on who they are hiring. Some people don't care, though.

[Deleted]

Jan 18, 2013 9:27:56 GMT -5 hesitantbride said:

Jan 18, 2013 9:22:59 GMT -5 munkii said:

Maybe your annoyance with YHL is less about this room and more a build up of disgust on their upward mobility in the design world when they clearly do not know what they're doing? They curate shops for Joss & Main, stores work with them for promos, and they now have their own lighting line. All of this is based on a design blog about bad design, but a pp makes a point that they and their home are relatable. Their home looks/feels normal to most people and also looks good to most people. As long as people continue to enjoy their work, they will continue to make bad decisions. And as long as the masses continue flocking to their website, other stores will continue to promote them.

  This is well said.  They have generated a huge public platform for themselves (New York Times bestseller!), and yet they don't have a design sense that is something that should be awarded.  I've made this point before, that there is a huge disconnect between who becomes popular and who actually has talent.  I acknowledge that their home is relatable, and that people can go to Target or IKEA and mimic their style.  But they are not arbiters of good taste.  It is bad design.  They traffic in their adorable child and dog and their own personalities--which make for great PR--but behind that is not good design.

So they win at capitalism, but not taste, in my opinion.

^^
What they said.  They get attention because their blog is popular, not because they are talented.  Their publisher knew this when they offered the book deal.  They knew they'd be cashing in on their popularity and not their talent.  The problem now is that their followers are going to take their ideas as holy grail and do stupid stuff like ORBing their kid's baby shoes with spray paint instead of having them properly bronzed. 

[heyjude]

The room, in isolation, is fine. Not great. Not professional. But fine and livable. The expedit is an amazing piece (I own two!) but it is featured everywhere and boring to see another blog post about it. They missed the opportunity to so something unique with; hack it or change it up a bit. Books, baskets, knick knacks, yawn. It's also too staged for my liking. Do these people not actually read? And only own two board games?

Whatever. My real problem with the room is that it is just another boring gray room to sit in, in a house filled with boring gray rooms to sit in. It's sits directly off of such a boring gray room. It served no purpose at all. I thought they said they didn't need two living rooms, which is why they turned their formal LR into that odd dinning room? They should have turned the sunroom into a useful space: library, art room, office, playroom, anything other than just another sitting room.

[tarheels]

Jan 18, 2013 9:27:56 GMT -5 hesitantbride said:

Jan 18, 2013 9:22:59 GMT -5 munkii said:

Maybe your annoyance with YHL is less about this room and more a build up of disgust on their upward mobility in the design world when they clearly do not know what they're doing? They curate shops for Joss & Main, stores work with them for promos, and they now have their own lighting line. All of this is based on a design blog about bad design, but a pp makes a point that they and their home are relatable. Their home looks/feels normal to most people and also looks good to most people. As long as people continue to enjoy their work, they will continue to make bad decisions. And as long as the masses continue flocking to their website, other stores will continue to promote them.

  This is well said.  They have generated a huge public platform for themselves (New York Times bestseller!), and yet they don't have a design sense that is something that should be awarded.  I've made this point before, that there is a huge disconnect between who becomes popular and who actually has talent.  I acknowledge that their home is relatable, and that people can go to Target or IKEA and mimic their style.  But they are not arbiters of good taste.  It is bad design.  They traffic in their adorable child and dog and their own personalities--which make for great PR--but behind that is not good design.

So they win at capitalism, but not taste, in my opinion.

This.  Why are we still talking about them?!  They're not design bloggers; they're your neighbors who happen to have a blog. 

Yall know I hate prison gray, but I think this works.  (They're also immediately on my good side bc this doesn't look like a room one might hang oneself in, a la RH.)  They matched the depths of the colors they chose well - they have a medium gray with medium pastels that show up well.  I'm impressed (for them) that they pulled in four different accent colors, all of which are the same depth.  I like the mix of patterns on the pillows and the styling over in the bookcase area is pretty good. 

By design blog standards, it's uninspired as TBM(?) said.  By couple next door standards, it's trendy and cute.  Too young and trendy for me, but it's not my house.

So you don't think I've gone soft, I still can't stand their icy, uninviting family room

[pitterwoo]

Jan 18, 2013 11:46:41 GMT -5 tarheels said:

So you don't think I've gone soft, I still can't stand their icy, uninviting family room

I'm glad you added this, but I had indeed started wondering if YHL had you on the take.

[tarheels]

Jan 18, 2013 13:07:07 GMT -5 pitterwoo said:

Jan 18, 2013 11:46:41 GMT -5 tarheels said:

So you don't think I've gone soft, I still can't stand their icy, uninviting family room

I'm glad you added this, but I had indeed started wondering if YHL had you on the take.

Ha!  No.  It's all about looking at them like they are: 20 somethings spray painting stuff.  On that scale, and NOT the professional scale, or even the talented blogger/nestie scale, it's a pretty cute room. 

[lemondrop]

Jan 18, 2013 14:18:01 GMT -5 tarheels said:

Jan 18, 2013 13:07:07 GMT -5 pitterwoo said:

I'm glad you added this, but I had indeed started wondering if YHL had you on the take.

Ha!  No.  It's all about looking at them like they are: 20 somethings spray painting stuff.  On that scale, and NOT the professional scale, or even the talented blogger/nestie scale, it's a pretty cute room. 

Well, technically they're 30 somethings spray painting stuff.