But you have to hire a designer to cöordinate the tchotchkes or you'll end up with everything but the kitsch in sync.

(running for cover)

You can touch my tchotchkes only if you're a licensed tchotchke-tchoutcher!

(running for BlogDog's foxhole)

Licensed designers want everyone to have a license in order to stifle competition. Of course the govenment is only too happy to cooperate, because the more licensing they control, the more money they get, and the more power they have.

I can't watch the video right now because I'm at work, but I can tell you that last session (2009), a very prominent Houston or Austin-based interior designer lobbied to have a state House bill passed that would've made unlicensed designers (who typically call themselves "decorators" instead of interior designers) unable to work. On of the hottest decorators in Austin- for residential, restaurant, bar, and retail- doesn't have a license. He's a genius (according to me, anyway), but he never got licensed. In commercial settings, he always works with an architect- so everything's going to be to code.

I really enjoy interior design. Not everyone is so into it.

I read elsewhere that part of the argument for licensing interior designers is that their work often extends to things that potentially affect building safety: electrical systems, changes to interior walls, and so on. Given that the execution of this work is usually done by licensed contractors (who supposedly should know not to drop a load-bearing wall or overload wiring), perhaps the interior decorator's licensing is still superfluous. But it seemed less crazy to me after reading that.

As an artist (one with skillz, not a "macaroni-gluer" as coined by Jeffery Sebilia), I can tell you that the white room in the WSJ piece is extraordinarily composed. It's on the verge of chaos, but has threads of order running through it.

The other two are most likely well done but it's hard to tell from the camera angle. The acid test would be if one walked around the rooms and were treated to perfect composition after perfect composition.

You know how Elmore Leonard's dialogue isn't correct but it's right nonetheless? And it's not pretty? These rooms are kind of the visual equivalent of that. Kind of. In a way. It's the best analogy I can come up with for you.

Isabel's 86 year old mother's rules for decorating:

100 year old junk is still junk, not an antique.

Any time a new material or style becomes "affordable" it is automatically "dated"

What ever the "in" color is now, in 15 years we will consider it hideous and in 30 it will probably be in again.

nick knacks and decorator objects that have no sentimental value, are nothing more than dust collectors

Even the most prized antique is for sale at the right price because "people" especially family members and children are more important than "things".

People who think that decorating is an important priority, cannot distinguish between "wants" and "needs"

What ahw said. IBEW lobbied here to get a licensing requirement to run low-voltage (coax, network, telephone) wiring so that the union would get that work.

99% of the time, it's about using government to stifle competition. The fact that licensing doesn't grant even limited immunity should tell you something.

There should definitely be a license for practicing Feng Shui, the art of designing a room to be in accord with the ethereal forces of nature (like The Force in the Starwars movies).

Get Feng Shui wrong and your whole day will be ruined each time you enter your living room.

(smile)

Nah, Amy, color and composition are my strong points, (which is good because they are the two elements that can't be taught) and I've never gotten one of my own apartments quite right.

It's mostly because my approach to shopping is to buy things that I imagine would fit in Pippi Longstocking's house (yeah, I know, I'm a huge wierdo) so my stuff neither goes together or fits in any given space well. Though I must say I can put together some interesting displays.

Give me an empty space and a 100,000 sq ft decorator warehouse and I'd probably do really well--and probably so would you.

Amy, I agree with you, the first one was okay, but the other two were disturbing and ugly! The last two remind me of something you would see in an old basement, where you put all the mismatched furniture that you don't want other people to see, and you don't have to look at too often. The second one might be salvagable, but that green carpet is awful.. and pumpkin chairs?!

@Isabelle--

So does your Mother not believe that beauty feeds the soul at all? Some people do need order and harmonious colors to be truly happy. I personally have learned that I truly cannot live with fake wood paneling. It depresses me. Like clinically. Also, the colors red, white and blue together. Yes, like our flag. The combo is very hard to look at for me. No, I don't know why.

And while yes, I do believe that people are more important than things in a global sense, destructive people--people that destroy order, beauty, peace, and other peoples hard work--are to be, well, not bothered with. Sounds mean, but I've been a slow learner in this area and I think I've finally got it.

So where does your Mother stand on how people treat each other and other people's things?

The ONLY thing I liked about the 1973 room is the pumpkin pouf chairs... but I just happen to love poufs. I also think "pouf" is fun to say. While I wouldn't call any of the rooms "distubing," I wouldn't be all that comfortable living in any of them. While I like 1970's clothing design (Yay Halston Heritage!), I don't so much care for the interior design ideas of the time. Plus, fake wood paneling reminds me of old mobile homes.

Hardly anything in my house matches, and I like it that way.

If I had all the money in the world, I'd want my house to look like the Parker in Palm Springs. I think the designer on that was Jonathan Adler. Any room/bar/lobby/patio in there, I could live in quite happily.

Designers don't work in a vacuum -- their work has to be executable. If they need to know how much space to leave for electrical stuff, etc., don't you think they'd call a contractor?

That probably wouldn't be very effective. The designer comes up with a design, then asks their contractor if that works. No? Ok, well here is a different design, how about it? They would basically be a decorator.

The licensed designer is more like a architect. They are licensed and licensed contractors build what they design. Licensed contractors aren't required to have the same knowledge as an architect. For example, my friend wanted to open his kitchen, but the wall was structural support. the contractor knew this. The architect was able to analyze the building and determine that a pole would do - they didn't need the full wall. With the architect's sign-off the contractor went ahead and did the work.

A decorator could hire an architect do any of that type of work and then all they need is a business license/tax id (so long as it is only the one person).

There is an episode of Holmes on Homes or maybe it was Holmes Inspection - on of his shows anyway - that shows the potential problem. Someone had taken out a supporting wall in the center of the first floor and the top floor was caving in. In one spot the floor had sunk 2inches below the the bottom of the wall.

Having a license to do interior design is about as stupid as needing a license to arrange flowers.

There is some sense if they are strictly interior designers and are advocating ripping out walls. But 90% are going to have a contractor involved at that level.

I wonder what Feng Shui would have to say about the way DH decorated the living room? Two deer heads on one wall, plus several sets of antlers, a shotgun over the door, an antique pistol in a display box, a huge painting of ducks coming up off the water, the flag from his dad's coffin in a display box on the wall. A wood and glass antique ashtray he snagged when the courthouse threw them out. Oil lamp sconces. It's kind of like walking into a hunting lodge.

"So does your Mother not believe that beauty feeds the soul at all?"

Not even going to dignify this with a response.

Why would you think that a lack of interest in interior "design" and designers would translate into a general lack of appreciation for beauty and art?

@Isabelle

Uh, because you described your Mother entirely in terms of what she does *not* do, ideas she does *not* suscribe to, and what she thinks of people who enjoy decorating?

Look, it's entirely possible that she's the 86 year old version of me, but here's how I would hope my Nieces would describe me--"She surrounds herself with what she loves whether it goes together or not. She buys whatever strikes her fancy and has a great eye for the hidden treasure so she has a Victorian Fairy painting that she picked up for $5.00 and a gilt Aesthetic era picture frame that is worth a lot more than she paid for it. Since she loves her treasures so much she never did like the idea that one should throw out all ones possessions every once in a while and get all new. She believes a true home is made out of life's souveniers." Or something like that.

The picture you painted of your Mother, Isabelle, is of a woman who would walk through an antique store going "Pfft, it's all junk." Of a woman who would be derisive of any and all decorating efforts on the grounds that it's shallow and it's all just stuff. Of a woman who wouldn't support me if one of her grandsons spilled a juice box all over my new purse because "people are more important than things." Which would mean she's not supporting me, even though I'm a people too.

Maybe I'm way off base, Isabelle, but I'd like to know what your mother *does*. Does she always have fresh flowers in the house? Does she always have a clean butter dish? Is the kitchen sink always sparkly?

I don't think designers need to be licensed - but many of them should be arrested.

Imprisoned.

Is Abu Ghraib still available?

My mother's manners are impeccable. She would never say anything unkind to anyone or be ill mannered. Putting people over things does not mean tolerating or excusing bad manned or ill behaved children. Why would you think that it would?