2.03.2010

HG Dreams

There's a common joke that HGTV is a gay man's ESPN. For me at least, it's entirely true - I watch marathons of it when I'm at my mom's place. They have the hottest hosts: David Bromstad is the gay community's obvious favorite, but I think Scott McGillivray is dreamy and has amazing hair. (By the way, Scott should model. There's really very few photos of him online. And if he released a sex tape, well, I'd bootleg it.)

Anyway, handsome, well-built men with power tools aren't what really draws gay men to HGTV. That's not what all of us are interested in. We also like interior decor. (lol)

No, seriously! I grew up in a house without any sense of design or style incorporated into it: all our furniture was bought more or less haphazardly, positioned in the same way, and nothing ever matched. Then, after my grandmother stopped living with us when I was in grade school, our house became one large, self-contained mess without anyone to tidy up. We're a bunch of packrats in my family, and none of us ever mastered the art of domestic living. As a result, clutter fills every nook and cranny of our house - boxes of junk, piles of books and papers, mazes of knick-knacks. It looks like a garage sale exploded in there.

When people came over in high school, I always told them my house was in the process of getting renovated to explain the mess. Remarkably, it took till senior year for someone to say, "Hey, how come your house always looks the same?" (lol)

So you'll forgive me if I watch HGTV to dream about stylish future homes I want to live in, or gaze hungrily at big, glossy pictures of fashionable houses online and in magazines. Like this shot from the famous, ultra-luxurious Oriental Hotel in Bangkok:


The people who designed the Oriental have my taste down to the last detail: traditional Thai furniture, artwork, accessories, and patterns meet Western elegance - not exactly modern, but not too stuffy either. Admittedly, this bedroom is a little over the top even for me, but I love the concept and presentation - the gold motif on red walls, the way the wood has a reddish tone in it that picks up the walls, the benches and triangular cushion used by old Thai aristocracy...(I'd probably place a TV there, lol) A little too much going on for a bedroom, perhaps, but it's sumptuous nevertheless.

This one's a bit more vanilla; probably more realistically imitated. I'd pick a darker wall color, though, and throw in some blue/navy blue pieces to off-set the cream and gold.



I could go on and on. I can't wait till the day I get my own place and can afford to do what I want with it. Of course, I'm probably going to be a starving artist/unemployed teacher for a long while yet...

So, to keep my fantasies alive in the meantime, I'll take a big dose of HGTV.

(And Scott McGillivray on the side, please.)

Any other HGTV fans? Are you Team David or Team Scott?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

My favorite interior designer is easily Jonathan Adler (of Top Design fame). He spoke at my school last spring and kept cursing our youth. He was funny, kind, and not afraid to be honest. When a student raised a question of ownership in his design practice, Adler responded with a Jeff Koons quote! I was in love.

barney. said...

i am always fantasizing about my 'future house'. i will, however, need to be a multi-millionaire to realize it :P

Michael said...

omg David Bromstad! I remember I may have came a little bit when I first saw him on the TV which incidentally while I was next to my Mother...

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