I asked the For Scale guy to shop 'where America shops'
Make America Decor Again.
When I found
, the design Substack authored by David Michon, my brain opened, Limitless-clear-pill-style. His dispatches rewired my thinking about objects and how we can talk about “trends.” Exhibit A: David’s MANIFESTO. Exhibits B, C, D: “soup” light, the recent “poo-ification” certain home brands are pushing, templecore.A few weeks ago, David and I met IRL, blind-date style. He has beautiful hair and is partial to the iced matcha pistachio latte at Echo Park’s Canyon Coffee. We talked a lot about the institution of DECOR MEDIA as well as immigration (David is Canadian, but we will forgive him for that). What I really wanted to know was…how’d he get so smart? Humble human that he is, he said “I don’t really know anything, I just go to the library.” (Said like a smartypants.) Still, in the spectrum of Design Coverage, I view For Scale as highbrow (I’m sure David would argue otherwise). (Schmatta, on the other hand, is lowbrow, but I am attempting to make it more uni-brow.) Curious about David’s own home aesthetic, he gave me the cool-guy answer: “I usually buy vintage or used.”
“Would you ever shop at CB2?” I asked.
“Uh. No.”
(*Mental note to cover our CB2 coffee table with a sheet should David ever come over.) In the days after, I was thinking, What if David were forced to shop at mass retailers? What would he find?
And because he is a lovely human, he has indulged my request (with some slight variances, but I still got him to shop at Wayfair!). Without further ado…
FOR SCALE SHOPS WHERE AMERICA SHOPS.
(Words by David Michon)
LOWE’S: Dekorra 24-in W x 42-in L x 21-in H Well Pump Cover.
We encountered the use of a “rock” well pump cover (whatever that is!) via exceptional L.A. resellers “FORMAS”. They had smartly employed the well pump cover as a stool, in a small exhibition-homage to experimental Florentine dance club “SPACE ELECTRONIC” (1969) by wacko-architects Gruppo 9999. And, honestly, it was comfortable. See here.
THE RESTAURANT STORE: Regency 24" x 36" Green Epoxy Drying Rack 4-Shelf Kit with 64" Posts and Casters - 1 1/4" Slots - 24" x 36"
Less “Where America Shops” and more where it SHOULD: i.e. industrial supply. Because, how wonderful (in a childless home?) of having this little drying cart as some kind of Slesin’s-”Hi-Tech” style industrial alt to the now-suburban “open shelving” approach?
We humbly believe that recent increases in ‘décor’ literacy have counterintuitively encouraged highly homogenous interiors, leaning to the very formal and “curated” (i.e. sanitized). We suggest some ‘thing’, any ‘thing’, to pierce the bubble of ‘total décor’. Example: outdoors, once a relaxed space, is now suffocated by boxy “indoor-outdoor” furniture (that is never indoors). Fun is gone. Reinstate the fun with something absurd and “tacky”, and develop a theory to justify it: i.e. “This LED palm tree is a commentary on the corruption of nature by late-capitalism. Plus it’s cute!”
I truly hope you enjoyed every second of that, because I did. Let us all seek to reinstate fun, nix the curation, and talk about colors in terms of bodily excretions.
And finally, if you aren’t subscribed to For Scale, then what are you even doing?
WE FEEL USED, SO WE BUY USED.