I just got back from Salt Lake City, I visited the future Mr. Tangognat and checked out our condo with renovations in progress. We bought the place in November from a woman who had a very strange idea of interior decoration. She used a lot of dark green and dark red, and the second bedroom was an electric blue shrine to Spongebob Squarepants. My future husband did a great job painting the dining room and living room a nice warm cream color, and the guest bedroom is now “bonsai green”. I didn’t take any pictures of the nice rooms though, because I felt I had to document the trainwreck like quality of the rooms we haven’t had time to get to yet. To give you an idea of how thematic and overdecorated the condo is, this is a picture of the laundry room:
Note that not only do we have a laundry themed wallpaper border, there is also a laundry themed plactic light switch. Yowza!
This is the front closet. She took the doors off the closet, installed a shelf and a wine themed wallpaper border and a yucky looking rack that I think is supposed to hold wine glasses upside down. I think it looks much better now that it is being used as a holding zone for all the paint and tools. I guess we will have to take out all the wine garbage and buy some new closet doors.
This is the front hallway with the wallpaper border removed, it gives you an idea of how dark the colors are that were used in the condo.
There is not a single tiled surface that was spared a horrible onslaught of stenciling. The former owner used regular house paint on the tiles for her projects, so it can be scraped off.
This is the master bathroom. I think it is a crime against humanity. I don’t know why wobbly pink stripes would be a look anyone would go for, but I guess someone liked it. I’m looking forward to getting rid of the pink.
I am glad that you survived the visual onslaught. I think the former owner had way too much time on her hands. Best of luck to you and especially to Mr. T as he tackles more areas of the condo!
It’s like you landed in an HGTV nightmare, except without the professional designer and the $2000.
You should have seen it when the former owner’s furniture was in the place - there was a white picket fence fireplace screen and a room full of dolls!
It will be very nice when it is all fixed up, and it is in a really handy location.
The red stencils on those tiles look like squashed bugs! Wagh! That is one crazy-lookin’ decor.
Gah…that is one fugly condo. The tiles *do* look like someone squished bugs all over them. Good luck with the repainting.
Do you think the previous owner painted that way to remind herself of the purpose of each room?
WOW! Somebody had too much time on their hands. The person who did that should be banned from watching TLC, HGTV and BBC America. Apparently there is a limit to DYI.
Wow, can I have that switchplate from the laundry room? That’s one-of-a-kind kitsch. What kind of store sells such stuff?
Your place beats the pants off of my SLC house from a few years back. At least you don’t have to undo decades of neglect and poor building!
Oh my gosh you live in my house! The lady that we rent from has that same banner of floating launry in our laundry room. I sympathize, though I do like the pink stripes.
I was hoping that the laundry wallpaper border was localized in Utah, but it has spread to Vermont!! AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
The picture acutally makes the pink stripes look better than they are in real life.
I thought the laundry wallpaper had a certain ’50’s touch that was over the top. I agree with ludewig that that switchplate is a collector’s item and should not be trashed. People used to think that switchplates like that were evidence of the progress that injection-molded polymers allowed.
I don’t think that switchplate is an example of progress through injection-molded polymers.
That being said, there are so many other rooms to fix I don’t think we’ll be touching the laundry room soon.
The laundry room must remain as it is, intact, as a shrine and testament to really f’ing bad taste.
(But if you re-do it–gimme gimme gimme the switchplate cover. . . oohhh, kitchy.)
If I ever do remove that switchplate cover, I’ll send it to you and Ludewig
[...] I wrote previously about the crazy decor in the condo my husband and I bought. Here’s some stage by stage condo renovation pictures. We have a little nook off the dining room. I think it used to be a porch at some point, but it was closed in. The nook is the area where I was going to set up all my bookshelves. It previously housed the former owner’s collection of dolls. Here is what it used to look like, complete with the former owner’s furniture and dolls in the nook in the far right corner of the photo: [...]
[...] 2) Other than the horrific wine closet, and a few ugly light fixtures, my condo is no longer terrifying. [...]