How things change. When I was growing up my grandmother used to crochet doilies. All the family had them .Back in those days just about every house had them. Most were white or beige crocheted doilies that went under the ornaments or anything placed on a table or shelf.
I remember one my mother in law made that had a trim of purple and orange pansies around the edge. Doilies were all the rage back then.
Now you hardly every see them and with good reason. To my mind they always made everything look fussy and cluttered. Certainly we do not have one doily in our house. It is a fashion that has had its time.
I prefer a sleeker look. In my opinion doilies just made more work when it came to dusting. First you had to pick the daily and the object up, wipe the dust away and then replace the doily and object. No thanks. Not for me. My owls, ornaments and personal effects go straight on the table or shelf surface.
The one exception I have made is with palm oil candles. We bought a couple of these last year from a convent where nuns make them. They have a lovely perfume but you need something under them or the palm oil seeps through and leaves stains on the wood.
I learned early on to put a coaster under it to protect the wood surfaces. The advantage of using a coaster is that it’s small, unobtrusive, thicker and gives more protection to the wood surface and doesn’t have that fussy look.
Fashion doesn’t just happen on the cat walk but in home furnishings as well. It’s always interesting how fashions change and what our parents or grandparents thought was the height of fashion in home decorating becomes something we wouldn’t even consider. Sometimes we can even look back on our own earlier home decorating trends and wonder whatever possessed us.
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