MAKING CARTOONY ROOMS

People ask me what I'll be selling in the Theory Corner Store. Well, my own theory booklets, tutorials and comics, for one thing, but I'll also include a lot of stuff that other people are selling. Sometimes I'll get a commission and sometimes not. Sometimes I'll even give away things for free.

Usually what I'm selling will be featured here first, on this blog. The store is a kind of archive for the stuff I'm selling and write about here, only in the store I'll include prices and contact info.

That's what this article is: some of the items here will turn up in the store when it opens. I don't have my seller's permit yet, and in this case I won't make a cent...but it's fun to write about, so I'm happy.


Anyway, the subject is "Making Cartoony Rooms." Here's a nod (above) to the king of cartoony environments, Cliff Sterret."

Well, to start with, you need a big old comfortable chair, maybe one a little darker than the one above. I don't know how practical these chairs are because they're hell to get through a modern doorway, and they completely dominate a small room. If you could find one that's scaled down a bit, that would be perfect.

This (above) is definitely a chair fit for a cartoonist, but it doesn't look very comfortable.

Wow! A terrific Cliff Sterret rug (above), just made for cartoon people! I wish I could have gotten a bigger picture of it; it's a thing of beauty! It's round, and about five and a half feet across.

It probably needs a black and white cat to set it off.

For draperies...never, ever use pull-down shades on a window without draperies...I suggest a zebra skin pattern, or maybe something cartoony and cheery like this Lucy Cousins design. Or maybe a pattern that dupes the Sterret rug. The internet is full of cool fabric designs.

Sterret was fond of mushroom-shaped lamps (above) on high end tables covered with Charlie brown-type cloth. This example is too small and throws all it's light out of the stem, but the better kind are undoubtedly out there somewhere.

On second thought, I think I'd prefer to get my light from a floor lamp in back of the chair. As a side table I prefer a small pillar (even shorter than the one above) with a statue of Napoleon on it.

Or maybe Dega's dancer.


Or maybe the classic discus-thrower. It reminds me of the statue at the base of the stairs in one of the Betty Boop cartoons.


Here's a Napoleon from The Louvre gift shop. It's pricey. There's gotta be a cheaper version.

For artwork, I prefer one of the big, funny Picasso posters (above) (NOT "Guernica"). Don't frame them, but it's okay to mount them on foam board that's the same size as the picture.

I would also put up a framed picture of Whistler's Mother, the Mona Lisa, or the Venus DeMilo. No substitutes. It has to be one or all of these three.

A small, framed picture of Julie Newmar (above) never hurts.

Maybe a framed picture of Dali (above).

Or Mortimer Snerd (above).

A framed Percy Dovetonsils (above) would help.

Or a Square-framed picture of George Pal's "Jasper."

Or Tex Avery's lady (above), the one who bought Screwy Squirrel. This looks great in a red frame.

Or maybe one of the marker pictures John K. is selling. Check out his blog!

A tasteful vase or two gives the room a good vibe.

Here's some vases that the Memphis design group used to sell. Very Sterret-like, don't you think?

I deliberately refrained from discussing wallpaper and accessories. Funny wallpaper (like thick, vertical awning stripes) scores high on cartooniness, but it makes the room seem small, and geez, what if you changed your mind later?

About accessories: they can be expensive! That doorknob (above) costs a fortune!

SHOPPING FOR CHAIRS WITH MIKE

I recently went with Mike to shop for chairs for his living room. Mike likes modern stuff, and we we ended up at some pretty weird places. If you thought this kind of furniture was replaced by something else, think again. There's a lot of it out there and it still sells!

Mike rejected furniture like this (above), but only because it didn't come in leather. 

Is there really gender specific furniture? I did see a couple of chairs with separate cushions for each buttock. 

Hmmmmmmm.

50s modern is still out there. I wouldn't be surprised if you could get chairs like the ones above at Ikea. 

Maybe I was too hasty when I said that all modernism is still with us.  Box furniture like the example above is gone forever.  It used to be popular. You could even buy box beds. I guess people were so taken by their TVs that they wanted to live in them.  This style was ridiculed by later modernists who preferred to live in eggs.

Poor Mike couldn't get this (above) in leather either.

Thank God none of the stores had one of these (above). If they had, I'd have had to buy one, and my family would have moved out.

Ditto this chair (above). Some things must be acquired regardless of the consequences. 

I used to like chairs like this (above), but I didn't see them this time around. Can you still get them?

REAL CLIFF STERRET FURNITURE!

I don't know how many times I've heard cartoonists say that they wish they could live in a Cliff Sterret house. That's Cliff Sterret's work above, and I too would like to have a house (or at least a room) furnished like that. Come to think of it, I almost did.

In the early 80s there was a serious attempt to sell Cliff Sterret-type furniture. It started with a design studio in Milan called "Memphis," headed up by Ettore Sottsass. That's his studio's work above. Not everything in the photo is his best work, but you get the idea.

I remember thinking at the time that this comic-strip furniture wouldn't last forever, and that I'd better buy some stuff before it disappeared. Real Memphis furniture was out of my price range so I waited for cheaper knockoffs, but when they came the quality was lacking. Not only that but Memphis didn't always hit home runs. I kept waiting for knock-offs of the better works but they were a long time coming. Memphis took a big hit because of the timidity of furniture manufacturers, and Memphis's distaste for comfortable furniture.  

The Sterret influence was obvious to cartoonists, but I don't remember any art critic pointing it out. Critics were probably ignorant of cartoon styles. 

Try to deny that this vase (above) was influenced by Sterret!

Here's (above) some Memphis teapots. In this case the influence was probably Picasso or Picabia. It's funny how teapots are always on the front line of new design movements. I guess prototype ceramic pots are easier to make than steal cutlery.

This is my favorite Memphis design...the futuristic antler bookshelf painted with kid colors. I'd still like to have a shelf like this.

This sofa (above) would look great in a comic strip. I wonder why no newspaper artist of the 1980s  attempted to parody modern furniture styling in a strip. I mean parody it the way Sterret used to. Of course by the 80s the newspaper strips were almost as tiny as they are now. Maybe there was no room. 

Also, it looks like the sofa is made of cheap plywood with fabric stapled onto foam. Memphis had good ideas but you get the feeling that no one with real furniture know-how worked there. 

The designer of this table (above) must have channeled Sterret!

Sterret liked to design the patterns in draperies and chair covers, and so did Memphis. That's their work above.

Like I said, Memphis didn't always hit home runs. The chair above looks pretty uncomfortable. It would have looked great in a comic strip or a cartoon, though!