Monday 6 July 2015

Blue is for boys, pink is for girls


Here is just one of the many photos I took at the pub yesterday. This man - a popular musician and entertainer - is a local artiste called Bill Smarme.

Bill officially opened the refurbished Ladies W.C. yesterday, cutting the ribbon with a gold-plated pair of garden shears. The ribbon was a lurid purple to match most of the paintwork inside, and thankfully everyone stayed on the outside so did not have to endure the risk of having a seizure brought on by the disturbing colour scheme.

H.I. went in to have a look - and a wee - and pronounced it 'hideous' before she ran off. Ok, I know she is highly attuned to subtle nuances of colour, but I don't think that this was an over-reaction.

The ten people who chose the paints are stoutly defending their choices as deliberate, despite the fact that all they did was suggest something on a shopping list, then give it to the (male) General Manager to interpret himself whilst actually in the paint shop.

There is one good thing to have come from all of this, and that is that the experience of helping to tart the place up has instilled an approach toward interior decoration in me which can be summed up in one, easy to remember maxim:

When choosing the colours for a shared, public area, it is important to make sure that anyone can go into it wearing any colour of clothing without clashing with the walls and floor.

18 comments:

  1. Maybe they chose the colour expressly to get users out as quickly as possible, and ordering more beer. You wouldn't want them lingering in there.

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  2. Put a health warning on the door to wear sunglasses.

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  3. If he was wearing a long nylon smock and knee length stockings he would be a dead ringer for my late mother

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  4. I think Bill attaches himself to reality via the pen and comb in his pocket.

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    1. He has a very real and ordinary job as well. I think he is an accountant or the equivalent.

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  5. A neutral palette is always the way to go in my opinion and a lurid purple is just about as bad as it gets …… they'll be fed up with it before the month is out …… but, each to their own ….. mind you, who am I to say. I'm hardly Lawrence Llewelyn-Bowen although, he would probably like purple !! Have you any photographs of the inside of the purple ladies loo Tom ? XXXX

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    1. No, I think they should be as private as possible.

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    2. Oh …… that's a shame. Surely there was a lull when there wasn't anyone in there ? Have you seen them ? XXXX

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    3. Of course I've bleeding seen them! I helped to make them! I will try to point you in the direction of someone else's photos, or you can pay a visit yourself?

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    4. It's a bit of a long way, just for a wee !!!! XXXX

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  6. I don;t know what I am doing coming here but I just had to tell you this because it seems like you are all missing the point. Women's toilets always have the best graffiti, much better than men's toilets. Now you might not know this. You have probably never seen it. So whatever happens to your purple toilets we will find a way to cover the walls in graffiti come what may. It is possible if the purple is so dark that your colour designers thought they could thwart the graffiti artists but believe me they wont. And whatever the colour when we go for a pee we will stay in there with our pens and then do our make up and we wont give a monkeys about the fucking colour.

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    1. You may be surprised to hear that much of the objection to the new paintwork was because it would cover up some good-quality graffiti, and the worries were also from men - men like me who had actually read it by going in to the Ladies.You don't need to teach me about the difference between men's bogs graffiti and women's.

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    2. Well you haven't mentioned it up 'tll now so I thought it had been overlooked. Of course I would have expected a man like you to know, after I do so you would.

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