Walk the line between playful and tacky with ‘Funky Shui’

DECORATING WITH FUNKY SHUI: HOW TO LIGHTEN UP, LOOSEN UP, AND HAVE FUN DECORATING YOUR HOME, by Jennifer and Kitty O’Neil, Andrews McMeel Publishing, Kansas City, 2004, 133 pages, $14.95.

It seems like you just can’t turn on the TV these days without bumping into some sort of home makeover show. Blame the Discovery Channel and The Learning Channel for churning out a seemingly endless supply of programs about rebuilding, refurnishing or re-fabulousing your home, programs that have, in turn, spawned major network counterparts as well as a slew of books.

Sure, this proliferation of do-it-yourself chic has helped shape up many a suburban home, but what about all those folks who have ever said to themselves, “I really wish my home decor could center around my collections of Pez dispensers and vintage G.I. Joes?” or “Yes, this place could use new window treatments, but how can I make my home more, I dunno, fun looking?”

For all those people looking to live on the decorative fringe, sisters Jennifer and Kitty O’Neil have come up with a solution of sorts: Funky Shui.

In their book, “Decorating with Funky Shui: How to Lighten Up, Loosen Up, and Have Fun Decorating Your Home,” the O’Neils present a merry parody of feng shui, the Chinese philosophical-spiritual approach to home decoration and arrangement that came into vogue in recent years. They offer up loads of whimsical suggestions to curb the homogenized look that can result when all your furnishings come from chain stores such as Bed Bath & Beyond and Pottery Barn, as well as tips to make life around the old homestead generally more fun in that “Pee Wee’s Playhouse” sort of way.

“Playful, good taste” and “abundance through abundance” are the credos of the O’Neils’ decorative dogma, which means vibrant color schemes are promoted (and given goofy names such as Apricot Nectar and Blue Heaven), while accumulating and, most importantly, displaying all manner of bric-a-brac is whole-heartedly encouraged – “’cause,” as they write, “in Funky Shui everything rhymes with tchotchke.”

Certainly, the book’s advice is not for everyone. Martha Stewart might turn a paler shade and at least four out of the Fab Five would probably faint at the notion of incorporating those collections of guilty and-or obsessive pleasures (Legos, Happy Meal toys, snow globes, and miscellaneous yard-sale finds) into your honest-to-goodness home decor.

Nevertheless, “Decorating with Funky Shui” yields some sound, convenient and inexpensive ideas easily accomplished in an afternoon. Most simply involve working up the courage to break out those odds and ends lurking in the basement, attic or under the bed, arrange them on a shelf and maybe give the surrounding room a splash of paint.

But even for those unwilling to give themselves over completely to this hipster packrat aesthetic, there are still some usable suggestions for funky, but slightly less dramatic, decorative flourishes for your living room (a disco ball hanging from the ceiling? Why not?), kitchen (offbeat fridge magnets equal easy self-expression), and office (an empty Spam can can be a great desktop pencil holder).

Still, for all the fun and funk, it is a very fine line between “playful, good taste” and tacky-god-awful-bad taste, and the suggestions for adorning rooms in thematic motifs such as the Wild West or “Casablanca” fall on the latter side and for everyone’s safety should really not be attempted by anyone under the age of 18.

The rules of Funky Shui aren’t really rules at all so much as guidelines, all of which come back to maximizing good, clean domestic fun. And the O’Neil sisters dish out just as many smiles, winks and puns as they do helpful hints, which makes “Decorating with Funky Shui” not only a fun read, but also the go-to reference when you need to figure out how to pull a room together decoratively and show off those late night eBay impulse buys, such as that collection of “Star Trek” commemorative plates from the Franklin Mint. And if nothing else, you can keep the book on hand to leaf through if you get bored while watching “Trading Spaces.”

George Bragdon can be reached at gbragdon@bangordailynews.net.