Last year I brought you the decor trends from big box stores like Hobby Lobby and Home ______(something) and Michaels that consisted mostly of

1) nautical themes

2) giant sized letters of the alphabet

3) lanterns.

So, as your emissary from consumer land, let me tell you what I saw last week:Farmhouse! We are all now expected to make our homes farm homes, even apparently (and probably especially)suburban track homes. So yeah. Itis a big NOPE for me.

The Farmhouse aesthetic is carried out through tin objects and signs. Tin vases, tin containers, objects d’arte in tin abound in the stores. And then, the most ridiculous thing, are 24” tin windmills, replicas of old farm windmills. I guess they look nice on your coffee table? I guess?

And then, the signs. All of them are on an off white background resembling chalk paint, or sometimes on faux weathered barn board, with wording such as “Farmhouse” or “Bless our nest” or “Bless our Farmhouse nest” or sometimes wording about chickens, eggs, and kitchens, and families. Oh yeah, and love. Wording sbout love.

This trend is so deeply felt by some that there is one tiny shop in the tiny town of Hermann MO where the entire floor is devoted to Farmhouse signs, linens declaring love of Farmhouses, and yes there is tin work there, too. How can this tiny place sell enough of this crap to stay open?

My mind is boggled.

This post is obviously a way for me to make fun of the mass consuming hordes, so beat me up. But I felt compelled to express my annoyance and disgust for this embracing of “authentic” life through objects made in China in a completely inauthentic way.