If there’s one piece of advice I could pass along to the next generation, it’s this: do not painstakingly paint a wall of the room to match a bedspread. That thing’s going to come apart in the wash in a year or so, and nothing you buy will match the meaningless, unappealing pattern you’ve painted on the wall. Another example of a rug that looks like it’s made from the pelt of long-haired cats. Of course, it’s a synthetic, something formulated to smell extra poisonous when you drop your cigarette on it.