There is a house in ...

[shewhomust]

The local paper prints verbatim an announcement that the owners of the Garden House pub are looking for a new tenant. It includes a detailed description of the interior:

The interior is notable for the reclaimed gymnasium floor, modish grey walls, rustic wooden tables, smart black-and-grey seating in the bar area, and a more bordello style in the cosy dining area.

Clearly I need to brush up my knowledge of the terminology of interior design: I have eaten at the Garden House several times, and while it was perfectly comfortable, I did not see anything remotely as cosy as my understanding of 'bordello style'. Or perhaps I have never been admitted to that inner sanctum...

Comments

[teenybuffalo]

I guess the term is meant to be exactly what it sounds like? I've never heard it used this casually either. https://www.latimes.com/home/la-hm-bordello2-2010jan02-story.html

[shewhomust]

Thank you; I did not know that! I can't imagine how I have failed to notice it ...

[teenybuffalo]

I once stayed in a B&B with a host who was kind of a jerk, and I remember him saying "I've put you in the bordello room," as he thought it would shock me. (It had red flocked wallpaper, which was presumably the reason he called it that.) It's the ordinariness of the term here that baffles me! They're just saying "bordello" like it's a neutral word! I mean, it's so old that it feels quaint and cute to me, but I have a hard time thinking that it's as neutral as terms like "mid-century modern" or "Arts and Crafts" or similar.

[shewhomust]

Red flocked wallpaper says 'Indian restaurant' to me. Which probably gives away my age.

[anef]

Maybe they mean that slightly Italian gilded sofa?

[shewhomust]

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less."

[durham_rambler]

Come to think of it, we did stay one night in the attic of a house in Sutton Coldfield which we concluded had previously been a brothel. This was in 1970, give or take a couple of years, and all the other details escape me.