Our lives take place between two spheres that are usually quite well differentiated. On the one hand, there’s what happens when we go out into the street and move through public spaces; on the other, there’s the domestic, private realm marked by the intimacy our own home offers us. In recent years, many people have blurred that line on social media by showing off corners of their homes to their followers. In the case of famous or influential people, this exposure also influences the world of design and interior design.
This is, in fact, nothing new. Before Instagram, home and architecture magazines —or celebrity gossip magazines— frequently included extensive features showcasing the homes of prominent individuals. The appeal is the same one that has made social media companies the giants they are: human beings are curious by nature, and seeing where and how others live, especially those people we admire or who have a standard of living far above ours, is a guilty pleasure (or not) that is hard to resist. We observe, comment, judge, and, without always realizing it, we copy.
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Just as series such as Friends or Sex and the City made colourful, eclectic urban apartments fashionable, some recent trends, such as vintage furniture, evocative wallpaper or indoor swings can be traced back to their celebrities ( Rita Ora, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jada Pinkett Smith respectively).
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In Spain, the latest viral home was that of the Javis family, who moved from a previously talked-about apartment in Malasaña to a single-family home on the outskirts of Madrid filled with open spaces, featuring a towering bookshelf filled with books, with a reading area and a writing area separated by different heights.
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Flipping through these magazines, viewing social media posts, or watching those celebrity- focused documentaries that have been flooding streaming services for a few years now (we were able to see Aitana’s house in Miami or Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s kitchen) is, at the same time, a catalogue of ideas and a generator of aspirational trend. Kitchen islands, bathtubs in the centre of the bathroom rather than against a wall, large plants (the craze for monsteras and, before them, ficuses, is incomprehensible without the role of social networks)… It’s hard to know which came first, the chicken or the egg, but it’s clear that once it’s in magazines, on social media, and in audiovisual products, turning any decorative element into a trend is only a matter of time.
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Tools like Pinterest are full of posts with ideas for decorating your home like Taylor Swift or finding the Kardashians’ style (and doing it affordably). Combining trends with elements we’ve seen in those homes and liked, with, above all, our own style, is possibly the recipe for success.
