I like to scout online real estate markets for interior design inspiration (I mostly browsed the Estonian city24.ee for this project). I admit some of the images have given me ironic pleasure, I have gasped at many stucco-covered fake marble bathrooms. But there are also interiors with so much heart and expression which I truly admire, interiors that I cannot find anywhere else. In the lowest price section it is obvious that the interiors are not adding anything to the price of the place. There haven’t been any real estate agents to ‘clean up’ and style the rooms for the assumed popular taste.
These spaces I’ve never seen in design magazines. Not on Pinterest boards. Not documented by any museums as far as I’ve looked. I’ve only met similar spaces in physical reality, undocumented by public design discourse.
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With this project I’ve thought about the transitions that happen in these spaces. I see things trying to merge into each other, adding stickers and wallpapers and objects creating a buzzing space where the different elements hold each other in place. Or little tablecloths on every flat surface, mediators betweeen the furniture and the vases. These elements are like very rough versions of rococo spaces where you almost can’t make the destinction where is the end of the couch and beginning of the wall.
In terms of graphic design, this makes me think of how the assumed use of an image is without any frame. There is a display of sincerity attached to that, when keeping things clean, to give a sense that nobody is toying with the viewer. But what if the meaningful decorations are more honest about the designers role on the page, about the photographers role in framing the image, about the person’s role in dressing the interior. The inevitable subjectivity all of these roles carry.