Interiors trends are all very well, but this is a horrible time to be a renter
There was an interiors trend recently that saw people buying shower curtains printed with grand scenes of glamour and escape, and pinning them to their fence or bedroom walls. One was a lifesize picture of a manicured English garden, another of a winding cobbled path leading off into a lush green distance. Somebody hung a curtain printed with a window just above their bath, the window appearing to open on to a scene of blue and exquisite tranquillity. Someone else printed a huge photo of their childhood garden to hang opposite the sink in their kitchen.
I sifted through the various online responses to this trend, which ranged from outrage (at the laziness of not growing one’s own garden) to mockery, in order to work out why these shower curtains made me feel so terribly, doomily sad. On the surface, the trend should please me. Because, I am a person who loves all that stuff, all that fakery, all that razzmatazz, but it quickly hit me that the reason I felt odd about these trompe-l’oeil walls was because they expressed, on white hanging plastic, the impermanence of a home. Few people are willing to invest hours of time and cash in a garden they might have to leave at a few months’ notice simply because the landlord wants to increase the rent; far simpler to pin up a picture of one.
Continue reading… Interiors trends are all very well, but this is a horrible time to be a renterThere was an interiors trend recently that saw people buying shower curtains printed with grand scenes of glamour and escape, and pinning them to their fence or bedroom walls. One was a lifesize picture of a manicured English garden, another of a winding cobbled path leading off into a lush green distance. Somebody hung a curtain printed with a window just above their bath, the window appearing to open on to a scene of blue and exquisite tranquillity. Someone else printed a huge photo of their childhood garden to hang opposite the sink in their kitchen.I sifted through the various online responses to this trend, which ranged from outrage (at the laziness of not growing one’s own garden) to mockery, in order to work out why these shower curtains made me feel so terribly, doomily sad. On the surface, the trend should please me. Because, I am a person who loves all that stuff, all that fakery, all that razzmatazz, but it quickly hit me that the reason I felt odd about these trompe-l’oeil walls was because they expressed, on white hanging plastic, the impermanence of a home. Few people are willing to invest hours of time and cash in a garden they might have to leave at a few months’ notice simply because the landlord wants to increase the rent; far simpler to pin up a picture of one. Continue reading… Housing, Interiors, Homes, Life and style
