'boy apartments' & the dentist office
type: scraps
Interior design trends seem to be having a moment. We’re seeing right now a move towards more not just making spaces “look” good but also “feel good” to be in: when you have guests over, they feel like they are actually in a home that is being lived in rather than the waiting room for their dentist.
Following that is an interesting trend in the rise of what is called, “the boy apartment.” To save you a search - we’re seeing an increasing amount of men reject the heteronormative idea of not caring about their living space and expressing themselves by taking the interior of their spaces seriously. Goodbye unkempt man caves and bachelor pads; hello spaces plopped right out of a vintage Design Within Reach journal.
On the surface level, this is great: if you know anything about me, I’m all for artistic creation and your living interior is one way to express that. It’s also doubly interesting because we’re seeing a traditionally niche hobby (interest? what would you call this?) dominated by women being embraced by a group society assumed they would not care about. But with this specific sect of interior design, I can’t help but feel that we are circling right back to the dentist’s office concept we were just starting to avoid.
Don’t get me wrong: I love midcentury modern and I am a fiend for warm, woody interiors. But, I can’t help but feel like the boys embracing this trend are stopping just short of truly learning and refining their taste. It’s one thing to care how your home looks, but the next step is truly making it “lived in” and “yours.” That first step is fairly easy: open Instagram reels for inspiration and then spend a few bones on your knock off Eames lounger, Noguchi lamp and some warm lightbulbs and then you call it a day. However, unfortunately that next step takes a bit more effort, and most stop right before it.
Experimentation, reflection and time. I think these are the three things which are the genesis for making a space more “lived in” and “yours”. There is an inherent friction in all of these that is skipped routinely - and as I’ve pined about before: this friction is what generates creativity, and blindly following an algorithm kills it.
Experimenting here is breaking out of the algorithm and trying new ideas: buying pieces from different time periods, mixing and matching colors and concepts: trying different things. Following this is reflection: reflecting upon if your space actually works the way you want, if the way you have it set up is something you truly enjoy and feel comfortable in - not just because you were told you were going to feel comfortable if it looked this way, but if you actually feel that way. And the last is time - obviously, the prior two engagements here take just that: you can’t experiment and reflect and have the perfect unique space in just one afternoon. However, there’s more to that as time takes a physical sense when spoken in the context of your space: your space is not just a collection of nice looking objects, but should also be a collection of things that speak to you. Things that give you meaning or make you feel special.
So what happens when the second step is skipped? We circle back to the same - the apartments become curated, and while they may look nice: they look hardly lived in and most frightening of all - the same. No amount of Bauhaus prints and coffee table books can save your home from lacking soul and just looking like a showroom. Friction is what refines your taste and ultimately makes a space yours - an apartment furnished solely by an algorithm doesn’t.
But, whatever - I’m just a guy, what do I know? Anyway, 5 years from now, I’m looking forward to hearing: “Josh, the dentist will see you now” while sitting on a midcentury modern reproduction couch under an arc lamp.