To think most people's homes don't look like something out of Ideal Home?

[Ginger1982]

Moving house next month so been buying interior magazines, not because we're planning any major revamps to the new house, but just for some ideas. Bloody hell, all the houses featured are like show homes! I know they need that to sell mags but I can't believe people actually live in them. £4K for a bed??? £8k for a bathroom vanity unit? Stone me...

I have a three bed semi with pax wardrobes and malm drawers. Are you suggesting that I'm NOT inspirational?

I like the magazines as the interviews with the home owners are really pretentious and make me laugh. 'Hero piece ', 'hero colour ', 'enthused', 'I don't like off the peg', 'bespoke ', 'crafted', 'mood boards'...

Kinda like the ikea magazine you mean?😛

Yeah but even the IKEA catalogue is a bit misleading. Quite often the homes are just as fab as in the home magazines. I can't imagine for one minute that all those trendy loft apartments are stuffed with all the >£2 stuff from IKEA.

I can't think anyone would buy an interiors magazine showing scruffy homes with stained carpets and cheap furniture? I don't bother buying the cheaper magazines either because I don't aspire to Dunelm bed linen or IKEA furniture.

Reluctant - I once thought of setting up a magazine called "Crap Housekeeping". That was after I found a dead slug at the back of the fridge.
Have you seen Pinterest Fail? It's hilarious :D

I've always looked at apartmenttherapy.com for inspiration. I like looking in home mags in the doctors office and also wonder who the hell lives with no "stuff"

Remember though that a professional photographer can make your house look amazing.

True! We have had two of our houses featured in magazines, and I was startled at how good they looked in the photos. The first time I had a leg in plaster and my dusting activities were even more cursory than usual. I was assured that dust wouldn't show up, and indeed it didn't.

I think there is a difference between living with no stuff and just living with your stuff tidily in drawers and cupboards. There is no law that says you have to have your stuff laying all over the place...to prove you have it or something,🤣

In my experience, everyone has " stuff" the only difference is whether you put it away or not.

My house looks like a interiors design spread and I’m equally clean freakish. But I’m a interior design student and always loved interiors. While magazines like World of Interiors (think vogue but for houses) are usually for expensive tastes and huge budgets, there are others for any budget.
The thing is to know what you want and look for it. Now, with so many websites it’s not that bad if you’re willing to put the time to find stuff with Ikea budget and less. We did eat on a plastic camping table for months until the perfect mcm danish table materialised on eBay for a fraction of its cost of an Ikea table. It cost me £50 with 4 chairs and an extra 30 for the sideboard.
My favourite past time is checking charity shops with furniture and antique stores. I’ve made curtains out of fabric from the local hospice shop for £4.

P.S. Dunelm’s Dorma bedding is excellent.

I know a few people who've had their houses featured in interior magazines and things always get moved around, items like mirrors, rugs, side tables will be brought in by the magazine to be featured in the relevant issue and there is a LOT of styling that goes on before the photos are taken. So they're stunning canvasses already but they often don't look like they do on a Tuesday morning before th dishwasher's been loaded, etc

My monthly treat is ‘Country Homes and Interiors ‘ - I kid myself that one day when the DC’s /dogs /horses are no more , that I too shall have a Farrow and Ball coated house , artful decorations and artisan crafted objets sourced from workshop collectives .

Until then it’s just tide marks of mud and hair . I suppose at least it’s authentic .

My personal favourite was in one of the Christmas issues , where the owner had got her close personal friend who just happened to be an interior designer/stylist to dress her house for the season. “Oh I’d never have thought of matching the baubles to my tea towels “ she trilled .

Don’t worry op. My house looks like I have shares in ikea. We don’t have a single room that doesn’t contain multiple Ikea items. I don’t think I’ve bought furniture from anywhere else in over a decade. Most of my dc friends have similar looking houses.

@Reluctant2ndtimer shit homes of the poor and scruffy Finally my home decor style is going to get the recognition it deserves 😂

I had lots of fancy plans for decorating my house (not £3k bed plans, mind) then my gutter needed replacing, car failed it's MOT, washing machine karcked it and an unexpired bill turned up, amongst other things!

So now my house still looks a state but I can drive and there's no water leaking in. Yay.

Unexpected ffs....

Mine used to.

Then I married DH and had a baby

I know a few people who've had their houses featured in interior magazines and things always get moved around, items like mirrors, rugs, side tables will be brought in by the magazine to be featured in the relevant issue and there is a LOT of styling that goes on before the photos are taken

Not necessarily true. Nothing was brought in when our houses were photoed. The first time they got me to sit at the kitchen table arranging some flowers in a jug and they nipped out to get the flowers since as mentioned previously my leg was in plaster. No furniture or mirrors. Anyway how could they just put up a mirror without banging hooks into the wall?

I've thought for a long time that there's a gap in the market for an "ordinary homes" mag. The kind of thing Living etc was when it started out. Now it's how Elle Deco was when Living etc started....so I imagine Elle Dec is more like WoI now!

If you need a cover star for the first issue of Shit Homes of the Poor and Scruffy, I'm your woman!
I do like reading the £1.99 interiors magazines, but I'm convinced that all the people in them are either bloggers/interior designers/shop owners trying to promote themselves or models posing as "real people" who just happen to have kept a detailed timeline and shopping list for their room renovation...

Real Homes. Good Homes and Ideal Home are more budget friendly than Elle Deco or House and Garden.

Tricky when I did some work (intern) for an interior mag we did brought styling ‘props’, especially things that were going for sale that or in the next few months. For one, we had side tables, lights, picture frames, some Manolo shoes, a cashmere blanket and some toys for the kids room.also plants and flowers and huge bag of limes from Waitrose.

My NDN's house was in a magazine - they took pretty well all their furniture and stuff out and brought a load of other stuff in. Looked amazing...

Mine was shot once - in the days before I had dc and all their associated junk and clutter - and DH and I were always at work not making a mess at home - now it always looks like a bomb site. I still look back at the photos and sigh every once in a while.

I am currently re-reading my collection of Living Etc, because I am disposing of them. The homes really were far more realistic and achievable for ordinary people not married to Hedge fund managers.
They were also much smaller, in general, again representing the types of property that could be purchased by ordinary people.

My family are citrus obsessed and we get through a case of limes a week - I worry people think I'm turning into Hyacinth Bucket using stunt limes in an attempt to replicate show homes.

They're just kept in a bowl, if it were a large glass vase then that would be a step too far.