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...

Real Homes is more ... er ... realistic. Also Living Etc.

@TheQueenOfWands well I guess you probably are because it’s what I have too ;-)

I was all like “I am NOT going to buy Ikea. I’m gong to buy tasteful and individual non flatpack furniture and be more grown up”

Then I realised how expensive even habitat (flatpack) is. And I did my entire house in ikea. Looks pretty good ;-)

You need to join all the FB diy homes groups for the ordinary people version.

Though you'll come out dazzled by b&m, glitter wallpaper

FluffyWuffy100

That sounds oh so familiar We just upgraded our cheap IKEA furniture to slightly more expensive IKEA furniture

Facebook DIY On A Budget is EPIC!!

They all smash mirrors and stick the pieces on the wall running up the stairs, put words on things and make 80s patterns using Frog Tape.

The trouble with IKEA is that it's practical and affordable. We must have 20+ Billy bookcases. Fancier ones just won't hold all of the books.

The smashed mirrors are amazing. Someone did an entire wall with smashed up mirror. They fucking grouted it in. I was slack jawed in awe, imaging the joy of any future owners of the house as they deal with that

I don't understand people who don't have clutter.

Books, photos, hand cream, kids toys etc.

I worry about the souls of the house proud minimalist fanatic.

Even Ikea is beyond my "Shit homes of poor and scruffy people" budget. Even second-hand Ikea is a bit pricey 😣

Phil when I first read interiors magazines about 10 years ago Elle Deco was aspirational and more for inspiration but Living Etc was often achievable, and I remember Ideal Home was quite basic and not always aspirational enough for my tastes (houses were quite beige and furniture from next etc). Within about three years Livong Etc was all LA mansions and London £2 million houses, and I switched to Ideal Home. Another few years and Ideal Home has become out of my league in terms of so many houses being massive (not helpful for seeing how to improve my small victorian semi) and in London so the furniture etc is expensive too because the owners are bankers. I guess I may have really come down in the world but it also feels like they have kept going up and up! Yes there are the £1.99 ones but I don’t like the paper quality! Give it another few years and I’ll need a 50p Scruffy Homes on chip shop paper the rate the others are shooting up the aspirational ladder.

The smashed mirrors are amazing. Someone did an entire wall with smashed up mirror. They fucking grouted it in. I was slack jawed in awe, imaging the joy of any future owners of the house as they deal with that

This made me laugh, 😂

They will probably have to move when it goes out of "fashion".

Scipio I stopped taking Elle Dec when it just got too up itself, and I had two v small children, and a "poor and scruffy" special, constantly covered in stuff, toys, food, etc.
My children are older, my house is much bigger, cleaner, and tidier...but I'm falling out of live with Living Etc now- every house is just so 'done'. It's not aspirational for me because I'm not a hedge fund manager with a partner that dabbles in restoring Georgian bonnets, and I have no desire to ever be one!
I love houses, gardens, and design (both interior and exterior/architectural), but I don't wish to be sold to all the time!

Well, I've never read a magazine about interiors in my life. I used to live in a new build estate, with horrible people who never acknowledged each other. I hate every second of it. I now live in a lovely old end terrace, full of old sturdy furniture, lots of books, and all the toys my daughter could ever need. The house doesn't look great, but I don't care. My daughter will grow up with plenty of stimulation.

My parents' house looks like something from a design magazine and while they are comfortably off, they are not wealthy and a lot of it comes down to my mum being very good at deign and also a bit of a neat and clean feak!!!

My house - less so!

I think the readers' houses we see are a super-cleaned, decluttered and tidied version. They can't possibly look like that all the time, especially as they usually seem to have lots of kids and various animals.

I love buying these mags, too; for ideas and to dream.

I know someone whose home was featured in a glossy magazine.
They had kids and clutter.
The kids were packed off for the day and all the clutter was stuffed in the cupboards.

The house looked fantastic in the magazine. In reality it was a busy chaotic family home.

Henryscat and londonmummy
It seems there are different ways of doing these things. The photographer turned up, took some snaps and then offered them along with a feature to various magazines one of whom commissioned the real thing. Other than the aforementioned flowers nothing was brought in, though there was a great deal of shoving clutter into cupboards and under beds before their arrival. For the second house the photographer rang and asked for a few photos as he knew the sort of house it was, then they returned for the proper shoot once they had a commission.