To ask what people mean when they say ‘show home’?

[churchandstate]

I’ve just been reading the ‘lived in’ house thread and have read a few others about tidy/messy homes. I’ve seen so many people on here say ‘my house isn’t a show home’, but I have literally never been inside a show home or heard anyone say their house is like a show home.

What do people mean when they say someone’s home (theirs or someone else’s) is like a show home?

Mine, before anyone asks, is a mess.

Clean your home regularly so that they don't get a chance to form.

At certain times of year, cobwebs form in a couple of hours in my house. I'd have to de-cobweb several times a day to keep it cobweb-free.

I never really gave cobwebs a second thought when I lived in London, but both places I've lived in Sussex have been like Mecca for spiders. At the first place, a converted flat, I thought it might be because the house was surrounded by big trees and mature shrubs and the house was old (1850s, iirc). Where I am now we're on the edge of open countryside and at least several hundred yards from any big trees, but I can brush a small web from a light fitting, go shopping, and come back to find a new one in exactly the same spot. And we have had a cobweb form across the bathroom doorway at night for a few weeks every summer for years. If you get up for a wee in the night, you get it all over your face!

I thought I'd leave them for a while, then spray them with glitter and tell everyone they're Christmas decorations.

Does this mean there are companies that make and sell especially small furniture

yes, @lakielady. I don't know any names off the top of my head, but they exist. I think they provide entire room sets like a package.

Handy if you happen to have a smaller than average room that needs furnishing!

I visited a friend once who lived in a show home. Her large living room contained a very smart three piece suite, a coffee table and the TV; nothing else. She took us on a tour and all the rooms were like this.

I asked her where her books were and she replied that after reading a book she always throws it away.
As we were sitting in her living room her cat came in' sat down in the middle of this bare aircraft-hanger of a room and started cleaning its bum.
She shouted 'you can't do that in here' and threw it out. The cat disappeared about three weeks later.
Her lifestyle suited her - I just felt uncomfortable the whole evening.

For me, I think this is the defining feature of a "show home" house

but no one is allowed shoes into the house. People who cannot remove shoes, e.g. workmen are presented with shoe covers

I hate this. I hate walking barefoot, it makes my Achilles tendons hurt. I hate having to remove whatever footwear I've chosen that is the right style, heel height etc for my outfit. I hate tripping over the hem of trousers that are the right length for heels but too long for bare feet.

I wipe my feet assiduously, and would happily clean the soles with an anti-bac wipe, but I'd decline any invitation to a house that insists on stockinged feet. And no way would I spend an evening with blue plastic bags on my feet, as though I was at a crime scene (and wouldn't they be slippery on carpet, anyway?)

I disagree about books on display. It’s not good for you to have old books lying around as they harbour germs and dust

They're very good for your mind though. Full of information, ideas, wonderful language and can take you to a whole new world without you even leaving your armchair.

I'm sure there are books that have actually changed the world, or at least the way we think about it. The Origin of Species, perhaps or The Second Sex? Das Kapital?

MIL's flat is described by DH as a show home and I tend to agree.
It is very neat and tidy with generic, mainstream decorations.
You would struggle to guess anything about the person who lived there from looking at the place.

Late to the party, but showhome to me is characterless and without personal belongings. Take any page in the ikea catalog and even though they try, you just know nobody is living there.

Some posters sound unbelievably anal, I couldn't cope or relax visiting as would feel scrutinized and lacking the whole visit 😳. How anyone can relax living like that is beyond me.

@Vickyprice

We are all different. I feel very uncomfortable and can’t relax when things aren’t in their rightful place. It takes all sorts as they say, so you’re not right...and I’m not right....we are just all living in a way which makes us as individuals happy.

@LakieLady

To be fair I rarely have to ask visitors to take off their shoes. They take one look in my hallway and ask if I’d like them to remove their shoes. It’s very light in colour.

I always answer ‘well thank you so much, that’s very kind of you. I do have covers if you’d prefer to leave them on?’

I think my insistence that we are a no shoes house hold, stems from 2001 when DH’s friend came to visit and walked dog shit through my hallway (carpet), through the living room (carpet) and where he sat with his leg over his knee, all over the front side of my sofa.

Although he acknowledged he’d trodden shit everywhere, I was left to clean it up. In that house and every house since, no one is coming in with shoes on.

Omg DBML that's horrendous!

@Vickyprice

I know right! I can still picture myself doing it and can still remember the smell. Truly disgusting.

I don't think show home and bland home are one and the same. IKEA showrooms as an example, many are completely inspiring, as our many interesting homes on Instagram.

However, not all but the majority of people who have immaculate houses favour bland styling in my opinion, because having something shiny, new and in fashion is more valuable to then than character and antiques and quirkiness.

If you want to avoid the show home feel, don't have white or cream carpets and furniture where guests won't be able to relax with a glass of wine or cup of tea for fear of destroying something.

Immaculately clean and sparkling. Expensive looking and brand new looking furnishings. Like you would see in a catalogue

I'm not being rude about new builds but it's a fact that the amount of square footage in a house has gone down considerably over the years thanks to changing legislation. Just Google it. Victorian and early 20th century houses and flats had hallways and stairs that a large solid wardrobe could be taken up and down. Try it now!

When I allocated housing, I would recommend the older houses as they had all been upgraded to the same standard but every room was bigger than the ones more recently built.

Being well read has nothing to do with having mountains of dust collecting, allergy breeding old books littering around.
It's like saying in order to be able to fix cars you need to have piles of car crap all over your drive. You dont.

Agree being well read, enjoying books, is not remotely related to having them "on show" ...you can have hundreds of books, be they electronic or in s cupboard and be an avid reader

It's odd that anyone would think they need to be physically displayed and "on show" or that you can tell anything about someone's reading habits from the visibility of physical books in their home.

with generic, mainstream decorations.

This^^. The Wayfair, job lot look.

@Bluntness100 I agree with you. I only have a couple of books on my bedside table. I take books out at the library or on my kindle. I've been an avid reader since I was a small child.

Ugh all this books on display judging is so desperate and snobbish.
astralweaks your post in particular is just utter wank. I can't think of anything that anyone needs constant access to in a house. Possible running water. Definitely not books. You can only physically read one at a time, after all.

"Why on earth [...] would you hide them or keep them in the dark?"
Well in the case of really beautiful first editions etc. to keep them in as close to archival conditions as possible

"Books are beautiful" All books? really? even the tattered third editions I bought when a poor student? The contents might be beautiful, or enriching, or interesting, but I don't personally consider a tea stained cheapy penguin to be of huge display value myself.

People who don't have books on display could be intellectual pygmies who have never had an original thought in their life, as some posters are implying.
Or: they could be dyslexic. Could have millions of books, just on kindle. Could have lived in multiple different countries and had to dispose of most of their belongings. Could just store their books in their bedroom, a place where (personally) 99% of my friends/family/acquaintances etc. would never go. Could have a huge study/library separate from the 'entertaining' areas of the home so they can display their 'beautiful' books without the need to worry that a child will draw over them/guest will tip tea etc. Why judge on something so ridiculous?

Same with the poster who slates mass production items. If your 'ancient welsh dresser' had been handed down from your mamgu, who had inherited it from hers, and you had fond memories of helping her polish it when you stayed as a child or whatever, then fair enough, perhaps it would be an item that 'said something about you and your family.' But as you 'picked it up for £10 on gumtree' then basically you just chose an item of furniture you liked the look of, at a price you could afford, from a commercial retail site. In exactly the same way someone who bought their dresser from ikea or next would have done. You just have slightly different tastes, it doesn't make you a superior person, or your home more homely and unique.

Basically, OP, show home on MN is a way of saying 'excessively tidy, neutrally decorated...and likely to be lived in by someone working or lower middle class.' because nobody else ~ever~ buys new

Excellent post onceandneveragain it didn’t take long on here before someone trotted out the old trope “all my interior furnishings have a story” well someone who has bought something new has started their own, just because you buy something new does not mean it’s not bought without thought or meaning, it does not make your home more worthy because you may have been fortunate to be given something you actually like by your parents or grandparents, I’m sure if these “story” people were given something they utterly hated it would not be displayed proudly in their home.

I know a couple who have what I would call a show home.

Immaculately clean, tidy and organised (lovely - very jealous of their ability to keep it like that with two kids!) but also decorated in true show home-style. Everything is light grey with ‘pops of colour’ (turquoise seems to feature a lot), lots of matchy picture frames and ornaments, artfully arranged cushions and throws everywhere, wall ‘art’ straight out of Ikea. It’s not to my taste, but I can imagine it must be quite nice to live in such an organised space.

The strangest thing about it is that they have their dining room table permanently set with their best plates and cutlery, napkins, fresh flowers etc. Just like in a real show home . And they always eat in the kitchen....

This thread also reminds me of the Friends episode when Phoebe and Rachel shared an apartment, Rachel decorated the apartment with furniture and accessories from Pottery Barn, Monica told her Phoebe would be furious as all her furniture had to have a story as she hated mass produced stuff, Rachel had to lie and say it was all bought from a flea market and had to make up stories on the history of the furniture, of course Phoebe wanted to visit said flea market and Rachel had to come clean when Phoebe saw their living room displayed in the Pottery Barn window! Phoebe went against all her principles and had to have the lamp that was on display.......brilliant!

Never posted a link before not sure if this will work.....