This is the first summer in the bungalow where there is no major work being done to the house. Aside from my month long DIY exterior glow-up in the Spring, it has been a quiet, calm, builder-free zone this year.
This time last year the old yellow bathroom was being re-done and the second guest bathroom was being added. And the summer before that, we were cooking on a camping stove, doing dishes in the bath and the roof was being held up with metal stilts.
This isn’t to say that the house is done, but any remaining jobs have taken a back seat to other more pressing matters like work, life, new chapters, new business ventures, and a truckload of personal growth along the way. As I sit here and write, I see the old French doors with their leaded criss-cross pattern peeling off in some areas and a big gap at the bottom of one of the doors, patched with plywood and white gaffer tape. This will need repairing properly (replacing actually) but in the meantime we’ll call it ‘character’.
On my daily walk/run around my neighbourhood and the surrounding areas, character is the one thing that so many - if not all- newly renovated homes lack. I often run up a steep hill to ‘the posh bit’, a private gated estate not far from my house, positioned next to a lighthouse and with dramatic sea views. I like to think of my daily runs up there as research.
Back in the day, when I lived in the area I now call home (before hot footing it to New York at 17) I went to a private school (academic scholarship, thank you very much) and this private estate is where many of my school mates lived, most of them the children of successful local business owners. I remember parties when we were fifteen, getting drunk on cider and swimming in pools in this estate. Back then all I saw was wealth. I wasn’t paying attention to the actual decor.
Thirty years later and my eye is more attuned to style rather than wealth and as we know, money cannot buy style (or taste). Before you read this as snobbery, let me say that one of my favourite documentaries of recent-ish years was artist Grayson Perry’s 3-part series for Channel 4 All in the Best Possible Taste. I highly recommend it for a deep dive into what makes us Brits buy the things we buy and live the way we live.
In each episode, he'll embed himself with people from across our social spectrum - the working classes of Sunderland, the middle classes of Tunbridge Wells and the upper classes of the Cotswolds - in a bid to get to grips with our differing takes on taste - Channel 4
At the end, Perry turns what he unearthed into six tapestries ‘The Vanity of Small Differences’, all of which I loved.
All this to say that taste and style are subjective. We know this. A mock Tudor mansion overlooking the sea, its front door flanked by two figures in full armour is not my idea of good taste. But my little cottage with its rickety doors and windows would not be mock Tudor person’s cup of tea either.
That’s not what bothers me. The issue I have is with the genericness of so many homes being renovated today in the UK. I may not like Mock Tudor guy and his armoured sentries by the door, but at least it has personality. I’ll take ‘bad taste’ over no taste any day.
This particular estate is a real mish-mash of homes - from red bricked Victorian mansions with turrets and wrap-around verandahs to some that look like they belong on an American lakefront, all pale grey clapboard and metal railings on their balconies. There are a few contemporary architectural builds, blocky with huge windows, silvery concrete exteriors and large paved driveways dotted with new cacti, like it’s Palm Springs, not Broadstairs. And some that are just a bit dull. Huge but dull.
Then there are the generic ones, their exteriors kitted out in a style seen on everything from little bungalows, blocks of flats and mammoth new builds in the area. There is a particular look - grey or white cladding, dark grey window frames, clean exteriors, overly manicured lawns, front doors flanked by two large and probably fake palms in (grey of course) concrete-effect pots.
And the front doors.
Someone somewhere a few years back decided that this is the door we should all have and now we do.
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Creating a home that represents us isn’t easy and it’s not everyone’s life goal. For some, the big house itself is already saying what they want it to: “Look, I made it!” “I’m a success!” The style itself is irrelevant.
Suzanne Moore wrote a good piece for The Guardian when Perry’s aforementioned tv show and art exhibit came out back in 2012/13.
If identity is staked out through what we eat, how we dress, how we decorate our houses, we are all overwhelmed by choice. Choice has become oppressive. Rich people have interior designers to make choices for them. A woman featured in the second episode of Perry's programme brought a show flat, already decorated, to avoid the dilemma. I have some sympathy. The exercising of "individuality" is arduous - Suzanne Moore
It’s true to say that the constant need to ‘express ourselves’ can be exhausting. But we’re all just trying to be seen. Many of us are trying to tell a story about ourselves with our homes. Mine is probably something like “Look how creative I am, look how relaxed I am about imperfection, look how individual I am!” All the while, worrying that I am not actually any of those things.
Mock Tudor/Armour guy has his story to tell. Not sure what it is, but there’s a story for sure! Modernist concrete block owner perhaps wants us to know they are forward thinking, they have ‘good taste’, you wouldn’t get it, you with all your knick knacks and clutter. Or maybe they just like clean lines, who knows.
But what if you don’t know what your story is or if you feel overwhelmed? Maybe that’s how you end up with Generic Home.
Grayson Perry on the aforementioned woman featured in his series:
“…she had bought one of the show flats, fully furnished and decorated by the developer. When she moved in, it even had a bathrobe that the interior decorator had chosen hanging on the back of the bathroom door. She had decided to give up a right seen as sacred by the most middle-class people, the right to express one’s individuality through one’s home…She said she had bought it because there was so much choice out there and she had a fear of getting it wrong. The show flat had been kitted out in an okay style: neutral tones, unfussy sofas, bland knick-knacks. On her own she might have made a hash of it – she might have, God forbid… bad taste!
I’m working hard to not be so judgemental in all aspects of my life, including when it comes to interiors (and exteriors) but the funny thing is the only time I’m judgy is with the generic, lazy design I mentioned above. The ones with those front doors. But even that isn’t really fair. Not everyone cares or has an opinion or studies design the way I do so why hold them to the same standard?
For those who don’t care or don’t know, who just want to have a ‘nice’ home, or be seen to have a ‘nice’ home, there are catalogues filled with front doors and faux concrete pots at every price point (I wrote here about the sameness loop that means all brands sell versions of the same things) and I guess that’s ok.
The other extreme…
My friend Amy and I have been watching Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen’s Outrageous Homes and sending messages back and forth about the horror of them all. Who needs to turn their house into an aquarium or go full whack with the theme ‘Treasure Island’ in their 5 million pound home or build a Venetian palace in suburban Staines? Well, no-one. And they are all mad and tacky and OTT. But the thing is, I’m glad they exist. Like the lady who only wears green. I don’t love the look, but I love that they exist in a world of generic homes and outfits.
I’ll leave you with one of maybe three homes I pass on my private estate morning run that I love the look of. Woven, recently listed on - of course - The Modern House for about a million pounds (a steal when you think what that would buy you in London) has an exterior that the neighbours probably hate. I’m not a huge fan of some of the interior decorating choices, but hey, nobody’s perfect. (Editor’s note: This was listed for £1.75 million, not £1 million as written above).
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I really enjoyed listening to this. I found myself smiling at the front door image..we live on an estate of varying new builds and these doors feature heavily...along with the grey colour scheme and the artificial trees at each side of the door. Not too my taste at all. Generic is the perfect word for them. During lockdown 2020 I painted our front door pink...among a plethora of grey and white doors, we had so many comments and people asking about the pink door...it took about 2 years but more brightly coloured doors appeared and of course some pink...so my plan this summer is to go brighter and I have my eye on a wonderful shade of orange...I don't like to be the same as others and that's not for anyone else's benefit. Our home albeit a blueprint of many others on our estate definitely is the same generic design as the rest. Thank you for your honesty as always Emily ❤️