Interiors Fatigue
Plus Jilly Cooper inspired cosplay & Martha Stewart's ambition
You’ve no doubt heard the Samuel Johnson quote “When a man is tired of London he is tired of life, for there is in London all that life can afford”.
Well I got tired of London and moved to Margate.
And then I fell in love with London again.
The same can be said for interiors and probably anything for which you’ve lost passion/excitement/inspiration. Sometimes you just have to check out for a while.
When I think back to 2012 when I got my first interiors book deal, it felt to me like a time of excitement and possibility in the world of interiors. Things still felt new and it seemed like there was so much yet to be discovered. When I was asked to pitch ideas for my first book, I had sooo many. I narrowed it down to five, but I could’ve proposed many more.
Twelve years on and I feel like I’ve seen it all.
Why haven’t I written a new book in a couple of years? Because I haven’t seen anything that excites me enough to explore it in depth! I could be like Jamie Oliver and just churn out a new book every year with a different title and cover but essentially the same recipes: Jamie’s Roast Chicken - with a twist! Jamie’s Carbonara - with salmon! (Because Italians don’t hate him enough already). Jamie’s Lemon tart - with lemons!
Groundbreaking content it is not.
But maybe that’s ok. Maybe some people just want comfort and repetition. I am probably one of those people in my own way, hammering on for years about imperfection and authenticity in the home. But I also need to feel that spark and excitement that comes from discovering something new. I’m not suggesting we need newness all the time, but things have been feeling a bit stale for me for a while.
We can blame social media for speeding up interiors (and fashion) trend cycles and I can blame my boredom when I open an interiors magazine on having been a sentient adult for long enough to witness trends come around again and again. And again.
This repetition and over-saturation has led to a lack of inspiration. It is both overstimulating and underwhelming. There is something for everyone yet nothing feels new.
I notice it when I’m making decisions about my own home, I notice it with clients’ briefs for shoots, I notice it in homeware shops. It feels like it’s all been done before - because of course, it probably has.
It makes me slightly more sympathetic towards owners of the maligned Generic Home which I wrote about here. No wonder some people’s homes are generic - they’re probably overwhelmed by too much of everything!
Are we all just a bit bored? Or is it just me? Am I just a bit jaded? Maybe so, but I’ve been writing long enough to know that it is never just me. When we were little, my grandad told off me and my siblings if we said we were bored. There is always something to do or to learn, he would say. So I’m sorry grandad, but I’m bored of interiors right now.
Ideas that once felt unique and niche now quickly become mainstream (I wrote here about how hard it is to be original). Not that it's all about being unique and original, but aren’t we all striving to be ourselves, not replicas of someone else and doesn’t that include our home?
But I’m not here to be a downer.
Despite feeling like I’ve run out of steam and ideas for my own home, and feeling pretty much bored (sorry grandad, RIP) by almost everything I see, I’ve been trying to get out of my own way and just let it be. The one thing I know is that I cannot force a good idea. If I’m not inspired by anything I see in interiors then the only thing is to look away, focus on something else.
Instead of trying to figure out why my living room doesn’t feel homey or pretty right now and how to change it (with no budget, which may be part of the problem), I live my life. Something to remember if you’re feeling burnt out with interiors is to look elsewhere for inspiration. Or, even better, stop looking altogether. At least for a while.
I get out of my own head and my own environment and often - not always - inspiration returns.
So I run in the forest and on the beach, picking up weird little shells and leaves with unlikely colour combinations. I meet up with new people locally, other creatives doing interesting art and design and we talk about our work. I write. I give my time to others. I watch travel shows on the telly and make mental lists of the places I want to visit.
Little seeds of ideas start to germinate.
I watched the Netflix adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s Rivals and now I want a comfortingly cluttered writing space like the sunroom where Katherine Parkinson’s brilliantly acted Lizzie writes her raunchy novels.
The set design is brilliant but we’ve already had a surge in chintz sofas and Laura Ashley dresses in recent years, so no old/new ideas for me there. But well worn wax jackets, Levi’s 501s and square toe biker boots will be dusted off, bought on Vinted or copied by every high street shop, thanks to Bella Maclean’s Taggie.
A few years ago I bought an oversized secondhand wax jacket for £40 at Revivals in Canterbury and a couple of months ago I bought 3 pairs of Levi’s (Not 501s. These fit me better) when they went on sale in the US and had my big brother bring them over when he visited. And the boots I already had because I am a child of the 90s and I hold onto stuff.
So I’m all set for some Rutshire cosplay.
I rewatched Dan in Real Life and was warmed by the cosy, rustic mismatched-ness (spell check is screaming at my for that, but it stays) of the family home on a lake, reminding me that years of layering of family life make a home, not trends or ‘looks’. I know this - obviously, I’ve been writing about it for years - but once in a while I need a reminder, even if it is from an outdated Steve Carrel film.
The kids’ room with the dorm style single beds and layers of blankets and extreme cosiness is the childhood I wish I’d had. But…I have a spare room for when my kids visit, so there’s still time to make it happen for them (never mind that they’re 22 and 25 - they will live out my childhood dream).
And last night I watched Martha, the new Netflix documentary about Martha Stewart, a women so driven and seemingly unflappable, with a career and life full of extreme highs and lows. Say what you will about her, but she is the person I think of when I worry that all my success is in the past. I don’t plan on doing jail time and I am much, much nicer to people who work for me, but still she is an inspiration to me at this weird mid-life, what’s next stage of my life.
My inspiration may be lagging at present, but I plan on bouncing back and writing many more chapters, figuratively but perhaps also literally.
If only I could just think of a new book title…
xx
I snorted at the Oliver and Italians comment. Maybe harsh but also very, very true 😋
Love this piece, I’ve always thought about trends and fashion and that nothing is new under the sun so love reading other peoples thoughts on the topic. Also writing a piece about interiors so this has given me some inspiration ironically, so thank you!