Smoke on Mirrors: Fake it ’til you Make it!
In the world of interiors, there are so many ideas and much inspiration about. However the dark side of this is that it can make many of us feel a little inadequate. On Instagram we can be in awe at these beautiful and immaculate homes, with cream carpets and white walls. And it is easy to wonder how these homes manage to look like this when there are young children and animals living in the home. Well, many popular home interiors accounts admit to some of their posts being smoke on mirrors. It is unrealistic to think that in a busy family and working life that the home will look perfect all the time, and many interior bloggers and instagrammers acknowledge this.
So we have created a blog with our top tips on faking it ’til you make it and making your home photograph-ready for the ‘gram!
Set your scene
When taking a picture in your home you need to first decide what you want to take a picture of and then set your scene. Sometimes creating different content and scenes will involve moving things around which can create mess. Make sure to tidy the area, which can sometimes mean scraping mess to one side so that it is out of the way of the camera shot. A little thing that we do in our showroom when setting a small accessories scene is to change the background by using boards or getting a colleague to hold up a throw. Keeping it simple is appealing to the eye, and it hides any mess.
Camera Angles
Most accounts will tell you that their home shots are all about the camera angle. The important thing to remember is when looking at a photograph, you are only seeing what is in the shot and not necessarily the mess that may be present on the other side of the camera. So once you know what you want to take a picture of, practice many different camera angles and takes loads of pictures for you to go through later and select the best one! Be careful of reflections which may display mess in the background.
Filters and Edit
In the world of social media it is important what filter we use. Filters can brighten up images of the home, making them look lighter, cleaner and sometimes bigger. Every home account plays about with filters and lighting to make their pictures look as inviting as possible. Sometimes a nice bright filter is all it takes to make a dull stain on a wall virtually disappear. Some accounts even use photoshop/editing facilities which are commonplace and easy to access. This can allow blurring or editing certain things out of posts.
Strategically Placed Rug
Many home accounts are very down to Earth and happily show their followers how their seemingly-perfect homes aren’t quite so. Some accounts have admitted to things such as hanging pictures, mirrors or placing ornaments to cover up stains or discolouring on walls. It is also a risky business having pale carpets and cream carpets if you want to do things like paint your nails or have a glass of red wine. A home interiors account in the US admitted to strategically placing a rug over a large, red nail polish stain on her cream carpets.
Behind Closed Doors
Do you all remember that Friends episode where Chandler found Monica’s messy cupboard? Monica known for her dislike of mess and being a cleaning and tidying fanatic, had a cupboard where a lot of clutter and mess was thrown in to – it has to go somewhere, right? Walking into the New York apartment it looks neat and tidy, but you do not know what is behind closed doors. A home interiors account from Denmark, replied to a follower who was asking how she kept her home so tidy with three kids, saying that all the cupboards you see in her pictures are crammed full of toys, and that when you open the cupboards, it is like a toy explosion. She then added a video to her Instagram story showing her perfectly neat scene and then opened drawers and did a panoramic to see the mess that was hidden from the uploaded photograph. So, sometimes mess is in the picture and has been in the picture all along, it is just hidden from the eye!
Rare Picture Opportunities
You can spend an entire day cleaning and tidying your home, yet a busy family/work-life balance can see your home getting messy again in what feels like seconds. Some accounts will spend a day cleaning and tidying, and when their house is spotless they will take several pictures of it whilst they have the rare opportunity of it being spotless, to post through the week or month, when in reality homes can be quite messy more days of the year than it is not. Many of us are guilty of posting pictures that do not reflect current realities. For example, you may post a picture of your perfectly tidy bedroom whilst sitting on a messy unmade bed covered in laundry for example.
Be Realistic and Proud
Some home accounts have been emerging where people have been posting pictures of their messy homes with pride. They put emphasis on the importance of life being about having a busy, happy family and if that means less time to tidy then so-be-it. After-all we’ve all been kids once, coming home covered in mud and trampling it into the carpet. These pages seem to set-out to help people be proud of their homes, even if it doesn’t look like most of the ‘perfect’ looking homes online. They show that you can be house-proud and have a beautiful home even if it isn’t ‘perfect’. It helps people to stop feeling bad when their homes are a little messy and they have lack of time or motivation to tidy up. The reality is that even the most beautiful homes online get messy at times too.
Rounding-off
Every home is beautiful, even the ones more lived in than show-home spotless. In the UK we are so house-proud, but social media can sometimes make us forget that even the tidiest, most beautiful homes get untidy too. We hope this blog has been a bit of fun and helped you to not just get those great home-pictures on the ‘gram, but to see that mess and imperfections in the home are okay and all homes have them. Hopefully we have been able to provide you with tips in hiding these imperfections, how to accept them and an understanding that most popular home accounts use these tricks too. It’s all smoke on mirrors!
Love,
No5a x
