Livingetc essay on how social media has turned homes into stages

Livingetc's new series, The Meaning of Home, opens with an essay by Simone Lorusso on what social media has done to the rooms we live in. The argument is not that homes have suddenly started performing. Interiors have always signalled status and taste. What is new is the permanent audience. Architect and academic Javier Fernández Contreras, author of The Interiors of Social Media, says platforms sell "aspirational futures" that shift how we judge our own spaces. The pandemic sped this up: bookshelves became credentials and kitchen islands became studios.

Two voices carry the piece. Dima and Guy of The Berlin Chapters share an apartment of bare plaster walls, sculptural furniture, bright rugs and art collected over time with nearly 82K followers. They insist it is home first, and say seeing their rooms reshared on Pinterest felt "surreal and eerie". Objects With Narratives, the collectible design gallery founded by Nik and Robbe Vandewyngaerde and Oskar Eryatmaz, has spaces in Geneva, Brussels and Bruges and a new outpost in Antwerp. It notices galleries dressing up as homes just as homes borrow from galleries.

The gallery's best line is that a home gets interesting when it "isn't too resolved", with a child's drawing beside an important piece. Worth reading for anyone who has rearranged a shelf for the camera, and worth noting the Antwerp gallery if you're passing through.

Our summary of a story from Livingetc, published 1 November 2026. Read the original