This week Studio Notes was about practising the art of laissez faire… the decision to not mind about every little thing and how that small decision could actually liberate us from the prison of a perfectly tidy home. What if we had a go practising this together... allowing life to be present in the home. When everything is tidied away to perfection it can feel like no one lives there… people can feel like they can’t relax, can’t put a cup down. I’ve been to houses like that and they feel lacking… in humanity.
Now I am not saying we should all live in chaos… I am just saying that perhaps we don’t have to be perfect and in being imperfect our homes might actually feel more loved.
When stylists are photographing room sets… we are often adding those things to make a room set feel more real… a newspaper slung on the sofa, a jacket on the back of a chair, a basket leaning against the door frame…. A good stylist knows that these items bring the human element into a space…. That’s what makes a room feel alive. We’re often doing exactly the opposite of what you might imagine, and these details are what stop it feeling like a showroom and make it feel as though someone actually lives there- they allow the viewer to relate to the image.
I’m just wondering whether, in our pursuit of tidy, we sometimes remove the very things that make a home feel loved. Perhaps not everything that looks untidy needs putting away immediately. Not everything is clutter, some things are simply evidence of life.
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