home decor I don't think you should buy & why

[Music] hello how's it going I hope you guys are all good today I'm going to be a little bit critical true to self we're talking about home decor that you shouldn't buy and why I hope you guys have realized by now that I explained my opinions I'm not just saying things randomly I have a list a very long list of things I don't like so I probably won't cover them all in this video but this list is mainly about like home decor that people buy at big box stores like HomeGoods or Target or Ikea things like that and I want to be really clear about what I think about mass-produced Home Products I really don't want to come off like I'm coming from some elitist place and saying that you should never shop at stores like this while I do think that shopping secondhand or vintage or from small independent creators and artists is definitely the best way to bring like a curated sense of personality to your home I do at the same time think it's only realistic and frankly pretty important to balance those unique pieces with industrially manufactured mass-produced products so I want to be clear about that and I hope that comes across because not every single thing in your home needs to be like unique and oneof a kind and like incredible it's okay to have things that are just things but what I think can really help in balancing that Duality between like pieces that have a lot of soul and personality and are really unique uh vers more generic mass-produced pieces is to consider what moments in your home are bringing a sense of uniqueness and expression and personality and which ones aren't those pieces that have personality could really be anything it could be like more obviously artwork or Decor like decorative items but it can also be furniture or everyday objects that are more functional like I don't know your bedding or your dishes and there's no one correct way to bring personality into a space it could be anything from a vintage English Windsor chair to a cool desk lamp from the 1970s or even I don't know like hand embroidered tea towels from a local artist like the pieces that are bringing a sense of place and sense of self to your home are so subjective and I don't think any designer can or should ever tell you like what's good or bad for those pieces that being said I don't think these pieces the ones that are bringing like personality and character into your home should ever be brought from a contemporary Big Box store that sells mass-produced Goods if you're going to be be shopping at stores like this I think it's important to buy pieces that are more streamlined more functional and essentially just not hiding the fact that they are what they are like a mass-produced good so with all that in mind let's dive into my list of Home Decor that I don't think you should buy I don't think any of these are really going to come as a surprise after I just laid out my philosophy but let's get started the first thing on my list is ceramics that are meant to look like they're handmade and what I mean by that are dishes or vases that are designed to look like they have imperfections like they're a little bit wobbly if you know what I mean I don't feel like this used to be such a thing but in the last few years I feel like stores like CB2 and H&M home and Zara home and places like that have really leaned into selling a lot of products like this and it just really bums me out like to me it really gives the same energy as when Starbucks started opening like fake local mom and popop coffee shops I don't know if you guys remember that or if they still do that but it was a thing that there would be like undercover Starbucks and it's just such a bad Vibe if you love that look of like human imperfections in Ceramics which I think can look really nice I would really warmly recommend you to shop vintage or secondhand or potentially from like a local suround amist in your area also Pro tip when you're shopping on like Facebook Marketplace or at a thrift store for uh secondhand Ceramics you can always look at the bottom of the piece and see if it was signed by like a ceramic artist and sometimes it'll even have the date which is really cool but I have had a few times where I've like seen what I thought was a cool bowl or something and then I flip it over and it says like Zara home on it and it's kind of a jump scare this doesn't happen that much most cool Ceramics are actually made by cool ceramic artists but be vigilant because it can happen and I don't know for me it just doesn't really align with my values to have like a mass-produced good that's trying to look like it's handmade in my home I just uh it just doesn't give me good energy okay the next thing on my list is a fake classical bust like this these are especially odd to me like I'm sorry but we all know that this isn't like an artifact from ancient Greece that's sitting on your desk in your studio apartment in Brooklyn and it just feels pretty tasteless to me to buy like a cheap imitation of something like that I don't know I guess as someone who cares a lot about history and particularly art and Architectural history this just really rubs me the wrong way also I feel like this is relatively common knowledge but ancient classical buildings and statues were painted very saturated colors they're only white today because they're very old and like ruined so I feel like that's just adding another layer of like tastelessness that you're trying to like imitate an artifact and not the actual art if that makes sense and also I'm not so deep in the world of like decorative busts that are sold today but I feel like a good amount of them are probably made from plastic or some other artificial material which just adds another layer to like the weird energy that these give I don't know this whole vibe to me just feels like a kind of strange fetishization of like Academia and like a failed attempt at like impersonating an academic aesthetic whatever that means like I don't think anyone that's actually interested or knowledgeable about classical art would have this in their home so it just gives me like kind of a weird Disneyland movie Set energy that I don't really love okay Consulting my list the next thing I have written here is word art and I have a lot to say about this I feel like a lot of interior designers on the internet will say things like never buy art with words in it or something like that but I think that's just lacking a lot of nuance some of my favorite spaces feature art that has graphic typography in it I personally really love graphic design and feel very inspired by graphic design I'm not very good at it maybe you can tell by my YouTube thumbnails I don't have the talent for it but I do really appreciate it I really love graphic prints and graphic design that being said this video is about mass produced home decor from stores like Target and HomeGoods and I don't think those stores ever really sell graphic art that's designed by like an especially talented graphic designer I feel like most word art from stores like that are very concerned with like labeling things like kitchen or family or something like that or it'll be kind of like a kitschy poem I don't know there's a lot of really funny tick toks about all of those signs and some of them are pretty ridiculous so I think it's safe to say avoid word art and graphic design prints or typography art from stores like this big box stores and instead if there's a saying or a poem or some words that are very meaningful to you that you want written in your home maybe you could speak to a digital artist or graphic designer online it's so easy to find creators and artists on the internet these days and maybe they could make something custom for you they could even sell you like a digital print that you print out yourself I just think having something that's thoughtfully designed and not mass-produced and there's no chance that you'll see it in like someone else's house or an Airbnb that you're staying in or something it's just going to bring that much more value you and uh individuality to your home and again you'd be supporting like a independent small Creator and not like a massive Corporation I do want to give a special mention to the raid done Home Products those are those like white dishes that have everything labeled on them like uh butter and coffee and things like that I hate those so much that I almost love them like kind of in a campy way if that makes sense I think they're very very fascinating and pretty funny and I just want to go on record that I think in like 30 to 40 years those will be like a very interesting kitschy collector's piece because they Mark like a very interesting moment in interior decor and like home styling Trends uh and they're just so bad and so ridiculous so yeah I just need to like go on record and put that out there that they're like kind of camp and I kind of love them and I might really want them in my house when I'm like 80 years old does that make sense they're like a cultural moment they're an artifact in my mind okay and I think this is the last one that I'll mention in this video uh and I've talked about this or like alluded to it in a few other videos I feel like because it's one of the things I hate most in the world and that is manufactured rugs mass-produced rugs that are trying to look like vintage handmade one-of aind pieces I feel like like everything I need to say about this perfectly aligns with what I said about the ceramic dishes but if you want a rug that has the look of this I really implore you to find a secondhand or vintage authentic rug it's so easy to find these online whether it be Facebook Marketplace or Etsy or first dibs or whatever and you can find them at even pretty affordable prices they aren't all like thousands and thousands of dollars but if you are buying a rug at like Ikea or a similar store just please don't buy one that looks like this it just lacks so much authenticity and just feels really wrong whenever I see one of these like cheap faux rugs my eye immediately goes to like the edge of the rug because without fail they almost always have like a very industrialized machine made Edge you can tell that they're not like an authentic handcrafted piece and it just doesn't look good it feels so like fake they're phony and just when you think that these couldn't get worse they sell them with like a fake distressed look the rug is actually printed to look distressed like it's not like they pre- distress it in an authentic way like I don't know selling ripped jeans or something but it's actually just printed to look distressed which just gives such a weird energy it doesn't look good at all and if you like the look of like a beat up rug it's so easy to find an authentic distressed rug that looks like this basically if you're buying a mous produced rug get one that looks like this and isn't trying to look like it's handmade and oneof a kind and if you want one that is handmade and one-of a kind don't shop at like a big box store like this find a seller that will sell you an authentic rug okay and I have more on my list but I think I'm going to leave it there for now I think this was enough for one video and a part two will be in the future I have a lot to say about this stuff and a lot of things that I don't like so there's endless content hopefully this was interesting or helpful in some way if you happen to be decorating your home right now uh get some authentic stuff authenticity is always good also sorry that I'm posting this video late I missed a week for my first time since I started posting on YouTube um it was just like a really busy time and I didn't get around to filming and editing a video uh but yeah I should post this on Friday and get back into a routine of posting every Friday so don't worry if you were worried I kind of doubt anyone noticed but um I will be posting every Friday and I'm going to hold myself to that and yeah I'll see you next week love you mean it

Channel: Noah Daniel

Views: 30,883

Keywords:

Id: szrEaQkf58Q

Length: 13min 30sec (810 seconds)

Published: Fri May 10 2024