Moodboard: Late Stage Quarantine Forecast

    Listen. I’m on the internet. I’m clicking and rooting around out there, watching videos and observing photos with my eyes and reading posts. Last week’s odyssey for the Perfect Content Morsel led me to Brittany Broski’s passionate survey of the Surrealist art movement. Broski, internet personality and Tiktoker more commonly known as “Kombucha Girl,” explained how the horrors of World War I fueled artists like Salvador Dali and Frida Kahlo into expressing the meaninglessness of life through their art. 

    We’ve been in quarantine a long time. The virus rages on. Everyday, I accidentally write another opening monologue for a post-apocalyptic video game with sentences like those. Such a collective event will no doubt have an effect on not just my writing, but also the aesthetics of the world, just like WWI. Before this past year, the trend of understated, calm, and soothing colors turned the home into a fittingly blank emotional slate. The outside world provided headless-chicken stimulus, then we went home to process and unwind. Design-wise, this meant stark white walls, pared down taupes, and low profile beige furniture. The emphasis was on texture, not color or a variety of objects. Take the extreme example of Kim Kardashian’s monastery home:

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    It’s definitely weird. But it’s also tranquil. The monochrome nothingness of the space is the only thing present for comment. There’s only one color and absolutely no personal items. In a more accessible example, let’s look to the modern farmhouse. According to all corners of the internet, the modern farmhouse, as popularized by Joanna Gaines, was 2019 biggest home trend. Cornerstones include simple silhouettes, cream furniture, white walls and pale flooring. 

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    This trend peaked and completely missed the point when dollhouses, which are for children at play, turned into modern farmhouses, complete with whitewashed floors. Truly, there is no better indication of a trend’s collapse. My passion for dollhouses as a child’s toy is worth a separate post, but if I can give a simple summary: they should be tacky as hell. There is no better way to raise a little insane person than to tell them their dollhouse must keep up with modern trends.

    But enough about the past. What awaits us in the future? If my oracles are still one with the goddess and also the hallucinogens we pipe into the temple, incredibly personalized spaces full of color and objects. More specifically, stuff. The right stuff that makes each person happy in their own home. While design principles will stay in the corner of our minds, it is my official prediction that in these late stages of quarantine, we’ll finally (finally!) move away from the blank, passive minimalism of 2019. Personal preference will take the helm over a cohesive aesthetic. 

    The real world is still maddening, perhaps more so than ever, but we don’t physically participate in it as much as before. The home has always been a mental refuge, but thanks to Coronavirus it’s a physical one, too. Now that it has been our only location for the past year (work, recreation, romance, everything), I think we’re ready to infuse it with personality, color, and most importantly, weird stuff. If our whole lives are conducted in this space, the space ought to reflect the richness and diversity of our lives. Take this charming apartment for example: 

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    The wood paneling in this apartment would have been painted white, if not a total deal breaker last year. Now, it’s a welcome backdrop for a bright Portofino print and flowers. I will note that the bedroom remains white and is still a place for total tranquility and neutral calm. 

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    I dream about this kitchen. The way everything is shoved to the walls shows this kitchen is in use, yet still has space for whimsy: dried flowers attached to the wall via washi tape. Magenta roses in a vase. Novelty containers for everything from toothpicks to baking supplies. Goofy gingham box shelves. Neon plastic toys and a paper doll on the fridge. I don’t think you could buy any of this stuff at Target or West Elm, but it works because it’s the expression of one person’s personality, and that person is clearly having a good time. After truly living in our homes for close to a year, we’ll put cohesive design adherence to the side and focus on filling our houses with the things that we think are kind of neat and pretty. It's the little things. -Claire