TL;DR
Get decor and gifts delivered free with Prime
- Fast, free delivery on millions of items
- Prime Video, Amazon Music and more included
- Member-only deals all year
Livingetc’s new “The Meaning of Home” series examines how social platforms make domestic spaces both places to live and images for public audiences. The feature explores that tension through architect Javier Fernández Contreras’s analysis and the experience of creators Dima and Guy of The Berlin Chapters; it does not present new research or establish how widespread these effects are.
Livingetc has launched “The Meaning of Home,” a design series examining how homes shape and reflect the way people live, and its feature on the “performed home” focuses on social media’s influence on domestic spaces. Drawing on architect and academic Javier Fernández Contreras and creators Dima and Guy of The Berlin Chapters, the report describes a growing tension: a home can be a private place to inhabit while also becoming an image made for an online audience.
The feature argues that homes have long communicated identity, status and aspiration, but social media has given domestic spaces a potentially large and lasting audience. Platforms including Instagram, TikTok, Twitch and Pinterest circulate interior images and, in Fernández Contreras’s view, can influence the standards people use to judge their own homes. The report describes a house or apartment as both a lived space and a “container for visual representation.”
That overlap became more visible during the pandemic, Livingetc writes, when many people worked and appeared on camera from home. A bookshelf could function as part of a professional image, a kitchen island as a broadcast setting, and a wall behind a desk as a deliberate backdrop. For some creators, renovation can also become a sequence of online posts, from demolition and sourcing to a finished-room reveal. The feature does not quantify how common that practice is.
The creators interviewed offer a counterpoint to the idea that an online audience necessarily turns a home into a set for its occupants. Dima and Guy say their home remains a home first, even though their interior-focused content reaches a large audience. They began sharing snapshots of their life and design style on Instagram the previous year and, according to the report, had nearly 82,000 followers at the time it was written. The article also describes their approach as deliberately individual, quoting their motto: “We wanted different. So we built it.”
When Home Becomes Public
The issue matters because visual platforms can affect not only how rooms are decorated but also what people expect a home to be for. A room planned for daily routines may also be judged as a backdrop, portfolio or display. That can shape decisions about furniture, lighting, storage and renovation, while encouraging people to compare their homes with curated images online.
Fernández Contreras warns that domestic images can promote normative models of home life, much as social media can reinforce ideals in other areas. That is his analysis, not a measured finding presented by the feature. At the same time, the article notes that the overlap between art, craft and furniture can support inventive interiors. The tension is not simply between authentic living and artificial display: visual presentation can coexist with comfort, personal taste and everyday use, though the report does not establish how people weigh those priorities.
Products Worth Considering
Ring Alarm Pro 14-Piece Home Security Kit with Built-In eero Wi-Fi 6 Router
Levoit Vital 200S-P Smart Air Purifier for Large Rooms up to 1875 ft²
PHILIPS Hue Smart LED Candle Light Bulb, B39, E12, 2-Pack
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
From Private Rooms to Online Images
Livingetc introduces “The Meaning of Home” as a series using essays, interviews and personal accounts to consider how domestic spaces connect with culture, psychology, history, politics, storytelling and economics. The performed-home feature places social media within a longer history: people have used interiors to express identity and aspiration well before online platforms existed. Its argument is that the potential scale and persistence of the audience have changed.
The report also describes the home’s increasingly gallery-like presentation: artwork on uninterrupted walls, collectible furniture given room to stand out, theatrical lighting and everyday items placed out of sight. It treats these choices as part of a wider shift in how objects are displayed, not proof that contemporary homes have stopped being domestic. The feature draws on Fernández Contreras’s book, The Interiors of Social Media: Architecture, Space, and Technology in the 21st Century, alongside the Berlin-based creators’ account of living with online visibility.
““aspirational futures””
— Javier Fernández Contreras, architect and academic
How Broad Is the Pressure?
The feature is a cultural and design report, not a survey or study measuring how social media affects household decisions. It does not establish how many people change their homes to suit online audiences, how often they feel pressure to do so, or whether those choices affect their comfort or well-being. Fernández Contreras’s concerns are attributed analysis, while Dima and Guy’s account is one pair of creators’ experience.
The source also does not give a publication date, explain how the duo’s follower count was measured, or provide a comparison period for that figure. Its discussion of the pandemic describes an acceleration in home broadcasting but supplies no supporting audience or platform data. The degree to which online presentation conflicts with ordinary use, or instead simply accompanies it, remains open.
The Series’ Next Questions
Livingetc says “The Meaning of Home” will continue through essays, interviews and personal stories exploring the forces that shape domestic life. The source does not announce a schedule or identify the next installment. Further reporting could add perspectives from people who do not create content professionally, as well as evidence on how online images influence spending, renovation and room use; those questions are not answered by this feature.
For now, the report’s development is the launch of the series and its opening examination of the home’s dual role as private dwelling and public image. Whether that tension leads people to sacrifice practical needs for visual appeal is posed as a question, not resolved as a general finding.
Key Questions
What does “performed home” mean in this report?
It refers to a home that serves both as a place to live and an image presented to others, such as a social-media backdrop, portfolio or display. The feature examines the overlap without claiming every home online is staged.
Who is featured in Livingetc’s report?
The report draws on architect and academic Javier Fernández Contreras and creators Dima and Guy of The Berlin Chapters, whose interior-focused posts feature their home.
Do the creators say they live in a set?
No. They say that when they are not making content, they do not feel as if they are walking around a set and describe the space as their home first.
No. It presents an analysis of how online imagery may shape domestic expectations, but provides no survey or causal data establishing how widespread that influence is.
What is “The Meaning of Home”?
Livingetc describes it as a new series of essays, interviews and personal stories about the cultural, psychological and other forces that shape how people live between domestic walls.
Source: livingetc.com
