Did you swoon as hard as I did over Catherine Newman’s house tour? I know the clothes chair was universally appreciated (for very good reason!), but I keep thinking about the shoe-tray.
As I wrote last week,
The shoe tray does not hold a neatly lined up pair of Hunter boots, a pair of white Converse sneakers, or a pair of apparently-never-worn suede mules (is it just me or are Hunter boots seemingly a prerequisite for standard house tour photos??)
The shoes on Catherine’s shoe-tray are not perfectly lined up. In fact, the shoe-tray itself appears to be a bit too small to contain the household’s shoes.
What I’m trying to say is that the shoe-tray in Catherine’s home looks like every other shoe-tray I have ever seen in real life. And this felt revelatory.
I think my love of the shoe-tray also elucidates how much tidy mudrooms featured in house tours apparently bug me? No matter how much thoughtful design has gone into a mudroom, mudrooms or entryways used by CHILDREN will never be tidy. Shoes will always be strewn - wherever. And I think neat placement of shoes is also at the very bottom of my list of domestic priorities. Like, My husband and I have to feed three kids three times a day while also attempting to train them to flush the toilet on a regular basis, brush their teeth, not physically assault each other with fort-building-kit sticks, occasionally put dishes in the sink, and pick up the bare minimum of their crap. I can not be bothered with a shoe-tray’s neatness. You know?
My shoe-tray keeping it real.
What about you? Which features of traditional house tours bug you the most? How come?
Nothing on the bathroom counters or the nightstands. I’m not saying you need to leave your retainer in the shot, but if there’s not a cabinet and there’s not a toothbrush, someone is lying.
Until I saw Catherine Newman's house tour, I didn't realize all the things I was internalizing about how a house should be. Hide the stuff that's necessary for life! No one in this house - including the cat - has bodily functions! We need to make this house we live in look like nobody lives here! It was so good to see a house that actual people live in celebrated, rather than a house were an impeccable mom plays on the lush, white carpet with artisanal wood toys for a few minutes before being airlifted out of the room to preserve the integrity of the space.
Aug 24, 2022·edited Aug 24, 2022Liked by Sara Petersen
this. I saw one where the couple had a new baby and two dogs, and their entire house was white from floors to towels to couches to dishes... like you gotta be effing kidding me? why?
Entire houses, drywall to furnishings, with of-the-minute aesthetics. Unless you built your house and bought everything in it this past year, something gets a bit dated or isn't fully one LOOK, you know?
Drives me crazy when showers have no soap or shampoo in them? Like, what’s going on? Do you have a shower caddy hiding in a closet that you carry with you every day like you’re in a dorm? Don’t you have a few bottles of mostly, but not entirely used up hair & body products that you can’t bring yourself to throw away because they aren’t empty, but you don’t like using because it kinda makes you a little itchy or smells like someone you used to know and no longer talk to? Or something. Just me?
I saw this Instagramer post his bathroom with black shower tiles and a black shower caddy with his shampoos, etc in them. The first thing I thought was “spiders!” You’ll never see them coming!!! Lol
Every single picture, on every single wall, is lined up PERFECTLY with all the others--not a one is hanging off kilter even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of an inch!!! I have used levels, yardsticks, tape measures, and even had other people help me, and my shit does not/cannot look like it does in these tours. (I loved that Catherine's weren't all perfect either!)
The perfectly clean, beautifully lit and clutter-free laundry room that looks like no one has ever actually done laundry in it. C’mon! We know you have to wash all of those cloth diapers and reusable cleaning cloths somewhere.
Yes! My brother volunteered my mom (who actually lives in an Insta-worthy home and has all of her cloth napkins pressed and organized) to wash all of the Varsity Hockey jerseys. The stinky pile of 25+ jerseys clashed with her decor 😆
Aug 24, 2022·edited Aug 24, 2022Liked by Sara Petersen
The perfectly arranged twig/single hydrangea blossom/perfectly arched flowering branch out of some clay pot vase thingy always drives me crazy.
Why does it bug me so much? It's the nod to modern simplicity which is a white aesthetic, especially the CA clay loving/bohemian bourgeois look- which as my other rural dwelling friends implies, you not only have the means to live simply in that you can afford to shop regularly, and heaven forbid you just gather some scruffy blooms and shove in a mason jar, while you dump your 25 lb bag of rice into a plastic bin you bought at the hardware store- Instead you decant your 32 oz of rice perfectly into a glass jar with simple cork lid on your open shelved kitchen shelves of reclaimed wood, with your hand thrown heavy-as hell pottery in shades of clay/sand/taupe (vomit vomit vomit), of which of course you have a matching but quirky organic shaped vased to match, in which you place your single twig from the native tree you paid way too much money for that doesn't actually serve any function in your yard other than it looks good, and says you are "hip" to some gardening trends (v sole smith just wrote a great newsletter on gardening and purity culture) since you don't grow any of your own food, b/c you don't really have rough hands from home tending, since you have paid help for that, but still, a blossom in a vase is a nice touch, and besides it shows that you made an effort, just not too much effort, b/c you are so zen and your home is so peaceful, and then the magazine of course calls it "a jaunty touch amidst a serene and grounded space."
I picked some dahlias and cosmos from my yard and set them on the kitchen table a few days ago. Now they are wilted and surrounded by a puzzle and some laundry and the dinner napkins and salt and stuff. It’s not pretty. It’s real.
Maybe it's because I am currently in puppy hell but I feel triggered by the spotless built in dog crates that seem to be all the rage. And where's the dog hair? The half chewed dog toys?
Walk-in closets, but probably because I'm jealous that I don't have one too since I live in a tiny NYC apartment where we store clothes on window sills and on chairs. Sigh.
The bizarre ways that the owners, and their children, if featured, pose. I don’t have a dining room (three kids in a townhouse 🙃) but if I did, I assume I wouldn’t stand next to the window looking out dreamily. I also don’t routinely sit on a bed with all three of my children nestled on my lap and no one fighting, crying, or screaming. They look like aliens who got training on how to pose like catalog models, and we’re supposed to believe that these are authentic snapshots of their domestic lives.
The obsession with decanting in a pantry bugs me. The waste of buying packaging so you can aesthetically have a 'pleasing' view of your kids' snacks or cereal or whatever. The nadir was Khloe Kardashian's pantry, with basket after basket of single serve snacks (she had one child, who is eating all these snacks?) and the glass jars with cookies arranged in a pattern on the top shelf with a spotlight on them: they were for decoration, not to be eaten. Lazy Susan after Lazy Susan with salad dressings, etc. No one needs all that food in the house for one adult and one small child (ok, there's an assistant or two who needs to be fed, and family coming over), it was for the 'Gram. And that's gross to me: the overconsumption of purchasing food/accessories for a pretty picture.
Just absolutely bare surfaces everywhere. Do you really take your coffee pot out and put it away every morning? You don't keep a sponge or paper towels accessible in your kitchen? Do you really make yourself do that much extra work every day just for the aesthetic vibe?
Actually, I was not in love with Catherine Newman’s house tour and I still don’t understand the comments about it. I don’t really want to see a house tour on a blog that looks like my house before it is cleaned and straightened! Who wants to see clothes piled on a chair? Who has a picture taken of a bathroom with the toilet open? We put the lid down on toilets before leaving the bathroom (actually before flushing)! I try to make sure my pictures are straight on the wall…admittedly, that is one of my pet peeves, to leave pictures crooked. I like a house tour to look like I might want to copy some of the ideas…or at least to admire what someone has done to their house, not like the photos were taken before the housekeeper came!
Yeah I totally understand how aspirational house tours function as entertainment and inspiration but it was also SO NICE to see a beautiful house that felt lived in (for me!)
I think some people must look at house tours and think they're failing, so something like Newman's feels refreshing. That isn't one of my personal challenges so I am like you and enjoy house tours for inspiration.
Nothing on the bathroom counters or the nightstands. I’m not saying you need to leave your retainer in the shot, but if there’s not a cabinet and there’s not a toothbrush, someone is lying.
hahahaha yupppppp! (my nightguard just cheered)
kitchen counters too, where is the coffee maker? The salt and pepper? The half empty bottle of Kirkland brand olive oil?
Counters are only for mom&pop bottles of olive oil from Sicily that the owner's sister picks up when she summers there.
You're right of course
All the “natural” light. Not every room in your house can be lit equally brightly at all times of the day.
Until I saw Catherine Newman's house tour, I didn't realize all the things I was internalizing about how a house should be. Hide the stuff that's necessary for life! No one in this house - including the cat - has bodily functions! We need to make this house we live in look like nobody lives here! It was so good to see a house that actual people live in celebrated, rather than a house were an impeccable mom plays on the lush, white carpet with artisanal wood toys for a few minutes before being airlifted out of the room to preserve the integrity of the space.
So maybe I don't like traditional house tours?
yessss the existence of bodily functions must always be hidden!
Yeeesss! And there’s an actual cat litter box in the bathroom where the toilet seat (gasp!) was left up!!
I felt so much better!
White bedding. How.
this. I saw one where the couple had a new baby and two dogs, and their entire house was white from floors to towels to couches to dishes... like you gotta be effing kidding me? why?
Lol, even as a grownup, I never wear a white shirt. White pants are unthinkable.
When I see people in white pants I just cringe. I just, it’s an invitation for horrible things to happen.
Entire houses, drywall to furnishings, with of-the-minute aesthetics. Unless you built your house and bought everything in it this past year, something gets a bit dated or isn't fully one LOOK, you know?
Drives me crazy when showers have no soap or shampoo in them? Like, what’s going on? Do you have a shower caddy hiding in a closet that you carry with you every day like you’re in a dorm? Don’t you have a few bottles of mostly, but not entirely used up hair & body products that you can’t bring yourself to throw away because they aren’t empty, but you don’t like using because it kinda makes you a little itchy or smells like someone you used to know and no longer talk to? Or something. Just me?
I saw this Instagramer post his bathroom with black shower tiles and a black shower caddy with his shampoos, etc in them. The first thing I thought was “spiders!” You’ll never see them coming!!! Lol
Hidden toys or only *aesthetic* toys out!
Every single picture, on every single wall, is lined up PERFECTLY with all the others--not a one is hanging off kilter even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of an inch!!! I have used levels, yardsticks, tape measures, and even had other people help me, and my shit does not/cannot look like it does in these tours. (I loved that Catherine's weren't all perfect either!)
I loved this about the pear wall, too! That's one that I've thought about after the fact!
This! There is no perfect gallery wall. Just walk through the room and something slides askew.
The perfectly clean, beautifully lit and clutter-free laundry room that looks like no one has ever actually done laundry in it. C’mon! We know you have to wash all of those cloth diapers and reusable cleaning cloths somewhere.
Also dirty clothes have actual dirt on them and the actual dirt gets everywhere!
Yes! My brother volunteered my mom (who actually lives in an Insta-worthy home and has all of her cloth napkins pressed and organized) to wash all of the Varsity Hockey jerseys. The stinky pile of 25+ jerseys clashed with her decor 😆
Do you really want to see someone else’s dirty clothes? I don’t…I see enough of that in my own laundry room (or closet, which is what I have now).
Absolutely the ridiculously styled laundry rooms. My laundry room is solely functional and in a part of the basement where I have no desire to linger.
The perfectly arranged twig/single hydrangea blossom/perfectly arched flowering branch out of some clay pot vase thingy always drives me crazy.
Why does it bug me so much? It's the nod to modern simplicity which is a white aesthetic, especially the CA clay loving/bohemian bourgeois look- which as my other rural dwelling friends implies, you not only have the means to live simply in that you can afford to shop regularly, and heaven forbid you just gather some scruffy blooms and shove in a mason jar, while you dump your 25 lb bag of rice into a plastic bin you bought at the hardware store- Instead you decant your 32 oz of rice perfectly into a glass jar with simple cork lid on your open shelved kitchen shelves of reclaimed wood, with your hand thrown heavy-as hell pottery in shades of clay/sand/taupe (vomit vomit vomit), of which of course you have a matching but quirky organic shaped vased to match, in which you place your single twig from the native tree you paid way too much money for that doesn't actually serve any function in your yard other than it looks good, and says you are "hip" to some gardening trends (v sole smith just wrote a great newsletter on gardening and purity culture) since you don't grow any of your own food, b/c you don't really have rough hands from home tending, since you have paid help for that, but still, a blossom in a vase is a nice touch, and besides it shows that you made an effort, just not too much effort, b/c you are so zen and your home is so peaceful, and then the magazine of course calls it "a jaunty touch amidst a serene and grounded space."
I loveddddd Virginia's gardening piece! And yeah, the performance of "lack of effort" is definitely a thing.
I picked some dahlias and cosmos from my yard and set them on the kitchen table a few days ago. Now they are wilted and surrounded by a puzzle and some laundry and the dinner napkins and salt and stuff. It’s not pretty. It’s real.
Maybe it's because I am currently in puppy hell but I feel triggered by the spotless built in dog crates that seem to be all the rage. And where's the dog hair? The half chewed dog toys?
Walk-in closets, but probably because I'm jealous that I don't have one too since I live in a tiny NYC apartment where we store clothes on window sills and on chairs. Sigh.
The bizarre ways that the owners, and their children, if featured, pose. I don’t have a dining room (three kids in a townhouse 🙃) but if I did, I assume I wouldn’t stand next to the window looking out dreamily. I also don’t routinely sit on a bed with all three of my children nestled on my lap and no one fighting, crying, or screaming. They look like aliens who got training on how to pose like catalog models, and we’re supposed to believe that these are authentic snapshots of their domestic lives.
CLEAN COUNTERTOPS
The obsession with decanting in a pantry bugs me. The waste of buying packaging so you can aesthetically have a 'pleasing' view of your kids' snacks or cereal or whatever. The nadir was Khloe Kardashian's pantry, with basket after basket of single serve snacks (she had one child, who is eating all these snacks?) and the glass jars with cookies arranged in a pattern on the top shelf with a spotlight on them: they were for decoration, not to be eaten. Lazy Susan after Lazy Susan with salad dressings, etc. No one needs all that food in the house for one adult and one small child (ok, there's an assistant or two who needs to be fed, and family coming over), it was for the 'Gram. And that's gross to me: the overconsumption of purchasing food/accessories for a pretty picture.
Just absolutely bare surfaces everywhere. Do you really take your coffee pot out and put it away every morning? You don't keep a sponge or paper towels accessible in your kitchen? Do you really make yourself do that much extra work every day just for the aesthetic vibe?
yeah the bare surfaces are impossible (for me!)
Actually, I was not in love with Catherine Newman’s house tour and I still don’t understand the comments about it. I don’t really want to see a house tour on a blog that looks like my house before it is cleaned and straightened! Who wants to see clothes piled on a chair? Who has a picture taken of a bathroom with the toilet open? We put the lid down on toilets before leaving the bathroom (actually before flushing)! I try to make sure my pictures are straight on the wall…admittedly, that is one of my pet peeves, to leave pictures crooked. I like a house tour to look like I might want to copy some of the ideas…or at least to admire what someone has done to their house, not like the photos were taken before the housekeeper came!
Yeah I totally understand how aspirational house tours function as entertainment and inspiration but it was also SO NICE to see a beautiful house that felt lived in (for me!)
I think some people must look at house tours and think they're failing, so something like Newman's feels refreshing. That isn't one of my personal challenges so I am like you and enjoy house tours for inspiration.