TL;DR
Get cleaning gear 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 feature on the “performed home” explores how social media makes domestic spaces both places to live and images for a public audience. Architect and academic Javier Fernández Contreras says platforms can shape expectations of what a home should look like; creators Dima and Guy say their home remains their home first. The feature does not establish how widespread these effects are or that people generally sacrifice comfort for appearance.
Livingetc has published a feature examining how Instagram and other social platforms shape expectations for domestic interiors, as homes increasingly serve both as places to live and as images shared with an audience. The report presents the shift as a cultural tension, not proof that homeowners generally give up comfort for photogenic rooms.
The feature argues that social media has given the home a more visible public role. Interiors have long signaled identity, status and aspiration, Livingetc writes, but online platforms can give those signals an ongoing audience. A living room or kitchen may now be experienced as a domestic space while also functioning as a backdrop, portfolio or setting for content.
Architect and academic Javier Fernández Contreras, author of The Interiors of Social Media: Architecture, Space, and Technology in the 21st Century, says platforms including Instagram, TikTok, Twitch and Pinterest circulate more than design ideas. They can shape what people imagine their homes could become, producing what he calls “aspirational futures” and turning the home into a “container for visual representation.”
The report also describes how the pandemic made home-based broadcasting routine for many people: bookshelves appeared behind video calls, kitchens became studios and walls served as backdrops. For creators, renovation can itself become a sequence of posts, from demolition and sourcing to a finished-room reveal. The feature does not quantify how many people make design or renovation decisions primarily for online audiences.
When Living Space Becomes an Image
The tension matters because images of interiors can influence how people judge their own homes. A stream of carefully composed rooms may expand design inspiration while also encouraging narrow ideas of what a stylish or acceptable home looks like. Fernández Contreras compares this pressure with the way social platforms can help consolidate bodily ideals, arguing that domestic norms also deserve scrutiny.
That does not mean a visually composed interior is automatically uncomfortable or inauthentic. The report notes that the overlap between home, gallery and studio can produce inventive uses of art, craft and furniture. Its central question is how to keep those visual possibilities from becoming an obligation to stage everyday life for an imagined audience.
For readers, the practical distinction is between choosing a home that reflects personal needs and feeling required to maintain a camera-ready space. The feature raises that distinction but offers no survey data on its scale, financial cost or effects on wellbeing.
Products Worth Considering
eufy Security Video Doorbell E340 Kit with Chime, 2K Resolution and 8GB Local Storage
Shark Rocket Corded Stick Vacuum for Carpet and Hard Floors, Gray/Orange, HV301
Coway Mighty AP-1512HH(W) Air Purifier, White
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
From Private Rooms to Public Backdrops
Livingetc introduces the article as part of its Meaning of Home series, which examines how design connects with culture, psychology, history, politics, storytelling and economics. The report places today’s online visibility against a longer history: people have used homes and objects to express identity and aspiration well before social media.
What has changed, in the article’s account, is the potential permanence and reach of that representation. The pandemic accelerated home broadcasting, while creators’ work has made the relationship between domestic life and content production especially visible. The article also describes a gallery-like approach to interiors, where selected objects receive visual prominence and other everyday items may be put away.
Creators Dima and Guy, known online as The Berlin Chapters, offer a counterpoint to the idea that a home used in content must feel like a set. The source says they began sharing their home and design style on Instagram the previous year and had nearly 82,000 followers at the time of the report.
““Aspirational futures””
— Javier Fernández Contreras, architect and academic
How Much Pressure Do Owners Feel?
The feature is an essay and interview-based cultural report, not a representative study. It does not establish how common it is for people to alter homes mainly for social media, how much money they spend doing so, or whether online exposure changes comfort or satisfaction over time.
It is also not clear how much viewers’ design choices are driven by platform images rather than budgets, practical needs, existing taste or broader design trends. Dima and Guy’s account is one example and cannot show how all creators experience the balance between home and work.
Questions for the Home’s Future
Livingetc presents the piece as the start of a series rather than an announcement of a policy change or research program. The source does not give a schedule for further installments. The questions it raises remain open: how do people distinguish personal taste from online pressure, and what happens when domestic spaces are designed for both daily life and a public image?
For now, the report’s clearest evidence comes from the contrast between Fernández Contreras’s warning about normative ideals and the creators’ account of treating their space as a home first. Further reporting or data would be needed to show how widespread that tension is and what consequences it has for homeowners and renters.
Key Questions
What does “performed home” mean in the Livingetc feature?
It describes a home that functions both as a lived-in space and as a representation for an audience, such as an image or video shared online.
Does the report show that people sacrifice comfort for Instagram?
No. The feature raises the possibility that online ideals influence domestic choices but provides no data proving that people generally sacrifice comfort for photogenic interiors.
He argues that platforms can shape expectations and “aspirational futures” for domestic spaces, potentially promoting normative ideas about how a home should look.
How do The Berlin Chapters describe their home?
Dima and Guy say they do not feel as though they are walking around a set when they are not creating content, describing the space as “our home first.”
How many followers did The Berlin Chapters have?
Livingetc reported that the duo had nearly 82,000 Instagram followers at the time of its feature. The source does not provide a precise date for that figure.
Source: livingetc.com
