Beloved by many, the X (formerly Twitter) account dedicated to the best of Zillow real estate listings (even though not actually affiliated with Zillow—the American real estate marketplace company—as they mentioned in their description) was started just a couple of years ago in 2020.
It quickly became a source of entertainment for both fans of interior design and people who have nothing to do with it, likely because of the fact that at that point in time, interior design and our surroundings were more important than ever due to the pandemic.
In addition to being a space to eat and sleep, one’s home became a place for work, socialization, studying, and basically everything else that needed to be taken care of during the pandemic. And apparently, spending this much time in a confined space can make one notice things about it that they don’t like or evoke a desire for a home improvement project for other reasons. During covid, that resulted in quite a noticeable increase in home repair activities.
Quite a large part of the home improvement projects during Covid were DIY—do it yourself—endeavors. Surveys carried out during the first couple of years of the pandemic found that over the year from March 2020 to May 2021, roughly 60% of respondents said they’d started a DIY project; in June of 2021, the number was as high as 69%.
The increased interest in improving one’s home is evident by looking at the change in size of the home improvement market, too, which saw a spike in numbers around the year 2020.
Like any other undertakings, DIY projects, too, differ depending on the homeowner’s imagination. While some want to flip half of their furniture so the room resembles page nine of a popular interior magazine, others go a totally different direction and create something completely out of the ordinary (something resembling the homes on this list, for instance).
That’s when browsing all sorts of listings can come in handy, as it is a never-ending source of inspiration for admirers of all sorts of styles.
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Even if you’re not ready or simply don’t want to buy a home, browsing real estate listings and viewing their design can be a fun pastime. That’s because, in a way, interior design is an art form, which typically calls for either an exceptional talent or years of experience—or, in most cases, both—and results in some awe-inspiring ideas.
Though, in her Ted Talk from 2017, interior designer Phoebe Oldrey suggested that good design is something you don’t even notice. Unlike a bad one, which can be compared to a pebble in one’s shoe (something you can’t help but think about constantly), it doesn’t make one think about how convenient it is on a daily basis.
“The funny thing about design is, you don’t really notice good design; you’re just using it,” Oldrey pointed out in her talk. “Sure, you notice the aesthetics of a room—‘it looks nice, therefore, I like it’—but you don’t notice how you feel about it. You just feel content.”
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In her talk, the expert discussed that good design has to make sense on several levels—it has to be physically, emotionally, and visually appealing. The items in the space have to be placed in a way that makes sense, the space itself should serve a purpose and make the person in it feel comfortable; and that requires careful consideration in regards to everything from decor elements to colors of the walls in the room.
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Even though browsing real estate listings can be a great way to gather ideas for the interior of your own home or your DIY projects, copying the entirety of someone else’s design might not be the best option for your dwelling.
“If we make design only about the visual factor and don’t take our own journey to get there, we are missing the amazing opportunity to create groundbreaking design of our very own,” interior designer Phoebe Oldrey suggested, adding that with a holistic approach, people can create spaces that meet their needs physically, emotionally, and visually, and live in peace without a pebble in their shoe to think about.