While we pride ourselves at Apartment Therapy on the fact that we feature real homes, fabulous real homes at that, we still get swept up in all that styled glory found in our favorite interior design magazines. Even though the styling is rarely practical, it's usually a great place for ideas and inspiration. That's why we immediately enjoyed Elle Interiör's piece on the process of styling a shoot.
Stylist Tina Hellberg documented the different stages in her styling process for Elle Interiör (luckily emma at emmas designblogg took care of some of the translation). While we know that the 4th photo is something that would likely never work in a real home, we are gravitating toward the styling in the 2nd photo for home inspiration. What photo speaks to you?
If you are interesting in more behind the scenes styling work, visit Warmly Styling a Home: Paul Massey's House to see how a "regular" home gets style for a professional shoot.
(Image credits: Magnus Anesund / Elle Interiör)
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Hrm, I like the third photo better.
- Paula
http://www.quitecurious.com
#3.
I like the fourth the best by far.
I don't know about the fourth photo "never working"... ok, it might not work, but one can accumulate attractive clutter on a particular table somewhat like that quite organically.... ._.
I can't get past the fact that they are all fake. So none for me.
I like the simplicity of the first.
it's obvious mags flip photos. you see all sorts of gaffs like wedding rings on the wrong finger or tattoos on the wrong side. it's most obvious in photos that have pubbed elsewhere. if they digitally retouch people, of course they manipulate everything else.
the first two are cold and lack definition.
I actually think the fourth looks the most realistic! The first two are simply too plain and bare -- in my experience, real homes have some clutter *except* when being styled. :)
I like 1 best.
Honey Living, why does that shock you so much? It doesn't change the content of the photo at all, and they do it to make the spread look better. (I suggest a post on photo ethics, that would be a fun topic.)
Except for the first, the photos are all so cluttered! I don't understand what they were attempting to convey with these images, because they just look messy and confusing to me, and so not providing of inspiration at all.
This is sort of (really) out of context.
This appears to be a styling assignment for a specific story (about desktop/tabletop product, perhaps?), definitely for editorial coverage of current product, and not what typically happens when they are shooting home.
#3
So, in other words, it's a still life assignment, to create a photographic composition, and not at all intended to be a livable environment. To inspire one, perhaps, but not necessarily recreate it.
Does anyone have info about that interesting bird that seems to be hanging on the light bulb? Kind of fascinating...
I'll go with the last one...
I like the shelf's stuff in #3, but the table/desk itself seems too cluttered. So I'd go with the #3 shelf, the #2 tabletop, and add the bird that SherryBinNH (and I) like!
Love #2... minimal without being cold.
None. They all look fake and styled, which they are. I prefer to see a real home warts and all.
I like the photos of house tours on AT featuring goofy shoots of the owners, or the slip up where the photographer's reflection is in the photo. It makes it real and therefore more appealing.
#1 if it had more color. I agree with everyone in that everything else looks way too cluttered. Plus they're not organized by use, ie teapot on one end of the shelf, a cup on the table, and 2 at the other end of the shelf, books under some ugly lump of pottery so that you can't access them to read, not to mention they're all flipped backwards so you can't even identify which one you'd want, would choose most of the AT readers homes over this for inspiration anyday.
What bugs me is when they turn all the books backwards on a shelf, or cover them in paper, to avoid visual clutter.
Ditto on the book comment. I also don't like books organized by color. These are all ways of displaying books as decorative items, which to me screams pretentious. People who have books because they read them want to be able to find a particular book quickly. I have an extensive collection, and I'd hate to have to look for a book under a lamp in the living room or displayed in a china cabinet. I have a set of bookshelves, and that's where my books go. Novel idea, huh?
Yes, the organizing-by-color scheme was cute for about a month.
One of these posts the other day featured someone who went to the thrift store and bought a bunch of cool-looking books for display in her home. It's beyond me.
Really? People don't like paper-covered or colour-coordinated books? I'd never haver known.