I’m not above flipping through the odd home and lifestyle magazine – say, Rogue Living – and having a good hard gander at the latest in luxury interiors. I like a trendy kitchen splashback as much the next person, and I get a kick out of new approaches to tiling. Like, how are people still doing new things with tiling?
Even so, I do find myself wondering who actually has homes like these, and how many of them actually make full use of these spaces. I mean, look at some of these kitchens. They may have won their designers awards for interior architecture, but have they won a grandmother first prize in the local chutney competition or cake-off? Have they gotten covered in passata when someone forgot the pot of spaghetti on the stove? Has a toddler spilled on the counter-top?
I then begin to wonder if those types of incidents are what makes a great kitchen. In short, probably not. Maybe it all comes down to creating a beautiful space after all. All I know is that, when it comes to kitchen facelift ideas, Melbourne aesthetes aren’t coming up short, so I have to assume there’s something in it for the average Joe. At the end of the day, what good is a lived-in ‘real life’ kitchen if it’s not a visually inspiring place to be?
Finally, I come back round again to realising that true inspiration is to be found not in tasteful aesthetic flourishes but in the memories that are made in the space. This need not exclude decor or personalisation, or even big designer makeovers. It’s just that those luxuries are only worth investing in if they give value to the space at a deeper level than mere surface interest.
I don’t know. I’m sure the editors at Rogue Living have thought this through. It’s hard to imagine what’s really going on in the minds of the people featured. Maybe they’re superficial, or maybe they’re artistic and just happen to be wealthy as well. Who can say?