room review
First off - hello to a bunch of folks who have joined us over the last couple of weeks. We're glad you're here and will try to make it worth your while to stick around each week!
I've been playing catch-up since our Central Coast trip last week.
One last photo
Yesterday, I released a new video format - Room Review of a follower's dining room. I have been surprised at the reaction - not a viral video, but an extremely enthusiastic audience response as we broke down the room and what I'd do to make it better.
The Dining Room
We are going to try to do this every week.
There were 5 different things we did to this room:
Changed the rug to warm brown/rust to pop the chairs.
Added some urns to the fireplace for a more sculptural silhouette.
Rust rug + new fireplace urns
Added window treatments in the same color as the fireplace to echo it on another wall.
Made the piece of art in the corner larger to add variety in scale on the wall.
Larger art + window treatments
And replaced a side chair with a grandfather clock. There's plenty of chairs already around the table.
We needed more height in this room, and more contrast, and the clock's scale is really nice.
The optional move was to paint the fireplace, trim, and ceiling a darker gray/green to provide a little more contrast against wallpaper. That paint color isn't exactly right, but it's close.
This really comes down to personal preference - do you want a moodier, more serious space or something lighter and brighter? Either works.
Darker trim
There's more you could do, but within reason, I think we did pretty well. I want to do lots more of these.
dumb homes
Short form videos are like mini thought experiments. You put lots of them out, and if one catches on, it often means you've stumbled onto something worth digging into.
I made this video at the beginning of the week - about dumb homes. This is another that had a really strong response.
My premise is that we hit peak aspirational smart home a year or so ago, and people are experiencing optimization fatigue.
We do not want everything in our home to be smart. We do not want our refrigerator to have a screen. But there's also a big screen in every new vehicle, and that is a little weird. Do you want more screens? Increasingly, I think the answer is no.
I had several home builders in the comments saying how they focus less today on "smart home tech" and more on quality materials.
That's certainly what we're focused on in current projects.
Steven Bartlett was ruthlessly mocked online earlier this month for sharing that having a few glasses of wine derailed his life for 3 days. That's two recent movements in one - health scores and no booze - becoming the butt of a joke.
I also see cigarettes and smoking reemerging culturally. It seems that many people, famous and unfamous alike, are no longer embarrassed about being seen smoking. It's absolutely a sign of a trend reversal or pendulum swing.
If you put all this together, it probably won't be the year for viral Strava data scores and "I quit drinking" announcements. I think the Bryan Johnson trend has peaked.
We increasingly want respite. We want our homes to be sanctuaries - not control centers.
Activities like running, reading, or listening to music may be good enough in and of themselves and don't necessarily need to be tracked, accompanied, measured, or provided on an app.
Always a great thing to have around you
I've also recently talked about how much I enjoy just listening to music for its own sake. It's hilarious that I consider myself such a music fan and simultaneously lost the practice of doing the thing to become one.
When we optimize an activity, like running, driving, reading, or refrigerator inventory, we give it a lower place on the totem pole. We lose reverence for it. It's something to get done.
There's always a hidden tradeoff in technology.
The premise of smart lights is that dimming the lights is a nuisance to be avoided rather than a sacred evening ritual. I understand why people do both, but it's just important to consider. And again, not that long ago, it was lighting candles and lamps, which seems a lot more "reverent" than a dimmer switch.
Reading physical books and media seem to be bigger than ever before. There is a great hunger to learn and to read again, especially after spending so much time being entertained.
Obviously, this anti-optimization and dumb home trend applies to homes and fitness, but I think it's a broader trend and a fairly positive one, and maybe you are in a position to participate, to take advantage of it, or ideally, both.
Your home is a place you still control. There's not much you actually control outside of it. Smart tech and, very recently, smart glasses would like to come in and sell you a new experience of home.
But what made a great home great 1000 years ago remains highly applicable today and increasingly appealing to more and more folks.
dumb homes
Short form videos are like mini thought experiments. You put lots of them out, and if one catches on, it often means you've stumbled onto something worth digging into.
I made this video at the beginning of the week - about dumb homes. This is another that had a really strong response.
My premise is that we hit peak aspirational smart home a year or so ago, and people are experiencing optimization fatigue.
We do not want everything in our home to be smart. We do not want our refrigerator to have a screen. But there's also a big screen in every new vehicle, and that is a little weird. Do you want more screens? Increasingly, I think the answer is no.
I had several home builders in the comments saying how they focus less today on "smart home tech" and more on quality materials.
That's certainly what we're focused on in current projects.
Steven Bartlett was ruthlessly mocked online earlier this month for sharing that having a few glasses of wine derailed his life for 3 days. That's two recent movements in one - health scores and no booze - becoming the butt of a joke.
I also see cigarettes and smoking reemerging culturally. It seems that many people, famous and unfamous alike, are no longer embarrassed about being seen smoking. It's absolutely a sign of a trend reversal or pendulum swing.
If you put all this together, it probably won't be the year for viral Strava data scores and "I quit drinking" announcements. I think the Bryan Johnson trend has peaked.
We increasingly want respite. We want our homes to be sanctuaries - not control centers.
Activities like running, reading, or listening to music may be good enough in and of themselves and don't necessarily need to be tracked, accompanied, measured, or provided on an app.
Always a great thing to have around you
I've also recently talked about how much I enjoy just listening to music for its own sake. It's hilarious that I consider myself such a music fan and simultaneously lost the practice of doing the thing to become one.
When we optimize an activity, like running, driving, reading, or refrigerator inventory, we give it a lower place on the totem pole. We lose reverence for it. It's something to get done.
There's always a hidden tradeoff in technology.
The premise of smart lights is that dimming the lights is a nuisance to be avoided rather than a sacred evening ritual. I understand why people do both, but it's just important to consider. And again, not that long ago, it was lighting candles and lamps, which seems a lot more "reverent" than a dimmer switch.
Reading physical books and media seem to be bigger than ever before. There is a great hunger to learn and to read again, especially after spending so much time being entertained.
Obviously, this anti-optimization and dumb home trend applies to homes and fitness, but I think it's a broader trend and a fairly positive one, and maybe you are in a position to participate, to take advantage of it, or ideally, both.
Your home is a place you still control. There's not much you actually control outside of it. Smart tech and, very recently, smart glasses would like to come in and sell you a new experience of home.
But what made a great home great 1000 years ago remains highly applicable today and increasingly appealing to more and more folks.
