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We all have an idea of what the inside of our dream home looks like. Some prefer straightforward, minimalist interior designs. Others, like these two TikTok influencers, want a unique feel to make their personalities stand out.
Ethan Gaskill and Robert Gigliotti shared their “home decor turn-ons” in a recent series of videos, and we’ve compiled some of them into this list. They involve unexpected art placements, bulky furniture centerpieces, and “intentional clutter.”
Was that a head-scratcher? Scroll through to see what I mean. And who knows? A few of these may even inspire you with new furnishing ideas.
Keep scrolling to find our interview with Philippines-based interior designer Lea Maris De Guzman, who shared her insights about niche home decor.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
I'm sick of the white walls. Let's bring bold color back in. Even if you're just changing up your white walls to a warmer white, beige.
I like beige. I love it. I painted my hallway a copper color, my living room this citrusy, yellowy color. My bedroom's green. My bathroom's chocolate brown.
I really am debating painting my other bathroom like a cherry apple red. I just think it's so fun. Life's short. Paint, yeah, it's like $50 and takes a little bit of time. But, honestly, putting music on, dancing while doing it, and just having fun, in the worst case, you paint it back.
And if your landlord says you can't paint, tell them 'sorry, not sorry' and paint. You can always paint it back to white or just hope for the best. They repaint it usually anyway. Yeah. Also, if you're gonna paint, I love the paint drenching, painting your ceiling, painting your trim.
I think that looks really cool. Our friendship started because Ethan painted his ceiling yellow, and I was caught by it. It caught my attention. Who knew painting your ceiling would give you the best friend for the rest of your life? Literally. So see what happens when you paint your walls.
Woodsie 1 year ago
Yes, just go ahead and paint your rented accommodation a rainbow of colours and just leave it up to your landlord to fix when you leave. Bright colours are not always easy fixed by a couple of coasts of white paint. If you want to paint bright colours do it in your own home. I have nothing against bright colours, my own home has blue, green and yellow walls but it is my house.
Lizzy Lizzard 1 year ago
My parents rented out my grandparents early 1900s house and the tenants painted the crown molding, among other things, a pepto bismol pink. It's been impossible to completely cover up and had ruined those beautiful features for everyone else. People need to have some care, if not because it's landlords' property, then at least for things other people will be using in the future.
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PeepPeep the duck 1 year ago
I had teal/aqua walls and it surprisingly worked so well, it made it spacey and big without feeling cold etc
Nitka Tsar 1 year ago (edited)
My parents never allowed me color in my room because they did not want to have to repaint it white if we ever moved out there (standard renters agreement in Germany). So my first flat was as colorfull as it could get. 2 dark red livingroom walls, grean and cappuchino study, eggshell kitchen, a particular blue bathroom and a lilac bedroom. I LOVED it SO much! 😀 Edit: and my landlord loved my changes so much, that I did not even have to repaint it white again, lol
Trillian 1 year ago
I don't like color walls. I get sick of a color in no time. Also, it makes rooms feel dark and stuffy.
Jaaawn 1 year ago
Our entire house is painted in a kind of clay coloured grey, woodwork and ceilings. Lets us accessorise with bright objects. I love it and I don't care if anyone hates it- we live here not them.
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#2
These big, bulky wooden furniture pieces. Like a creator we really like, Paige Wassel, also said, like, get furniture that you could stand on. Obviously, there's furniture that should be delicate for a reason, but these, like, sturdy, high-quality pieces are just beautiful. They make a statement. Usually, you can do a lot of storage in them.
Never. It'll never go out of style. It feels like something you'd have in, like, your home growing up, like an heirloom piece of furniture.
Jakoe 1 year ago
I, like, really have to agree with this too. In all honesty though, I do appreciate well-made solid pieces. Sometimes you have to be practical though and realize that you're never getting this 400 lb chest of drawers up the stairs to your bedroom!🤦🏽
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Lara Verne 1 year ago
I agree, but bulky furniture weigh a lot, take a lot of space, and make smaller rooms look cluttered. And if you want to move it and it cannot be taken apart, good luck. Speaking from experience. This furniture was not designed with the dimensions of a normal door in mind.
doredde 1 year ago
I disagree on that they go never out of style. Everything "goes out of style" at some point in time. Most of these kind of furniture just had not one, but several comebacks over the time. And you really only need this kind of furniture if you have a LOT of (too many) things to keep AND the space. Imagine how these cupboards would look in a room of 15-18 squaremeter rooms? Would you live in a flat that is stuffed with oversized furniture and not have enough place to walk? And most of these "gems", like the highly praised wall mounted furniture from the 80s, which every one of my parents and grandparents had, because they were so "practical"... Sure, you did not need to think about what fits together, because you had this monsters with enough storage room. But once dissambled for a flat move, good luck building it up again. And you could never take it apart for rearranging parts of it, when you wanted to change the furniture.
Angela C 1 year ago
I have my grandparents' dining room table that they bought in the 70s and it's heavy and sturdy and I love it. Same goes for my bed. Neighbor was getting rid of it and I took it and it's heavy but has a ton of storage (it's a platform bed with drawers underneath). And as a bigger individual I am all for a sturdy bed.
shankShaw deReemer 1 year ago
Does this person say "like" for everything? Like...she really needs to work on her word usage and, like, completely eliminate this word from her vocabulary--unless she's using it as a simile. It sounds so "teenager-ish" and unprofessional!
#3
Textured glass. I really like that, but there's so many different ones that I think people should play with more often. Maybe a shower door that has texture on it, cabinet doors. And I think now, because homes are so close together and you're always just looking in someone else's living room, maybe adding some textured glass could be really beautiful on those spaces that are like those sidewalls where you're just like watching your neighbor eat dinner.
And what's really cool about this is the way that light filters through this type of glass as well. So it makes for very picturesque and beautiful ethereal lighting moments in your home.
Noltha 1 year ago
Shower doors with texture. Obviously, someone else is cleaning their bathrooms.
Panflute 1 year ago
When I had a shower door with texture, the inside was smooth and the outside was textured, so that it was easier to clean the soapy side. The whole idea is just to give the showering person both privacy and light.
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Foxglove🇮🇪 1 year ago
We had our bathrooms redone this year, had to settle for clear glass in both showers because frosted/textured just isn't available here
Nitka Tsar 1 year ago
There are…. stickers? I don‘t know whats it called… foil? Something you can stick to the glass that will make it look like it is frosted or whatever you like.
Load More Replies... What exactly is niche home decor? Lea describes it as a way of expressing one’s special interests through interior design.
“It could be that you're trying to have the aesthetic of a country club vibe, wabi sabi, or a certain look or philosophy,” she told Bored Panda.
#4
Unexpected art placement. And this is something that isn't new. In fact, I've seen quite a few other content creators talk about this. It makes a home feel so much more eclectic and special and just is a lot more visually interesting than centering artwork over the precise middle point on a mantel or a dresser or a nightstand.
At your house, how you have a piece of artwork in between the two windows in your living room. You can't plan for this. I don't think you can look at that spot and be like, you need it.
But sometimes it just works. Play around, hold your art pieces in different places, and you never know. I don't know, like, right over a light switch or something like that, over a nightstand versus over the headboard.
AllRightyNowThen 1 year ago
Meh.... Maybe, but if it's so out of balance that it is unsettling, then your house becomes unsettling.
#5
Corten steel. There's an artist, Richard Serra, who makes beautiful sculptures out of this, but this has been used in architecture, a lot of modern architecture, for a while. And I just think it's so beautiful, and I'm calling it now.
We're gonna be seeing this in lighting coming up. We've seen chrome. Chrome had a big thing. Gold, silver, but we aren't going into this. I mean, I love copper. This gives copper energy.
It gives a very unique edge to a space, but also kind of has like an antique look to it too. I think it could work with a lot of different styles. It's like new but old at the same time, which is really cool.
keyboardtek 1 year ago
I agree. Rust equates to decay and neglect in my mind.
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#6
My turn-on is that old-money country club aesthetic. I feel like this aesthetic really hits the nail on the head when it comes to everything that I love in a good interior.
There are beautiful, rich greens and reds and blues, dark woods that you just know are so well made and so well utilized. It's timeless, and you see a lot of high-quality metals being used in this environment as well. And I think that really is just what I like so much about it, as you can tell. It's like rich, it has character. Even the faucets, I get from this vibe, are the ones with the little porcelain additions, or those showerheads with all the hardware exposed, and it's all simple but elevated.
AllRightyNowThen 1 year ago
Hard to go halfway on this but mid mod can be a good starter for someone who can't remodel a whole house
A lot of the designs you see posted on this list are out of the ordinary. While it can be aesthetically satisfying for the person who came up with the design, Lea says maintaining it could be an issue in the future.
She used minimalist designs as an example, and the potential challenges a homeowner can face once toddlers enter the picture.
#7
I love intentional or organized clutter. Some people like their house to look like a showroom or a museum where there's, like, almost no signs of life. But I am someone who takes so much pride in the things that I use, like my perfumes, the books that I read, coffee cups, jewelry. I like to kind of scatter these things. Not literally just throw them around my apartment.
But as I use them, I leave them out because I think that they speak to my personality, and it's just something that in a way is kind of indirectly decor. Well, I think he's really good at this. If you've seen our ick videos, I kinda mentioned displaying, like, toiletries and stuff like that. I think I mean more of if you are hanging up shelves specifically to show off your nail polishes or skin care products.
There's a fine line between clutter and then also leaving your reading glasses out or your book or your journal or whatever it is.
He's really good at this. I wanna get better at that. I'm a Virgo, so I need things like pristine, my fruit bowl with the fruit in a specific way.
Piggybacking on what he says, he has a lot of beautiful items, and that's kinda something I'm into right now, or have been for the past few years because I've always been a collector, and I'm getting you on it. It's kinda like curating everything. This is especially great if you can't afford furniture or art pieces. Going to the thrift stores and finding the mini stuff. I want my drawers of silverware not to just be Target, streamline, all silver, all gold.
Like, I want mix and match. I want different fun stuff. I also love the concept of, like, exactly what you're saying, because as design trends change, or you wanna transition from one style to another if your home is kind of this, like, quilt, for example, of a lot of different styles and items and things. Not like, 'Oh, I'm going from, like, farmhouse into a super modern Scandinavian home.' It's like your home's eclectic.
You can kind of always let it evolve. And when the items in your space are sourced from a lot of different places, but it's always like things you really love, it's easy to kind of keep transforming your space without having to get rid of, like, everything and go buy a bunch of new stuff all at once.
Cool crow 1 year ago
My system, and it always works, is to go with what I like. It may not be someone else's style, and my taste may be unusual, but I'm the one who has to like it. For instance, I have beautiful fake flowers on the coffee table (since xmas). I've grown to appreciate my own style and I know I really like other peoples' unique styles.
GettingCereal 1 year ago
When it comes to matters of taste, I've learned to ignore recommendations, especially from people who don't know me. If I'm on the fence about an object or a style, I shouldn't buy it if I can't easily and cheaply replace it. But if I immediately love something, I will not tire of it in any kind of near future. In fact, I have yet to tire of an item or style I immediately loved. Regardless of what shop assistants and experts said at the time.
Load More Replies... Nizumi 1 year ago
"Intentional Organized clutter" is just another way of saying you have various dumping spots for things. Clothes go in the corner. There's a tray near the sofa that catches the remotes, coasters, tissue box. A basket on a shelf that catches glasses, lip balm, batteries from you don't know where. And somewhere you have a small chipped piece of pottery without its lid collecting mystery keys for padlocks long lost or old apartment storage units. Clutter is clutter.
doredde 1 year ago
So, leaving a (wet?) towel on your hardwood cupboard next to a bottle of wine and a pink sock hanging out from a drawer, putting your Blistex tube on your nighstand, and your ashtray next to your matches is revolutionery interior design? I hope people are intelligent and creative enough for themselves and don´t pay for this "life-hacks". My grandmother would have put it all together in a trash bin and on your bed with the words "There you have interior-design, I give your behind a new design the minute you say No to cleaning this mess up!"
Bob Jones 1 year ago
Sounds like my wife. It is not possible to have a free space without filling it up with a range of ornaments and niknaks to gather dust. Every spare place on a wall has to have a picture just about touching its neighbour. I can't stand it as the place always looks messy but I lost that battle long ago, so just accept it now.
#8
Handmade pottery. I have been having the time of my life at thrift stores finding the coolest handmade pottery. I don't care if it's like a bowl, a sculpture. I even found like a tea kettle recently. It's like red, white, and blue. Definitely someone's 4th grade, like, art project, but it's in my home now, and it feels special and fun.
It gives them another life.
keyboardtek 1 year ago
The lack of symmetry and the lack of pride and care in their construction just reeks of laziness by the maker.
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Lyone Fein 1 year ago
Not all unique pottery is so rustic looking. And these days there are a ton of paint-your-own places all over, so you can create pieces that actually fit in with your home's vibe.
Lara Verne 1 year ago
No. I had big cardboard box full of handmade pottery and 'decorative' items. Made by me and my brothers in elementary school. It was fugly. We collectively decided to throw it out.
#9
This color. I've been kind of debating on what the color actually is. It's sort of like a chartreuse, chardonnay, green, yellow. My bedding is this color. My ceiling, I painted this color. I also painted my dining room a color similar to this recently, but it's great. It's so warm, and it's timeless.
I recently toured a mid-century home in LA, the Schindler House, and they had these screen doors, which were this color. It makes a statement, but it's also very versatile and earthy but bold.
Pheebs 1 year ago
Yes! The color of the 80s. I’m not sure they actually know what color chartreuse is if they’re thinking it looks anything like this.
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Glitterati 1 year ago
Just the colour to be murdered to as per top right bedroom photo. ‘1970s serial killer motel yellow’
Yuna Oroborus 1 year ago
I see 4 different colors: a greenish yellow, a mustard, a creme white and a butter yellow.
But if the design becomes too eccentric, when does a designer intervene for quality control? Lea says it’s about finding that balance between functionality and making the homeowner’s vision come to life.
“Our role as designers is to ensure that the space remains practical and harmonious,” she explained.
#10
Starting off with a color combo I've been loving a lot recently. I actually found a baby photo of my mom and I, and I saw this color scheme in it.
And then there's also this Instagram account I followed recently of a photographer, Pepe Lobez, and he does this whole series on blue and red, specifically this powder blue. It's not super patriotic, but, I mean, I guess red and blue is. But when it's done tastefully, it just looks so beautiful. I wish this would work in my home. I wanna find a place to do this in, but I just really love the way it looks. It does look so good.
#11
I've been loving darker stones, darker tiles, darker woods. I think it just adds a richness, a warmth.
I think darker stones on a bathroom countertop, kitchen countertop is beautiful. I do like light stone, but I think play with this. It just makes the place feel homey, warm.
#12
Use a bed cover. And so I talked about this before. And, like, now that the warm weather is rolling around the corner, I just love this like effortless European look. Some people call it 'grandmacore' bedding because apparently, a lot of our grandmothers made beds this way.
You could have any sheets, any pillow covers, and you just throw a bedspread on. If grandmas have been doing it for a while, it's obviously a good idea because they obviously know what's up.
A girl 1 year ago
They even put commas around the "like". As though punctuation makes it more acceptable
doredde 1 year ago
As lovely as they may look, bedspreads are not very practical. They enhance the dark and humid "climate" that encourages the growth of mites , which we find in every household/bedroom. It may be practical to hide your bedsheets in a small room, when you have no couch to sit on. Or to add extra warmth in winter. But your bedsheets have to be aired long enough before and afterwards, so it is not very hygienic in the end.
If your niche home decor involves cultural pieces, Lea has one important piece of advice: “Ensure you’re appreciating, not appropriating.”
She emphasizes doing prior research on the style you’re going for. It should help you better understand and show respect for its origins.
#13
My next turn-on is mixing materials, and this is something that a lot of interior designers and decorators have talked about forever, but I recently have really experienced the beauty of it when done really well.
Having a mixture of materials like this really just makes a space feel sort of unexpected and brings a lot of balance so that everything's not just like one type of wood or one color, but adds variety. And it feels more special than if you just did everything the same. Mixing textures is what's gonna make your house less flat, look less like a staging house, just bringing in different things. Same applies to fashion.
#14
Tiled furniture. And there's a right way and a wrong way to do this. And the wrong way is, like, that sort of trendy urban checkerboard tiled furniture.
I love tile on beautiful vintage heirloom pieces of furniture, like heavy wood furniture that is contrasted with stunning tiles. They're on the front face of, like, a cabinet or on top of a coffee table. There's just really cool tiles being used. I was actually at an estate sale a couple weeks ago and saw a coffee table that I almost bought.
The silhouette of the coffee table wasn't exactly the right fit for my space, but the wood tone was so gorgeous. And, honestly, the tile is what made it. Like, if it just had a plain wood surface, it would have been far less interesting. This is a perfect example that there's a trendy way to do things, and there's an exception to every rule.
#15
Unique art framing. I think something that you can do that's super easy that I've done is just painting the mat of your frame, with any existing picture you have. I found these like really cool steel frames in Palm Springs. I printed some baby photos of my partner and I, put them in there, and I love the way it came out.
I also found this artist, @em_kettner. Their work is beautiful. Just, it's like big blocks of wood with a picture inside of it. But I don't know. Just get playful. There's just so much you can do with, like, things you already have that can make your space feel so much more elevated and intentional.
Functionality should still be your top priority, and Lea reminds us to focus on usability and avoiding clutter. You can achieve both aesthetics and practicality at the same time.
If you are stumped on how to proceed, Lea advises consulting a professional. They could help you realize your vision while maintaining balance and harmony in your space.
What do you think ?
Diane Hughes 1 year ago
This guy is like a teenager in his speaking style and his taste. All the pics are ugly and I couldn't possibly take him seriously.
Jakoe 1 year ago
The thing that interests me, is that this individual has very fluctuating "likes" and dislikes. One minute we love a curated design, the next we're putting our art pieces in the most unorganized setting. We "like" both heavily textured, marbles, painted, and tiled choices, but we also "like" utilitarian hunks of rust sitting in our yards. I don't know, I'm probably just being, like, petty because of the amount of "likes".
doredde 1 year ago
I don´t get what their Insta or TIKTOK should be about. A collection of design fails from the past? Not even designed by themselves, just (badly) photgraphed pictures of Interior design from the last century? What information is there to get from someone debating of what name to give the wallpaper in booger-green or nicotine-yellow? And what "influence" should/could that have on my personal taste? I don´t really get it. The only thing I learned from that post is, that you should use your commas wisely and how to overuse someone elses nerves in inflationary use of the term "like".
Diane Hughes 1 year ago
This guy is like a teenager in his speaking style and his taste. All the pics are ugly and I couldn't possibly take him seriously.
Jakoe 1 year ago
The thing that interests me, is that this individual has very fluctuating "likes" and dislikes. One minute we love a curated design, the next we're putting our art pieces in the most unorganized setting. We "like" both heavily textured, marbles, painted, and tiled choices, but we also "like" utilitarian hunks of rust sitting in our yards. I don't know, I'm probably just being, like, petty because of the amount of "likes".
doredde 1 year ago
I don´t get what their Insta or TIKTOK should be about. A collection of design fails from the past? Not even designed by themselves, just (badly) photgraphed pictures of Interior design from the last century? What information is there to get from someone debating of what name to give the wallpaper in booger-green or nicotine-yellow? And what "influence" should/could that have on my personal taste? I don´t really get it. The only thing I learned from that post is, that you should use your commas wisely and how to overuse someone elses nerves in inflationary use of the term "like".
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