It all started in 2015, when Berlin-based designer Ksenia Shestakovskaia decided to create an Instagram account with examples of “tasteless” objects and decoration she found on Ebay. The taste, we know, is a subjective issue, but what the hell, we have come to have fun, and if there is a trend that reflects the transgressive and fun spirit of the Millennial that is the decor.
No, it has nothing to do with musical hardcore. Or yes, who knows. One thing it does share with the debauchery of techno or acid: it is not for all audiences. And that this account has managed to reach 365,000 followers in an era in which likes are the equivalent of recognition, acceptance and the absolute showcase of the aspirational, is quite a feat.
Do you remember the eighties, the nineties and the first years of the new millennium? The practicality of IKEA had already entered our lives and our homes, we still inherited furniture from our grandparents and the decoration was something intended for a select few. On the one hand, we come from the canonical decorative style, à la Renzo Mongiardino from high society houses, with brocade silks, columns, balustrades, Persian carpets, antique furniture, sculptures and thousands of fluffy cushions everywhere. On the other, we are heirs to the most daring, almost rogue style of decorators such as Antony Machado, Bob Patino or Vicente Wolfe. If we put everything in a Thermomix and add combinations of impossible colors, furniture and bizarre objects and a touch of scenery such as video clip or video game, you can already have an idea of what Decor Hardcore is.
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In short, this style picks up that witness of the mixture of past decades, but through a millennial filter. And it is undeniable that it brings freshness and ease: there is the Millennial Pink and the to prove it. Requirements to be a hardcore decor: variety, not marrying anything or anyone, an anything goes but not in any way. As soon as the Sanssouci Palace of Frederick the Great of Prussia is inspired by one of the enormous creatures that the artist Florentijn Hofman usually places in large cities, causing astonishment, astonishment and yes, also smiles. Visual trompe l’oeil, achieved through geometric patterns or distorting mirrors on floors, walls or ceilings, are also welcome. Remember singer Liberace’s bathroom? It’s a yes. And the house that Frank Zappa gave to his parents, with a totally purple living room? It is also a yes. Round beds with stuffed headboards? Of course. Anything that comes directly from the imagination is valid: there are no rules here, only hedonistic spaces, pure aesthetic joy and a lot of desire to have fun.
After all, what is beauty? Does “reasonableness” fall within the concept of beauty? The right spaces, adjusted to the taste of the majority are conceived and perceived as epitomes of good taste, of the habitable. But at a time when freedoms are, more than ever, what allows us to be who we are, it is fantastic that there are creators capable of reaching where not even Artificial Intelligence reaches and who are not afraid of the new.
