A Longer Read: Brighton Girl, Polly, shares her thoughts on the dangers of emerging homeware trends. 

Our relationships with interiors have changed. Most of us have spent the best part of a year confined to our homes, and have had to find new means of exhibiting, expressing and experimenting with who we are. 

Enter quirky zoom backgrounds, an influx in plant care, and general reshuffling and decluttering - all in a concerted effort to make us feel comfortable, stimulated and secure. 

2020 saw a dramatic reconfiguration of self-care and self-curation – but what is the price of our newfound interior infatuation? And do we need to be concerned? 

Fast interiors are not a new revelation - they’ve long been a part of our high street habits, where there’s an increasingly blurred line between fashion and home decor. The pandemic has merely exacerbated an already booming and burgeoning homeware industry, which has been capitalizing on the lifestyle trends of millennials and Gen Z for years.  

Customers are starting to approach homeware in the same way that they approach fashion, purchasing with economic and aesthetic consideration. The vast majority of millennials and Gen Z find themselves in precarious financial situations.‘Generation Rent’ inhabit a nightmarish private landscape, as unstable as it is unaffordable. Renters are tasked with balancing the desire to make a house homely, with financial security.

For many of us, our homes are not our ‘forever homes’. We don’t have much cash to spare and are likely to move within the coming years. And yet, we want our spaces to reflect and protect us, and are urged to make them feel like a home. This means that affordable homeware, which speaks to current interior trends, is not only appealing, but realistic. 

Post-pandemic, consumers around the world face increasingly challenging financial circumstances through job loss, salary reductions, and likely economic recessions. Concerned about job security and the realities of an increasingly home-based lifestyle, we’ve had to reassess our expenditures. 

While on the lookout for quick decor updates, cheap affordable homeware, which mirrors current trends, is the most appealing. A McKinsey survey conducted in May 2020 found that 34% of consumers increased their spending on private-label products during the pandemic. Nearly half of these consumers said that affordability and better value was the reason why.

Living pay-check to pay-check takes on a new meaning. As renting and financial insecurity prohibit us from thinking long-term, we are forced to focus on the short-term. It’s difficult  to make long-term investments if you don’t know where you’ll be living next year, or if you’ll even be working. 

We are obliged to purchase for the immediate, which most likely corresponds with insubstantial, cheaper choices.The crux of it? Many of us can’t afford to look beyond fast homeware. Like fast fashion, our reliance on fast homeware is often necessitated by financial uncertainty. 

In the UK, the homeware industry has been gradually emerging. Between 2010 and 2019, the homeware market grew from £10.8 billion to £13.6 billion. Pre-pandemic, the Mintel Report of 2018 found that 77% of consumers bought homeware throughout the year. Significantly, 85% of 25-34 year olds purchased homeware, with women more likely to have shopped for all categories than men. 

As fast interiors have subtly evolved, many of our most popular high-street fashion retailers (including supermarkets) have launched homeware ranges. Zara Home opened in 2003 and was quickly followed by H&M home in 2009. In more recent years, Habitat launched a range with Argos, Pretty Little Thing launched a selection of interior products, Poundland launched PEP&CO Home, Amazon Home launched in 2019 - even Kim Kardashian hinted at creating her own. 

Fashion retailers (some of which are familiar fast-fashion offenders) are offering consumers a lifestyle narrative to buy into - responding to a consumerist desire to aesthetically brand all aspects of our lives. 

Consequently, and as predicted by trend forecasters, the home decor and home improvement sector is thriving. 

Who is the targeted consumer? Younger, trend-orientated, and most probably renters likely to prioritize furnishings over furniture. 

While we sit at home, our existence curtailed by Coronavirus, we searchingly flitt between the interiors of our virtual circle. Entering the delusory perfect, designed worlds of our followers, what ensues is an intense proliferation of self comparison through soft furnishings. 

This season’s must-haves: headless female candles, headless lady vases, vases with boobs, pastel coloured trinket trays, peel-off wallpaper, mood lighting, pleated lamps, hoop-art, fluffy cushions, and so it goes on…  

At first, I wondered if I had just reached that age – the age where it’s perfectly ordinary to spend hours gracefully positioning my trendiest nick-nacks for one sleek image, ready to be casually chucked into this month’s photo-dump. But it was soon clear that this trend was more than just the latest Instagram fad.

Our homes and the objects we decorate them with are being treated as the next steps in our journey to becoming self-curated brands - take the author Florence Given’s instagram aesthetic as an example. Millennials and Gen Z turned to TikTok for home inspiration, and an emergence of home improvement trends like #RoomMakeover and #FallDIY quickly emerged. 

In December 2020, John Pentassuglia launched Defhouse, an escapist santuracy designed for young social media influencers. Undeniably, the acceleration of homeware trends is linked to our relationship with social media and virtual aestheticism. 

Digital aesthetics are inspiring young consumers to upend their residences: part sanctuary, part canvas. As such, new interest in DIY projects are emerging. YPulse’s No Place Like Home trend report found that 64% of 13-39 year olds say that they’ve become more interested in improving and fixing their houses because of lockdown.

Spending so much time in confinement is encouraging people to creatively consider how they can care for their homes and themselves. The two are linked in a way they’ve never been before.

This is noticeable in the rocketing sales of smaller household items. Coffee machines, SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) lamps, fitness trackers, slippers and mattresses are some of the products that flew off the shelves during the pandemic. These little luxuries are comforting, nostalgic and offer us a sense of necessary indulgence. 

The way that we physically and psychologically engage with the home has shifted. As the outside world has become increasingly volatile and unpredictable, we have responded with an innate desire to nest and seek refuge.  

A survey commissioned by Barnardo’s in June 2020 found that 37% of Brits agreed that the look of their homes became more important to them during lockdown. Nearly a quarter bought homeware during lockdown to zhuzh up their interior.

The same study found that 48% of Brits (a whopping 25 million of us) have changed the look of at least one room since lockdown began - almost double the amount that would typically be expected over a longer period. 

Globally, homeware sales rocketed. Home improvement retailer Home Depot reported its strongest quarterly sales growth in almost 20 years.

The trouble with mass-scale home improvements and temporary trend-led purchasing? An enormous amount of waste.

Here’s the truth. A survey conducted by The North London Waste company discovered that most respondents found binning an item to be the most convenient means of discarding old homeware. 23% said it’s easier to just get rid of things.

The same survey found that nearly 22 million smaller items of furniture a year are chucked in the bin when they become damaged. Fewer than 1 in 10 people attempt to repair or restore broken items – despite 42% saying they’d like to learn the skills to do so. 

It’s no secret that recycling homeware is tough. For instance, the same North London Waste study found that 47% of people disposing of damaged furniture take them to local recycling centres, but throw them in the ron-recycling waste when there. Particle board, a material often used in cheaper furniture, is not recyclable or biodegradable due to its chemical resin and plastic laminate. 

A report by My Tool Shed suggests that the average piece of furniture generates roughly 47 kilograms of CO2 (emitting about the same amount of greenhouse gases as burning 5 gallons of petrol). Sofas take the lead for carbon footprints - one new sofa produces 90 kilograms of CO2. 

Market research firm Technavio estimates that the filled-air packaging market is set to swell by $1.12bn between 2020 and 2024, while Amazon generated 465mlb of plastic waste in 2019. The rise in E-commerce has resulted in increased volumes of packaging. For example, China generated 9.4m tonnes of packaging waste in 2018 - that total is projected to rise to 41m tonnes by 2025. 

As consumers become climate conscious, we need to demand businesses to take responsibility for, and actively reduce, the increasing volume of waste produced by our habits.

Sustainability is an unavoidable issue, and we have a civic responsibility to scrutinise the environmental costs of our homeware purchases. Fast homeware may still be in its earlier stages, but we still recognise that things need to change. And as with most effective change, this starts with big businesses. 

As consumers we are increasingly aware of the packaging problem, and are becoming more conscientious in our approach to consumption. 82% of consumers recognise that plastic waste should be reduced. But 77% of British shoppers think that, no matter how much they recycle, it is the manufacturers that are causing the most plastic pollution.  

Production of insidious waste is at the heart of the issue. While we are increasingly focussed on materials and sustainability, we can effect meagre change without the cooperation of manufacturers and businesses. 

Environmental decline has forced us to consider eco-conscious alternatives, but only as far as we can afford to. Sadly, an ethical lifestyle comes with a price tag and is far removed from our world of Amazon Prime convenience. 

But we can take action.

There is a growing rejection of mass-produced goods. Resale is flourishing and has been adopted by larger brands. When John Lewis launched with rental service, Fat Llama, 86% of the products were rented within the first 48 hours. 

IKEA even launched a resale programme, offering customers the opportunity to return unwanted homeware. Once refurbished, the furniture is sold at a lower price, presenting a unique, affordable and sustainable alternative.  

There are plenty of ethical and sustainable brands out there, as designers and brands continue to investigate sustainable alternatives. Pedrali recently launched its first collection of 100% recycled plastic chairs, made from 50% post-consumer plastic. The furnishings are designed with considered production processes aimed at avoiding waste. 

British lighting brand Houseof is pledging to reduce its impact on the planet and replace it with a positive one. Each buyer has the chance to donate money to emission-reducing projects when purchasing an item online during checkout. The brand commits itself to a climate-positive workforce and also plants trees (262 to date).

We recognise that making better choices isn’t always easy, and that these options can feel out of reach for many, albeit because of low income or limited access to secondhand stores. 

However much I’d love to, filling my home with vintage bits and bobs is expensive, especially when forced to buy online. The postage fees on top of the items themselves make the cost unrealistic. 

But buying vintage can come at a fair price. I have acquired lots of fantastic preloved bits through Facebook Marketplace (my main steal being a mid-century coffee table for a charming twenty quid). But as with everywhere, you need to be wary of scams. My experiences, however, have been nothing but pleasant. 

Etsy is a fantastic place to find vintage, second-hand and sustainably made homewares. Likewise, there are great selections of shoppable vintage instagram accounts (such as Zebra Homeware) and small independent businesses. 

One positive thing about the pandemic is that it has encouraged something of a creative renaissance and a renewed love of craftsmanship. A Spanish brand committed to providing sustainable and quality knitting kits (We are Knitters) saw their Instagram following increase from 500k to 3 million in March 2020. 

Can this restored creative appreciation encourage us to upholster, upcycle or rehome our old items? One thing is for sure, it’s certainly better than the bin.

We are beginning to question the ethical dubiousness of manufacturing, in whatever form it takes. As an increasing number of us rehash our spaces in accordance with our needs and trends, and fashion retailers add homeware to their lines, furniture and furnishings are on the same unsustainable course as fast fashion.

As we continue to readdress our relationship with our homes, it’s important to avoid disposable culture and throwaway habits where we can. Until corporations align their ethos with environmental concern, and make ethical consumption readily available, it’s up to us to manage our spending habits  - tough as it is. We must discern conscientiousness from consumerism, comfortable from commercialised, and important from Instagrammable. 

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Written by Polly Wyatt

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