What your living room says about you

If you’ve ever been lucky enough to read any “home beautiful” type books from the 1950s, you’ll notice they all share one thing in common: they’re obsessed with living rooms.

The living room, after all, is where you can install your modernist fireplace or sunken “conversation pit”, not to mention the perfect backdrop upon which to display your televisions and radiograms (gotta love that post-war glow of capitalism).

Whether or not the living room is still the most important room in the house is anyone’s guess, there’s still a lot you can tell about a person (or a household) by investigating this key living space. With that in mind, here’s our highly scientific guide to what your living room says about you.

Clean Lines, Neutral Colours

That low-backed lounge suite in cream nubuck leather? You bought it outright. That one incredibly stylish pendant light? The artist hand-delivered it to you. Someone once spilled a cup of Blend 43 on your carpet and you had them “taken care of”. You’re followed by a chorus of polite, slightly nervous laughter wherever you go.

Photo: Oracle Fox

Dark Paint Colours, Taxidermy, Gilt Frames

You spent your childhood visits to the zoo following the peacocks around the grounds in the hope they might drop a tail feather. You can remember, down to the day and date, every single time a person has crossed you in some way. Someone once described your living room as looking like it belonged to a super-villain and you weren’t bothered in the slightest.
 

Knit Blankets, Cozy Cushions, Rope-Related Crafts

Your favourite colours are navy blue, beige and red. You like the idea of self-sufficiency more than you do the reality of gardening and composting. You own every single Nancy Meyers movie ever made, and have ranked each film based solely on their kitchens’ desirability. You once tried making a macrame plant holder but gave up after the 15th knot and instead bought 10 on Etsy.

Photo: Urban Outfitters

Sari-Silk Pillows, Gerberas, Lots Of Candles

You visited a fortune teller at the Royal Show when you were 16 and their tent’s interior design made a really big impression on you. You’ve read a bit about cultural appropriation but insist that your “exotic” collection of homewares is “really just celebrating the culture”. You’ve been to at least one rave in the middle of a forest.
 

Mish-Mash Of Op-Shop Furniture, Wine Cask On Coffee Table

You’re pumped about life and all its possibilities. You and your equally youthful housemates don’t have time to do things like spend money on fancy new furniture when there’s a beige velour modular lounge that will do the trick. After all, between uni, work and partying, who has the energy or money to devote to interior design? Life is for living and you’ll sleep when you’re dead.

Photo: Free People Blog

Mish-Mash Of Op-Shop Furniture, Wine Bottle On Coffee Table

As above, only now you’re 45.
 

All Ikea, All The Time

You’re nothing if not practical, even though you occasionally wake up at 2.30am gripped by allen-key-related anxieties. You’re of the belief that what you like is more important than what you’re like, and you prefer the contents of your shelving systems, rather than the shelving systems themselves, to represent you to the world. You really enjoy aeroplane food.