Mirrors
Our homes are mirrors of ourselves - produce a visual discription of your home.
To start this project we had to first make a list of our associations of our homes. I moved from my parents house in Sussex, into a flat with my boyfriend and also another flatmate in East London, and then a flat with my just my partner in West London. During this time I also had my parents move out of my childhood home, where I had reigned for 22 years, into a new property, in the same town, but to one where I had no memories.
My list for the property I was then living in was for my flat in East London:
Balcony:
1 dead plant - now ashtray
1 view of Olympic Stadium (irritation)
Occasional peeping Tom
Living Room:
Coffee Table - formally a cardboard box with red blanket thrown over the top, now high-tech slidey black table from Dwell. A life advancement.
Said Carboard box used to contain the TV. The TV is a monster, 52" and is the focal point of the whole flat.
Playstation - main stay of any house with men living there
Home phone: Recant acqusition - the only people who have the number are my parents and my grandparents.
2 Chairs, ripped leather, "rescued" from the Bin Store on the ground floor
2 sofas - navy blue from IKEA these came with the flat
The flat is open plan but we have seperated the kitchen and living room via a large black shelving unit, containing all our DVD's and books. Included in the books are Philosphy text books (flatmate Ben's degree) American History textbooks (partners degree) and graphic design books.
Kitchen:
Wooden stand alone table - this is my domain so covered in spices, rock salt, chopping board, recipe books
Coffee machine - no coffee pods. A gift from another couple for our new home (we are shortly moving)
Microwave - Before I moved in this sat broken for two years as they couldnt be bothered to replace the fuse. I sorted within 2 weeks.
Kettle and toaster - donated by my parents
Oven - filthy
Dishwasher - never used. Broken and smelly.
A variety of kitsch cooking equipment - it's ok to be a female cook as long as you do it in an ironic way.
Bathroom:
Flatmates - disgusting.
Dining Room:
Rarely used glass dining table and a selection of board games. I am at the age where scrabble and a few bottles of nice red is much more appealing than a night out at Fabric (or similar).
My bedroom:
Double bed - lumpy pillows and sheets
Bookcase - covered in a variety of items that don't seem to fit anywhere else including replica wrestling belt (partners) and Barbie and Ken dolls (mine)
Two wardrobes and two chest of drawers - literally bursting with clothes despite regular clear outs.
What this rather pathetic list shows is that home is, and forgive me for this, really where the heart is. None of the above was really important to me at all - I loved that flat because it was the first place I lived with my partner, because of smoking and drinking red wine on the balcony, having parties in the open space and spending all day in bed when I was too hungover to go out (and had no parental influence looking on dissaprovingly. I therefore created my poster as a timeline of events that happened in the various places I've lived. It was the events that left me nostalgic for the places I've moved on from, not a broken microwave.
