September 18, 2026, 1:38 pm | Read time: 5 minutes
Every day, we scroll through Instagram, Pinterest, and other platforms. Inspiration lurks around every corner of daily life. We like, save, pin, and keep scrolling. Yet, the new ideas are rarely implemented. Frustration quickly arises, along with the feeling that we must constantly change our homes to match the latest trends. myHOMEBOOK editor Mareike Wegener guides us through the paradoxical world of home content and believes: The more we engage with beautiful spaces, the harder it can be to be satisfied with our own.
It starts innocently enough. A quick glance at Instagram, a few minutes on Pinterest, maybe a home magazine with coffee. A kitchen in warm beige, a sofa that looks like it would automatically make you more relaxed. We click on it and look up to see our own living room. And suddenly, something feels off. The sofa could be nicer. The wall might need a different color. The rug is actually too small. The lamp was only a temporary solution anyway. And why does that one shelf on the screen look so effortless, while ours just looks cluttered?
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Inspiration Has No End
Home content initially promises something very pleasant: inspiration. Ideas for small spaces, new color combinations, beautiful materials, practical solutions. The home becomes a playground, an opportunity for self-expression. The problem is not the inspiration itself. The problem is that it is never complete.
One home idea follows the next. A new vase leads to a new sideboard, the sideboard to a new wall color, and the wall color suddenly raises the question of whether you actually have a completely different interior style.
As soon as we feel we’ve found a room we like, we see the next one. Our home can’t keep up. After all, it doesn’t stand newly curated before us every morning.
The Algorithm Knows Our Longing for “Even More Beautiful”
Social media operates on a simple principle: We get more of what we react to. Those interested in interiors get interiors. And not just once a day, but potentially hundreds of times. It’s convenient–and surprisingly effective.
Because home content rarely just shows us rooms. It sells us an idea of what a good home could feel like. Calmer. More mature. More stylish. Tidier. Cozier. Maybe even a bit happier.
Of course, no picture explicitly states: “Buy this sofa and your life will be better.” But sometimes that message is subtly conveyed between the perfectly draped cushions.
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The Home as a Permanent Project
Perhaps this is the crucial point: We’ve started to not just live in our homes, but to constantly optimize them.
A room can’t just be a room. It must create an atmosphere. It must show personality. It must “have a look.” It should appear tidy, but not sterile. Individual, but not chaotic. Timeless, but please not boring. And above all: It should be photogenic. That’s quite a demanding task for four walls where eating, working, arguing, laughing, sleeping, and living are supposed to happen. Maybe a living room is sometimes just a living room. Maybe a bill can lie on the coffee table. Maybe the children’s book doesn’t have to match the sofa throw in color, and maybe the houseplant doesn’t have to be in the perfect light.
Maybe We Need to Relearn Not to Want to See or Implement Everything
Not because beautiful spaces are bad. Not because interiors have suddenly become superficial, and certainly not because one shouldn’t be interested in colors, furniture, or architecture. But because even inspiration needs a boundary. Maybe we don’t need to see every new home collection. Not know every trend color and not know which vase is currently in ten different living rooms. Or maybe we just need to learn to separate: What looks good in others’ homes but doesn’t need to be transferred to our own four walls? Maybe it’s enough to see a designed space and find it good without feeling the urge to recreate it in our own home. Because often inspiration turns into comparison, and comparison quickly leads to dissatisfaction.
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A Home Doesn’t Have to Be Finished
Perhaps the most beautiful thing about a home is precisely what cannot be curated. The old heirloom that may no longer match current tastes or the picture that doesn’t quite fit the rest but carries its own story. The books that aren’t sorted by color or the table where things accumulate because someone actually lives here. A home can have signs of use. It can change and be unfinished.
…and Then There’s This One Quite Liberating Question
How would I decorate my apartment if I didn’t get daily inspiration from others? Inspiration is good and important, but there’s a lack of separation between “I let myself be inspired and implement it in my own way” and “I see something and feel like I have to replicate it.” Perhaps the most beautiful form of interior inspiration sometimes lies in putting the phone down and looking at your own space again. Not as a project, but as a home.