The DIY interior design work of a Norwegian woman named Emma Ganzarain has gone viral on Tik Tok after she posted before and after photos of a decorative re-design of her boyfriend’s Oslo, Norway apartment. As the New York Times reported, the warm, colorful look and feel of the apartment was transformed into a cleaner, cooler and minimalist style full of earthy, neutral tones.
The results of the re-design looked great, if anodyne and a bit — as the Times put it — “sterile.” But a LOT of people on Tik Tok had a LOT to say about it. The video has been viewed over 8 million times. Some 57,000 people have commented on the photos. And these commenters had strong opinions. The general sentiment quickly emerged that people very much did not like what Ganzarain had done to her boyfriend’s home.
They have a point. The original design definitely had a warmer vibe and definitely had more character. But we’re going to buck the popular sentiment here and say what is perhaps the unthinkable for many: We like the minimal aesthetic approach she took.
All aesthetics aside for a moment, on a practical level, what the girlfriend did is in many respects an improvement on the use of space. The kitchen, for example, now has a lot more counter space, especially next to the stove, which prior to the interior makeover did not have any usable cooking prep space next to it. There are more cabinets for storage now, too.
The redesign also makes the space much brighter, which can be useful for lightening up a home during those Nordic winters when the nights are long and the sunshine-filled days are short and far and few between.
Plus the space is now like a blank canvas where small little colorful, creative, decorative flourishes or artwork can be added to give it more personality in a way that these touches will stand out all the more, as do some of the architectural features — check out the way the elegant ceiling medallion really pops now around the light.
For some who dislike it, it’s yet another example of #sadbeige. But we’re just suckers for that certain type of understated Scandanavian style and there’s nothing sad about it to us.
What do you think? “Hell yeah” or “hell nah”?
GLOBAL GRAPHICA 