Welcome back to home and hosting with me Louis Burke the podcast
so we talk about making. Everyday.
Life feel a little more considered, beautiful and
ideally a little more put together.
This week we need to talk about beds because apparently I've
become the Internet unofficial bed making parent.
A few of my bed making videos went.
Viral over the last week. And when I say viral, I mean
viral in a way that completely shifted the scale of my
Instagram. In the space of about a week, my
Instagram following has essentially doubled, which is
wild. To say out loud in this day of
the Internet. And I think it's worth saying
because when something goes viral, sometimes the loudest
people can make it feel like their reaction is more negative
than it actually is. But the reality is my following
doubled. So clearly more people connected
with it then we're offended by it.
People shared it, followed, sent it to their friends, their mums,
their sisters and their partners.
People made their beds. People messaged me saying it
made them feel better. So while yes, there has been
some commentary, I do not want to pretend that the main story
is backlash because it's just not.
The main story is that a lot of people clearly wanted someone to
say here's how you do this properly in a way that was funny
enough. For it to.
Cut through and make them stop scrolling.
For the people who have just arrived, welcome.
I promise we do more than yell at pillows here.
But I also think that it is important to say if you have
seen one viral video, you have arrived halfway through this
conversation. Some people were delighted, some
were confused, some were deeply invested in the pillow placement
and some people were offended on behalf of beds.
Everywhere. But honestly, most of it is
being really lovely. The majority of people
understand the humour, they understand the delivery was a
bit tough love theatrical a bit. Come on team, we can do better
than this. And I've had so many messages
from people saying they made their bed properly for the first
time and it genuinely made their day.
One of the loveliest messages I received was from someone who
said their 11 year old daughter watched the video, made her own
bed, then went and made her brother's bed too.
She was so proud of herself, and she was apparently repeating.
My line about letting the bed breathe.
Which is honestly iconic. Letting the bed breathe at 11
is. Ahead of the curve.
And that really is the point. Not that an 11 year old is
suddenly living in a hotel suite, but that she felt
capable. She felt proud.
She saw something, learn how to do it and wanted to do it
herself. And that matters to me.
And that message really stayed with me because one of the
things that I found so special about building this community is
that it does seem to travel across generations.
I've had women in their 20s come up to me at Chadstone or in the
city and say, I love your content.
Mom and I talk about it all the time, or mom and I send your
videos to each other. And we love it.
And I love that. I really, really love it because
most of the time, mothers and daughters are not living on the
same Internet. They don't have the same
algorithm. They're not seeing the same
creators, the same jokes, the same trends or references.
So to be someone who can sit in. The middle of that and become a
little bonding point between two generations is really special.
And I don't think that's all that common.
It's not lost on me that a lot of young people who follow me
are renting or living in smaller spaces or living in a home that
doesn't feel permanent. A lot of them have said that my
content has made them want to make this space feel more like
home, even when they don't own it.
And that makes me really proud because when I first started
making bed content online, especially around the pandemic
and the early days of video content, and that was not really
the assumed audience. Even in the world of bed
styling, the brief was rarely how do we speak to the 20 year
olds? The goal was usually to sell to
someone much older, someone more established with more budget,
someone in their 40s and beyond. Someone who already owned the
home had the main bedroom, had the guest room, and had the
proper linen cupboard. So to go from that world where a
home at Beds Darling was often treated as something for a more
mature customer, to now have so many people in their 20s and 30s
wanting to learn how to make a bed, set a table, style their
space and take pride in where they live is something that I'm
very proud of. I feel like I have helped make
home making feel relevant to a younger generation and not in a
performative way, not in a you must live like this kind of way,
but in a way that says your home matters now.
That rental, it matters. The bed, the table, they all
matter. You do not need to have to wait
until you own the house, renovate the kitchen, or have
the dream furniture before you start treating your space with
routine and care. That is why I find it so
frustrating when the conversation gets flattened into
oh he's shaming people, he's a snob or he's the bed police.
Because I don't think a snob spends years teaching people how
to make what they already have feel better.
I don't think someone who wants to shame people takes the time
to explain the why behind things.
A snob withholds information. They make you feel like taste is
something you either have or you don't have.
That's not what I'm doing. I'm saying here's the rule,
here's why it works. I'm going to show you how to do
it, and maybe you can try it out in your own home.
That's education. That's the opposite of snobbery.
And I think this is where critical thinking becomes more
important than ever because we have to understand the engine
that we're all participating in, which is social media.
It loves a simplified character. Just like the media, they love a
simplified character and both love the word like.
Shame, because it's much more. Clickable than fed up or bossy
or direct or tells us off. It's just easier to say the
person is bed shaming people than it is to say this person is
using a sharper, more entertaining format to get
people interested in domestic routines, styling principles,
and making their homes feel more considered.
One of those is a headline, the other requires thought.
And that is the bit that frustrates me.
Because the work is not just the tone of 1 viral video.
The work is years of showing people that a home is not
something you wait for, it's something that you practise.
And that's what I care about. Because yes, the videos are
funny. Yes, the direct, yes I'm saying
your pillars need help. But underneath that, the point
is not actually about having a perfect bed.
It's about showing people that small domestic rituals can
change the way you feel in your own space and how you feel about
yourself. Then of course came the other
side of the Internet, the bed shaming conversation.
The why does it matter conversation.
The everything is beige and influences are ruining the world
conversation. So today I want to talk about
what those videos actually revealed.
Because I do not think that this is really about beds.
I think it's about standards. I think it's about routine.
I think it's about self respect. And I think it's about the fact
that a lot of people are now so unused to being shown how to do
something properly that they experience instruction as
judgement. And that is what I want to
unpack, because now I don't. Think this is bed shaming?
I think it's guidance. Slightly dramatic guidance, but
guidance nonetheless. Sometimes someone saying come
on, this could be better is not cruelty.
Sometimes it's care. I think that we need to be very
careful about the word shaming because saying you follow me
because you like how I make my bed, you send me photos and you
want to know how to make it look like mine.
Here's how to do it is not the same as you're disgusting.
Your home is awful. You should feel bad.
About yourself and go cry, those are completely.
Different things like 1 is instruction and the other is a
humiliation. And I know the difference and so
do my followers. I've been doing this for long
enough now to know how words land online.
I'm not randomly logging on and saying whatever comes into my
head, even when it can seem like it.
I do choose the words carefully. I understand that tone matters
and I understand that people are going to bring their own mood,
insecurity, humour, defensiveness and interpretation
to that video. But I can only control what I
say and how I I show. Up.
I cannot control how every single person responds.
And I think that is where this gets really interesting because
if you watch the video about making a bed and you feel
personally shamed, that might not be because I shamed you.
It might be because something and you went, oh, maybe I'll let
this part slip. Nope.
I'm going to get on the defensive and I'm going to make
out that he's attacking me and that's not what it is.
I'm not attacking you. This is something that you've
noticed and you're being resistant because it's change,
which is very natural. We all go through that.
And that's the difference. We do have this habit online now
where anything uncomfortable feels immediately externalised.
Like if something makes me feel bad, it must be because that
person did something bad to me. If something makes me feel
confronted, it must be because they were being judgmental.
If something makes me realise I've not been looking after
something in my own life, then the person who pointed it out
must be the villain. And sometimes discomfort.
Is information like don't shoot the messenger.
Sometimes it's just a little voice inside saying, actually, I
do want to live better than this.
I'm going to. Try that and I think that's
worth paying attention to because making your bed is not
about creating a showroom. You know that.
I say that especially with my throw blanket.
I said don't Chuck the throw blanket on because this isn't a
store. It's real life.
It's not about things being perfect.
It's not about pretending your life is more together than it
is. Stack the pillows because that's
how you sleep on pillows. Style the cushions because
you're styling them and taking them off.
It's very logical. It works the everyday life.
I'm not creating a home that's like, oh, no one lives in here
kind of trend. You wouldn't have seen me do
that. I like my space to look like no
one lives here. I've never done it.
You might have seen other creators do it, but you've never
seen me do it. And there's a reason why.
Because I like spaces to feel like someone lives there.
And it works for someone that lives in the space.
Not overly done, not too many decor pieces, enough intention
and design, form and function. Making your bed is the ACT you
do for yourself before the day's even really started.
It's one small thing that says I'm looking after myself, I'm
looking after my space. I'm not just floating through
the day in total chaos and letting everything and all these
uncertain things get to me. And I have no sense of rhythm.
And I know that sounds a bit dramatic because we're talking
about pillows and sheets, but the small things often where
your life shows up first. I know from suffering from
burnout that I put things on the wayside.
I put my health and I put my home on the wayside because I
was like, Nope, it doesn't matter.
What's more important, I need to grow in my career.
And I suffered for it. I had anxiety, I had high blood
pressure, high cholesterol. I'd only just turned 30.
And then I decided, Nope, I'm not doing this anymore.
I'm going to change and pivot and focus on my health and just
back me back that I want to start this business, back that I
want to do content creation, go and see a professional and look
into working out and becoming stronger and healthier.
I did those things and I know how important it is to recenter
and focus on those daily practises to reaffirm and
acknowledge the way that you want to live and not let anyone
stand in the way. Not a manager, not a friend, not
a relationship, nothing. It's about you.
And it starts with things like making your bed every day.
It's like those Tik toks when people go, when they told you to
go for a walk, drink water, eat a proper meal and get some
sleep. And annoyingly, it worked
because making your bed is one of those things.
It's basic, it's boring, it's mildly annoying that it works,
but it does. You walk back into the room
later and there's order, there's calm and there's a little bit of
dignity. There's a sense that someone
cared enough to reset that space.
And that's you. That's you caring about
yourself. It matters.
I think one of the reason this has struck such a nerve is
because the Internet is full of distraction.
Everyone is scrolling through thousands of pieces of content a
day. People are watching.
Strangers fart on reality TV. They're watching 45 second
recaps of celebrity drama. Watching people unpack packages,
clean their things, expose their exes, review perfumes, tell
story times, rank lip. Balms and emotionally spiral in
real time. So when you're making content,
you really have to try and capture attention.
The Internet does not really reward polite, gentle,
beautifully nuanced instruction. It rewards attention.
And you can look at my profile to see the difference.
Look at when I'm fed up versus when I'm just showing you how to
set the table. Once you see and have the
attention, you can either waste it or you can use it to teach
people something. And that is where this fed up
format becomes interesting because it's not the whole
brand, but it is a very effective doorway into the
brand. And to be clear, this is not the
first time that I've used the slightly fed up format.
I've done it on TikTok plenty of times.
I've used it across bed making videos, bed making reviews,
Christmas tree reviews, festive styling, commentary, all of
that. It has always landed.
This was just the first time I really brought the tone over to
Instagram in a bigger way, and it went.
Off which I find interesting because I do have a slightly
complicated relationship with it.
On one hand, it clearly works people.
They engage and they share it, they send it to their friends,
and people who would never normally care about bed linen
suddenly have a very strong opinion about pillow placement.
But on the other hand, it's not necessarily the full tone.
I want my. Work to have when I talk about
home because my approach to home is actually about being angry or
fed up it's not about making people feel bad, it's not about.
Walking to everyone's bedroom with a clipboard and a bad
attitude. The bigger world of what I do is
much. Softer than that.
It's about making your space feel more considered and more
like you taking care of yourself through your environment.
It's about learning the little details that make a home feel
more settled, more beautiful, and more lived in.
But the reality is. Sometimes you need an entry
point and the Fed up format is that entry point.
And I think people like it because it feels like a friend
being honest with them. Not a brand or a sponsored post,
not a perfectly polished influencer saying here are my
top three tips of creating a cosy bedroom sanctuary while
holding a candle and pretending that they casually woke up in a
full hair and makeup. It feels like someone's saying
no, stop. That's not how we're doing this
with the pillars. And people trust that because a
sea of influencers and creators speaking so politely all the
time, everything can start to feel like an ad, even when it's
not. The second someone is too.
Polished, too brand safe or gentle, the audience can almost
smell the campaign deck behind it.
Whereas this tone immediately says this could not possibly be
an ad. Look how he is talking.
No brand would approve this. So people watch.
And that's The funny thing. The tone makes it more honest,
or at least feel more honest, even when the actual advice is
something very simple like pull the cool tub and fold it over
properly to let your sheets breathe.
And I've done that many times in all different formats and ways.
Yet the Fed Up 1 is the one that gets the most views.
And I also think that there's a whole group of people who are
not necessarily interested in aesthetics or bed linen, but
they are. I'm not interested in that fed
up performance. I've had people say I'm not here
for the bedding, I'm just here for the attitude.
And honestly, fine, come for the attitude.
But then while you're here, you might accidentally learn a thing
or two about how to make your bed differently.
You might realise that you like that look.
And then you might start thinking about your bedside
table, or the lighting and the sheets or how you're actually
like, you know, how your home actually feels.
That's how it all works. the Fed up video might be the front
door, but it's not the whole house.
It just gets people in. Then hopefully they discover the
bigger world of making a space feel like home.
And that's the part that I care about, because the attitude is
entertaining, but the reason it works is because there's actual
substance underneath. There is a point, there is a
lesson, there is something. You can do straight.
Away. That's the difference.
If it was just attitude, people would laugh or be offended and
move on. When the attitude meets useful
information, people stick around.
The other thing I really want to be clear about is that these
videos did not just come from nowhere.
They're not just me yelling into a void about beds for no reason.
They're based on years of people asking me questions about their
homes and their beds and their tables, the living rooms, their
rentals, and how to make their space feel more like theirs.
Or at least more aligned with the feeling that my content
gives them. My profile has hundreds of
videos, both organic and sponsored, filled with home
information like how to make a bed, style a table, choose the
right linen, think about scale, make a rental feel more
considered, create atmosphere. So when a fed up bed making
video goes viral. It's not just a fluke in the
sense that I accidentally wandered into a niche I know
nothing about. It is a sharper, more
entertaining version of the same conversation I've been having
for years. And that's why I find it a bit
strange when people reduce it to, oh, he's just yelling at
people about pillows because now actually, this is my job.
Like this is what I do. I have a background in this.
I grew up around this. I've worked in the space.
I have style beds professionally.
I've made home and lifestyle content for years.
I've worked with brands, created educational content, answered
questions, built a community and help people understand how to
make their spaces feel better. So yes, the delivery might be
funny, exaggerated, maybe a bit theatrical, but the information
underneath is not random. And the same thing happened with
my Chic or Cheap series. And I spoke about this before on
the Home Beautiful podcast because the whole point of that
series is very simple. It's a do this, don't do this
format. That's it.
It's advice packaged in a way that's easy to understand and
easy to remember. The alliteration of Chic and
Cheap makes it catchy. It makes you watch.
It makes the idea stick, but the advice itself is not outrageous.
Any designer or stylist will tell you that scale matters.
They'll tell you that your rug is probably too small and that
you should consider natural materials.
They'll tell you how to properly look at window treatments and
that lighting changes everything.
They'll also tell you that overhead lighting isn't always
your friend, and to think about proportion, texture, material,
placement, and how a room really functions, not just how it
looks. That is not me inventing some
cruel new standard for the Internet.
It's really basic design advice. The difference is that I
delivered it in a way that was simple, memorable, entertaining
enough for people to really watch and catch on.
And I think this is where people confuse the format with the
intention. A sharp format does not
automatically mean the message is shame.
A direct delivery does not automatically mean the message
is cruel. Like saying this looks cheap in
the context of design is not the same as saying you are cheap or.
You are a bad person or your home is disgusting.
It is a shorthand for explaining why something may not be landing
visually and again. You can disagree with the taste.
You can love the thing I do not love.
You can keep the small rug, the synthetic cushion, or the
overhead light or the too short cushion, whatever it is.
That is completely your choice. Like face the pillows.
Up I don't mind, but the reason that these videos work is
because they take the advice that often exists in quite an
inaccessible design language or something that people find
boring or don't relate to and then all of a sudden they
immediately get it. They immediately understand it.
They can immediately like put things into practise.
It's do this, don't do this. Here's why use alliteration chic
cheap. That's the format, and I think
it's interesting how quickly people want to call it shaming,
because shame is a very useful word online.
It's emotional, it's loaded, it's clickable.
It turns a styling opinion into a moral drama.
Bed shaming is stronger than man bossy bed.
Advice Home shaming is a stronger hook than Creator tells
people their rug is too small. Influenza shames people, is a
stronger hook than stylist, uses fed up delivery to explain basic
design principles, and that is really the engine of media and
social media. But just because the word is
useful for a. Headline does not mean it
accurately describes what is happening.
Sometimes it's not shame, it's just instruction.
Sometimes it's taste, it's a styling advice and sometimes
it's just someone saying this would look better if you did it
this way. And again, that's allowed,
especially on someones profile. One of the tricky things about
the Internet is that every opinion appears in the same
comment section, but not every opinion is coming from the same
level of experience. And of course, everyone is
allowed to have an opinion. Taste is personal, your home is
personal. You can do whatever you like in
your own space, You don't have to make your bed.
But not every opinion is informed in the same way.
That does not mean people are not allowed to disagree with me.
They absolutely are. But there is a difference
between saying that is not my personal taste and saying this
person has no idea what they're talking about.
I also think there are two areas where people really confuse
access with expertise. The home is one of them because
everyone lives somewhere. Everyone thinks they're
automatically an expert in homemaking, styling and design.
And social media is the other one because everyone has a phone
and a free account on an app. Everyone thinks they understand
influencing content strategy and social media marketing and how
audience behaviour works. But that really is just.
Not how it works. Living somewhere does not
automatically mean you understand why a route feels
good, and owning a phone does not automatically mean you
understand why a video cuts through.
Posting on Instagram does not automatically mean you
understand how to build a platform, hold attention, work
with brands, educate an audience, and create content
that people come back to. And again, that is not me saying
people cannot have thoughts or opinions.
Of course they can. But access is not the same as
experience using something is not the same as understanding
how it works. Being around something everyday
is not the same as being trained in it, working in it, studying
it, practising it and building a body of work around.
It I'm not saying that I'm the final authority on how anyone
should live, but I am saying that this is a space that I've
worked in for years and the advice is not random, and I
think people are particularly. Quick to do this with design and
homes because they do not always see it as a real job.
And I think some people underestimate how much skill
sits behind home styling. From the outside, it can look
quite simple. It can look like cushions,
plates, sheets and pretty things.
But when it's done well, there's a lot of knowledge behind it.
Design and styling and homemaking have always been the
real work that require taste, skill, knowledge, restraint,
proportion, experience, rhythm and understanding of how people
actually live. That is why some rooms feel good
and some rooms don't. That's why some beds look
inviting and some beds look unfinished.
And that's why some homes feel warm and layered and others feel
like a collection of objects with no real relationship to one
another. There's knowledge behind it,
there's practise behind it, and there's reasons for why some
things work. And again, you don't have to
care. You don't have to want to put
your home and make it look like mine.
You don't even have to follow for the advice, but if you are
here because you like the feeling of my home and my
styling, tables, bedrooms, routines, and the way I talk
about making a space feel lived in and beautiful, then yes, I'm
going to explain the rules behind that.
That's the point. Like, I could just make silent
house tours. I could pan across a bedroom
with no voice over. I could show a candle, a
cushion, and a linen sheet blowing slightly in the breeze
and called it a day. And honestly, those videos would
probably do well too. At least they do when other
creators do it. But I'm not interested in
showing you something beautiful. I'm interested in showing you
why. I want someone to look at their
bed, their table, their living room, their flowers, their front
garden, and go, oh, I could do that.
I could maybe make this look better if I just did this and
this. That's the whole point.
A friend of mine has this analogy for my profile that I
actually think explains it really well.
She said I'm almost like the PT account, like the personal
trainer but for the home. And I think that's exactly it.
Like a personal trainer might say, if you trained more
consistently, you would feel stronger.
It would be better for your health, you would probably feel
better in yourself. And you don't need the most
expensive gym membership or the fanciest activewear.
You just need to do the thing properly and keep doing it.
And that's not body shaming. That's just guidance.
You can take it or leave it. And I'm doing the same for the
home. You could make your bed
properly. You could set the table.
You could buy fewer things or place them with more intention.
You could create a routine that makes your home feel calmer.
You could stop waiting for some imaginary future version of your
life before you start caring about the space that you're in
right now. And a lot of it is.
Free. That is the part that people
miss. Making your bed properly free.
Letting the sheets breathe free. Stacking the pillows free.
Putting the cooled up free. Clearing the bedside tables
free. Putting the lamps on instead of
living under big lights. Well, technically that's not
free because electricity exists and you have to buy the lamps.
But emotionally it's close enough to being free.
A lot of what makes a home feel better is not about having more,
it's about doing more with the things you already have.
And this is where I think people get defensive because it's
easier just to say, oh, you're just a beige influencer with
expensive linen than it is to say, maybe I could make my bed
with the linen I already own a little bit better.
Like it is easier to turn it into a joke than it is to take
the instruction. And look, I love jokes.
Some of them are genuinely funny.
The Internet calling me the bed police is fine.
I will wear the badge. But the point still stands.
Like you probably would feel better if your room was a bit
calmer. It would feel better if the bed
was made, and you'd probably feel better if your home had the
same level of routine and care around it.
That doesn't mean that your home needs to look like mine.
That's another thing that keeps getting lost.
When I say here is how I would make the bed, I'm not saying
that everyone on earth must have the same bed.
I'm saying that this is my profile, this is my taste in
style, and this is the way I do things.
If you follow me because you like how I do.
It here's how you can do it too. That's not oppression, that's
kind of the entire point of following someone for a home and
lifestyle content. You don't follow a cooking
account and then get furious when they tell you how to make a
pasta. You don't follow a fitness
account and then get offended when they correct someone's
form. You don't follow a fashion
account and then act shocked when they say one pair of
trousers it's better than the other.
So why, when it comes to home, do people suddenly act like any
advice is an attack? I think it's because the home is
intimate, your bed is intimate, the bedroom is intimate, the way
you live is intimate. So when someone says this would
look better if you did it this way, some people, hey, you're
failing. But that's not what's being
said. Instruction is not always
judgement. Sometimes it's just instruction.
And honestly, I think a lot of us were never really taught
basic domestic confidence. Not because people are bad or
lazy, but because life got busy, homes changed, families changed,
routines changed, and somewhere along the way a lot of those
everyday skills are being passed down.
Clearly people are tired, they're overworked, the cost of
living is exhausting, home ownership feels out of reach for
a lot of people. Rent is expensive, groceries are
expensive. Everyone is trying to work,
maintain relationships, stay healthy, stay relevant, stay
sane. Somehow reply to every message
on their phone. Like, I get it, I'm living in
this world too. But that is also why these small
routines matter more, not less. When everything feels uncertain,
you need small places of certainty.
Like making the bed, having a cleared bench, setting the
table, chucking some lamps on, growing something in a pot or a
garden and folding a blanket, opening the windows of 15
minutes and letting the whole room breathe.
Not because it solves your whole life, but it reminds you that
you still have agency. And that is such a big part of
what I've been talking about for years.
Your home is not just a backdrop.
It is not just where your stuff lives.
It's not just the place where you collapse at the end of the
day, it's the place that either supports you or drains you and.
Yes, there are bigger issues in the world.
Obviously, but that does not mean the small things don't
matter. In fact, when the big things
feel completely out of your control, the small things often
matter more. I also.
Think a lot of people. Especially people around my age
and younger are waiting for permission to care about their
home. They are waiting until they own
or the market drops, or have the dream house, or make enough
money for the perfect sofa, or they're waiting for the right
rental, or when the kitchen's being renovated, the bathroom
tiles are not offensive. Waiting, waiting, waiting.
But your life is happening now. Even if your name is not on the
deed, even if you're renting, even if the place is temporary
or small or ugly or tragic, you're still allowed to make it
feel like home. And I think that's where the
conversation around making a bed becomes much bigger.
Because making a home isn't always about buying furniture.
It's always about renovating. It's not always about having the
dream house, which is what a lot of interior design profiles are,
renovations. Mine is not about interior
design and renovations in this unreachable home.
It's about teaching you practises that you can apply
straight away, like making a bed and setting a table and having a
morning routine. Because sometimes the routine
and the restraint and learning how to do one small thing
properly is the thing that you want to know.
So it really bothers me when people reduce this whole thing
to being, oh, it's just a bed shaming.
No, it's not. It's about not abandoning your
own life just because it doesn't look exactly how you thought it
would or your favourite influences.
It's about making the space you have feel cared for, taking
pride in me everyday. And yeah, sometimes I'm going to
be direct about that because the Internet does not always want to
listen to soft, polite suggestions.
And sometimes those people want to make fun of what I'm doing.
And sometimes I just need to stop and say stop doing that.
Do this instead. Because people pay attention
then, and that doesn't mean the message is cruel, it means the
delivery got through. So while we are here, I do want
to talk about the beige of it all.
Because every time a home a lifestyle video goes viral,
someone inevitably appears in the comments saying something
like everything is. Beige.
Now influences are so boring. Where's the colour?
And I just have to ask, are we all looking at the same
Internet? Because everything is not beige.
Everything was grey, millennial grey, then everything was beige
from like 2020 and now everything is brown and then
with hints of burgundy and like green and stripes.
Like dopamine decor is everywhere, contrasting colours
and the return of Memphis design is absolutely everywhere from
IKEA all the way through to luxury design places.
The idea that every influencer is still making a sad beige bed
is just lazy. And you're not.
You clearly don't have good understanding of what's going on
in the home interior design scene online, especially in
bedding. Like if you look around so much
bed linen content over the last two years has been bold colour,
stripes, contrast, trims, clashing tones and playful
styling. It's absolutely everywhere.
It's also how I started my bed linen journey.
I worked with bed threads back to back from 2020 to 2023
showing you different ways to make your bed with two or more
colours. I've done colourful bedding.
Everyone is doing colourful bedding now.
No one is really doing neutrals or beiges or whites anymore.
The neutral bed is not standard. And in some ways the neutral bed
is now the counterpoint, and The funny thing is as well, is that
maybe people say that everything's beige because the
person who's living the everyday life has beige and white bed
linen. Well, shouldn't there be someone
online that people can look to and see how to style that bed
linen? Because if every creator is
showcasing bold colour and stripes and pattern, does that
really apply to someone who has a white and beige bed with no
idea how to go about it? No.
So it's clever of me to actually go, hey, I've got neutral
bedding over here. You don't need to buy anything
new. If you just remake your bed like
this, it could look really good. You don't need to spend $1000 on
new sheets and duvets. You don't have to.
I love a new sheet, a new duvet cover, don't get me wrong, but
you don't have to. Here's how to style your neutral
bed linen so it doesn't feel dull.
I just think when people say everything is beige, what they
often mean is I have decided that this person represents a
type of info onset that I find annoying and beige is the
easiest. Word to attach it to actually, I
do have to say someone said it looked like boiled chicken and I
thought that that line was iconic.
Like I think I want to get that printed on a T-shirt like I
understand the rhetoric. I totally get it, like I did see
the all beige rooms of 2020 and 2021 but we're in 2026.
Lots of things are very colourful at the moment.
So please stop saying that everything is beige, or just
catch up with the algorithm and follow some people in home
before you start throwing your weight around saying that
everything is beige when it's just not.
And look, I'm very happy to be crowned the king of beige if the
Internet needs me to play that role.
Like someone has to hold the line.
But I also think that the beige critique is often a way of
avoiding the actual conversation, because if the bed
is neutral, people can pretend the issue is taste.
But the video was never about colour.
It was about scale and proportion and how you fold
something and letting the sheets air whether your pillars look
like they've given up or not. It's about the technique.
You can make a colourful bed badly.
You can make a beige bed beautifully.
You can make a neutral bed that feels warm, laid and chic.
And you can make a colourful bed that feels unresolved.
Colour does not automatically equal personality.
Neutral does not automatically equal boring.
And this is where we like knowing the rules really matter
because the goal is not follow the rules forever and become
rigid and joyless. The goal is to understand what
you're doing so you can make better choices, and knowing the
rules means you can break them properly.
And that applies to interiors, fashion, cooking, hosting and
almost every part of style and taste.
You learn the structure, then you can play.
But if there is no structure at all, or if everything is just do
whatever, nothing matters, do a bright red cushion, who cares,
then you often do not end up with any freedom at all.
You end up with mess, no rhyme or reason, and people are not
knowing where to start. And I think Australia has a
particular version of this. We have this very nonchalant
attitude where everything wants to look relaxed, effortless,
cool. Like they didn't try too hard.
Like I understand that, but I love ease.
I love when things feel natural. I don't want a life to feel
stiff or performative. But there is a difference
between ease and apathy. Like there is a difference
between relax and not knowing how to do anything.
There's a difference between a home that feels lived in and a
home that feels neglected. And that's where I think we need
to be a little bit more honest with ourselves.
Somewhere along the way a lot of people started treating care as
cringe, trying his cringe, hosting his cringe, Making the
bed is too much, setting the table so formal, having
standards is judgmental, wanting things to look nice.
It's just so shallow and superficial and I just don't buy
it. I think care is deeply
attractive and effort is generous, and a maid bed is
great, and I think setting a table is another way of telling
people that you care. And I think a clean kitchen
bench can genuinely change the energy of the day.
I think the lamps in the evening is way better for humanity than
whatever overhead lighting crimes are happening in a rental
property across the country, particularly if it's white LED
lights. And I think standards, when
they're applied with warmth and attention, are not oppressive,
they're supportive. They give you a life shape.
They give you a day rhythm and they make your home feel like
somewhere you're actively living, not just surviving.
That's what matters to me. Not because I think everyone
needs hotel corners, or every pillar needs to pass a military
inspection, or your home should be Immaculate at all times.
Mine isn't, and no one's ears. But I do believe that the home
is one of the most immediate places where you can practise
self respect, and I use that word very intentionally.
Self respect does not always look glamorous.
Sometimes it looks like making the bed, washing the sheets,
putting the clothes away instead of letting them live on a chair
for three to five business days. Sometimes it looks like buying
the cheaper thing, but choosing it carefully.
Sometimes it's saying I can't renovate this rental, but I can
make this corner feel more beautiful.
And sometimes it looks like not waiting for your life to become
impressive before you start treating it with care.
And I think that's why people responded so positively to the
videos because yes, they were funny.
Yes, they were a bit bossy and the tone was tough love.
But people could actually use the information.
They could watch the video, walk into their bedroom and do
something about it. They didn't have to buy anything
or a full redesign or needed a new bed frame.
That is needed someone to say pull this up, fold this down.
These are here. Let that breathe.
Stop doing that weird thing with the pillows.
Let things have gaps and suddenly the room felt better.
That's powerful. That's why I get frustrated when
the conversation becomes why does it matter?
Because it matters if it makes someone feel better.
It matters if an 11 year old feels proud of.
Herself for making a bed. It matters if a tired adult
walks into their bedroom at the end of the day and it feels that
the room is ready for them. It matters if someone in a
rental stops treating their space like a temporary holding
pen and starts making it feel like a home.
It matters because your environment effects you.
We know this instinctively. That's why people clean before
guests come over, they light a candle after tidying, and they
feel better after changing the sheets.
That's why people say I need to get my life together and the
first thing they often do is clean their room.
The home and the mind are connected.
Not perfectly, not always neatly.
I'm not saying every messy person is broken, or every tidy
person is emotionally well. But your space does affect your
state, And when your life feels chaotic, your home can either
amplify that chaos or help contain it.
A made bed is 1 tiny way of containing it.
That's all. And maybe that's the part people
find confronting because it is almost annoying.
With how simple it is, it's easier to believe that feeling
better requires a whole new life.
Like new house, new job, new body, new wardrobe, new
relationship, a new morning routine, 45 supplements and a
sunrise ice bath. But sometimes the first step is
just making the bed. Sometimes the first step is
opening the curtains, clearing the table.
No, that won't fix everything, but it might give you enough
momentum to do the next thing and that isn't nothing.
So when people say it's just a bed, I agree it is just a bed,
but it is also the place you start and end every day.
It's the largest piece of furniture in most bedrooms, and
it takes up most of the visual space.
It sets the tone for a room and it's one of the easiest things
to improve without spending money.
So yes, I'm going to talk about it.
I'm going to have opinions and I'm going to tell you that your
pillows need to breathe. And at the end of the day, I'm
talking about sheets and pillows.
It helps you. Amazing.
And if it's not for you, that's completely fine too.
That's the beauty of the Internet.
You can keep scrolling and go and find a plethora of content
creators that you enjoy. I do think the reaction proves
something a lot of people are craving someone to say, here's
how you do this thing. Not because their way of living
is awful, not because they feel ashamed, not because everyone
needs to live the same way, But because life feels better when
you know how to look after the small things.
And that's really what this whole podcast has been about.
Home is not just the expensive furniture.
It's not just the renovation. It's not just the beautiful room
reveal. It's the daily maintenance of
care. The beds you make, the table you
set, the flowers you arrange, the lamp you switch on, the meal
you serve and the way you make the space feel ready for
yourself and the people you love.
That's home making. Not in an old fashioned
restrictive way, in a self respecting life giving.
I am going to make where I am feel good now way.
So no, I'm not bed shaming you. I'm simply saying pull the cool
tub, fold it over, let the sheets breathe and fix the
pillows and give yourself once more win before the day begins.
And if an 11 year old can understand the assignment, I
have full faith that the rest of us can too.
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Home and
Hosting with Louis Burke. If you enjoyed this episode or
if you've recently been personally victimised by one of
my bed making. Videos make sure you follow or
subscribe wherever you are listening.
You can also come and join me over on Instagram and TikTok at
Louis Burke, where apparently we're making beds, raising
standards and upsetting pillows across the nation.
And if this episode made you think someone who needs to pull
their cooked up properly and fold it over, send it to them
with love, I will see you all very soon.