Home Improvement: Domestic Taste, DIY, and the Property Market

Taste Regimes and Market-Mediated Practice

“…In many ways, the core AT audience exhibits the sensibilities of those groups labeled as the bourgeois bohemian (Brooks 2000), the cultural creatives (Ray and Anderson 2000), or the creative class (Florida 2002): medium to high cultural capital individuals with economic privilege, interest in self-expression, social change, and experiential activities-the same category involved in the middle class repopulation of American center cities (Hymowitz 2008). AT's core narrative is further amplified by two broader cultural forces: the emergence of craft consumption (Campbell 2005) and the reemergence of soft modernism (Gebhard 1995;Rosenberg 2011). We argue that AT has crystallized this specific intersection of socio-cultural forces into a market mediated discursive regime of taste, thus serving as a central marketplace resource for this uppermiddle-class group.…”

“…Whereas AT as a website is a relatively new phenomenon, the taste regime it articulates relates to a wider network of media and other cultural forms, which emerge from a neoliberal identity project of domestic taste education (Rosenberg 2011). But whereas Rosenberg stresses the role of resale value over the expressive potential of home improvement among working class Australians, the upper middle-class Americans participating in the AT phenomenon appear to have different motivations.…”

“…This amalgam continues to influence home design. Rosenberg (2011) argues that the prevailing preference for soft modernism serves both symbolic and financial purposes. The stylistic rules of soft modernism-such as a preference for neutral colors-allow one to show consideration for the taste of others while simultaneously reducing the amount of choice offered by the market to a more manageable set.…”

“…The stylistic rules of soft modernism-such as a preference for neutral colors-allow one to show consideration for the taste of others while simultaneously reducing the amount of choice offered by the market to a more manageable set. Furthermore, this narrow set of choices offers the possibility for profit, because a house that is considered up-to-date but not too personal has higher market value (Rosenberg 2011).…”

The value of self-build: understanding the aspirations and strategies of owner-builders in the Homeruskwartier, Almere

“…Self-build offers increased control over design and layout, allowing people to attain customized dwellings at a lower cost (Barlow et al, 2001). Symbolic explanations, drawing upon studies of material culture, emphasize what self-build offers in terms of self-expression and identity formation (Brown, 2007(Brown, , 2008Mackay & Perkins, 2017;Rosenberg, 2011;Samuel, 2008). Building one's own home may provide people with feelings of accomplishment and satisfaction.…”