You know you’re an adult when you get excited by your new tap. And not just because we haven’t had one since our old one broke a month ago. But because it’s a retro one that goes in line with our 50s kitchen.
Since moving in to our flat a year and a half ago, we haven’t actually done much to it. Apart from painting the bedroom walls because there was just too much white in the flat. And we’ve had to replace the tap in the bathroom sink because it broke, and now we’ve done the same with the kitchen tap. Because it also broke.
I’d like to think that when things break, is when you can look to replace them. Not necessarily when there’s a new trend, or when you get bored of something, or when you move in somewhere new and – even though it’s all perfectly fine – you want to make it your own.
To renovate or not to renovate?
Sweden, and maybe Stockholm in particular, has seen a crazy amount of home renovations over the last few years. I can’t find any statistics on it but it’s most definitely an unhealthy amount. Unhealthy if you’re concerned about the environment, but I guess not if you’re in construction.
I think there are several reasons for this. One is the tax incentives that were introduced by the previous right-wing government that allow people to get money back when hiring workers to do work in their homes. Another one is the insane increase in property prices that has encouraged people (who own properties) to keep climbing the property ladder by moving more often. They’re also encouraged by the market to renovate/upgrade the flat/house before they sell to maximise the profit. And a third reason would be Swedish people’s slight obsession with our homes and following new trends, which means that we’re not just replacing a cushion every now and then, we replace a whole kitchen more often than we need to.
Throwing things away that don’t need to be thrown away. Sometimes even destroying original features and ruining floor plans for the sake of a new trend, that’s potentially likely to be out of trend too soon.
Timeless and conscious
The most conscious home is the one you can live in for a long time without needing to change it much. Therefore, when renovating or making big changes it might be worth thinking about the longevity of the changes. Would you have made this change five or ten years ago? And will you be happy with the change in five or ten years from now?
I haven’t been very happy with the kitchen appliances because they’re not very good and the design is very basic. But so far, we haven’t been able to justify actually replacing them. Until the kitchen tap broke. And my biggest wish was to find a replacement that would go with the rest of the kitchen design that’s stayed with the flat since it was built in 1947. One of the Swedish tap makers has actually started a new production of a retro design that was their biggest seller in the 50s but that they stopped producing for decades. And this is the one we got.
To respect the style of the kitchen for a timeless look that will last for many more years to come.