Romanticising design saved me
On beauty, memory, and choosing to live without rules
For so long, space has been the way I feel held. The way I feel seen.
When I couldn’t find the right words, design spoke for me. My thoughts echoed louder when surrounded by beauty… not in the expensive, showroom sense, but in the quiet power of objects that meant something.
I’ve realised I don’t just love design. I need it. It’s the rhythm of my life, the emotional architecture of my days. I feel most alive when I’m immersed in intentional spaces, in small shrines of meaning.
This isn’t about ownership. Most of what I admire, I can’t afford — yet. And still, I’ve learned how to access beauty by decolonising the act of making, connecting, and living.
You can live how you want.
There are no rules.
The propaganda I refuse?
That your council flat with original doors isn’t worthy.
Trust me, it is.
I find myself always drifting toward a show, a gallery, a scene in the city, chasing the feeling that fuels my practice. Design is the very thing that keeps my writing and collaborations in motion. Romanticising what I once thought was out of reach has quietly opened the door to something else entirely. It’s what allowed me to become the journalist, the enthusiast, the communicator for those still shaping their practice.
I actually feel most alive when I’m observing large paintings by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, a painter who immerses us in interior worlds through the weight of oil and mood. Her work centers the figure, the object, the atmosphere. There’s something devotional about it.
And that’s it — that’s what design does for me. It’s less about showrooms and more about story. The story of the maker. The warmth of a curatorial gesture. The soft rhythm of a home that knows how to hold you.
This platform isn’t about ownership. It’s about access.
It’s about honouring the life work of those who build with intention, who give time, craft, and care to what they create.
That is the design that saved me.
That is what I’m here to document.
Speak to you soon x
Wow! This is so well written, you encapsulated your thoughts so well. I am so excited to read and see more from object & theory!