How Design Magazines Are Reinventing Home Storytelling

A wave of small, influential international magazines is reshaping how domestic spaces are portrayed, moving beyond traditional decor to emphasize lifestyle, creativity, and authenticity. Leading this shift is Barcelona-based Apartamento, founded in 2008 by Omar Sosa, Nacho Alegre, and Marco Velardi. Describing itself as an "everyday life interiors magazine," it presents homes as epicenters of sophisticated interests and unconventional habits, mixing books, anonymous design, ironic gadgets, family antiques, and niche collectibles without hierarchy. Meanwhile, German website Freunde von Freunden, founded by Frederik Frede, focuses on the homes of writers and creatives, using a narrative approach to highlight professional and social networks that define an emerging urban mindstyle. London-based Dirty Furniture, launched in 2014, explores the emotional and proxemic relationships between people and objects; its third issue, on bathrooms, deconstructs the topic through psychoanalytic and local perspectives. Dutch magazine MacGuffin dedicated its latest issue to sinks, tracing their eternal allure for artists and writers. This niche aesthetic has even influenced major corporations: Airbnb launched its own travel magazine, Pinapple, adopting the informal style of these indie publications. The article was published on Artribune Magazine #37.