At Mine: The Home Tour Network {Geeky}

From one year to the other, I have skimmed the categories on The Daydreamer’s Diary, and Home Decoration is one of those to have disappeared after my blog makeover in March 2014. You can still access previous posts falling under the category via the Cloud of Tags link a the bottom of the Homepage, but there have not been many new posts in a very long time (only one, to be precise) - nor will there be in the future. In the attempt at making this blog more consistent and reliable in its approach to lifestyle, I found it better to write less and focus more. 

This being said, today’s post is here to show you that home decoration remains one of my centers of interest. What changes though is that instead of writing about my place or home design and decoration trends from here and around the world, I am inviting you over to a cosy network called At Mine.

This is another visual network alright, but with a focused approach: users upload only decoration or design pictures of their places or venues they are visiting. It gives you the Grand Tour of their favorite spaces and, above all, the spaces they live in at one moment or another in their life. At least this is the rule that makes it stand out; as with all (ok, most) things Internet, let’s be cautious - who’s to say this beautiful picture is not of someone else’s interior and actually says nothing about who you are, what you want to share about your taste and design advice? I guess we have to play along, that’s the only route and being curious about novelty and how it is used is a learning experience.

What’s the difference with Pinterest or Instagram? Well, the layout to start with: its simplicity is appealing and stylish, making every click count. It does seem as if I need some focus in my life since, once more, the fact that the whole visual posting revolves around interior spaces is a plus in my book: there are no distractions and you do not have to scroll through 10 visual posts about woods and animals (which I love, don’t get me wrong!) to see pictures of ethnic rugs en vogue right now in people’s real lives. Similarly, you do not have to go and hunt for that elusive Search field on the page to type in your keywords.

Which leads me to another difference: pictures are beautiful, but are not as staged as on Pinterest where magazine-like settings make interiors all too sleek. Pinterest, as well as the blogging world in general, seem to have undergone a massive makeover in favor of professionalization; only professional looking posts and pictures seem to make it out there… Once again, I enjoy those pictures, but to join the currently raging debate about authenticity, a reality check in the world of visuals is also a healthy change every now and then. This is not to say that At Mine will resist the wind of change - and you will see that some interiors are all too perfect here too and very much inspired by glossy magazines.

What about voyeurism, will you ask me? Well, maybe there’s a bit of that too. After all, putting ourselves out there, in pictures or text, is also fueling other people’s curiosity or, to its extreme, voyeurism. As with all social media channels, it is up to the user who’s sitting in front of the computer to set the boundaries to some extent. The At Mine name and its branding, easily distinguishable thanks to its curly braces, is a way to artistically embrace one’s interior space and the stories it conveys. It is up to you whether you want to open the door or not, letting one curly brace wide open for all to take a peek.

I have just started on the network and I am still figuring out its set of features: it is very straightforward to use thanks to its fresh layout and color palette to bring an interesting and invigorating experience to its users. Once you land on the Homepage, you will see the editorial picks. The second menu is Explore: its presents neat categories such as My Bedroom, My Livingroom etc. If you are looking for a specific type of interior space, this is probably the place to start with. The third top menu on the page is pretty self-explanatory: My Profile. You can follow people, like their pictures, upload new pictures under your profile and detail their content to make them easy to spot for those exploring the site and your feed. To share your interiors, all you have to do is (after having created your account, of course!) click on the Camera icon on the top right corner of the page. You can then upload a picture or drag and drop it.

Will you join me in this new home-centered visual adventure? If you already post on At Mine, let me know and I will be happy to join you there. 

Credits: Snappa (edited by TheDaydreamer)