“Hardcore Is Not For Everybody”: This Instagram Account Collects Decor Items That Capture The Essence Of Bad Taste (35 Pics)
Taste is subjective, isn’t it? While some people find minimalist interior designs and perfectly staged aesthetics inspiring, others see them as downright boring. Getting sick and tired of posts where everything is filtered and carefully arranged, we love a bizarre-looking account that challenges our perspective.
We're talking about Decor Hardcore, an Instagram account that offers anything but bland, basic, or benign. Created by Berlin-based designer Ksenia Shestakovskaia, it showcases some of the most peculiar design choices out there. "Hardcore is not for everybody," she wrote in the description, and from the looks of it — she has a point.
If you have a passion for strange, wacky, and tacky things, this post might be just what you were looking for. Bored Panda has selected some of the most over-the-top images the account had to offer, so check them out right below. Upvote on the ones you liked most, and be sure to let us know what you think about them in the comments!
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It might come as no surprise that bizarre-looking items and weird design solutions are things that tend to grab our attention and not let it go. After all, there’s some amount of beauty in any imperfection, even when it leaves us surprised, delighted, or a bit shocked.
Today, people and projects that show the opposite of what is considered to be good taste often get branded as bold, courageous, and adventurous. And Ksenia Shestakovskaia is one of them. The textile and graphic designer created Decor Hardcore in 2015 as a collection of unusual images of curiosities she came across on the web.
"I was running into quite specific images and I started to collect them. I had to share it! I’d show these crazy pictures to people and they’d say, 'I remember my Grandmother had something like that,'" she told AnOther Magazine.
I actually kind of like this, I’d feel like a mermaid princess or something sitting in that tub
Ever since she started posting on Instagram, she has amassed quite the audience. As of today, the account has more than 375K devoted fans who admire her online collection full of pink living rooms and rose quartz baths. "At the beginning, I was wondering what would happen if I ran out of material because I post a lot," she said. "But every time I went on, I realized it was endless. It’s like an ocean of treasures! So I’m not concerned."
When it comes to design, she mentioned that she sees emotional connection as the most important thing. "It has to create a little heart-pinch. I’m pinched quite often when I see these pictures, I’m completely overwhelmed." Other times, she comes across objects that are very aesthetically displeasing but deserve to be noticed. "Sometimes it’s so extreme that I have to post it! These might be things I would never buy for myself, or as a present, but the pictures are incredible."
I want one with a Cheshire Cat and Alice Through The Looking Glass theme.
For those who thought this is fake, this is a real place in Thailand. It's within The Ancient City (Muang Boran). https://www.muangboranmuseum.com/en/landmark/sumeru-mountain/
Fantastic, thanks! The slideshow at the bottom of the page is a bonus.
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This is clearly a temple with religious icongraphy. Its just not the western conception of a house of worship. It seems rather offensive to pt it on a "strange and whacky" list.
Seem like a fake one... pay a look on the water lilies in the front (or some in the back) : copy-paste
Doesn't prove the place is fake. Someone could've just photographed the scenery to improve the surroundings
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So weird all the Lilly pads are in the exact configuration....must be fake. Yuck.
The lily pads are fake; they're all exactly alike, unlike regular lily ponds which are every which way all of the time!
Wow! Talk about taking ones dream to new heights& making them real!
Temple in Thailand, I’m sure lots of tourists go visit, but for the fellow country man it’s a holy place
please tell me there is a train or a rollercoaster or something that goes thru that thing!
After seeing the size of the kitten in the bedroom I need some perspective of every picture
Would be even cooler if you could place some lounge chairs in the sea creature's mouth.
This was probably photoshopped, as of the same three copies of the circle of Lily pads. Don’t judge me if I’m wrong though-
This is fake. The three clumps of lily pads at the bottom are identical.
Looks photoshopped? (Same bunch of waterlilies three times in the foeground)
Michael Garrett, one of her best friends and business partner, later joined curating the account and helped develop Decor Hardcore even further. The duo has created a line of merch, a creative studio, and they’ve even got the opportunity to partner up on campaigns and projects with brands like Gucci and Versace.
"Fashion started to bore me to death," Shestakovskaia told Vogue. "I was in the same place with fashion, bored and disillusioned," added Garrett. "When Ksenia began showing me early glimpses of Decor Hardcore, which at the time was still just her private collection of eBay images, I got hooked."
Their vision "is all about not taking design or anything too seriously, and proving that heaven is indeed a place on earth," she told i-D. Well, if heaven is full of pink velvet, over-the-top bathrooms, and inflatable bouncy castles, it seems they have succeeded.
Shestakovskaia is constantly keeping an eye out for the perfect picture and looks for a range of criteria, whether it’s unexpected solutions or simply lucky accidents. The designer enjoys coming across the story behind an image, feeling the atmosphere, and understanding people’s decisions. "Decor is not only my work, it's my entire approach to life, my attitude, dreams, and sometimes nightmares," she said. "When I'm not working on it, I'm fantasizing about situations or things, and then I try to discover if they exist."
"Decor Hardcore is about the variety of choices, not about certain aesthetics," Shestakovskaia added. "So much design is confined to 'must have' or 'must be,' looking proper, and trying to make sense. Our brand fulfills the lack of a certain offer for fun, and something unpolished or unexpected. To me, it's natural that a girl would have a bath that looks like a seashell because it's beautiful and magical. I just look around myself, or I search for things that entertain and make me happy. Apparently, they make many other people happy, too!"
Does anyone else feel we need more context on a lot of these images?
Note: this post originally had 112 images. It’s been shortened to the top 35 images based on user votes.
Many are over the top and tacky, but there are so many on here that should not be in a list of "bad taste" decor.
'bad taste' seems to be the new synonym for 'not what the majority likes'. Since when are people so much into uniform design?
Seems like a lot of BP’s have good, or at least odd, Taste. And it’s a well known fact - I like odd!
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Most of these are awesome. The only tacky thing about this is the dull and lifeless ones who think these are tacky. Get a life.
According to this post, my taste is pretty bad. I enjoyed most of them as I found them creative, bold and different. Nothing I want in my own home, but fun to look at.
It seems like the people who live there would be fun to hang out with
Load More Replies... Some of these should come with an explanation as to what we are looking at.
Gotta admit I liked quite a few of these. But then I've never been accused of being tasteful.
I liked quite a few, some where ok and only a few I disliked. I thought they were fun and joyful.
Most of these were fun! I wouldn't decorate my house that way. But I'd definitely go visit somewhere like that!
So many of these are nice, but over the top. Not bad taste per se, but definitely too much of a good thing.
Some of them would be nice to visit, a hotel say, just not to live with
Some things are not "bad taste". Why does everything needs to be "same"? Some of the designs are just fun, funny, whimsy...
I would love to eat a bunch of mushrooms and go to anyone of these places
Half of these I refuse to believe are real, they just look too perfect
My takeaway here is that waaaaay too many people are over the top obsessed with the colour pink.
I disagree with these all being bad taste. A lot of them are a ton to take in, even difficult to do so. But a lot of them are cute and pleasant in a way that like. I respect it and if I lived in, I would be super obsessed with it. Because they are beautiful from different sorts of beauty. Not being minimalist doesn't make something ugly.
I think most of these are beautiful and imaginative and I wish I could afford them!
mane of these are definitely not "bad taste"- the title is extremely misleading
Many are over the top and tacky, but there are so many on here that should not be in a list of "bad taste" decor.
'bad taste' seems to be the new synonym for 'not what the majority likes'. Since when are people so much into uniform design?
Seems like a lot of BP’s have good, or at least odd, Taste. And it’s a well known fact - I like odd!
Load More Replies... Most of these are awesome. The only tacky thing about this is the dull and lifeless ones who think these are tacky. Get a life.
According to this post, my taste is pretty bad. I enjoyed most of them as I found them creative, bold and different. Nothing I want in my own home, but fun to look at.
It seems like the people who live there would be fun to hang out with
Load More Replies... Some of these should come with an explanation as to what we are looking at.
Gotta admit I liked quite a few of these. But then I've never been accused of being tasteful.
I liked quite a few, some where ok and only a few I disliked. I thought they were fun and joyful.
Most of these were fun! I wouldn't decorate my house that way. But I'd definitely go visit somewhere like that!
So many of these are nice, but over the top. Not bad taste per se, but definitely too much of a good thing.
Some of them would be nice to visit, a hotel say, just not to live with
Some things are not "bad taste". Why does everything needs to be "same"? Some of the designs are just fun, funny, whimsy...
I would love to eat a bunch of mushrooms and go to anyone of these places
Half of these I refuse to believe are real, they just look too perfect
My takeaway here is that waaaaay too many people are over the top obsessed with the colour pink.
I disagree with these all being bad taste. A lot of them are a ton to take in, even difficult to do so. But a lot of them are cute and pleasant in a way that like. I respect it and if I lived in, I would be super obsessed with it. Because they are beautiful from different sorts of beauty. Not being minimalist doesn't make something ugly.
I think most of these are beautiful and imaginative and I wish I could afford them!
mane of these are definitely not "bad taste"- the title is extremely misleading
