McMansion/McEclectic - Aesthetic Highlight #18

[Emmy Fitz]

Can it be? Am I back to creating Aesthetic Highlight threads? Yes, I am.

McMansion/McEclectic (c. late '90s-2008)

"McMansion" was a popular aesthetic during most of the 2000s. Found in upper class housing all over America, it called back to classical European ideas, specifically Tuscany, to create a feux-sense of handmade luxury. The "Mc" in "McMansion" is obviously a reference to McDonald's, as homes with these designs were often found in dense, tract housing neighborhoods.

This aesthetic is INCREDIBLY nostalgic for me, I have an aunt who lives in San Diego and her house looked exactly like these samples when I was a kid. It's tripping me out because I almost think some of these were hers. I also have memories of many celeb houses on Cribz looking like this. Very, very popular here in Southern California.​

 

[manpaint]

Those house are very cozy. Although I don't think I have ever entered a full blown McMansion house, I can certainly see its inspiration in a lot of furniture.

 

[Emmy Fitz]

 

[Skookumsquitch]

I absolutely love this series. It's been really cool so far to see aesthetics that I've seen in my life but couldn't identify, and ones I've never known I liked.

I hope it keeps going!
(Not that I like this particular one)

 

[№56]

Tony Soprano's house is a perfect example of this aesthetic.

 

[Dr. MacGutsy]

The type of house you want to walk around soaking wet in after a pool day.

 

[SolidStateSurvivor]

I honestly can't believe there are people nostalgic for these. They're nothing more than a blight wherever they arrive and the perfect example of American hollowness. Cheap ass mass produced poorly thought out and constructed residences that act as a status symbol more than anything else. It goes perfect with the notion that if the US was personified into a real person, it'd be an obnoxious broke as fuck dude with a designer gucci belt.

I'm probably bias because in the mid-2000s I saw these developments encroach these nice secluded rural areas my relatives lived in but whatever.

Kate Wagner, who runs the blog McMansion Hell, has a very informative article on the history of McMansions and the current status of them.

 

[mydadiscar]

...people actually like this shit?
Oh, who am I kidding? There are people who think modern architecture and brutalism are pretty!

 

[elia925-6]

I remember visiting a home decorated like this as a kid

 

[manpaint]

Imagine getting mad at how the interior of a house looks lol

 

[Orlando Smooth]

I honestly can't believe there are people nostalgic for these.

Same. I think this style is absolutely hideous, and despite the fact that the few rich friends I had growing up lived in them I am absolutely not nostalgic for them whatsoever. I've similarly seen them encroach on formerly beautiful farmland in my hometown and have subsequently daydreamed about them being demolished in favor of attractive home architecture styles like the MCM ranches, colonials, or traditional farmhouses that are common in that area. It's so fucking tacky. The types of people who live in these homes are notorious for having no taste in anything (art, music, decoration, etc.) and choose to default to whatever decoration is trendy regardless of whether or not it clashes with the other elements of their own home! The overly complex and asymmetrical rooflines are hideous, the huge windows and "foyers" are wasteful, and the obligatory glass-paned chandeliers are a poor man's idea of luxury.

99% Invisible has a fantastic episode/article on McMansions:

McMansion Hell: The Devil is in the Details​

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Addendum: Oh and I hope you hate color, because the interior of these disgusting homes is exclusively beige or gray. That's it.

 

[elia925-6]

Same. I think this style is absolutely hideous, and despite the fact that the few rich friends I had growing up lived in them I am absolutely not nostalgic for them whatsoever. I've similarly seen them encroach on formerly beautiful farmland in my hometown and have subsequently daydreamed about them being demolished in favor of attractive home architecture styles like the MCM ranches, colonials, or traditional farmhouses that are common in that area. It's so fucking tacky. The types of people who live in these homes are notorious for having no taste in anything (art, music, decoration, etc.) and choose to default to whatever decoration is trendy regardless of whether or not it clashes with the other elements of their own home! The overly complex and asymmetrical rooflines are hideous, the huge windows and "foyers" are wasteful, and the obligatory glass-paned chandeliers are a poor man's idea of luxury.

99% Invisible has a fantastic episode/article on McMansions:

McMansion Hell: The Devil is in the Details​

---

Addendum: Oh and I hope you hate color, because the interior of these disgusting homes is exclusively beige or gray. That's it.

Same for hipster decor in 2010s like blackboards, 'vintage' photoshop vomit on saving boxes and cushions, edison bulbs. Glad it's over.

 

[elia925-6]

I remember watching a show named extreme makeover home edition as a kid and i was impressed how families live in those houses and i live in a flat appartment, until i learnt how badly built are the mcMansions(like from wood and even in storm areas), from the building standard codes we have.

 

[Orlando Smooth]

Same for hipster decor in 2010s like blackboards, 'vintage' photoshop vomit on saving boxes and cushions, edison bulbs. Glad it's over.

Fair enough, the difference though is that stuff is decorative, meaning it can pretty easily be changed out when people get sick of it. Houses, generally speaking, do not get demolished and rebuilt from scratch. So while that 2010's aesthetic is in the rear view mirror at this point, we're stuck with these butt ugly homes for decades to come. Once something is built, it sits around looking ugly for a long time. See:

 

[wearyinternettraveler]

I get that nostalgia will sometimes latch onto weird things we can't explain, but I have 0 nostalgia for stuff like this. These Tuscan monstrosities are aging like milk and since the builders are avowed believers in the "BIGGER IS BETTER" philosophy, anyone who wants to update these shit heaps are gonna have 12000 sqft of beige to throw out and redo. This is after Anthony diAngelo upsells his mansion talking about how the Romans were Italian and how his Home Depot mismatched gauche stucco pillars are actually made out of the same marble as Michelangelo's David.

 

[Emmy Fitz]

Don't get me wrong, I find these style homes to be gaudy and uninspired hahaha

The neighborhoods they inhabit are ungodly bland. Big, beautiful but plastic homes surrounded and filled with tacky Homegoods and Pier 1 knick knacks.

But are they nostalgic? Oh yes, incredibly. My much wealthier cousins lived in a home like this and playing Xbox on their massive plasma TV in a living room that looked exactly like all these examples brings back some really cozy memories. Horribly dated and ugly? Yes. But do they bring back great memories? Absolutely.

Then again, I'm from Southern California and am used to feux luxuriousness so take everything I say with a grain of organic pink Himalayan salt.

 

[Orlando Smooth]

Then again, I'm from Southern California

You've brought up the SoCal thing several times in this thread. Are you under the impression that this style is unique to the region? Or over represented there?

As someone from the northeast I will grant you that there is an excess of faux luxury and flashy garbage, you guys never seemed to have gotten the message that "money talks, wealth whispers." But this style was/is the defining characteristic of home building any place that has a reasonable white collar population in the late 80's and beyond.

 

[Emmy Fitz]

You've brought up the SoCal thing several times in this thread. Are you under the impression that this style is unique to the region? Or over represented there?

I think more-so the fact that discussions against McMansion seem to be more about how it's ruined what were once diverse, beautiful, and possibly rural towns, vs areas down here that have always held an aura of rich, white collar family neighborhoods popping up all over the place and all bringing with them their own sense of dated aesthetics.

Then again, there's nothing more LA than feeling you're more unique than you actually are.

 

[Orlando Smooth]

Then again, there's nothing more LA than feeling you're more unique than you actually are.

A rare moment of Angelino self awareness!