Hipster design is hot
Interior design with your inner hipster is hot. It’s ironic and your friends will never understand because they can’t get past their mainstream Pottery Barn catalog design ideas. You are different and you know that there are better ways to feel superior than to spend thousands on an overpriced armoire. You do not have to go dumpster diving or visit an art gallery to outfit your home in a way that tells the world that you are a hipster and you don’t care who knows it.
Below are ten illustrated tips to help you have a true hipster home that are best viewed while listening to some early Band of Horses songs. And if you really want to show off your inner hipster, you should tell everyone in the comments that these tips are lame because you already had all of this in your home last year.
1. Ironic throw pillows:
All good hipsters have ironic throw pillows be they featuring Liza Minelli, Jodie Foster, Tom Selleck, or any star that is no longer relevant but could potentially become relevant, thus you have known all along how amazing they are. A gold star is given if it is handmade, or has a pet-able moustache.
2. Mod dining room:
Retro mod table and chairs is a hot hipster interior design MUST have – Craigslist is chock full of options! If you spend more than $100 or buy it new, your hipster credibility will be shot. Also, every hipster home must implement (a) loud wallpaper as an accent wall somewhere, but make sure it is the ugliest print available and (b) oddly hung items, especially small items hung too high because you are different and must not adhere to the “eye level” rule.
3. The Typewriter:
Every hipster home must have a typewriter and bonus points are given for it being an alternative color. Extra bonus points are given if you wax philosophical against modern technology while you carry an iPhone in your pocket. Also, imagine what would happen if you had two typewriters. Woah.
4. Ironic appliances:
Taking out the brand new stainless steel refrigerator from your kitchen and adding a smaller, less effective vintage refrigerator and calling it an “ice box” is a truly hipster move. You should be praised for this edgy decision and applauded by friends and admirers.
5. No mainstream packaging:
Putting EVERYTHING in Mason jars is beautiful, but it is most definitely hipster. Cereal, bottled water, everything – put it in a mason jar if you want a hipster home! No one needs to know that you shop at Wal-Mart, rather than Whole Foods, so blame the lack of packaging on your refusal to acknowledge brands or their visible messages.
6. Superior music:
You can’t call your house a hipster home if you don’t have a record player and use it when guests come over to showcase your extensive vinyl collection and talk about how morally superior you are due to your affinity for vintage albums as you lament how music never improved past 1969 (although you were not alive, do not let anyone argue your soul was not aware of music).
7. The Ikea trick:
Buy an IKEA shelf and either (a) talk about how disgusting you feel for feeding the capitalist conglomerate or (b) insist that it was your grandmother’s shelf and scratch it up really well before putting display items on the shelf.
8. Labels:
Although you refuse to adhere to any labels, your hipster home must always label something that doesn’t need a label so people can appreciate your sense of irony (although they won’t get it, you’re too clever for them). Stairs are a great start, but also try doors, shelves, walls, floor tiles, or anything that gives you a reason to test how unintelligent people are so you can school them on the word irony.
9. Environmentalism:
Have a bucket outside to collect rainwater, even if you don’t intend on using it for anything – people will be in awe of how environmentally conscious and brilliant you are. Genius.
10. Crocheted accents:
Make sure to have an awkward amount of crocheted items in your home or it cannot be considered a hipster home. Seriously, an awkward amount of crocheted items. Doilies are a bonus, and it helps if you tell people it is all vintage or handed down in your family despite the yarn being from a 2009 lot and crocheted in a sweat shop.
Lani is the COO and News Director at The American Genius, has co-authored a book, co-founded BASHH, Austin Digital Jobs, Remote Digital Jobs, and is a seasoned business writer and editorialist with a penchant for the irreverent.

Mark McDonough
December 30, 2011 at 11:55 am
Be honest now, Lani… Which one of the above photos comes straight from your home?
Lani Rosales
December 30, 2011 at 4:38 pm
WHAT? How DARE you? 🙂
Charlene Jimenez
December 30, 2011 at 12:12 pm
Hilarious! Loved it! Unfortunately, I don't meet any of these requirements! Pillow with a pet-able mustache, here I come!
Lani Rosales
December 30, 2011 at 4:40 pm
It's not a myth: https://pinterest.com/pin/225109681344023987/
Charlene Jimenez
December 30, 2011 at 10:28 pm
oh dear.
Herman
December 30, 2011 at 7:28 pm
I can't stop giggling!!
stephanie crawfprd
January 2, 2012 at 2:35 pm
love it. LOVE IT.
Doug Lytle
January 3, 2012 at 1:37 pm
You had me until I got to the crocheted accents 🙂
Holly Armstrong Neitzel
August 5, 2012 at 1:58 pm
Love it. I think I have some suppressed hipster in me.
HollyArmstrongNeitzel
August 5, 2012 at 2:00 pm
Love it. I think I have some suppressed hipster in me.
AgentGenius
August 5, 2012 at 2:09 pm
us too. lol
Kappy Mann
August 6, 2012 at 9:39 am
Awesome article! Love it.
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