Woman explains the biggest trade secret of interior designing that no one talks about

In every industry, there exist valuable insights and proprietary knowledge that businesses strive to protect from competitors. The field of interior design and residential construction is no exception, as professionals seek to safeguard their trade secrets and prevent them from being divulged to the public. However, in 2021, Ariel Magidson—who goes by @arielarts on TikTok—went viral for sharing what she claimed to be one of the industry's "biggest trade secrets" that had remained largely unspoken. She posted a video where she differentiated between two pictures displaying a trendy and another timeless decor for posh interiors.

The video which gained millions of views ever since she posted it and with thousands of comments, Magidson's breakdown of classy versus trendy interior decor concepts has impressed everyone.

"This is the biggest interior design secret ever and nobody is talking about it," she says at the beginning of the video. "Here's the difference: A theme, AKA the top image, is using literal themes from the beach, this bottom picture is using ideas or thoughts or relations back to the beach like color, pattern, or texture." She refers to images of two different living room spaces decorated in noticeably different styles.

"The top one is a theme and this one right here is a concept," she points at the image on top of the video. "You feel like you're at the beach in both but number two is more subliminal and it works every single time."

"This is the difference between remaining classic and remaining trendy," she continues. "The concept will last way longer in classic design." People had to share their thoughts on this video and some even decided to further explain Magdison's video in layman's terms. "Top is a rental vacation house, the bottom is a beach house where people actually live," @peanutbrittle222 joked.

@emmahoel in the comments claimed that they gave their home a makeover just like the bottom picture which Magidson has pulled up and now it feels like "they are in Greece and Paris without it being tacky."

The TikTok creator has also made a bunch of other follow-up videos to help people identify between timeless and trendy or overdone interior decor. In yet another video that she posted in 2022, Magidson pulled up two new pictures to show how to differentiate between a concept and a theme while decorating your dream house.

"The main difference here is that you can see different objects down here," she points at the darkly decorated room in the bottom picture. "There is alchemy, antique pictures and old objects everywhere." Then, she points at the picture above and points out why it is different than the image at the bottom.

"The picture above which is a concept also gives gothic vibes but in a literal sense. You can see antique mirrors and different textures and it is basically alluding to an idea which is why it is going to remain classic over trendy for a long time," she concluded. So, far it seems her videos have helped several netizens make the right choices before investing a crazy amount in interior decoration that they may end up hating at some point in the future.

Editor's note: This article was originally published on November 28, 2023. It has since been updated.