Her home is ‘picture perfect’, and that’s exactly the problem! While most of us spend thousands trying to create an Instagram-worthy home, one woman in the Faroe Islands has found that daunting. Her home is objectively beautiful. Her home is Instagrammable from every angle: breathtaking sod roofs, neat gardens, charming architecture. It is the kind of place that stops you mid-scroll. But the problem? She actually lives there. And she’s tired of strangers treating her kitchen window like a museum exhibit.The woman who owns this house never asked it to be scenic. She didn’t design her home and yard with Instagram in mind. She simply bought a home, painted it, planted some flowers, and got on with her life. But then the crowds came. And now, making her morning tea in her pyjamas has become a task.
When aesthetics becomes a problem
Almost everyone nowadays wants their travel destinations to be aesthetically pleasing. Picturesque neighbourhoods are in demand. But for residents like this homeowner, the consequence is jarring. They didn’t sign up for being a spectacle, and yet they have to. In a video shared on Instagram by Visit Faroe Islands, Mariann Hansen talks about how visitors often ignore the boundaries of the private lives of residents on the island. Someone would lean against the garden fence. Another would aim a camera through the kitchen window. Others stop by to capture the ‘authentic’ experience of a street where actual families eat, work, and sleep.“This is my house. It just looks like this. I cannot do anything about it. It’s just my old, regular Faroe house. Yes, it looks like a postcard. Quaint, picturesque, romantic, scenic, Instagrammable. But it’s still just my house,” Hansen said in the video.The green-turfed houses and the narrow alleyways may look straight out of a movie set, but those are actual neighbourhoods. While tourists are trying to get the most out of it, they should not pry into someone having dinner with their family or simply living in their house. Hansen talks about how she can no longer walk through her home in her pyjamas. “I used to love to do the dishes only in my pyjamas. In the privacy of my own home. Not anymore. Just yesterday, a tourist came right up to my kitchen window and peeked in through it. My house! This is a neighbourhood,” she said.The Faroe Islands welcome hundreds of travellers every year. While tourism is a crucial part of their economy, it shouldn’t really come at the expense of people’s lives. “People live here. Don’t forget that somebody lives here. Don’t peek into people’s windows. And don’t take pictures of locals without consent. Thank you for visiting responsibly,” Hansen reminded.The balance is really important. One can admire these beautiful places while still respecting the people who call them home. Unfortunately, many picturesque places share the same situation. In 2019, residents of Rue Crémieux in Paris, a picturesque street with pastel homes, asked the city to close the street to visitors on evenings and weekends. Why? Certainly not, because Parisians do not like tourists. But the influencer culture has ruined the peace of the residents. Though they don’t mind people taking pictures for Instagram, intruding on private property, hogging photo spots so others won’t get a chance, and venturing over guardrails or off-trail for a better shot were no longer tolerable. This scenario is becoming increasingly common as social media algorithms amplify beautiful places and tourists scramble to recreate the images they’ve seen.For many homeowners in the Faroe Islands, beauty has become a liability. They cannot really enjoy relaxing on their patio without an audience. They cannot leave their curtains open. The comfort of being at home no longer exists. And that’s exactly why responsible tourism is important. You can still enjoy the views without derailing the lives of the locals.The solution isn’t to make neighbourhoods less beautiful. It’s to ask visitors to arrive with intention and respect. To see a place not as a backdrop for content, but as a location where people build lives. After all, beauty should never feel like a burden.
