Looking into Writers’ Bedrooms, Personal Style, Lives

Carolyn’s Team Pick:

Peeking into writers’ offices feels like getting a look in their brains. Peeking into writers’ bedrooms feels like getting a look in their souls.

Apartment Therapy has a look at the insides of 15 writers’ bedrooms, including Virginia Woolf, Flannery O’Connor, Sylvia Plath, Mary Roach, Emily Dickinson, and Henry David Thoreau. If, like I do, you spend a great deal of your procrastination time on the internet looking at the insides of other people’s apartments to avoid looking at the inside of your own, you will really like this gallery. Look, here’s Hemingway:

Hemingway's Bedroom, via Apartment Therapy

Let’s talk about this! Sylvia Plath’s looks exactly how you expected it to, agree/disagree.

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Ryan Yates

Ryan Yates was the NSFW Editor (2013–2018) and Literary Editor for Autostraddle.com, with bylines in Nylon, Refinery29, The Toast, Bitch, The Daily Beast, Jezebel, and elsewhere. They live in Los Angeles and also on twitter and instagram.

Ryan has written 1142 articles for us.

27 Comments

  1. Can I just have Victor Hugo’s room and never, ever have to leave it?
    This post has left me with immense room-envy.

  2. this is really neat! glad that my writing nest comprised of bedding and questionably clean laundry didn’t make the cut

  3. Syvia Plath’s and William Faulkner’s rooms look like they belong in a B horror movie. Or “Paranormal Activity.” So much explained….

  4. I wish my room looked like Virginia Woolf’s, but its sadly more of a Alexander Master’s.

    I feel like we are all on a Slyvia Plath consensus. Agree.

  5. Sadly, my room most closely resembles Faulkner’s. The writing on the wall is what did it.

  6. I’m an Alexander Masters with Virginia Woolf aspirations. Hoping to at least land at Faulkner? I think I could handle that.

  7. Thank you for showing me something to share with my 11th graders tomorrow.

    I feel better about the mess in my room after seeing Alexander Masters’ room…

  8. I just have to say, I stood in Virginia Woolf’s room, and it’s every bit as awesome as it looks in the picture.

    • Me too! Sometimes I wish I was a gay man, but then I remember that I like being a strong woman, and I never want to have sex with a man.

  9. I like Thoreau’s, Faulkner’s, and Plath’s room’s best.
    I’m not sure what exactly that says about me now…

  10. Flannery O’Connor’s room is the most amazing decor. I am impressed that she, well probably her mother, found so much of that fabric. A good decorator is hard to find.

    Thoreau’s room is the one I saw and thought, ‘yep, that’s exactly it’.

  11. The ultimate writing room would be Virginia Woolf’s, but with Miranda Seymour’s bed – that duvet is lookin’ plush! I tend to be a bed snob.

  12. What a great post–and I love Apartment Therapy with a weird passion !

    My passing thoughts:
    CAPOTE–dude, love the red touches and the summer camp aesthetic but srsly, you’re going to have trouble getting laid consistently in that twin bed.
    WOOLF–triple love herringbone wood floors, feels so good under bare feet when they are warmed by sun and polished smooth with wear.
    MASTERS–if you’re gonna have an alligator skin on your wall, it’s gotta be bigger than a bass. Sometimes size DOES matter…jusayin.
    HUGO–like a Barbary Coast Bordello or, guaranteed to prompt vomiting upon waking with a hang-over. Ouch.
    SEYMOUR–I feel like I could date a girl who lived in this room and happily wake up there with her on a Sunday morning.

  13. Sylvia’s room is exactly how I would have imagined!

    As a side note, I’m fairly new to Autostraddle but I keep on finding blogs and sites I’m subscribed to on here, in random posts… I think Autostraddle and I were meant to be! <3
    Anyone else feel like this?

Comments are closed.