In the Swoops House project, we didn’t get the greatest before or after pictures because there were always people living there. In the beginning, there was overlap with the previous tenants (friends of ours) as we cooperated to remove furniture and debris and start making repairs. Later, since work was always being done on multiple rooms simultaneously, we had to keep changing where the spaces for tool storage or living would be. So in most of our pictures, there is something in the way, something that doesn’t fit, or something unfinished, all signs of a complex, transitional, lived-in project. We never had the luxury many designers have of walking unobstructed around an empty space, capturing pristine photos, and then starting our redesign from what is essentially a blank slate. We always had to imagine past what we were seeing.

Also, though it’s certainly dramatic and fascinating to see before and after pictures side by side, we believe a space should be judged more by how good it is than how bad it used to be. Or even better, a space should always be thought of as in transition and never finished. It’s likely that someone hundreds of years from now will look back on our pictures and feel the temptation to contrast them with how much “better” they have made the space.  We’d like to replace the word “better” with the word “different”, in recognition that different people have different standards and aesthetics.  The way the Swoops House used to look was perfect for the community it served and the important function that the house performed for that community. We have modified it to serve a different function, for different people.

Moreover, the Mongo Deco process itself is always “in transition”, never “finished”. When you decorate with reused materials, you’re always open to (if not actively searching for) a new item or layout that “fits” better. Spaces and the tastes of the people inhabiting them are constantly changing, and networks of scavengers and junkers and thrifters are constantly working as a system to redistribute items from the people who don’t want them anymore to the people who do. This is how a healthy secondhand economy works.

So: we recommend that you think of the words “before” and “after” as different shades of meaning for the word “during”. During the shifting history of a home, during the life of a person or a community, during the process of Mongo Deco. And we hope that when you view these photos, what you see is not just a spectacular contrast between a room’s state at one point or another, but an empowering sense of the possibility of what any room can be, despite what, at any given moment, it is.

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[Click here to view images as a slideshow.]

“BEFORE”                                                                                                                          “AFTER”