For Those Who Are Unable to Do-It-Themselves

The ability to create and mold one’s own furniture, artwork, and decor within a steampunk decorated home is a major component of the steampunk aesthetic. The do-it-yourself aspect is part of what enables the ‘punk’ in steampunkers to exist, as an anti-establishment focus is present in personalized and hand-created aesthetics. However, not all home owners who wish to outfit their homes in steampunk decor may have the skills to create the complex, useable, and often necessary objects within their homes, such as stoves, computers, light fixtures, etc. Steampunkers who wish to outfit themselves may be able to learn the necessary skills to stitch or glue together clothing and props in a relatively short period of time through online and print tutorials, but the knowledge necessary in outfitting a home may include metalwork, electrical, and carpentry, to name a few. Considering these implications, one may comprehend that a steampunked home done in the do-it-yourself style is available only for those who have the required skills. 

One option for the steampunk enthusiasts who are not handy-men or women is to hire out help and let their own creativity produce designs and components that are then made by professionals. In one New York steampunk apartment (please see the video above), the realtor claimed that, “everything [in the home] is something that’s come out of [the owner’s] imagination” (Jmarsdesign). Even though the owner needed the help of a contractor to build some of the objects and aesthetic aspects within his home, he opted to create his own furniture by re-working mass produced material culture and antiques such as the piping on his walls, and created some components from scratch in a steampunk style, such as the airship dropping from the ceiling. Although the owner of the apartment was unable to physically create his own space because he did not have the specific knowledge or skills to do so, I feel that the do-it-yourself component is still applicable, as the designs of the home are done by him mentally, before being carried out by a contractor (Jmarsdesign). In this sense, the steampunk homeowner is still able to resist overproduced commercialized products to create a space that is uniquely his own and, therefore, fit into the antiestablishment ‘punk’ quality discussed previously. 

Images are all from the same home, in which the homeowner designed spaces before hiring help to build and create his designs