If, like me, you are a chronic consumer of interiors magazines, you will have noticed a transformation in the way certain big-ticket buys are presented. I’m talking about the spendiest project a homeowner can undertake: the kitchen. And I’m noting the gradual disappearance of children.
Time was when every kitchen shoot featured an adorable toddler or a brace of coltish under-10s. “Not only does this family have money and taste,” readers were encouraged to think, “they are fertile and breed highly attractive offspring. Life could offer no more. Perhaps I should buy that kitchen.”
After what we can only refer to as the Operation Yewtree years, parents now feel less eager to parade their kids for public perusal. There was the phenomenon of the twisting child — head turned, blurred and unrecognisable — as a symbol of family life. Then kids began to disappear altogether.
The decline of the child as an element of kitchen porn wasn’t merely down to queasiness. It was also a backlash against the “yummy mummy” trope. Women had been pointing out for some time that the end of their rainbow wasn’t family baking sessions and pinnies. In fact, many were saying: “Sod cupcakes.” But we still wanted to gaze at designer kitchens, styled to look homely and liveable. Which is where the dogs came in.
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Canines are the new children for the purposes of kitchen shoots. Gifted models include Oscar the wirehaired fox terrier, pictured on a plaid Tesco armchair in front of a Falcon range cooker; Henry the German wirehaired pointer, seen posing with the Farmhouse Table Company’s rustic kitchen table; and a smooth-haired dachshund called Frankie, who has modelled a painted wood kitchen by Martin Moore.
“Dogs are photogenic, and including them in advertising plays into the British love of animals, making the kitchen seem friendly, warm and accessible,” says Janet Wallace, marketing manager at Martin Moore.
Charlotte Speedy, director of communications at the charity Dogs Trust, agrees: “A dog brings a sense of belonging and a door you look forward to walking through.” The organisation has rehomed more than 11,000 dogs this year, but almost 1,000 are still waiting for a kitchen of their own, so Speedy would like to see advertisers casting more rescue dogs in shoots.
I advise her to change the trust’s slogan from the rather dreary “A dog is for life” to “A dog will never ask you to bake cupcakes”.