Chapter 02

Build the pad

Synthwave is not more neon. It is a dark floor, a bright wall, and one object that looks like it wandered in from 1986 and refused to leave.

Night

Floor, ceiling, the suit

Cream

Sofa, shirt, page

Tide

One practical light

Flare

The column, not the lamp

Money cube used as a bar between two people, pastel wall behind them — Bar height is the same cube. Two glasses, not a liquor wall.

The materials

Lacquer or gloss on the cube. Matte white on the seating. Glass for anything that holds a drink. Metal only on the briefcase.

Neon is a line, not a room. A tide-colored tube or a pink gel on one practical. If you can name three light colors in the frame, take two away.

Sound is part of the set even if the photo is silent. The pad should look like a drum machine could live on the cube and not look ridiculous. No rustic wood. No farmhouse. No gallery wall of small frames.

Room checklist

0 of 10 in the room