This has to rank among the strangest things we’ve encountered in nearly three years of blogging. A reader (thanks, Sara!) recently alerted us that photos of our living room and guest bedroom were posted on a vacation rental site under someone else’s listing. The person running the listing claimed the pictures showed their house in Pasadena and was charging $48 a night, with preference given to guests who booked for one or two weeks at a time — apparently because the listing “received so much interest.”
It felt creepy. What would happen when guests arrived and the place didn’t match the photos? Or worse, what if this was an outright scam and the person collected payment without providing a real address? We were definitely unsettled. Naturally, we contacted the site and the person who posted the listing to let them know those images were ours, the rooms are located in Richmond, and the spaces are not available for rent. Not long after, the photos were removed. Relief, but also bewilderment — why take our images and claim them as your own?
That incident reminded us of another odd situation a while back. After our big bathroom reveal, a reader (thanks, Michael!) wrote to say someone on a decorating forum had posted our after photos and claimed the bathroom as her own. The good news: the photos were getting positive attention. The bad news: it wasn’t her bathroom.
What made that case almost comical was the misinformation. The poster, who called herself Amber, answered questions about paint colors and fixtures with details that were incorrect. She claimed our affordable sink from Overstock was a much pricier Kohler model and named a fanciful paint color that had nothing to do with the actual hue we used. We commented under the post, pointed out that those photos were ours, and linked to our original post showing where we sourced everything. The post vanished within minutes.
Looking back, the bathroom impostor might have been even stranger than the vacation-rental photo thief. At least the person posting our rooms for rent seemed motivated by money, which makes the scam option at least plausible. But claiming someone else’s renovation photos on a decorating forum where no money changes hands? Why go through the trouble? Maybe she didn’t want to go through the work of renovating and thought passing our photos off as hers would be a shortcut. Maybe she wanted attention or validation. We really have no idea.
We’re grateful to readers who keep a close eye on where our photos show up and take the time to alert us. Over the years we’ve heard about our images appearing in odd places: on eBay and Craigslist listings trying to sell identical rugs and bedding, on a landscaping company’s portfolio showing a before-and-after of our front yard, and other unexpected uses. Most of those instances seem to be either lazy image theft for sales listings or people trying to borrow content without credit. But the two most recent episodes — the vacation-rental listing and the Rate My Space post — have been the most unsettling.
We’re left wondering about motives. Is it purely fraud when someone lists someone else’s rooms for rent? Is it vanity or laziness when someone claims another’s renovation photos on a community site? Either way, the effect is the same: our work and our home were misrepresented. That feels invasive. It’s a reminder that once images are on the internet they can be copied and repurposed, sometimes in ways that make no sense and sometimes in ways that can cause real problems for both the original creators and unsuspecting readers or potential renters.
If you’ve ever had something similar happen — photos of your home or your work used without permission — we’d love to hear how you handled it. Did you contact the site directly, reach out to the person who posted the images, or get help from the hosting service? Have you ever encountered images of your space being used to sell something or to promote a listing that wasn’t real? Share your experiences — and thank you again to everyone who helps keep an eye out by sending tips and screenshots when they spot our rooms in unlikely places.