Old money aesthetic: how to give your desktop the look
Five small settings. None of them costs anything except the wallpaper.
The old money look is mostly restraint: few things on show, and each of them chosen. A desktop works the same way.
1. One wallpaper that looks like it hangs on a wall
A painting reads as an object someone chose; a stock photo of a mountain reads as a default. Pick scenes with a subject and visible brushwork: a wooden boat, a clay court, a still life.
2. Clear the desktop
On a Mac: Finder, Settings, General, and untick the items under Show these items on the desktop. On Windows: right-click the desktop, View, and untick Show desktop icons. Your files stay where they are; they simply stop covering the picture.
3. Hide the dock or the taskbar
On a Mac: System Settings, Desktop & Dock, turn on Automatically hide and show the Dock. On Windows 11: Settings, Personalization, Taskbar, Taskbar behaviors, Automatically hide the taskbar.
4. Keep to a short palette
Navy, racing green, cream, oxblood. If your wallpaper lives in those colours, set the system accent colour to match and switch to dark mode in the evening.
5. Change it with the season, not every day
A lake in summer, a library with a fire in winter. Both macOS and Windows can rotate a folder of wallpapers on their own: once a day is plenty.
Looking for something worth setting as your wallpaper?