Ashley Tisdale had fans divided on her choice of decor this week.
On Architectural Digest’s YouTube channel on Tuesday, March 29, Tisdale gave a tour of her new self-designed home she shares with her husband Christopher French and their daughter, Jupiter Iris. During the tour, she showed off one particular feature that caused a bit of controversy on social media: her bookshelf.
The former “High School Musical” star showcased a stunning built-in bookshelf which was filled to the brim with various novels. But, as it turns out, many of these books were actually recent addition to her home.
“These bookshelves, I have to be honest, actually did not have books in it a couple of days ago,” Tisdale said, adding, “I had my husband go to a bookstore. I was like, ‘You need to get 400 books.’"
Tisdale added, “Obviously my husband is like, ‘We should be collecting books over time and putting them in the shelves.’ And I was like, ‘No, no, no, no, not when AD comes.’"
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On social media, fans reacted to the actor's admission, with some trolling her for buying that many books just for display while others appreciated her honesty surrounding her design decisions.
“I... am speechless,” one Twitter user wrote alongside screenshots of the moment from the video.
Tisdale responded to the original tweet on Wednesday to “clear this up,” writing, “There are some of my books from over the years in there but yea 36 shelves that hold 22 books I did not have and any interior designer would have done the same. They do it all the time, I was just honest about it.”
The actor’s husband also chimed in on the conversation, defending Tisdale in a reply.
“(1) Support local used bookstores when (2) staging for photoshoots and (3) don’t worry if people have opinions about it, because some people will always feel the need to have an opinion about anything, no matter how trivial,” French wrote. “We got most of them from @IliadBookshop! The best.”
Tisdale and French's explanation didn't stop Twitter users from criticizing the 36-year-old actor.
One user replied to the original tweet, writing, “That’s so sad. I took me a few months to fill up my new shelves, all special and important things to me. Not magazine worthy but I like it!”
“I cannot even fathom just buying books for no purpose,” one person wrote. “I don’t even have bookshelves right now but I have boxes on boxes of books in storage that I actually want and would fill up this space. And you can put so many other things in shelves ?? Baffled.”
One user replied directly to Tisdale criticizing her choice to use books as decor, writing, “Having books on your bookshelf is about actually having read... the books. They are not a ‘fashion statement.’ What are you going to do when your guests ask you discussion questions about their contents and you can’t answer?”
“Here, books are used here with the only purpose to be aesthetic and show how ‘educated’ someone is,” another tweet read. “While books can be decorations for a room, their main purpose is another one, I don’t think Ashley gets it, at least from what she said in the video.”
There were many Twitter users who celebrated Tisdale’s candidness in her AD tour, with author Bolu Babalola writing, “screaming that ashley tisdale had to do a ‘let’s clear this up’ about staging her house for a tour. something that everybody does.”
“The way people are criticizing Ashley Tisdale for…buying books??” another tweet read. “Supporting authors and a bookstore??? Like who gives af if she reads them, as if I’ve read most of the books I own.”
Another user wrote, “Are we mad at Ashley Tisdale for supporting bookstores? In this economy?”
“I hope Ashley Tisdale buys 400 more books tomorrow just to give people with nothing better to do something to complain about,” another tweet read.
Tisdale showed that she had a sense of humor about the situation thought, sharing a tweet on Thursday that read, “Sorry I haven’t been reading everybody’s tweets, I’ve recently just got a lot of new books to get through.”
In another tweet, she took a moment to plug a recent story on Frenshe, her wellness website, about some of her favorite book recommendations. The post even started off with a silly jab at herself, reading, “It’s hard to choose from 400 books…”
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
