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Design Dilemma
emmelinewe

A trend that should end

Emmeline Westin
10 years ago
Are there any interior design trends at the moment that are getting on your nerves? Maybe it's a colour you're seeing too much of or a design you just don't agree with. Let us know what you think should disappear from the limelight and please share your photos!

Personally, I think the 'Keep calm and carry on' print has been used too much!

sfgirlbybay · More Info
Featured Answer
  • User
    10 years ago
    Subway tile for backsplashes. Teensy tiny zillion tiles to the square inch backsplashes. Granite is not the ONLY countertop available on the planet. Kitchens that must be almost in the middle of the living room they are so open. Taking down perfectly good cabinets to put up open shelves-you must never cook in kitchen to cause grease and smoke, you have someone to wash everything weekly and put it back up there to prevent 'flocking' of dust, and you do not live in an area where you can daily play tic-tac-toe on any flat surface from the dust that blew in. Open shelves always seem to look like you're too poor for cabinets!Not extending your cabinets to the ceiling and worse, topping the cabinets with heavy crown moulding to boot. It looks like your cabinets shrunk, AND you have the loveliest place up there to collect dust, grime, and grow spiders.

    Bedrooms with elebenty zillion decorator pillows on the bed. if I have to spend half an hour sweeping fancy pillows to the floor to go to bed, then someone expects me to pick them all up in the morning, nope. Bedrooms so large they are bigger than the living room of a few thousand square foot house... and decorated with a second mortgage. Once you close your eyes the décor isn't nearly as important (see: dry clean only sheets)

    Bathrooms with bowl sinks that sit on top of the vanity. I so want to take those OFF the counter and clear it, and most of those, who wants all the glop that gets in the join between sink and countertop. Plus, if you don't lower the vanity top enough you can't get your elbows to bend correctly to use the sink. A ton of fabrics, pictures, and foufou decorator things in the bathroom (twigs in the vase full of pebbles) to clutter surfaces. It's a WET zone, that stuff is going to not go over well with moisture, and why do I want half my vanity or tub ledge full of spider hiding-dust collecting-glurp I can knock over? Faucets that are so short you have to literally push your knuckles into the back of the sink to get your hands under the water. I defy most bathrooms like that to survive my better half coming in to wash up and splash dark dirty water for a two foot radius all over your nice little decorator foufou and open shelves full of fluffy clean towels that must be replaced every few days or they're going to be full of dust and spiders. Open shelves full of 'spa towels' especially under the sink. Carpeting in a bathroom, period.

    Curtains that are too long for the floor, they either flop about as they are on the floor, or worse, purposely poufing them to puddle out like a full diaper.

    I agree with Margo, the one modern abstract art pusher that keeps invading dilemmas.

    Comments (1.3K)

    • PRO
      PerSqM
      8 years ago
      This post is hilarious. Why not pat ourselves on the back now that we have collectively discussed what shouldn't be discussed about home trends. I bet the other 7,365,000,000 people who don't use Houzz will be interested, lol. Get real people, by being on here it's ridiculous to discuss which trends are over - it's like Trump commenting on...well, anything!
    • Will
      8 years ago

      I'm so sick of "Scandi chic" with its black and white and gray everywhere that I could puke. And I also hate the ubiquitous crystal chandeliers designers hang wherever they can. Ridic!

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    • Anna Wilkinson
      8 years ago

      I think painted wood furniture should end right now. Especially when it's turquoise or pink. Also, putting things that look like old ladies knickers around the house. They only get dusty and most of the time it's a load of old toot.

    • divadomesticus
      8 years ago
      Open plan kitchens: they are for people who never cook onions, garlic, curry. I don't want strong odours in the rest of the house.
    • Rosie B
      8 years ago
      Please.....it must be time to move on from white metro tiles everywhere. Sorry...but they really do look like public toilets!
    • stabmonkey
      8 years ago

      Crates as furniture

    • stefanmh
      8 years ago
      Definitely too many pillows and cushions on beds. Who thought of this? First thing I do is stick 'em all in the hotel cupboard.
    • stabmonkey
      8 years ago

      Cushions on beds, definitely. Books stacked horizontally.

    • lindalovie55
      8 years ago

      shabby french style just looks old and chipped and in need of a refurb

    • marjie1059
      8 years ago

      Linda55, you made me laugh.So true! But you see, if it's in a magazine, it's trendy and chic and "to-die-for", and it just looks so perfect. If it were in my house, though, it would be embarrassing and tacky and low-class and cheap-looking and so untrendy, and just plain ugly. So now when I look longingly at all these pictures of what my house is not, I try to imagine "it"--light, couch, rug, cabinet--in my house. Most of the time, I realize "it" looks good in the picture and will never look right in my house, and then I can quit sighing over it and move on. (And I didn't spend any money on something that will just be wrong for my house)

    • marjie1059
      8 years ago

      Amer, you also made me laugh. Um, you did criticize this thread, right? And those who comment on it? And you did so by not only reading (at least part of) this thread, but by commenting on it. Hmmm. I am amused but not offended. I do disagree, however, that it's ridiculous to discuss what trends are done. I find it amusing and useful both in planning and in affirming to me that I am not, after all, crazy for despising a current trend. I don't think this is a thread for serious home design, but houzz has thousands of dead serious threads. I'll ignore the Trump comment because politics and houzz don't really mix, even though we could get both a very funny and very lively discussion going if we began discussing political issues here. (I vote for gray! I vote against subway tiles! I want chevron stripes to win! That is as political as I will get today. :) )

    • k11agl
      8 years ago
      Brown leather sofas, or just leather sofas altogether. It might be a rare one of the 80s things that doesn't come back to glory nowadays (goodness knows why the white cars are still going strong and my bad... I have one too...)
    • xavalexa
      8 years ago
      last modified: 8 years ago

      LOL I've written several comments over the life of this thread - IMHO, leather in some color du jour will never be out (- has it ever really been out, I remember it way back before the 80s) with dog owners like me, because even if the pups don't always get on it, they certainly sit against it and lean on it. And I purposely pick white cars because studies showed they were more readily seen. The only time I was not seen, I was driving a red car :( I do try to live my life to make it easier and safer for me and my family.

    • iheaton
      8 years ago
      Anyone else tired of grey walls trend???
    • stabmonkey
      7 years ago

      Yes, me.

    • rev1896
      7 years ago

      GREY.

    • User
      7 years ago

      creamy pinky mushy pale slushy 'vintage' battered bits and pieces and also sludgy paintings that gloomify everything else and shout 'fust' :D

    • K J
      7 years ago

      It will also need to be grey for me. I love it and a lot of my wardrobe has always been different shades of stylish grey, but there's been too much of it in interior design lately. I refuse to follow this trend. Every other renovation on houzz shows excess of grey. It's too easy option for making spaces look contemporary.

    • User
      7 years ago
      Someone already mentioned the 'live laugh love' signs, these along with lots of other phrases that are on plaques or wall transfers are a bit cliche and I'm not a fan. Also, seems to be a big trend for obvious things being labelled, like 'Bath' above the bath or 'chopping board' written on a chopping board! I do think you should just go with what you want and not be concerned with what I or anyone else thinks though :) I have a few of the things already mentioned on here...
    • User
      7 years ago
      Oh I have another one...shabby chic. I don't meant genuinely aged wood etc, more the roughed up artificially aged look, often seen on 'home sweet home' wooden plaques!
    • stabmonkey
      7 years ago

      Shelving or organizers that look like ladders always struck me as an invitation for little children to climb them.

    • stabmonkey
      7 years ago

      Now that spring is on its way, is hygge (aaaargh!) on its way out.

    • Nicola Jack
      7 years ago
      When I was growing up we were absolutely forbidden to use the words 'toilet' or 'lounge'. They were the 'lavatory' and 'sitting room' respectively. We weren't allowed bedroom slippers or slips either (they were called underskirts in Liverpool). Heaven knows why. As a result I had an all-consuming passion to own both items!
    • mcpeeple
      7 years ago
      Those stag/deer heads 'ironically' sticking out of walls. Seem to be particularly favoured by interior designers but jeeez, theyre everywhere.
    • User
      7 years ago

      Like these mcpeeple:))

    • marjie1059
      7 years ago

      Hey, hey, Margo!! Glad to see you're still tooling around the houzz landscape. I don't get notifications for most threads anymore for some random reason, houzz seems to have deleted licksch's thread, and I just don't know what's going on anymore with all the houzz clan.
      Belated Merry Christmas to you and yours!

    • andrewbooton
      7 years ago
      Nailing tatty strips of wood from scrap pallets to walls to make a 'feature.' Ghastly! For that matter, anything 'vintage' should be burned!
    • User
      7 years ago

      Hey, hey, margie1059!! HOuzz has extended my time, lol.

      Happy New Year and don't be such a stranger. Stop in my Random thread in *other*. *waving*

    • tezz4
      6 years ago

      Multi-layered ceilings with rows of clinical lights.

    • stabmonkey
      6 years ago

      Frame clusters.

    • tezz4
      6 years ago

      Curtain swags and tails

    • shars55
      5 years ago
      A trend that should end.....people trying to hock their garbage on decorating sites.
    • PRO
      User
      5 years ago

      Thankfully they've all been removed now..............clearly some people have too much time on their hands.

    • PRO
      Zenterior Design
      5 years ago

      Personally I would like to see the back of subway tiles. There is something so clinical about them. I always feel that they detract from a design by dominating the space with a lack of personality.

    • sksj1
      5 years ago
      The word ‘curate’ - it’s a home not a museum!
    • PRO
      Adrienne Morgan Interior Design
      4 years ago

      Grey, grey, grey = dull, dull, dull

    • Sonia
      4 years ago

      Quite an old post, but I am loving reading the comments! Might take me a while ........😊

    • smac232
      4 years ago

      Colour matching book spines on bookshelves. Don’t ever do this!!!

    • karemore55
      4 years ago

      stunac23 I agree - it looks pretentious. Plus who owns that many hardcovers anyway? Lol

    • Sue S
      4 years ago

      So sick of grey paint, furniture, outside render, grey everywhere!

    • marjie1059
      4 years ago

      karemore, we own thousands of hardcovers--but I couldn't care less about matching spines!

    • marjie1059
      4 years ago

      Sue S--agreed. The endless gray skies of winter here are enough--no need to rub it in!!

    • karemore55
      4 years ago

      marjie1059, Haha - I guess I'm too cheap to buy hardcover...I try to wait for the paperbacks to come out. Or better yet, borrow from the library!

    • PRO
      LB Interiors
      4 years ago
      last modified: 4 years ago

      Agree with Gray... like others. The problem is, that clients visually think it is the only color option and become afraid to 'not' follow the 'trend'.

    • marjie1059
      4 years ago

      Houzz just lost my comment. Bah.

      It concerned the fact that I don't buy new books, generally. Most are books from book sales or they came from my parents, who had books everywhere in their house. Theology books. Kids' books like Freckles and Misty of Chincoteague and Billy and Blaze. Education books. Music books. More theology books. Biographies. More kids' books.

      I just bought dozens more when our local used bookstore closed last month. 75% off, then 50 cents per book. I will never see many of these anywhere else, and certainly not for 50 cents! The Parson's Boys; A Child's Treasure of Poems; The Theban Plays; One Morning in Maine; a pop-up Thumbelina, just right for the gdd who will turn 6 this week; Mr. Pickwick....you get the idea. Other people decorate their shelves. We fill them. So no, matching book spines is not even on my radar screen. :)

    • liasch
      4 years ago

      Grey. There are so many nice colours...

      MCM...as a "look". Individual pieces can work...but a whole house?

      Subway tiles.

      Yup. Matching book spines by colour.

      Feathers. Not in pillows...that is fine...feathers as a decor item.

      Hide rugs. I don't understand why the skin of a dead animal spread out on the floor is a good look.

    • PRO
      Flo Mangan
      4 years ago

      Quartz vs real stone; vinyl plank flooring. At least vinyl plank flooring is a durable product for folks with animals, but just don't like plastic products. And Quartz is a resin based product. Remember when we came to hate so called "cultured marble". Slick marketing - buyer beware!

    • Emmanuelle
      4 years ago

      Interiors that look beautiful, but not practical, so you always have to ’be careful’. Ex: rugs under dinning tables or by the sink area!
      Or anything fake, especially if made of plastic: fake plants ( better get a poster of greenery instead!) , plastic grass, fake wood...
      And ... tv on the walls!!!! Especially above the fireplace, for so many reasons!
      Reckon there should be a post: “What is essential in an interior according to you ”... that would be a good read too!

    • minipie
      4 years ago

      For me it’s maximalism. Lovely in a quirky cafe or boutique hotel but at home it would give me a headache. I like a restful house and so yes quite a lot of it is grey! Not battleship grey or anthracite but bluey or greeny greys.


      Concrete floors. Depressing, cold, ecologically not great, look unfinished.


      Plants very high up. How do you water them?


      Walk in wardrobes even if it means the bedroom becomes tiny. I’d rather have a bigger bedroom with wardrobes in it, than dress and sleep in tiny spaces.


      Uber industrial. There’s a reason we usually hide cables, conduits, vent ducts...because they are ugly.


      Buying new furniture and accessories very often to have an “up to date“ look. I see all these instagram pictures with everything brass, mid century, wood, rattan, green (today’s trends) and I wonder what has happened to all their grey, painted, silver, shabby chic items from 5/10 years ago. And what will they do with today’s items when the look swings round again...

    • xavalexa
      4 years ago
      last modified: 4 years ago

      LOL I bought a house with 'cultured marble' plastic bathroom counters - yeah, they're considered outdated but I love the easy care - no hidden dirt/grime buildup around undercounter sinks. Same with my kitchen, stuck to the traditional stainless sink. Didn't change out to stone counters either, my LH was noisy enough. So for me, it's the easier and more practical answers... I'm definitely not the person targeted in marketing tho LOL. I do hate grey however as i grew up with it. have neck problems and hate TVs over fireplace, don't want to have sit in a recliner in order to watch anything! I guess getting older makes some decisions easier.

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