Unpopular Opinions: home-décor edition

I have stainless steel kitchen appliances...refrigerator, stove and dishwasher. Now, I wish I had gotten white. I'm sick of stainless steel and white is always classic. I bought them back in the early aughts....when I watched too much HGTV.

1. I hate granite. To busy to look at if one actually cooks.

2. I love open shelves in kitchens. For most thing I use every day, I want them within easy reach.

3. Expensive rugs are a waste of money. Why spend 50% of your design budget on something that people will walk on. Buy the best furniture and good art.

4. There is no such thing as eclectic. Either a person has a strong point of view that ties everything together (extremely rare), or "eclectic" looks like a junk store.

5. Adult living spaces should look like adult living spaces, not a Scandinavian pre-school, Barbie's dream house, or Peewee's playhouse.

6. "Too many legs" is just an excuse to sell expensive fully upholstered furniture.

Bright and airy equals bland and boring.

Wood paneling is cozy and lends any room, no matter how otherwise shitty, some elegance and dignity.

Not sure if this is unpopular, but I need a couch I can nap on, preferably with pets.

Love granite, grey, stainless steel and wall to wall carpeting...

Fight me 😠

White on white...white walls, carpets, furniture....everything goddamned white.

A comfortable couch is a must.

@r7, You can never go wrong with white 🙂

Old furniture you can find on facebook marketplace or thrift stores is often better than the new furniture which can be cheaply made

Rooms should have doors and those doors should be closed.

There is nothing on earth more comfortable than one of those Barka-lounger-type easy chairs. Nothing. I have one in my home and it's heaven.

[quote] A comfortable couch is a must.

How is that "unpopular"?

@r11, "Rooms should have doors and those doors should be closed. "

Like these?... 🤮

I don't like granite counter tops either, but I certainly wouldn't want to eat anything R2 cooks if she's the type who becomes distracted by the counter top when she's waving her knife around and burning the lamb.

Contrary to the bullshit HGTV exploits, decent meals can be prepared in kitchens smaller than a football field that do NOT contain white Shaker cabinets, white subway tile, stainless steel appliances and granite countertops in an "open" concept.

I hate open concept living. Homes should have rooms. Those rooms should allow people to be away from each other with walls, just like people should compartmentalize their feelings.

Fuck this minimalism bullshit

Gimme chintz or gimme death motherfuckers

R18 is right.

In this one case.

Except for the lazy-cunt lack of punctuation.

Oh, dear. Oh, dear.

Wooden floors are not cozy looking or comfortable to walk on

Gray is hideously boring and depressing

Almost all modern furniture looks uncomfortable and like it came from IKEA

Homes have lost their charm and personality ever since women stopped being housewives

^ Here you go, cupcake and I must say you look stunning in tartan plaid 😏

I stand with OP. You can pry my Formica out of my cold dead hands.

Walls should be painted in actual colors. (White, beige, gray, "greige", and taupe are not colors.)

I fucking hate bowl-top vanities.

I love clean, plush, wall-to-wall carpeting, especially in a bedroom.

Love drywall, hate beaded board walls.

Hate tons of books, even on shelves.

I like open concept, to some degree.

Hate free-standing bathtubs. Prefer a nice shower stall, no bathtub necessary.

Love medium to dark gray.

Love neutrals and off-whites.

Hate Eames chairs.

Hate r23's taste.

[quote]I hate open concept living. Homes should have rooms. Those rooms should allow people to be away from each other with walls, just like people should compartmentalize their feelings.

I agree. I also don't want to see kitchen appliances from the living room or hear the dishwasher going when I am trying to read or watch TV. Or hear someone else banging pots and pans around if you share a home.

This one will[bold] freak you Americans out[/bold] - but here in England when I was growing up (60s & 70s) fancy bathrooms were always carpeted. My parents always had it as did most adults who could afford it, not the kids' bathrooms though. But now it's very out of fashion. This is a chilly damp country. I went to a very tasteful country house recently and those gurls had carpets in their bathrooms. I'm moving soon and considering it for the new place.

Yes, I've heard of carpets in bathrooms in England.

My friend, in SF, always took baths instead of showers and had carpet in his bathroom. I thought it was nice. I wouldn't like carpet in the toilet area, though.

The loo is separate in this apt. But I'm tempted to carpet that too. You can buy mats to put around the base of the loo.

I was sick the other day and didn't make it to the toilet to vomit. I had such a mess to clean up; I can't imagine having to do it with a carpeted bathroom floor.

Color! Colored carpeting, colorful bathroom fixtures, colorful tile floor. Neutral is nasty!

I’m also a fan of color. A LOT of color. I suspect my place — where every room is painted in a different vibrant color — would fall into R2’s Scandanavian-preschool category.

I also love color but I bought a condo with high ceilings that is painted all in white and found it to have such an open, relaxing feeling that I have left most of the walls (except the bathroom, which I'm painting slowly with various pastels) white and I love it. But I make paintings with a lot of vibrant, saturated colors and my paintings are all over, along with various bright fabrics, etc. I just hung mustard-yellow velvet curtains in my bedroom. I'm working on figuring out the balance. One thing about bold colors is that they can be very energizing as long as they are given breathing room, but when a room is packed with wall to wall bright colors, all the colors tend to turn into chaotic noise and IMO they lose their impact.

What happened to soothing faded colors? If everything isn't gray and white these days then it's chartreuse and magenta and royal blue. There's a middle ground that can be hit.

I love exposed bricks indoor as long as they are really exposed. Once they're painted over, I hate them.

Wallpaper is not bad per se. It just needs to be done right, for example for an accent wall.

Love real hardwood, hate manufactured, even the better types.

Maybe not so unpopular here: Hate barn doors that aren't on barns. There are even tiny barn doors on vanities. Makes my skin crawl.

A blank wall is the personification of a blank mind.

R20 House wife and House proud!

I have a soft spot for gaudy ersatz rococo. I like it from all economic strata. I find it cheerful. I wouldn't live with it, mind you, but I enjoy visiting.

You prefer LAMINATE??? Gurl. That is genuinely disgusting.

If you say so R38. I'm not the guy above but I like like wood or linoleum or laminate countertops. And kitchen tables, too.

My house was built is a 60s ranch renovated into open concept in 2019, when I bought it. While I appreciate the airiness and natural light, taking all the walls down didn’t leave anywhere in the living room to put a TV, so it can’t really be used for that purpose (I’m not putting a TV in front of a window). It’s a nice sitting area, but the TV viewing area has to be with against one half a wall in a small corner of the space. The living room thus doesn’t get used much but is nice to look at, and let’s get real, we spend much more time watching Netflix etc. than hosting genteel get togethers.

Why does a TV have to be against a wall?

I liked Joan Rivers’ place. It was on the knife edge of gaudy but I think she managed to pull it off.

A free-standing TV is just awkward. The backside is not attractive and it's meant to be seen from the front.

I hate farmhouse chic, and I live in a farmy state.

It's because farmhouse is not chic and wasn't meant to be. It was supposed to be practical.

Joan Rivers rooms were in a Gilded Age mansion and one of the best designs by Horace Trumbauer, a distinguished architect of the era. Joan's decor did not have an ounce of gaudiness, though of course the style is by definition ersatz because the references are classical and 18th century neoclassical, not Gilded Age.

The "Family Affair" house is my ideal. I love that period, it's so nostalgic for me.

My aunt had a house that was built in the 60s. The bathtub, sink, and toilet were avocado. I loved it.

Bring Back Blue Bath Fixtures!

My design tips will elevate and improve your life, because as everyone knows my taste is flawless.

[quote]My aunt had a house that was built in the 60s. The bathtub, sink, and toilet were avocado. I loved it.

I have a friend who inherited a blue bathroom suite (do you call them that in the USA?) - he only had to replace the sink and it took him months to get one. He did the right thing. I'd do the same.

[quote]Joan Rivers rooms were in a Gilded Age mansion and one of the best designs by Horace Trumbauer, a distinguished architect of the era. Joan's decor did not have an ounce of gaudiness, though of course the style is by definition ersatz because the references are classical and 18th century neoclassical, not Gilded Age.

R46: The Gilded Age is a time period more than an architectural style. Trumbauer's 1902 design of the Drexel mansion (1 E. 62nd St.) was in the (French) Neo-Classical style, which, like Palladianism, is a long, unbroken tradition more than a specific time period. Architects have been building in the French Neo-Classical tradition since the 1760s. when the French take on Neo-Classicism derived from Palladianism and Classical architectural traditions which have been in some sense sense unbroken for more than 2000 years. French Neo-Classicism of the early 20thC is different by small degrees and (mostly unseen) technology from that of the mid-18thC and in turn from Palladianism and the Classical traditions of Rome and Greece. In that sense there's nothing very ersatz about early 20thC gilded boiserie in the style of first period French Neo-Classical architecture of the 1760s.

Rivers' penthouse apartment contained in its ballroom the significantly modified panelled guts of the room as it was originally designed and installed in 1902 for the piano nobile of the house. Trumbauer's work in the French taste was, if anything, too correct to 18thC models. In any case there are examples of architecture and rooms in antique tastes from the classical period. It's only in the context of 'honest' Modern architecture than historicism is considered ersatz with its implication of inferiority. Some will always argue that a French Neo-Classical ballroom 75 feet above East 62nd street is always ersatz, skirting the question of what, exactly, is honest and fitting and modern for that same spot.

You "pop of color" queens need to be slapped. Bold, garish colors are wrong and awful.

Run along and finish your Cream of Wheat, R53. People are trying to have fun.

I'm one of the neutral colors fans, but I do like gold frames. I have two original seascape paintings. One, my mom painted (she was a decent painter). The other, a friend gave me. (His father is an artist.)

I LOATH gray.

I think people will look back at this colorless period and think WTF.

It's "loathe."

[quote] Bold, garish colors are wrong and awful.

I think they can work. Like every showroom, this one is overdone. But in terms of colors it works.

I HATE

wall mounted headboard for beds

hardwood, faux hardwood, and laminate floors

open concept homes

visible plumbing

fireplaces

and barn doors

I don’t like but can tolerate

Tile floors

and pocket doors

I love

Carpet in every room of the house*

Bedrooms with no windows

I once lived in a house that had wall-to-wall carpet in every room including the kitchen, dining room, the bathrooms and the laundry/utility room and I loved it

An entry hall is for me the most important space in a house or apartment. Everyone should have one. A beautiful space without much workaday function beyond circulation and aesthetics, it's more important to set the tone of what you want your place to be.

Comfort in furniture is hugely overrated. Of course you want at a minimum a comfortable sofa and a few comfortable chairs, but not every piece of seating furniture has to be some grotesque cloud-soft, oversized, overstuffed puffy hair that turns and reclines and tilts all the way back fro extraction of the most difficult wisdom teeth.

If you have good art, horrible furniture may be overlooked. If you have great furniture, it will take people a while to realize that you have no art, or that you have shit art.

Wall-to-wall carpeting isn't always terrible, especially in a bedroom or in certain rooms of a cold English house where the owners are mean with the fires and thermostat.

Oriental rugs are out of fashion because, well, people are stupid. But buy one with some age where the colors have been knocked down a bit -- not like an old horse blanket from the stables or, worse, the dog blanket from the rear seat of the Range Rover, but with some color and pile left to them.

I'm glad that good brown furniture is mostly out of fashion still. Makes it cheaper for me. The fashion of the past two decades for bone dry brown 'natural' wood that looks like a cow licked it is silly: most of the present taste for wood is for the wrong kind or wrong finish of wood. Wood should be of good quality and finished to have some depth and color and light to it, not smeared and dirty as a chicken's ass does an egg. Patina is looking into a surface and seeing depth and age, like the stones in the bottom of a stream, seeing the years of hands that touched the handrail of a stairs or the front edge of a hall table, or the back of a chair. These things catch the light differently for having been touched and put to use.

Speaking of eggs, don't put them all in one basket. Don't have everything of one period, whether it be 18thC Georgian or 21stC Ikea. Buy from different stores, buy things from different countries. Your everything Danish Modern living room will look better with one orange lacquered 19thC Asian box, or a 17thC Chinese vase, or a big bowl full of old bakelite mahjong tiles. Static rooms that look like they were decorated in one day of shopping in one city are usually interesting for about one day.

It doesn't matter so much how much stuff you have so long as you have significant negative spaces. Leave spaces between things and group them well and you can have lots of possessions without looking like a junkshop.

Ceilings can never be too high.

Kitchen backsplash is often pointless.

Bedrooms are most luxurious when small and simple and singular in purpose: fucking and sleeping. Unless you live in a house with countless children and in-laws, what do much people need a 'luxury spa resort-like' bedroom suite for?

When I was a kid in the 80. My parents’ friends had fitted carpet in their bathroom. Luckily they eventually took it out. All the steam had to be terrible.

[quote]It's "loathe."

Who CARES!

[quote]I love Bedrooms with no windows

^ what a freak!

R62 Am I the only one who thinks diagramming sentences is fun?

[quote]I was sick the other day and didn't make it to the toilet to vomit. I had such a mess to clean up; I can't imagine having to do it with a carpeted bathroom floor.

I personally never uncontrollably throw up all over my bathroom or anywhere for that matter so it won't be a problem. I'm most certainly not going to decorate my apartment in anticipation of such an eventuality.

R42 New Orleans Whorehouse Chic.

R40 Samsung Chic

R60

Dark wood is gloomy.

So is black furniture. I have nothing black in my house EVER.

Your loss, more for the rest of us. A LOT MORE.

[quote]Bedrooms are most luxurious when small and simple and singular in purpose: fucking and sleeping.

Sounds like dual purpose to me. Or binary: I can't fuck when I'm sleeping, nor sleep when I'm fucking.

I love my kitchen linoleum. Easy to clean and looks nice enough, a sort of fake terra cotta tile pattern that is actually rather warm and ok. I wouldn't want real tiles with grout, nor hardwood floors (have had them). You have to clean grout and those spaces in between, no thanks.

[quote] Ceilings can never be too high.

I used to agree until my last apartment which had 32’ ceilings and it was a nightmare.

[quote] Ceilings can never be too high.

Yes, they can be too high. My place gets really hot during the summer and it's hard to cool things off due to the high ceilings.

I hate the macrame and too many hanging and potted plants trend. Ugly. Never seen it look good.

[quote]I wouldn't want real tiles with grout, nor hardwood floors (have had them). You have to clean grout and those spaces in between, no thanks.

Exactly and at least if the floor's made of a softer material things you drop have a better chance of not smashing into pieces.

Why is granite undesirable now? I’m confused.

[quote] Why is granite undesirable now? I’m confused.

It's no longer cool, somehow. But if you like still like it, you should have it.

R79 What is the in thing now?

[Quote]Gimme chintz or gimme death motherfuckers

V8fairy, I've said it before and I'll say it again - I like you. I know you're in NZ, so we're basically neighbours.

[Quote]I hate the macrame and too many hanging and potted plants trend. Ugly. Never seen it look good.

I like tasteful potted greenery in a home, but I agree, this current trend has gone too far. I don't want to feel as though I'm sitting in the Little Shop of Horrors whilst visiting people.

My opinion is that homes should be decorated to your personal taste, and not to the prevailing trends of the moment. A frau acquaintance of mine annually redecorates her living spaces with the newest range of Kmart homewares. It's so boring and basic and bogan. My home is probably abhorrent to her, a pastiche of things that I've collected from op shops and family members over the years. But it's got character, something her home is desperately lacking.

I want turquoise carpet in the living room, just because.

This thread is so contra-Greg, the white decor promoter

I add splashes of prunes, R85.

R20, few housewives I ever knew were responsible for "charm and personality" in decor, unless their husbands had the money to pay for a professional gay decorator.

21st Century Nagle.

[quote] [R79] What is the in thing now?

R80, I really don't know what the "in" countertop material is, now. I'm a renter and I have laminate.

R74, it's not your "apartment" when you sleep in the bus staton.

I detest stainless steel appliances.

I hate open floor plans.

Do not like televisions mounted over anything. They should be in a den and off when you are entertaining.

I like carpets.

R83 that's interesting. I was under the impression that Kmart went out of business a few years ago.

Not in Australia. Business is booming. It's all the rage amongst the fraus I know.

R88 You can't even spell it! Just shut up. Nagel's can be delightful!

R90 There’s one of those in Chicago he’s been there for years. It’s hilarious. I visit from out of state and he’s always still there.

R93 The Kmart in the US has the same logo. As for your condescending signature, it's always the Australians on DL who are the biggest cunts of all non American posters.

Oh, I don't know. Plenty of down-home US cunts as well. No need for broad generalizations...

US cunts count as non Americans now huh? Please explain R97.

Dear Black Friends,

Enough with the fucking animal prints, mirror walls, clothing displays and dining tables set with full china services and gold flatware that no one ever gets to use, and wouldn't because it's all dusty. And it's wonderful to have Egyptian furnishings here and there, but they don't make you Egyptian.

Open concept is OK to a point. I can't see bulldozing every wall and destroying every bit of original charm.

I almost feel like open concept is like 70s paneling and when it goes out of style, it won't be as easy as just removing the ugly paneling.

I guess I like rooms.

I despise the tv over the fireplace trend. It is gastly.

The backsplash trend has gotten a bit out of hand. You really do not need it.

Brown granite. How in the world did this catch on? It is ugly and it is everywhere in USA.

I was very depressed at the beginning of 2020, I wasn't sure how to handle the pandemic, the loneliness, the lack of meaning and purpose in life. Then I saw a little cushion telling me exactly what I needed to hear, "Live, Love and laugh" It was an epiphany. Everything was clear after that.

The little blackboard in the kitchen telling me " Eat" was very helpful too.

I’m going to find a butch husbear who is stuck in 90s Ralph Lauren with Victorian Eastlake furniture crammed into his bedroom and a bed that breaks whenever we fuck.

Oh fuck I forgot about brown granite. It's already fading in popularity actually.

I dream of sleeping in a cardboard box.

What black people are you hanging out with R99?

Outdoor kitchens. That's a no for me. There's hosting and entertaining, and then there's just showing off your elaborate cooking skills with people around.

White appliances are dirt catchers and immediately look dated.

What I hate are those monstrously large bedrooms. No one needs all that space.

I do not like the brown boulder rock trend around pools. It is very popular in California. It is quite hideous.

This is surprisingly unpopular among a few (younger) friends...

Centering a painting versus anchoring it closer to the furniture, the latter of which was always religion to me.

I would like an actual designer or professional decorator to weigh in on this.

When I say center I mean top to bottom, not side to side

[quote] Centering a painting versus anchoring it closer to the furniture, the latter of which was always religion to me.

What do you mean, though? Centering between the ceiling line (top) and what (as the bottom)?

IMO, people hang their wall art too damn high. My stuff hangs pretty low. I want to be able to look at my wall art.

[quote] The center of a framed piece of artwork should be 57 inches above the ground—the average eye level, and the height galleries and museums typically hang their pieces.

Hate open-plan builds. Who wants to cook in the living room? Ditto large family rooms etc.

Like small cozy spaces I can close off.

I can't figure out the post R111 at all. "unpopular" must be the wrong word.

@r111, Your eye should land in the upper third of the picture. Of, course, there are many exceptions to this "rule", but it was what I always went by. Mostly I hung pictures where I thought they looked best

I also like wall to wall carpeting in bedrooms. If it is an apartment or a second floor bedroom not that much dirt is going to get tracked on to it. And most people don’t eat in their bedrooms. Cleanliness and wear is an issue in other areas, though.

But much of the appeal to me is the cost savings factor. Floor + rugs is a lot more expensive than a decent carpeting installation. If I were moving into a place where the bedrooms already had nice floors I would not put carpet over them.

In a previous house I used a huge sea grass rug in the large dining room that almost seemed carpet-like, visually. I think it’s a trick that has been over-used, especially in the south and as a way to make traditional decor seem a little more updated, but it works. I would do it again.

R113

[Quote] Centering between the ceiling line (top) and what (as the bottom)?

Sorry,I should have been more clear - I was wearing my wine goggles last night. I was referring to art above a piece of furniture, such as a sofa, with the ceiling line as the top line.

On high walls in particular, do you anchor the art to the furniture (approximately 6 inches or so above the furniture is what I've always was the design "rule") OR center it between the ceiling top line and furniture?

I've always THOUGHT was....^

[quote] Your eye should land in the upper third of the picture

I'd say this is the best approach. Forget about how high the ceiling is; it doesn't matter. You're not going to place something high just b/c your ceiling's high. A picture is for looking at.

R119, What kind of furniture are you talking about? A couch / sofa? If yes, then I'd say to place the picture lower than normal, i.e., not too far above the backrest of the couch. However, you don't want people resting their heads against your artwork, either.

R121 a sofa and thank you! This was my preference as well.

New Yorkers and them trying to Southern California the interior of a brownstone.

I grew up in a 1972 house with green carpet, dark paneled walls, huge stone fireplace with wood built-in bookcases on each side, dark wood beams on the ceiling, orange floral couch. I thought it was beautiful! My mom was a very good decorator. Then my step-mother moved in and tore out the carpet, painted EVERYTHING white, even the beams and bookcases, and put in off-white berber carpet. We still have that now and I detest it, it's so boring and blah.

At 6'4" my pictures and I are both hung high.

R125, that is where interior decor makes up for interior design’s shortcomings.

[ OT r42, Joan saw herself like a Russian Princess in exile. She lived that way.]

R124 white and off-white are the ultimate snooty Karen colors.

White and off-white are very late-career Diane Keaton.

R60, I agree with much of what you have stated here. I let my architect know that I wanted a spacious, beautiful entry hall during the initial planning stage. I believe this sets the tone for any home, so it was at the top of my list from day one. If I had it to do over, I'd like for the entry to be even more significant than it is currently.

Televisions should be out of sight at all times unless being used. Mine is in the family room and enclosed in built-in stonework and cabinetry. I like natural light but I also want enough gallery-like space to hang my art, and this demands a good balance of solid wall space rather than windows Being able to nicely display my art collection was very high on my list when designing this home.

I understand your preference for what I'd term a simple and cozy space for a bedroom. The issue with this is resale value v personal preference. I believe yours is not in tune with what the majority of buyers would demand. These massive primary bedrooms are often at the top of the list for any buyer. We designed a large suite with separate walk-in closets, a large sitting area and an adjacent room to be used as office space or a workout room. I'm fine with how it turned out but my personal preference would be something smaller, with a cozier feeling. This was done only with resale value in mind. I do love having the two totally separated walk-in closets. I have never enjoyed sharing closet space with another person. For me, that is a luxury and I'd have a hell of a time going back to sharing a closet.

^^

I like bold, fun colors but also appreciate neutrals. The problem with both is that too much is awful. With too much color it's chaotic and garish. Too much neutral and it's cold and sterile.

I saw pics the other day of Kim K's all white house. Hideous. Like the lobby of a tech company.

WAYFAIR IS CRAP AND LOOKS LIKE SHIT

My mother is an artist and said art at eye level. Also groupings should be arranged in odd numbers. 3 or 5. Not 2 or 4 together.

I'd like more of an entry area / foyer in my place. Not for a grand presentation, more for utilitarian purposes. Somewhere to lay down my bags, my keys, kick off my shoes (yes, I remove my shoes in the house). When I lived in Japan, I noticed that every apartment, even the really small apartments, have a functional entry area (genkan) where you put your shoes, umbrella, etc.

We're tall so I love having people over so we can feel like Gandalf and Elrond with a pack of hobbits.

My brother-in-law law and his wife just built this humongous house. 6 bedrooms and like 8 bathrooms. She hired decorators for all of it. The main living area is one huge white room. White walls, cabinets, countertops, etc., humongous kitchen island and a dining area off to the side. Sis in law thinks she is the end all be all of taste and decorating, but I don’t think eating Thanksgiving dinner where you can see the giant tv over the fireplace is very classy. I am not sure why they didn’t add a den/tv room away from the main living area.

The whole point R137 is that family can all be together in one room. Mom cooking while the rest watch TV, do homework, etc. One big happy family and all that shit. It's the result of helicopter parenting and kids not being outside.

Most people don’t have the space for a separate TV room vs. a living / entertaining room. A TV doesn’t have to dominate the room and when you entertain, the TV should be off, unless it’s a Super Bowl party.

How often do people actually entertain, anyway? People, at home, lie to watch TV. Why relegate yourself to a “den” and there’s another room that you rarely use, except on rare occasions.

“like” to watch TV

Theater rooms. Epitome of dullsville, upper middle class pretention. Every new mcmansion has the now along with outdoor kitchens.

"Dear Black Friends,

Enough with the fucking animal prints, mirror walls, clothing displays and dining tables set with full china services and gold flatware that no one ever gets to use, and wouldn't because it's all dusty. "

Now you've spoiled every episode of House Hunters that stars black people, all of whom apparently live in Atlanta.

I still want cork flooring and airedales - at the same time. And, yes, I’ll paint depression cherry red and sad navy blue patterns with several coats of yellowing finish. Airedales will fuck it up - we’ve never been able to have nice things. They love simple queen anne legs.

R139 I live in a 1400sq. ft. 2br. and I still refuse to have the tv in the main living room. It's in one of the bedrooms, which has been repurposed into a media room/office. We lost a spare bedroom, but rarely have overnight guests. If I can do it, Gary & Karen in their new construction monstrosities can do it.

I agree with you that a tv doesn't HAVE to dominate the space, but given that Americans love their 80inch screens, they DO dominate the space.

I thought everyone watches all their video content on their cell phone now? Do young people even have TV's anymore? I have no idea.

I CANNOT STAND the trend of all white everything kitchens and grey colored wood flooring, gold accessory lighting, with weird plants and fake books....

A home should be inviting and warm and cozy, not looking like you're walking into a mausoleum or museum and so bright it hurts your eyes in the morning and at night!...

R138 having the family all in one room was the secondary reason for open floor plans.

The main reason was it was thought that if you do not maintain eye contact with your guests every second they are under your roof you are considered a bad host/hostess.

If you got up and left your guests in the living room to go to the kitchen to bring back drinks or hors d’oeuvres you were thought to be ignoring the guests.

R130 I have never enjoyed sharing cardboard box with eight persons. For me, that is a luxury and I'd have a hell of a time going back to sharing a ditch with two dozen children.

Here's an example of what I was talking about here R100

A 223-year-old farmhouse, gutted and stripped of any of its original charm and character. NOT ONE ORIGINAL floor in the home, sanded and restored. All laminate and ugly wood colors.

These homes should be protected.

A friend of mine still has a copy of this book on his coffee table

R149 whether that home is restored or original makes no difference.

It is ugly!

They probably even removed the original wood to replace it with this compressed-looking woodwork and wainscotting throughout the home, in various versions.

Pretty sure that structure was a barn, not a house.

The current trend of grey walls, and grey flooring in either carpet, or that hideous fake laminate shit is a trend that needs to die. Also, I love my granite countertops, so suck it

If I win the lottery , I will hire an architect to build and replicate his beautiful Mid Century home . However I will pass on the combination indoor bbq and fireplace due to the carbon monoxide risk . Also I will pivot the female and children related areas more to the interests of an eldergay

I would feel perfectly comfortable in Mike and Carol Brady’s home.

I would summer at Collinwood circa 1968

Judge it, DL

I thought those mid-century homes in Don't Worry, Darling were fabulous.

[quote] [R139] I live in a 1400sq. ft. 2br. and I still refuse to have the tv in the main living room. It's in one of the bedrooms, which has been repurposed into a media room/office. We lost a spare bedroom, but rarely have overnight guests. If I can do it, Gary & Karen in their new construction monstrosities can do it.

I just don’t see this as a worthwhile endeavor. We’re all different, though.

In many condos, there’s an assigned space for the flat screen above an oddly angled side-vented gas fireplace - next to the tiny covered or uncovered walk-out balcony. The bathrooms don’t even have exterior windows.

I like white.

[quote]I don’t think eating Thanksgiving dinner where you can see the giant tv over the fireplace is very classy.

Regarding the TV thing. The home is the biggest purchase that most people make in their lives. It should work for them and they should not buy or build a home based on some antiqued style rules that a bunch of old women set back in the 50s and 60s. Those living rooms that no one could go into, except company, or the formal dining room that is used 3 times a year was just taking up space.

Personally, I think those hotel-like suites for primary bedrooms are a little much, but quite frankly I can understand why someone might want a reading area, wet bar and fridge as part of their bedroom. But it has nothing to do with class, it's about comfort and what you can afford.

antiqued should be antiquated.

R107, family and friends in Indiana, Missouri, Michigan and Colorado.

I mean, it's startling. Our grandmas didn't decorate like that. Yes, plastic on the sofas and limiting walking on the carpet, but the bling is another thing.

And young cousins make their places look like shop-and-cafe setups with a florid boudoir. It's my family and family friends, so no snark except no one has any actual interest in Africa. I'm one of several boojie gays in the family so I can't really talk.

White makes a space look bigger and clean. I like it.

Wall to wall carpet is bad for your environment - from off-gassing to contaminants that seep beneath the padding and never go away. The ghosts of kitties past still antagonize paranoid schizophrenic cats of the present.

The solution is area rugs. Buy new wool and it’s inexpensive and it sheds for two years. Buy used and you have to look underneath for PISS stains - especially if you do any deco rugs.

You don’t just use area rugs for visuals - you change traffic patterns and protect your floors from sun damage. It’s why you change around your furniture. Uneven fading is a middle management clerks sophomore failing. They take Thom Browne seriously.

I like original- to-the-house tile. Actually, I like original-the-the-house everything pre-1970. If I have to I’ll change things myself. I’m not coming home to a 1932 stone enchanted fairy cottage and walking into a white box…. The inside should at least compliment the outside, even updated. I have to look at fixer uppers to find anything that hasn’t been bastardized inside.

I don’t like the look of unpainted wood. The color brown depresses me.

R60 is on point. I'll add two suggestions:

To those who castigate granite and celebrate laminate: quartz countertops with a subtle pattern to imitate marble. Very difficult to tell the difference, no maintenance at all, no staining, and without much of the environmental damage of granite or marble.

My second suggestion: good quality Spanish imitation-wood floor tiles, laid without grout in a herringbone pattern. Not identical to a wood floor, obviously, but close enough, and no maintenance. I've covered mine in top quality antique oriental carpets. The easiest and most attractive floor I've ever had.

People that let animals in their home are not serious about having a clean home..

R170 see the "red flags for relationships" thread. You're a big one.

Yes R171 I forgot the people that don’t like the smell of animal feces/urine are not good in relationships

{quote] This thread is so contra-Greg, the white decor promoter

R85, I am not a white decor promoter. I simply advocated for white linens and towels. My places do not have white interiors by any stretch.

[quote]Theater rooms. Epitome of dullsville, upper middle class pretention. Every new mcmansion has the now along with outdoor kitchens.

I think a lot of home theatres stem more than anything from the large footprints of houses and the vast basement space that often results. What to do with 1800, 2600, 3400 square feet of semi-finished basement? A home theatre is an easy and fairly inexpensive answer to 'What do we do with all this fucking space down here? Let the kids use it to watch films with their friends and we can park one of those ridiculous glass-sided popcorn carts in the little lobby.'

¨Rec rooms' and 'man caves' are out of vogue, as is anything more than a show workshop;people don't have hobbies that require a 'hobby room,' canning and preserving kitchens, the parents/in-laws don't want to live out the golden years in subterranean digs, and no one wants to be like that ridiculous Candy Spelling with her suite of gift wrapping rooms, leaving all that basement real estate is a bit of a conundrum. In houses of any expense, they tend to be built with considerable headroom, and the space needed for furnaces and mechanicals has been much reduced over time.

[quote]My second suggestion: good quality Spanish imitation-wood floor tiles, laid without grout in a herringbone pattern. Not identical to a wood floor, obviously, but close enough...

What on earth is that, R169? And what is at all Spanish about it?

R172 I don't have a cat at the moment but my estimate of you still stands.

Now that TVs are hing like pictures, every bedroom and living room can have an unobtrusive TV. It's all a matter of wall space.

Mirrored wall. My condo has one and I absolutely HATE it! My condo was built in 1991 so the builders included them. Could I replace it with faux brick? Cleaning the mirrors is a bitch. They are over 6 ft in height and there are 3 individual panels. I know they are designed to make the place look bigger. Any suggestions?

I like her style.

R177. Ask a contractor. If it's just one wall they can easily remove the mirrors and probably resurface the drywall (that will have been damaged by the glue holding them in place when removed.) Easier and cheaper is likely just putting a new surface of drywall atop the mirrored wall, encapsulating it like pharoh in his tomb. You will lose an inch or inch and a half of floor space, but it will take only a couple of hours to frame out the wall and install the wallboard, and another hour or so a couple days later to do the finish work of smoothing and preparation for painting.

For me, a wall of fake brick would make me suspect that you had covered an ugly mirrored wall with something equally bad.

R177, faux brick sounds awful, IMO. I'd remove the mirror instead of covering it up.

Echoing R179 and R180, remove the mirrors and repair the wall or drywall over it. Should be a quick and easy project for a painter or general contractor. Usually those mirrors are just glued onto the drywall and can be pried off with minimal damage. Good luck!

My grandparents had a cozy wood-paneled den, with a couple couches, recliners and a fireplace. I’d love to have one too.

Remember the kitchen from Family Ties? That’s the kind of kitchen people actually want to eat in.

R174, Spanish tiles are of much higher quality than American tiles, at least the tiles sold in Home Depot or Lowes. The big company is Porcelanosa, and I believe that there are stores in California and New York, at least.

Ah, I see, R183, thank you. Spanish manufactured tiles, not somehow Spanish in style. Porcelanosa is a big company in Spain, €1B+ annually and lots of international reach, though I didn't know their products filtered down to Home Depots and Lowes. It's presented as a luxury brand, but standard developer stock for any better-grade Spanish project.

Bite the bullet and remove the mirror wall down to the studs. Do you really think that driving drywall screws through entombed glass or gluing drywall over glass is a good option?

NEVER understood the whole tv mounted on the wall above the fireplace or mantle? who wants to have to look up and tilt their heads all night to watch tv?..

My mother is doing her own home demolition. I guess it's something to do since she's single and near retirement. I'm proud as hell of her efforts to rip up floor tile, tear out dry wall, two full bathroom renovation, and 90% of it by herself. Contractor only used to help with some plumbing or other minor minor things.

But my goodness, her taste is just horrible, dated, and flat. I think all the homes we had growing up (3), were new and in the style of the day. She had my sibling and I around influencing some decisions on furniture or suggesting color. Now that she's on her own and her taste gets to shine, all I see is fucking grey or grayish. Everywhere. I mean on every fucking wall. The bathroom has grayish blue tile, the hardwood floors in the room are grayish blue, the new tile the will cover most of the house is also grayish-blue. It's all so damn one note.

But the worst offense is the fucking barn doors were used in the master bathroom, over the window. Like, who even comes up with that crap? Makes no damn sense and they don't even slide correctly. Basically, I have come to the conclusion that my mom has highly questionable taste. She tells me I get to inherit the home but all i can think about is the thousands of dollars in losses or renovation that the home will cost me.

What kills me is the home was cute, though a tad dated, but damn, if this renovation isn't like stepping into a grey nightmare. Oh, and the new dinning room table is, you guessed it, gray. For fuck's sake mom!

I think you can take down (crack & remove) the mirror on your own.

r2 Screw what most people think. The most important thing about YOUR living space is that it suits YOU.

There are some design fundamentals that should govern uses of space. But if you want to do Barbie's dream house and have the interior design chops to pull it off, go for it.

R187, perhaps Mother wears six inch black stilettos and a ruby red dress when you’re away for the therapies.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I will hire a contractor to remove them, replace dry wall (if necessary), and have it painted.

Does anyone here have e protege with porcelain countertops? They seem to replicate the appearance of marble nicely but I’m not sure I buy into their claims of durability

[quote]R117 Cleaning the mirrors is a bitch. They are over 6 ft in height and there are 3 individual panels. I know they are designed to make the place look bigger. Any suggestions?

If you’re craft-y gifted and can be trusted, I would consider carefully rolling a damask (or suitable to your design esthetic) pattern over them in a glossy cream paint. It will mute the impact but look interesting, with depth. And they won’t show smudges so easily?

Just thinking out loud, here.

Modern white kitchens are like abortions or marriage. If you don't like them, don't get them and don't criticize others.

R193, that’s a great idea! Once a base is dry, you could do anything - even tape reveals.

Unpopular opinion: When moving into an older house, the owners need to change their behavior to fit the architecture and use the interior as intended. If you don't like the houses interior, don't buy it.

R196 couldnt agree more, the only proviso being if someone has already changed the interior badly, I think its allowable to change it back and maybe alter it to fit lifestyle in that process (while retaining originality as far as possible)

1800s colonial on the outside, 1950s MCM ranch on the inside.

R198, this reminds me of another unpopular opinion:

The homes interior should match the exterior environment, e.g, South West design does not belong in a forest, farmhouse design does not belong in a city, Gustavian, design does not belong in an area with strong sunlight, French Provence design does not belong in an area with predominately grey skies, etc.

What about New England farms on the California coast?

R199, I always think of Gustavian as being “manor house in the land of the midnight sun” decor and having a quintessential soft sun-bleached summer palette - but I would say it only works in places with pine trees and cold winters, whereas Mediterranean styles really only ever work in Florida and California (including San Francisco, which isn’t my idea of a sunny city.) That being said, I agree with your thesis and wish to subscribe to your newsletter!

shoes and animals in a home are beyond gross. I don't understand.

Open kitchens

Kitchen islands

My kitchen is not a space to hang out in, and I don't like seeing used dishes.

Minimalism. WTF.

Black faucets.

Kitchen islands are an inconvenient roadblock in a busy kitchen.

Five-thousand square feet of "renovated" American Second Empire from 1868 and we find a walless, roomless area that combines kitchen, drawing room/"family room," dining room and entertainment center in an open space that echoes except when the Frau and her sisters are there to provide ample acoustical surfaces.

Why are these cunts afraid of rooms? You don't live in an Ozark cabin or a Tuscan farmhouse. And your "architects" aren't competent to measure the problems you've started by removing weight-bearing walls.

Here's to a bathtub landing on your soup plate.

Almost always, beams in a ceiling = Death

It brings me a small dose of joy in watching HGTV sometimes and seeing ahead to the future: when Super Mom's need to monitor their young children's every noise and movement turns to their children hating her for not having a moment's peace or an inch of private space for a wank.

Given the hate for "open concept" aka one large room with kitchen, dining and living space, it is worth noting that this was the common arrangement for centuries, if not millennia, both for rich (the great hall) and poor (the single room). The idea of separate rooms for these functions, as well as separate bedrooms, only really starts in the seventeenth century, and even then isn't fully established for the middle classes until the nineteenth. The separate kitchen so beloved here was a kitchen staffed by a servant or servants, hence its small size and proximity to the dining room of the owners of the house.

R208, I disagree. Open Concept is different. The single room was based on the kitchen being the warmest room in the house. It was necessarily a small, cozy space. It was a bout using space to the best advantage whether it was a working person's cottage or Soviet era Stalinalee. Open Concept is about the architect / contractor making the most profit for the least cost. It involves a lot of wasted space and a lack of real function.

The point is that middle class and rich women had closed kitchens because they didn't worry about keeping an eye on the kids, they had nannies and other staff for that.

[quote]The point is that middle class and rich women had closed kitchens because they didn't worry about keeping an eye on the kids, they had nannies and other staff for that.

No, "helicopter parenting" (origin: 1990), "Tiger Mom" (2011), "hovering" and similar terms describe a modern phenomenon of parents who can't abide the idea that their child's every move might not be made under close supervision. Earlier generations leaned more in the "go play in traffic, just get out of the house and give me a bit of peace."

Forty years ago middle class mother's employing nannies and kitchen staff were not commonplace, nor even 50 or 60 years ago. Open plan kitchens have more to do with post-WWII concepts of informal entertaining and smaller houses.

R211 you're missing the point. Open floor plans existed for hundreds of years. It served a dual purpose, it was the warmest room in the house and gave adults (not just mothers,as for centuries all members of communities helped raise a child) an ability to keep an eye on children.

The closed off kitchen only became a thing in the 17th century.

Victorian kitchens were a NIGHTMARE. There was practically no way to keep them free from dirt and beetles, and it’s also where they did the laundry (access to hot water) and there were drying racks hung from the ceiling for wet clothes.

When you criticize “open plan concept” you’re criticizing teepees. And that’s racist.

In those big old one room houses of yore they also kept animals for warmth.

R208 that just goes to show that overall home design has improved in the last few centuries

[quote]you're missing the point. Open floor plans existed for hundreds of years. It served a dual purpose, it was the warmest room in the house and gave adults (not just mothers,as for centuries all members of communities helped raise a child) an ability to keep an eye on children.

[quote]The closed off kitchen only became a thing in the 17th century.

Nonsense, R212. Here is the floor plan of a 15thC house near me. You see that the plan has considerable complexity and articulation of specific room functions. Not only were there separate kitchen spaces but there are parallel upstairs and downstairs dining rooms as family life moved up 9r down depending on time of year. More significantly, the house plan with it's arrangements of rooms around patios is directly derived from Roman villas, with some of influence if Arab domestic architecture from the Middle Ages.

Not everyone was living in a one room house until the 17thC; some were doing it before the 1st Century. It's true that in England in the 16thC that one room houses even for gentry were still common, but there are Elizabethan era country houses with enormous kitchens quite apart from other rooms of other purposes.

The articulation of specific rooms for specific persons and functions has been around more than 2000 years. Not in every house, but it was hardly hatched 400 years ago.

In 18thC Maryland in the U.S., more than 98% of houses were of one-room plan. That included rich people living in houses of one room with about 320 square feet. But more than commonplace doesn't mean that everybody the whole world lived in one-room open plan spaces until the 17thC.

Open concept kitchens / dining / living areas are probably cheaper to build. If you combine the trend (open concept) with lower costs, then you have a juggernaut.

My analogy: the popularity of strapless / sleeveless wedding dresses. Way easier and cheaper to sew, you're not fitting the shoulders and armholes. You're just fitting the bust and waist area. Less fabric.

Pot lights/recessed lighting are fucking AWFUL and you see them everywhere, including in very high end homes. Awful, awful, awful. Not practical, not beautiful, just bad on every level. The worst is seeing them in restored historical homes. Holy hell I HATE them.

I feel better now.

R219, They exist solely because it moves the lighting budget from the interior designer (floor lamps, table lamps) to the architect. Architects are actually trained at school to drain the budget so there is little or nothing left for interior design.

R218, exactly. They exist as a direct outgrowth of McMansions. It is how to builders can have a lot of square footage at low cost to them. No walls=no cost.

The worst example of McMansion open plan design was a plan that was popular in the North East. A huge football field sized, 2.3-3 story high great room with a "T" shape floating staircase about 2/3 of the way in that lead to the second floor bedrooms. The area behind the staircase was supposed to be the dining area as there was an open kitchen off of that (the size of the bedroom above). Nobody who bought these horrors could afford to furnish this huge space. The height of the palladian windows guaranteed that the window treatments were the worst polyester brocade.

I hate vertical blinds. They were hung over my balcony door when I moved in. First thing I did when I moved in was remove them. There's always one that goes wonky and then throws the rest of them off.

R155, that Westinghouse commercial was pure camp. The male guest, with his wife, has MAJOR gay face. His expression, when seeing the house, was hilarious. He gasped! He was so awestruck by the decor.

Double-height ceilings in a relatively small 2-story house. My friend has a double-height foyer & living room. Meanwhile, the 2nd floor (where the bedrooms are) feels like it could have used the extra square footage.

[quote]R16: Contrary to the bullshit HGTV exploits, decent meals can be prepared in kitchens smaller than a football field that do NOT contain white Shaker cabinets, white subway tile, stainless steel appliances and granite countertops in an "open" concept.

I thought Dion Lucas died over 50 years ago.

Agreed with recessed lighting -- I have been to houses lit like operating rooms. Buy beautiful sconces at high-end auctions, so much nicer.

I've got a small single fronted 1920's house, 15 feet wide internally. I love the sliding doors installed everywhere in the 1950's, it makes the rooms much more usable. The TV is over the fireplace, because that's the only space it fits. Thankfully the place never got gutted, so living areas can be separated (by those pesky sliding doors).

I like cafe curtains....they give you some privacy while letting in plenty of light.

Modernising small houses is often a joke. Knocking out walls and cramming oversized features you saw in a magazine in a home twice the size just makes the place seem even smaller.

Hall runners, all the benefits of carpeting, while still showing off the hardwood floors. Easy to replace when they wear out or you get bored with the design.

Lighting that has to be replaced by an electrician if the bulb blows is a crime against humanity.

Faux brick effect wallpaper, or any wall covering with a design intended to mimic a natural material.

Picture rails are much easier for hanging art and give a room a nice polished look.

Direct light is almost always an absolute no-go, IMHO. Save for the kitchen, where you may want some extra light.

But anywhere else: table lamps, wall fixtures with the light going up or down or both, and floor lamps. Indirect light is flattering and adds warmth.

Also: White/blueish light, as seen in Asian and South-American homes.. horrible.

[quote] Agreed with recessed lighting -- I have been to houses lit like operating rooms. Buy beautiful sconces at high-end auctions, so much nicer.

R226 You’ve kind of answered your own question in a way here. There are good recessed lights and there are bad ones. Similarly there are good sconces….and bad ones. Having a house filled with sconces is not the best approach to lighting a space, rather the approach should be to address the function of the space rather than a instinct that’s largely outdated “ew recessed lighting is blue and I HATE LED!!1!”.

Specifying the correct recessed fixtures, with an high CRI and appropriate colour temp, alongside the correct dimmer and placing them correctly is always the best solution. Filling your kitchen with antique sconces……is not.

[quote]r195 Modern white kitchens are like abortions.

It was a white kitchen. A [italic]white kitchen,[/italic] Michael! Something that’s unholy and evil. There would be no way, Michael, no way you could ever forgive that.

I loathe hardwood floors. I miss wall to wall carpeting. Oh black day when I let myself be swayed by too much HGTV and had hardwood installed. I hated it 2 weeks after I got it. They generate dust and look like shit after a few years. I had to run out and spend a fortune on rugs. Now you can barely see the hardwood.When they came to tear out the carpet,the guy said I had the cleanest carpet he'd ever removed. 10 years old no less.I vacuumed 2-3 times a week and had them cleaned once a year. If I ever leave this house,I promise you my next place will be wall to wall.

Hello R231, Well, these are opinions, rather than laws, but my view is that overheads, no matter how carefully calibrated, give a harsher light, and that sconces and standing/table lamps cast a nicer glow. Sconces don't have to be Victorian, either -- so my use of "antique" was incorrect.

But this is hardly an unpopular opinion! MY unpopular opinion was my later-life embrace of faux wood tile floors (good tile, not Lowes) since they hide small amounts of daily dirt, are easily washable and absolutely no maintenance. They look good, too -- at least mine do.

[quote] Agreed with recessed lighting -- I have been to houses lit like operating rooms. Buy beautiful sconces at high-end auctions, so much nicer.

My unpopular opinion: I am so turned off by prescriptive rules about "what not to do" that blindly follow trends. The only purpose of this type of thinking is consumerism.

Today, recessed lighting is a big "don't." Why? Because today, most people have recessed lighting that replaced ceiling track lighting of 10-20 years before. People who were up to date in the 90s and 2000s installed track lights because they were trendy—then they were gauche, replaced by shamed trend followers with can lights.

Before that, in the 80s, it was all about sconces. I remember seeing them in magazines and on TV shows throughout my childhood the '80s and thinking they looked so fancy.

So of course, people have cycled through lighting options fully and recessed ceiling lights now are SHAMEFUL and sconces are IN.

Doesn't it get tiresome to any of you?

Besides always chasing trends and embracing feeling embarrassed by marketing directives of manufacturers designed solely to make you spend money, it's also so wasteful.

I don't have cable anymore but when I did, I would land on HGTV and feel gross when I saw all the home shows. Whether someone was home shopping or home flipping, "those countertops and cabinets have to GO!" That bathroom has to GO! Those lighting fixtures! SO DATED! So EMBARRASSING! Off to the DUMP!

Every show like this made me picture mountains of slabs of polished granite and quartz and broken glass and metal and wires. Stones that were in the ground for millions of years or longer, ripped out to make some suburban or urban trendchaser happy for six to eight years and then hauled off to a pile because cabinetmakers needed to move product and they were convinced to feel ashamed of the 'dated' eons-old stone sitting in their kitchens.

Why are homeowners so susceptible to being programmed like this?

I totally agree, R235. As to your last question: Most people are terrified of "not fitting in" as a species; we are (sadly) programmed to be accepted by the herd. Probably because this would up our chances of survival back in the cave ages..?

I don't follow trends to a T, but I like to get inspiration from websites like apartmenttherapy and the occasional interior magazine. But I stick to what I know: Strategically placed table- and floor lamps will always illuminate the room in a pleasant, cosy way. They are mobile, can be placed anywhere, and a good-looking lamp doesn't go out of style. Mine are all classic, a bit like the one below.

Sconce is one of those words no straight man has ever uttered.

I wonder: Do British people mishear "scones" when Americans say "sconce"?

"Scones" pronounced like "skahnz" is a word that no American has ever uttered.

R236 That lamp is so blah my eyes literally got bored looking at it.

R239 I don't own this particular lamp, so no offense taken — but I would like for you to share something that you find beautiful.

We could all learn a thing or two.

I loathe étagères.

Overhead / ceiling lighting is harsh, unflattering, and depressing. Amber Heard looked horrible during the Johnny Depp trial because if that harsh overhead courtroom lighting.

I love that lamp, bitch at r239! You’re a cow.

" 2. I love open shelves in kitchens. For most thing I use every day, I want them within easy reach.

3. Expensive rugs are a waste of money. Why spend 50% of your design budget on something that people will walk on. Buy the best furniture and good art. "

Totally agree with both of these. I guess if you have big bucks and can afford the expensive rugs along with everything else. But for most of us who have to allocate a budget to putting our homes together, there's plenty of decent, nice rugs that are relatively cheap.

I prefer kitchen cabinets that are NOT to the ceiling.

Why's that, R245?

"I love clean, plush, wall-to-wall carpeting, especially in a bedroom."

I prefer non-carpet flooring in most of the house, and I don't mind it at all in the bedroom, but carpet really is great in the bedroom. Makes it cozier and no cold floor in the winter (obviously rugs off the bed could help).

"Why's that, [R245]?"

First, I think it looks perfectly fine - assuming the cabinets are nice to begin with. Second, maybe it's because I've never lived in an apartment or house with a truly sizeable kitchen. The lower cabinets open up the kitchen a bit, doesn't feel so small. Third, I'm only 5"9" and can't reach anything on the top shelf of to-the-ceiling cabinets anyway. And I've seen enough examples of lower cabinets that I like in a variety of homes. I did once stay in an apartment that was the entire first floor of a house with a galley kitchen in the back. One side of the kitchen had cabinets to the ceiling. The other side was the refrigerator, a counter, and open shelving. That worked.

[quote] Overhead / ceiling lighting is harsh, unflattering, and depressing.

Again overhead lighting can be harsh and unflattering but also can be pretty, soft and extremely useful. Especially for lighting art. The trick (or one of them) with overhead lighting is to use adjustable fixtures and have them illuminate walls or a coffee table or a countertop so that that object then diffuses the light to the rest of the room, and to choose a recessed fixture or monopoint or whatever that has a warm colour temperature and a diffusing lens. You don’t place them directly over where someone will be sitting and have the point directly down.

I just remodeled my house. Upstairs the main bath, hall and stair carpet and paint. Downstairs paint, all new hard surface flooring everywhere, kitchen and bath countertops and sinks, new lighting, pocket door in half bath. My home is 40 years old, partially open concept, but basically a traditional.

What I learned:

I love my new hard flooring, luxury plank vinyl. It looks great and is so easy to clean. I miss the coziness of the living and secondary living space carpets but I HATE vacuuming and love my easy-to-clean hard floors. All bedrooms still have carpet. I chose plank vinyl because I have messy pets and it's less expensive than hardwood. I put area rugs in seating areas to warm them up.

I love my huge stainless steel sink. I don't love how much water it takes to hose food scraps into the disposal. I compost most but those little bits still litter the floor of the sink. I love the rack that sits on the bottom, keeping items from denting sink, but it makes the sink harder to clean. Have to haul it out every week for a good cleaning.

New lighting made so much difference. I have an eclectic style, lots of antiques and art. I had modern recessed lighting in kitchen and a beautiful Swarovski crystal chandelier installed in front hall. Happy surprise was the generous array of rainbow spots from the prisms flung across the walls when afternoon sun comes in. Sublime.

Also installed elegant, taller baseboards. Big improvement, love them.

I love the pocket door in the half bath, it makes a small room much more spacious. I don't like the sound of it when it's opened and closed but am so happy with the space I can live with the sound.

The bathrooms are light and bright. The colors I used are muted but also used white. I lightened up the color in all the rooms that were done. Area rugs, window treatments, painted dining room cabinets, table and chairs. I still have color, but it's warm, natural, muted and bright. I don't like a lot of grey but I have some accent grey cabinetry. I also reduced window coverings to a bare minimum, happy to be rid of the old treatments that darkened the space.

Mainly, I like it. I'm the one who lives here, I was pleasing myself. It was tempting to give in to trends but I didn't want something that would look dated too soon. Anyway, I'm older. The next owner can do what they like with it.

"Hardwood floors generate dust" is one of the more nonsensical statements I've read on DL in quite some time.

Agree about the kitchen cabinets that go to the ceiling. I'm 5' 2" so I need one of those grabber things to get stuff of the top shelf.

For those who have open cabinets, how often do you clean everything that's exposed? I'm not being snarky; it's a serious question. I saute a lot and cook on top of the stove. Sometimes grease splatters. The top of my microwave (over the stove) gets greasy and dusty. It needs to be cleaned pretty much every day.

My step-mother has decided to remove the original 1972 Hollywood Regency-ish swag lamps from the master bathroom. I'm so upset - they're wonderful! I'm sure she'll put in something modern and boring.

I like the kitchen cabinets that go flush with the ceiling. I'm short & can pull out a ladder if I need something in the upper shelves. I don't like dust gathering on the top of the cabinets.

R254, Cosmo likes to lay up there sometimes. That's another reason I didn't have the cabinets go to the ceiling. He also likes the top of the refrigerator.

r235, I completely agree with your points. I bought my house in 2010 and lived with the original 1964 kitchen for years. It was very outdated and ugly but 100% functional. I took my time with the redesign because other priorities in the house needed my attention and money, but also because I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do. I ended up having the original oak cabinets refinished because they were better made than anything available in my budget (under $50k), took out the massive florescent ceiling light box, chose quartz countertops over polished concrete which I was heavily leaning to and was very trendy at the time, but someone showed me photos of badly worn concrete countertops that were cracked and stained. I basically kept the footprint of the kitchen the same but added a custom pantry and island to complement the style of the existing cabinets, which are very plain, square and no carving, molding or embellishments. I know overhead can lighting went out of style but I wouldn't consider any other type of lighting in the kitchen. If I had gutted the kitchen and completely replaced everything I probably wouldn't have ended up with the pantry and I would have made a mistake on replacing the cabinets and getting the wrong countertops. My kitchen still looks clean and new although I am on my second oven since 2014. The original olive green wall oven and cooktop worked just fine until I ripped them out.

Two points:

I loathe architect over head lighting such as recessed lighting, but remember that a crystal chandelier is also overhead lighting.

The reason that kitchen cabinets do not go to the ceiling is that no ceiling is completely level. It is cheaper to have lower cabinets that to have a successful transition from cabinet to ceiling.

I loathe overhead recessed can lighting.

I loathe overhead track lighting!

I LOATHE sconces!!

I loathe floor lamps.

I loathe windows and fire. So gauche!

I really loathe electrical outlets. Tacky!

Drywall and plaster are both EMBARRASSING. People who have walls should feel disgusted with themselves.

Also hate refrigerators and freezers. Rot is where it's at.

Track lighting was a life saver in old lathe rooms. Just find one source, ruin three square inches of plaster, and you have a ceiling of light with ten foot ceilings.

Do any of you know how fucking difficult it is to secure a christmas tree in a room that tall? We had ‘tards, junkies, drunks, and cats rolling around. When antique ornaments broke, they were demoted to the back of the tree as sparklers.

R259, obviously, you are too stupid to buy a tree you can actually manage, and too irresponsible to own antique ornaments. You have a house, not a hotel. Buy a human size tree and confine the antique ornaments to a table top feather tree. This is what I meant when I wrote about people adjusting their behavior to their surroundings. Clearly a 9 foot tree did not work, but you foolishly insisted on one every year rather than adapt to reality.

R260, it was a childhood memory and you’ve contributed to it. Have another, Frank.