@craigmerrow - I know how you feel. I live in an 1895 Queen Anne Victorian, in an almost completely intact Victorian neighborhood, and we are a very tight-knit community of folks who look out for each other.

Cherry furniture! We saved for years to have furniture we were proud to have!

Toilets that flush the first time. If I have to flush twice, it's not waterwise, duh.

Stuff made in the country I live in.

Craftsman style homes with all the accompanying little touches. Also BASEMENTS! I would LOVE to have a basement!!!

Wider hallways would be nice. And no more split levels!

I hate basements. Most have an odd smell and they are clutter collectors. Extra added attraction, they develop leaks which are really expensive to fix. I never want another.

When Houzz was less "Shop Houzz".

@Jhmarie Do you live in Bozeman?? Haha. It's the same exact thing here, down to the weird box village overpriced houses with no yard. Cheaper to live elsewhere with more yard and larger house. Plus, they still have zero character or quality inside. Ugh.

Old fashioned wax wood floors and painted floors.

@Jennifer Vance - lol - no:) I live in a midwestern college town. Its got an interesting population mix: native Midwesterners, college professors and their spouses from both coast, a large number of international grad students and their families, and a number of families who moved here in the early 2000's to escape the violence of the south side of Chicago. I am afraid we blame most silly projects on the college professors - right or wrong.

Let's get back to basics,forget trends. Buy things you love and can build on,instead of disposal furniture!

Clotheslines in the back yard! I sure miss mine (living in an apartment until I build my passive solar cottage - see above)...laundry smells nice, requires no energy, and it's yet another good excuse to go outside.

appliances that last 20 years

smaller TVs

picket fences

catalpa trees

heritage roses

chicken wire glass

leaded tree tinsel

chrome counter trim

cedar lined armoires

root cellars

New colors every year and of course they clash with the colors of the year before. I have a basement full of pillows,throws,candles,rugs and more,I am mad as hell and not doing it anymore!!

@craigmerrow - after 25 years of using only a clothes dryer, I finally have my clothes lines! Love the smell of outside dried clothes, towels and sheets. Had two loads out on the lines today - buried my face in those clean sheets as I took them off the line. What a great smell. In a nod to how we buy things these days, bought the clothes pins and bag online at Amazon...

I miss solid wood furniture that was built to last for generations. The idea that we need to sell or donate everything after ten years for the latest thing made out of MDF, chipboard, or plywood just seems so temporary. I remember furniture from the 50s and longed to have the beautiful hand-carved wood furniture like my grandmother. My father would just laugh. Now that I have my own home, I just love any pieces I have that are solid wood and hate to part with them.

Transoms and pocket doors. Actual wood baseboards and casing

Re-did a 1870's small farmhouse.....made sure there was an airing porch off master bedroom, pantry, window over bathtub and kitchen sink, back porch large enough for meals, clothes line hung between trees, long windows only a foot 1/2 from the floor, large vegetable garden, good neighbors.....lots of work (10 years in the making) and I'm so grateful.

I would love to have more furniture come back that isn't quite so tall and oversized (from dining chairs to couches), giving lower sightlines; we don't all want or have McMansions. Also larger windows where possible for natural light. (I admit I was spoiled growing up in a 1950s house that had a 30' wall of windows, loved it even if it did fade some things. )

This is easy- - - ranch style homes with prairie porches! Simple yet classy without pretense.

Wallpaper!!!!!

Renaissance...is that going too far back? :) Handmade unique items...less mass production.

I Love to hang our tee's , sheets, pillow cases etc. outdoors, Nothing more pleasant than the smell of Sunshine when going to sleep☀️

Do you have any pics, I'd appreciate it :)

Our first home was one of the WW11 tract homes. By the time we bought most of the neighbours had made style changes that made each house unique. Lovely large lawns and parkettes for the kids to play. Great schools and families volunteered to coach sports. We were happy then with smaller homes and fewer bathrooms. Everyone in one room to spend the evenings instead of spread all over a mini-mansion. Sometimes wished we had never sold that house to move up.

We sold our older home in a 1920-30s neighborhood due to a job transfer years ago. The big new "moving up" home never had the same appeal. Now I'm delighted to say that we are moving back down! We're updating an older home, much smaller, in an established neighborhood with big trees. Yaaaay!

Vintage Beach... Love my laundry shoot, it is
Just a square hole covered with a custom wood door over it where the clothes fall into my laundry room below

I always wished for a laundry chute, never got one though. I'm moving the laundry from the basement to the main floor now, so I don't need it anymore!

Small rural communities where everyone knows everyone else, people sit out on their porches and talk to the neighbors, kids playing outside, nobody locks their doors, fresh-bakes pies are set on the kitchen sill to cool off, newspapers are delivered by kids on bikes, the mailman stops to chat, the milkman leaves milk bottles in the milk box and takes the empty ones...wait, this isn't a vanished design trend, this used to be a way of life!

I do happen to know most of my neighbors, and I live in a newer subdivision. We watch people's homes be built and welcome them when they move in. Some of the houses are huge and ornate, and some (like mine) are more modest. There is diversity in housing, and quality construction. I happen to like my home very much and think it is the smartest and most solid of any I have ever lived in. I paid for that difference. Kids are outside playing together all the time, moving from house to house. We parents keep in touch to see where our kids are, and arrange car pools or chat at the bus stop. A lot of folks in this neighborhood are leaders in the local Cub Scout troop. We are at each other's houses all the time. Do not think that new neighborhoods cannot have the community feeling of old style neighborhoods. People are still people. Kids still want to play, and many are in newer neighborhoods (new house = kids). Buildings do not direct how people interact.

I love formica countertops.... never worried about hurting them, cheap to replace every 10 years for a new look, wasn't afraid to really cook on them. I'm always afraid I'll break my stuff setting it on granite/quartz/marble.

Smaller houses.

No one needs 5000 squares to live in, but we all could do with more gardens and trees.

Mine is 684 square feet! Working on getting a garden started, too.

JenOsborne - You nailed it!! When we lived in the Metro Atlanta area, there were so many MacMansions on mini-lots. A horrible trend that I'd love to see in my rear view mirror!

Let's bring back animal printed carpets/rugs!!

Exterior--I love to see these newly developed neighborhoods salvage some trees! They get bulldozed and then the yard is empty.

Interior--Id love to see the "formal living" room come back but in a new way! There are so many fun ideas to play with such as a wine room with seating! Entertaining is HUGE and to have a couple areas for people to gather is important. I hear all the time how families want an "adult space"!

Great question!

I don't know why people don't use interior double French doors more.

My parents house (1910) has them and they are great. Open concept feeling with them open. But noise and cooking odors cut down with them closed, but you still get light and an open feeling.

Love sofas and chairs with skirts - they are difficult to find!! More chairs that swivel - they are more versatile for furniture placement in a room. Tapestry looking fabrics, especially for chairs that don't look like you got them from your great grandma. Soft florals too. Am sick of geometric fabrics. And totally sick of depressing gray anything - never did like it and never will.

I wish bedspreads would make a comeback. I'm tired of comforters that barely cover to the bottom of the mattress and where the blanket sticks out from underneath. There used to be so many choices of bedspreads - all kinds of fabrics and colors, now hardly any.

We have a king size bed with an 18" mattress. I bought a nice king size cotton blanket and have a king size comforter. The blanket stretches out and is actually bigger than the comforter. So annoying. The next blanket I got was a queen size - it barely covers the bed sides but I like it better than having a stretched out blanket larger than the comforter. Not into tucking and untucking every day.

I have seen some sites with bedspreads, but they are not to my liking so far. I will keep waiting and looking.

I agree HoJo1. Not only do comforters not cover the bed sufficiently, but you have to use dust ruffles (which I detest) and pillow shams with them.

Dutch doors. And yes to bedspreads! No shams, pull up, tuck around the pillows and done!

Wallpaper.

No denying there are beautiful paint colors, but application is one dimensional.

Wallpaper can transform a ordinary space into something special…a bathroom or powder room for instance:

Something weird...door hardware. Beautiful hinges, door strikes, backplates. All solid brass. Sure, they are available now, but that kind of thing used to be standard.

I love all things that are crafted with care, especially those things that nobody is likely to see or pay attention to...

Wallpaper is back & I’m so loving bold powder rooms & accent walls in all other spaces. So many options for sophisticated, glam looks.

My new “go to” is a fabulous faux grass cloth. Great in both residential and commercial spaces.

Deb Cullen
Deborah Cullen Interiors
www.deborahculleninteriors.com
Port St. Lucie, FL

Proper fenestration on houses

Ceiling fixtures instead of can lights - enough with the holes in the ceiling

Down with open plan, put a door on that kitchen, preferably swinging

Garages separated from the house and in the rear of the property

Front porches, screened porches

Floor plans that allow cross current air to flow

Double-hung windows that have real wood muntins

Normal size sofas

Clothes lines

Wood clapboard siding as opposed to vinyl where you can see the seams

Shutters: properly sized and hung (NOT drilled into the siding.)

I love separation of rooms! Like seeing the living room from kitchen, so I can converse with others, but everyone, no matter how many still gather in the kitchen lol

Laundry Chute!

We used to hide/climb down it as kids, my mother would scream in terror.

She didn't understand that it was the perfect hide&seek place in the whole house.

My house was built in 1976 and we still have a laundry chute. Best thing ever!