You cannot have too much ventilaton in your house these days and into the future. As safe UV light becomes more common to disinfect the air, ceiling fans are going to be understood as a optimal way to lift infected air into zones of disinfection and health, and to replace social distancing as a way of not infecting your loved relatives and friends.

Likewise, due to climate change and rising energy costs (and mosquito abatement), people will come to appreciate how much protection ceiling fans provide at low cost.

Of course many decorators think everything is outdated -- and yet people it turns out love old things, especially inventions from the past when people were actually more intelligent about how they arranged their homes for comfort and health, rather than photo shoots.

Ceiling fans are too useful to be outdated although some styles are certainly unfashionable.

There are stylish modern fans available, and in the future if you ever feel they have become stale, you can change them out for whatever is the current trend. Fans good. :)

They make fans now with retractable blades. When you’re not using the fan it’s just a regular old light.

Using ceiling fans usually allows you to set the thermostat at least two degrees higher during A/C season. Since this is an individual preference I can't quantify it for everyone, but I know it works that way for me. I have to have a ceiling fan in my two story living room that is open to the second floor to push the warmer air on the second floor down. I did replace the 25 year old fans two years ago because the bearings were shot and their appearance left something to be desired, but I can't imagine not having them. You may not need them in every room, but unless you live in the far north, chances are they will be useful in some instances.

The right fan style can add to the decor/feel of the room.

The big question though is, will they be used.

I hate ceiling fans. They are all ugly and fan light combos give off terrible light. I live in the south so I have them in every bedroom! I just buy very plain white ones so they blend into the ceiling. They stay on virtually all the time so they disappear. I don’t rely on overhead lights for light anyhow.

We added a coffered space above our bed when we remodeled and put in a Monte Carlo Mach 2 ceiling fan up into the space. We like the light since I only have one small lamp on a bureau for room lighting (lights from the master closet and master bath provide additional light). I agree that the added circulation of a ceiling fan is great. We also have a BigAss Haiku ceiling fan in our kitchen up in the cathedral ceiling. Ceiling fans are not ugly!!!

matthews fans does some unusual fans

Ceiling fans fuel my allergies. When we built in Florida, I had only one-in DD bedroom. In our current midwestern house, we removed seven. We gave some to the previous owners and donated the rest to Goodwill. ( no Habitat for Humanity in our little town)

You do have to get up there somehow and dust them, I agree they can be dust magnets and swirl around all the "stuff" floating in the air!

We wired for them in several rooms, but did not add them. My DH keeps the house way too cold for me, so if I added "wind" from a fan, I would really freeze in my house! We do have some in our lanai that get used if we have guests over.

depends where you live. hot areas, fans are great in over the bed, in a living area. (I never do lights in my fans. I have recessed lighting)

I sleep w/my fan on in the bedroom every night. I'd die without it! I also bring in a small dyson fan to put by the nightstand, and run the AC at 74! I get hot very easily.

if you live in the PNW, or the Northern states, you prob won't ever need one (maybe during the brieft summer months) For that you could do the floor fans.

They can be an evil necessity. I have seen corner ceiling fans in some homes and they’re beginning to appeal to me. Has to be in the right setting and or local.

Help your poor AC out, get a low profile ceiling fan without a light unless the light adds something interesting to the style. New AC regulations mean they do not last as long as the old work horses but they do keep the environment safer. You can reverse the direction of the ceiling fan in winter to throw the heat back down from the ceiling. It's not doing anyone any good up there.

Don't know where you are located but it's supposed to get to 98 where I am. Ceiling fans are on!

I don’t like the way they look either, but we have them in every room. They are usually on unless no one is in the room. In the bedrooms where the AC vents/ducts are in the ceiling, they do a great job of blowing down the cool AC air. (I don’t know if a ductless AC unit would preclude the need for a ceiling fan, but in a large room with a window AC unit, you still need the fan.)

There are lots of fans available that can fit in with decor and not take over the design of the room too much. I initially got inexpensive white fans to blend in with the ceiling. Then, one-by-one, I upgraded the fans in some rooms to go with other fixtures or be less ugly or dominant. It was a lot of work to find the right fan design-wise for each room. There are fans where the motor is covered so the design is more streamlined. I got a couple of fans with a subtle light where we needed a light source, since there is no recessed ceiling lighting in the house. The fan lighting is not great, but it is enough to see when necessary. For example, in the bedroom, I did not want to take up space with table or floor lamps. The lights were off most of the time anyway, and we use tablets for reading. So an overhead ceiling fan light with a dimmer serves our needs.

I think they're functional in certain rooms but am not enamored with the appearance. I like the simplest plain white to blend with the ceiling. The lower the ceiling, the plainer.

No, many lovely fans out there. I live in SoCal and use a ceiling fan in the TV room, bedroom and exercise room.

I loathe the look of them too. However, MyTwoCents linked in her post an image of one (Eliza-H) that actually made me go "hmm." In other words, not bad.

When I was living in a studio for 18 months before I bought my home, I used the fan in there because there was no air conditioning I left it on all the time during the hot months and was surprised at how much better it felt than it was without it. So I might look into that white one (below) for consideration. Combined with air conditioning it could be fantastic.

Do I like how they look? No. Will I get rid of them? Also no. Even in the PNW it feels like the days of short bearable summers are sadly gone. We live there and installed AC several years ago, and are SO happy with that decision. We also have ceiling fans in several rooms and run them (at least on low) regularly about half of the year because we have 9’ ceilings and a vaulted ceiling in the living room - they help circulate the air.

We have ceiling fans in almost every room. Outdated or not I wouldn't be without them. We have them on all the time even in the winter.

Ceiling fans are more necessary than ever. Summers are getting hotter, and ceiling fans are a way to feel cooler at higher indoor temperatures, i.e. decreased use of air conditioning.