But a chunk of the earliest posts are still missing from this thread.

Some of them are not visible until you click on the line that says "SEE 197 MORE COMMENTS" at the top of the page, right under FEATURED ANSWER, then COMMENTS(247). All of the comments are here. When a thread gets too long they hide some and you have to click on the link to expand the thread so they all show,

eta - i guess some are still missing but hopefully because the poster deleted them. It's hard to keep track when some posters post 3 or 4 comments in a row instead of one post with their comments,. It just grows the thread to an unmanageable size. Makes me wonder if she's paid per post or just likes to see her name as a top poster. I guess THAT makes me cringe.

Even after clicking on "see more comments" the photos of the OP's room are not there. So either she deleted them or some are missing.

Agree, the basement picture is no longer there.

New threads are posting today!

Hey there - we've been seeing some support tickets about discussions not sorting correctly or not posting. There was another issue fixed that may have been related / caused by the same thing. Are you still seeing the same problems today?

All of the earliest posts on this thread are back!

I am here to make a confession. I have grommet curtains in my media room. I love them because they open and close easily.

By media room, I mean pretty much TV room with library shelves.

P.S. This is the same room in which I have a sectional. A GREY sectionall!

Ha, if it works for you auntthelma, no need to make a confession.

I have a sectional, TWO shower niches, zero decorative lighting in my living/dining room, raggedy houseplants, and a solitary strand of solar-powered Christmas lights on just one of my multiple front yard trees that's been blinking bravely since 2023. :D And snarky tea towels, of course... hahaha

Okay, I'll play. I have light gray LVP flooring. Note: I wanted white, not gray (but *sigh* but didn't get it) and gorgeous white walls. The floor is the only gray in my home because my home reflects my passion for emerald (and other greens) and snow white. It works though. I'd change it if I had enough money to do it but I don't so I don't worry about it.

I'm in too. We have two sectionals and loads of artificial plants that I adore because they're pretty and require minimum maintenance; a pair of black sliding doors with a thin gold accent that don't look like barn doors but that's what they're called I suppose; and a dark gray, cozy prayer room where it occurs to me to repaint when I sit down but then promptly forget about as soon as I leave.

Dani, "prolly" makes me irrationally angry - like, "I want to bite something" level of angry. :) It saves the afflicted from typing out a whole 2 more letters. Whatever will they do with their newfound time?!

TIA is a close second. It's usually seen at the end of some long post where someone posted every detail of every decision they've ever made, or contemplated making - and then they close with.....TIA?! Seriously?! You just wrote what could be an entire chapter in a book, but now it is too much work for you to say, Thank you in advance for any help?

There, I feel better now.

Ha, Ally De, I agree with you about the silly acronyms. I've had to look up many of them, and there are more and more all the time! Sloppy writing!

Adding a pop of color to the front exterior of a house. It can transform an attractive house to having a clown colored front door.

Toilet lids open.

The use of style nonsense terms. Such as I want a beachy, shabby chic, eclectic….look. Who ever knows what that means.

The sudden wave of every house is MCM regardless of what it is. Simply, not every house is or can be or should be MCM.

And not to overlook, posting without pictures or the lament of “forgive the mess.”

OMG!!! Yessssssssss!!!

"Dani, "prolly" makes me irrationally angry - like, "I want to bite something" level of angry. :)

It is worse than eagle fang length claws on a blackboard! Grrrrr.

So too is adopting any of the lingo dingo of your teenage kids or their cronies !! Stop! Pleeeeeeze! It 's like so... ya know like she said like,... I'm going like is she SERIOUS..LIKE what???

True confession and full disclosure..

I remember my dad glaring at me at the dinner table one summer day:

If you do not cut those bangs, and STOP saying "you know?" every third word? You are not going on vacation, with us......."do you have ANY idea how many times you say "Ya Know?

It cured me....really. I didn't realize.

Took an 1/8 of an inch off the bangs ....lol!

Gimme and Lemme WAHHH!!!!

What I learned from this thread is no one should come to my house. LOL They would be cringing all over the place.

Brown leather reclining sectional-check(but it is so comfortable and I also do not think it is too big for the room). I have a reclining chair but it is not the big puffy leather kind. It is blue fabric with wood legs.

Shower niche-check: but the tile is all the same throughout the shower. No decorative tile in the niche.

Grommet curtains-check. Easy to open and close which happens throughout the day. I bought cheap ones figuring I would change them out at some point. 7 years later and they are still the same curtains. Someday maybe.

I have one word sign and it is a misquote from ThomasJefferson that says:

"a favorite wine is a necessary of life with me"

Things that really make me cringe:

I mentioned the word heigth already unless that post disappeared.

Gray wood look floors.

Modern farmhouse.

Someone already mentioned the word prolly which I also can't stand.

It also drives me nuts when someone buys a log cabin and then complains that there is too much wood. I live in a log cabin. Yes there is a lot of wood but what do you expect. If you do not want a lot of wood don't buy a log cabin.

I also can't stand when people tell those with log cabins to paint the wood white.

Cringe when people comment on Houzz thread that is here to be a design dilemma thread only to complain that designers are giving advice on how to achieve a more balanced or designed space and tell the poster to do what “they want” and “ why listen to designers advice” I just dont get it???? Why are these people even on Houzz..confused🤪🤪

^

Well................? I think there's a certain resentment factor? : ) Not always, but yes, at times?

It should be noted that so many of us can not afford the oh so fabulous we may do for a client and we're just doing the job for which we were hired?

That so very often we go to the ends of earth for gratis, here on Houzz,.... just to make any given something asked a better? Unlike just grabbing the screen shots, many times irrelevant to a posters space, we go to the trouble to suggest with the scaled drawing, the dimensions etc and then the poster won't believe what fits? :) and does not?

TGIF ?

Funny Jan!!! I’m like, OMG! this lady LITERALLY gets it!

Ally Dee - how about a grown person writing ”jelly” insteads of jealous. 🙄🙄🙄

Or veggie? Because vegetable is just TOO Hard to say!!!

I tutored a young woman with a learning disability who used the word "prolly" a lot. Whenever I see it I think of her and assume the person is disabled and can't think beyond the 3rd or 4th grade level.

I think veggies is pretty common - "Kids, you have to eat your veggies." and I have never come across "Jelly" for jealous.

I do hate when we get e-mails or IMs at work that mean following up, but start with FU.

I always want to write back FU TOO

Nothing on Houzz makes me cringe as much as hearing a senior leader talking about taking sensitivity training where they did an exercise that places people in one of 4 quadrants and he found it interesting that all the men came back as analytical and all the women were supportive and went on to talk about how much better the women are at working directly with our customers.

Oh that's downright insulting...and he's running sensitivity trainings????

No, he took sensitivity training - I think he failed!

Sadly, it is not uncommon for leadership to talk like this. I heard a female leader of an EDI program talking with a male counterpart discussing how she stopped admitting to her age once she hit 40. So over 40 females are worthless???

In the corporate world, life is not equal. I pretended to be 10 years younger than I was and I covered my gray hair. I also sat at the head of the table. wore suits and made a good career. But dont kid yourself. The glass ceiling is real.

Whatttttt?

It's not "equal", nothing is equal !But if you've got a talent, if you've got something to sell ( I do not mean your body! ) you can stay/ pick/choose nearly forever.

I have a friend who worked as VP of a Chanel /Fragrance division until 80!!! Went to another, and worked until 85! Sharp as a tack. Immaculately groomed. She just turned 90 and is the most sought after "babe" in senior living, by men and women!

Forty?!!! IS A TOTAL bullshit number. Forty years old and up in fit condition, well groomed, well spoken / written? That woman is a force to be reckoned with! I think perhaps the problem? She's lived, is wise, and intimidates the LIVING hell out of those pushing her out?!

You will notice I mentioned fitness, and grooming...I did not say you have to look like a Vogue model, be rail thin, get Botox or similar. Is it fair that some guy who is a total slob may be a rung higher? No, not unless he is smarter, better etc. It's life. Unfair in many ways. That said?

Women are usually "smarter" in one way especially and it is not an insult. They see "deeper" than men tend to see. The extra layer or dimension to problems.

They DO in fact have better intuition most times. How is that a curse!? They're often far more organized, they don't run into the bathroom and cry every week, another example of B..S.

You can tell the Sensitivity Idiot, he is in the wrong job. It's a job for a really cool 40 - 65 year old gal who knows what the hell she is talking about!

That really "PISSED" me off lol can you tell?

Another word that makes me cringe is calling a color "rich." What does that word even mean in relation to a color? Colors are tints (white added), shades (black added), tones (gray added), saturated (very bright), or muted (toned down to neutral). They either reflect a lot of light or absorb light. "Rich" says nothing about a color.

Correct Diana B......

"Rich" doesn't make me crazy, I think it just evokes a feeling for a lot of people.

Emerald, .... deep and glossy eggplant....That certain red that was fifteen coats of paint in a Park Avenue library....: )

If someone asked me for it? I'd be inclined unless otherwise advised; they aren't thinking beach side turquoise .....or front door ORANGE lol

I think the term Rich comes from the history of dyes. Prior to the mid 1800s you had to be rich to afford clothing that was dyed with deeply saturated, non local plant-based dyes. The Tyrian Purple dye was up to three times the price of gold per oz. Indigo was plant based. but the plant only grew in certain climates and had to be imported from India. The commoners had clothing that was dyed in a walnut bath or from tints from local plants and were usually some shade of gray or beige or a muddy green,

@Auntthelma, I had an Aunt Thelma and whenever I see your posts I think of her and smile.

@JAN MOYER, @auntthelma and @Diana Bier Interiors, LLC

I am at the very end of the baby boomer generation.

I am proud to be part of a generation that took the reins from our mothers and grandmothers and continued the fight for equality. We have come a long way!

I had great hope that the next generation may be better, that as my young nieces and nephews became business leaders (kids raised by working moms who handled their own checkbooks and didn't have to ask for a bigger allowance to buy groceries as prices increased) that the glass ceiling may crack.

I am not so sure now - it feels like things are going backwards.

My niece was wearing a t-shirt the last time I saw her . . .

The front:

The back:

I get no sense that "things are going backward" for women.

If they are, perhaps reasons, including for young men.

I might call it a result of indulged helicopter parenting, and indulgent schools.. Young people afraid of their own shadow. Needing a safe place from odd, different or challenging situations, that really are not too challenging.

My answer to all this is not more "comfort care" from mommy and school. It is to make you mow the lawn, empty the dishwasher, make your bed, clean up the mess you made.

It is to let you FAIL , when you didn't do the homework for the pop quiz, and then, and suggest ways to get back up, dust yourself off and keep going, and get better.

It is to remind anyone, any age that one small tragedy of a dressing down at work is not the end of all work forever!!

Nah.........a lot of this is grow a skin. Find a "zone" for work; that place where you are challenged, excited to be there, and forget time as you're immersed. Then know when to enjoy all the rest of life that isn't that work - the line blurred for me ! - but I worked for some women who'd be in jail today! Mean as junkyard dogs in the moment and phenomenal teachers: ) after all.

Jan, with all due respect, women’s loss of right to choose is definitely going backwards.

Right on KW PNW Z8!

People can be raised with kindness and become contributing members of society. That avoids them becoming ”junkyard dogs” themselves, like some of the posters on these forums. That comment explains a lot.

" That avoids them becoming junkyard dogs..........."

Or.....training, mentoring a similar as myself, Olychick? Is that the reference which is not lost on me?: )

Let me tell you about THIS junkyard dog:

It's the dog who cared for and watched over two compromised parents for well over a decade.

It's the dog who accompanied my dad to every doctors visit, loaded his wheel chair, picked him up from dialysis at midnight, got him home, got myself home at one am and then started over at six am to check on mom with dementia, and came home and start my day with clients numbering too many at the time.

Mercifully, I was younger.

It's the dog who has been thanked profusely on this site, come home to flowers, a gift in the mail.

It' the dog who has never let my sisters want for a little luxury, or left a friend in need, ( any friend) , spinning in the wind for want of help with anything, and has gone to the ENDS OF PLANET EARTH for clients. A couple as nasty as you.

You my dear can take your not. at .all. lost. on. me opinion of me, and go stuff it you know exactly WHERE. I have refrained from this little "junkyard dog rant" far too long.

Have a very NICE day.

If the shoe fits…People can be good people without acting like junkyard dogs.

What makes me cringe is the number of posters who don’t respond to the comments and suggestions that they receive. Many pros and others give their time and talent to dilemmas without any acknowledgement or thanks.

Sometimes, I wonder why they post when their insights and recommendations are ignored.

^ agree @njay - i’ve seen posters put up a dilemma here and get lots if good advice and then go post the same dilemma in one of the Facebook decor groups and get 2k comments on their post - then they complain they are overwhelmed and don’t know what to do. I think being decisive is an underrated skill in 2025

@la_la Girl wrote "I think being decisive is an underrated skill in 2025." I agree.

One of the things that makes decision-making harder is that there is often no place to see samples. It is far easier to make decisions when the materials are local and can be seen in real life. The differences in quality (painted finish or powder coated?) and color (tomato red or cranberry red?) leap out in a brick and mortar store, but are hard to figure out from a screen online.

Planning for and accepting a mistake rate of (say) 10% or 20%, then being willing and able to make changes can go a long way to reassure people facing decisions to spend a lot of money. Amazon's overall return rate isn't public but is estimated at 5-20%. It would be interesting to hear from the pros on Houzz about how often their customers want to make changes.

@apple_pie_order You make a very good point about decision making. IMO shopping online is an acquired skill that takes a lot of practice. I’m thinking about shopping online for clothing. There’s likely more brand loyalty with that than anything else because once you (I) find a brand that fits mostly okay you (I) stick with it. Shopping for household items online is a huge challenge. That sofa or 10’ x 13’ rug isn’t so easy to return - except if it was purchased from Costco!

@apple_pie_order "Planning for and accepting a mistake rate of (say) 10% or 20%, then being willing and able to make changes can go a long way to reassure people facing decisions to spend a lot of money" --> THIS makes so much sense!! I had never thought of it this way before. I'm someone who is very averse to making any mistakes *ever*, which absolutely translates into decision paralysis. Giving people grace and permission to make mistakes is very freeing.

I would say that my clients VERY RARELY make changes. But I have physical samples of everything they are going to buy, we think carefully about our decisions, and almost everything is custom made, and pre-paid before delivery. No surprises because of very good communication between me and my clients. I can only recall once in over 20 years that a custom item wasn't what we thought it would be, and the manufacturer took it back. Very unusual, but they knew that I had never done that before (and never did again), so they were willing to take the return. Of course we purchased something else from them to replace the items.

Any item that's ready-made is usually much less expensive and much easier to return. Even then, it doesn't happen often. And I don't order any large items, like upholstery or floor coverings online.

Diana, your experience doesn’t surprise me. Your clients are receiving the benefit of your 20+ years of experience to guide them through their major household furnishing purchases which is why they hired a PRO. I’m sure you, and Jan Moyer too, are very good at talking your nervous clients down from their ledges! That’s a good thing and I mean this as a compliment to both of you. I’ve read the free advice both of you have provided on this site and learned much from both of you.

thank you for your kind words, KWPNWZ8

First of all, I appreciate and applaud the PROs on houzz who give so freely of their time and experience. This conversation has been stimulating, and so entertaining. What makes me cringe are some of the recent comments on threads that are so insensitive to the "clients" (original posters here) questions with "buy all new appliances" or "move to a bigger house". People cruise houzz looking for ideas, eventually some of them ask for advice to make their homes more functional or inspiring. They may not have any budget at all for large renovations, their existing kitchen or bathroom may not be large enough to have or create the clearances recommended. Good meals and experiences can be created in small kitchens where prep happens on the same table that needs to be cleared to sit and dine. Thank you to the PROs here who are able to firmly say "NO" without being harsh or insensitive, while offering solutions that may or may not be implemented.

^^

"Good meals and experiences can be created in small kitchens where prep happens on the same table that needs to be cleared to sit and dine."

May that be etched on your fridge?

The size, the symmetry, the luxe, the LUXURY is often deceptively hidden in a smaller more contained " I love being alone in here!" space.

It might be good to remember, there is a cost, in MANY ways to having the kitchen in your living room.........: )

PUT ME in here, any day

As a friend used to say......"It's not the size of the ship, Honey; it's the motion of the ocean"......: )

Yeah... he did not mean my kitchen but it is Sunday lol but yes, flow and nearness? Nice .