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Past Decor Items You Love to Hate?

12 years ago
Any past decor items or trends that you love to hate? Especially things that you LOVED at the time, but now don't care for?

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Comments (353)

  • 11 years ago

    Why barrett7704- I will take that as a compliment:)

  • 11 years ago
    Nor was I intending to hit anyone's sore spot, and apologize if I did. It's just that I was always under the impression that you should decorate with things you love.....so if someone loves pink and mauve, and ducks, or whatever, who are we to call it tacky?

    That being said....I admit to a bit of snobbery of my own when it comes to bathrooms. Cannot abide those brown oak toilet seats!
  • 11 years ago

    there ya go. toilet snob. LOL!

  • 11 years ago
    Guilty!
  • 11 years ago

    wall to wall carpet AGHHHHHH

    mirrored walls

  • 11 years ago

    Aaaaw, see we can work it out;)

  • 11 years ago

    OK- my biggest gripe is magnets on the refrigerator. I mean who even thought of that?

  • 11 years ago

    Well, there's one thing I find a bit ......umm, kinda.... just not for me...... carpet in the bathroom. :)

  • 11 years ago
    Lol, Margo. A lot of people apparently, judging by the dilemma photos. One advantage of stainless steel appliances.....nowhere to stick the magnets!
  • 11 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    Amen sista;) Stainless appliances should be a law;)

  • 11 years ago

    margo, if i didnt have souvenir magnets on my fridge how would i know where i've been?

  • 11 years ago
    Zaz, not so much tacky as just plain Icky!
  • 11 years ago

    nnigrt- get a photo album, write in a journal, take phone pics, phone a friend,...NO magnets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • 11 years ago
    We ran from an open house where there was wall to wall in the bathroom. The homeowner said he liked it, because it hide the splatters. If we had known we would have worn hazmat suits. His wife said she was a decorator!!!?!!?
  • 11 years ago

    no worry margo, i moved them all to the side of the metal filing cabinet in my office.


  • 11 years ago

    Perfect nnigrt, Keep the magnets filed away;))

  • 11 years ago

    Got one of those metal storage cabinets in the basement...COVERED with magnets! I've always been fascinated with magnets...not whatever is on them, but the magnets themselves and the basement is the only solution for the indiscriminate nature of my frenzied collecting.

  • PRO
    11 years ago

    I'm over disliking them.
    Oh, and I recently bought a handsome black iron table w beveled glass top that I love! Best stay away from this hellhole.

  • 11 years ago

    those little fat smiling men people in the east worship. Give me the creeps and very popular..eeek


  • 11 years ago

    Jan Johnson, Do you mean a BUDDHA? Do you like Madonna of the Bathtub? LOL Everyone worships differently, I don't mean to offend any one religion. to each his own God.

  • PRO
    11 years ago

    Buddha....an Epicurean symbol (?) or meditation statement

  • 11 years ago
    What bothers me is when I see people use Buddha as a fashion statement or decor piece without even knowing who he was or what he stood for, especially since a lot of those people would be upset if the likeness of Jesus was used the same way by nonChristians.
  • 10 years ago

    I had a comment all typed out (my personal design complaint is about the current trend of using typography as art), but realized the following and decided to can it: The internet is pretty much a cesspool of hatred, snottiness, and judgment of others' appearance, taste, opinions . . . and this type of comment solicitation really brings out the absolute worst in people. Take a few minutes, go to the top of this thread, and read the entire thing. It makes me want to take a shower and resign from the human race -----proof positive, if we still needed it, that people can be really awful. And this meanness is being spewed about a really benign topic. I've read repeatedly on Houzz that one's home should ideally reflect one's personality and likes. But from these comments, apparently the design police among us have declared that that just won't do. For those who lack the financial resources to redecorate frequently and stay on-trend, many of the things written here are nothing but hurtful. (And yeah, I'll freely admit I'm taking this too seriously, but what I'm seeing here is the casually cruel, "you're inferior because___________" crap that fills every comment section of every website.) And now I'll apologize for ranting.

  • 10 years ago

    er. feel better now?

  • 10 years ago

    Linda Brandon, To me it seems like most people making negative comments are toward others comments....not toward the homeowner. Having said that, those who submit their homes to be showcased on Houzz should know that not all comments will be raves. The one thing I know is that if you don't like the blog you're reading, than get off of that blog.

  • 10 years ago
    last modified: 10 years ago

    We were invited to say what we love to hate. Therefore don't be surprised if we said what we love to hate. Simples!

    20 secs


    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dTSCUYcp20A

  • 10 years ago
    last modified: 10 years ago
  • 10 years ago

    I have thoroughly enjoyed this walk down decorating memory lane----I have been guilty of oh so many decorating styles-----starting out with "coppertone" appliances, followed by the earthtone phase and then the mauve and blue, oak era. Now that we have downsized and reduced a lot of the past I am filled with a dilemma----do I have a current "in style, chic" home like in the photo shoots or one that my children and grandchildren can remember fondly and howl with laughter at all of Grammy's old stuff?

  • 10 years ago

    do a current 'in style, chic', absolutely. confound your childrent and grandchildren.

  • 10 years ago

    Go with the in style, chic. Unless you love the Grammy look.

    You know, it's interesting. The same MIL who never saw a pink item she didn't love, has a summer home "up north" as we say in MN. And while I don't spend a lot of time there, to avoid committing matri-inlaw-cide, I used to like being there when it was just Husband and me. Found it cozy, even if my inner decorator was recoiling in horror.

    But last year in Feb, I had a bad car accident, when a 17 year old went through a stop sign, on an icy street, right in front of me. And one of the lingering issues is that I now have binocular instability, which basically means that my eyes go back and forth between working together and not working together. When they're not working together, my brain ignores the signal from my right eye. And if I have too much visual information to take in at once (scanning shelves at the grocery store, for example) I get headaches and nauseated.

    Back to the summer home. Now it's not just my inner decorator who can't deal with it. There is, literally, not a surface in that place that one can lay one's eyes on and not be assaulted by multiple images.

    The cabbage rose comforter from above? Now up there. The bedroom has two desks, four huge dressers, a dressing table, two bedside tables, a king bed and 10 table lamps, along with various "art" pieces and 40+ photos. Oh, and 4 rugs, all different patterns. In a room that's about 12X12.

    That's just the bedroom. The kitchen/dining/living room is even worse. The bathroom has more stuff than any self-respecting bathroom could even imagine.

    And, after spending Labor Day weekend there last year, and being required to spend most of my time on the front porch, or sleeping off headaches, I can't even go there anymore.

    So, you see, Linda B, sometimes it's not just being superior to talk about disliking bad decor. Sometimes, it's bad for your health.

  • 10 years ago

    So sorry to hear about your difficulties following the accident. You make a valid point about decorating overload and both you and nnigrt have given me a new direction. Thank you both :)

  • 10 years ago
    Bopeep and her sheep yard decoration. Aaarrrggh! Whiskey decanter and shot glass collections. Vertical blinds. Gazillion family photos on walls in living and dining rooms. Giant star on outside of house.
  • 10 years ago

    Thanks, thebon. It's something I have learned to live with. I've gotten good at looking at floors in stores--they tend to be very boring. But with the chaos of rugs up there, even looking at the floor doesn't help.

  • 10 years ago

    fuzzy fabric toilet sets....top cover, seat cover, and matching wrap around rug......

  • 10 years ago

    Gazing balls originated in 13th century Venice, Italy, where they were hand-blown by skilled craftsmen.

    King Ludwig II of Bavaria, sometimes referred to as Mad King Ludwig, adorned his Herrenchiemsee palace with lawn balls. Thereafter, they became a fixture of European gardens and are associated with Victorian era English gardens in particular.

  • 10 years ago
    Oh my gosh/ describing everyone's grandmother favorite things lol
  • 10 years ago
    last modified: 10 years ago

    I wonder how much of the layer-upon-layer effect of do-dads, fake flowers, curio cabinets, wallpapers, fabrics, accessories, big upholstered pieces with skirts and ruffles, country antiques, and all sorts of furniture was a result of the strong economy in the 1980s that gave women a lot of money to spend on their homes. Why the sudden shift from the 1970s which had plenty of stuff too, but it was more minimalistic and some of it was just weird. It's almost as though people decided that wherever the eye should rest as you look around a room, there should be something beautiful and interesting to see there.

    I think there is a certain sweetness to things like flowers and geese, nothing pretentious there. It will always be charming to me.

  • 10 years ago

    " Also reminds me of those wooden yard cutouts showing backsides and legs only (I think supposed to be old-fashioned girls in bloomers leaning down away from you to pick flowers???)."

    This is a comment from way up near the top of the list, 2013 I think, but I laughed out loud when I read it.

    About 20 years ago I was working in my flowers in the front yard and an older gentlemen driving by, stopped.

    He told me he just had to stop to see if he saw one of those 'bending over bloomer' wooden ladies, or if I was real!!!!

    I just laughed. My Dad had died a few years earlier and that was something I wouldn't doubt he did when he was alive. Come to think of it, maybe that was his way of 'talking' to me. I live a half mile down the road from where I grew up, and this guy was headed that way.

    They were both old farmer type men, with a twinkle in their eye and wisecracks coming out of their mouth

  • 10 years ago

    I read this list further and came across the post by micksue. Before I read about her car accident, I didn't want to add this because I thought, I'm just too weird. But her post has given me courage:

    I was in a car accident in 2008, got hit in the head, was in a coma and rehab facility for a few months.

    My recovery has been described as 'miraculous' and one wouldn't know by just looking at me. The scar is hidden by hair. I suffered from what they call 'brain shear' - my head was hit on the right but the nerves on the left were damaged when the brain bounced back. But there are a lot of brain things I deal with that are not obvious, one being my ability to have memories unless something triggers my brain to remember them.

    I have a lot of stuff in my house, and now I'm kind of glad. When I see them, it triggers my brain to remember something. I have a lot of antiques, almost all family related, an old toy room that reminds me of the times my Dad and I would go to old toy shows and auctions, many other items from my husband's Grandma and father, and the list, and memories, go on.

    I'm never going to move from this house, there are just too many things that make me feel like I belong here. My husband and I bought the house when interest rates were 12%! and no one even looked at the house while it was on the market. It was an old Craftsman not fancy but solid and we have been renovating it for the last 35 years.

    Micksue, thanks for sharing your story, it confirms what my husband and I have always believed, everybody has something they are dealing with.

  • 10 years ago

    I got off Houzz when someone responded to one of my posts by being so racially abusive even my THICKSKIN was penetrated. Rather than going into their cesspool with them, I took the high road and left them there.

    That being said, I am surprised to see this post is alive and kicking. LOVE IT.

    Some of the things that people hate, I like. Same for some of the things that I hate,they like. What a blast.

  • 10 years ago

    Me again!

    I have magnets on my refrigerator, the most prominent was a fathers day gift from one of the kids:

    An arrow pointing one way - Dad's way -

    an arrow pointing the other way - the Highway

    Of course, if my body looked good in bell bottoms, I'd wear them too!

  • 10 years ago

    Mom, are you really Dad pretending to be Mom?

  • 10 years ago

    it's funny how so many hate vertical blinds; to me they're really no different than any type of venetian/plantation type which everybody hated way back - but really, what's a better solution when you have 4 dogs and it's the sliding glass doors that let them in and out?

    And yes, we purposely just put the patio sliders in so that french doors wouldn't get in the way, doors would not work in our space.

    Also, sometimes what's "in" determines what is reasonably priced and easily available - even tho our new (to us) house has windows with no crosspieces, we learned that now all that's stocked are those. To order windows without the cross pieces cost a LOT more these days....

  • 10 years ago

    No, I'm the mom, I just thought the magnet, I should have said a gift to my husband, is funny

  • 10 years ago

    Only joking. :)

  • 9 years ago

    We could have a never-ending game of croquet with all the decorative balls in America. I'll supply the mallets if you give up the balls!

  • 9 years ago
    Giant Texas stars indoors or outside on the wall of the house. Slogans telling me how to live my life...as if I need reminding. Blue or pink faux marble solid surface countertops with shell pattern sinks. Plastic "decor". Opulent castle-worthy anything. Old art taken out of its original frame and put into minimalist frames. In the end, I like beauty and function in the simplest forms. I'm constantly fighting my impulses to collect more decor, and tire of it quickly.
  • 9 years ago

    Cowboy silhouettes. I moved from the West to the Midwest, and thought I was free of them. Imagine my horror upon seeing one in my new town! Why are they migrating East?!

  • 9 years ago

    maybe same reason as the coyotes, all their natural predators killed off?

  • 9 years ago

    This was really fun to read.... puffy couches, dream catchers, ceiling borders, refrigerators covered with magnets and...... the list goes on. Thanks for a good laugh and a blast from the past!