What house trends do you hate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don't like gray walls, then what color would you suggest instead? Doesn't it pretty much have to be either beige or gray for much of the home?

Why would it have to be those colors? There's a whole spectrum out there - what do *you* like?

But you need to have a neutral backdrop for most of the house, right? Or are you the one who paints the dining room red and the living room blue and the kitchen green?

If you don't like gray, then what color do you like to see in homes?

I do like gray! In fact, I just repainted the formal living/dining room (and the damn ceilings) -- previously they were a dusty green kind of like scrubs. Yes, the ceiling was green too. I painted that white and the walls gray.

I have neutral furniture, and then brightly colored walls. I feel like it's easier to repaint when I get bored than to buy all new stuff. My kitchen is this lovely purple, my dining room is mostly cream (high molding thing happening) with the top a bright blue. My dining room is over the top - a fantastic yellow/green, that I admit was a super risk, but it's so fantastic when the light hits at certain times of the day. Plus they all play off each other to make my small house look bigger. Certainly, this is someone else's version (including my mother-in-law who believes in shades of white and maybe a touch of wild gray) of a absolute nightmare. My bedrooms are all a dark grey, except for my son's, and he picked out the crayola shade of green.

This sounds wonderful - because it is original and yours. Not some cookie cutter: grey, white, grey, white......ad nauseam.

[Anonymous]

I hate roof, columns, walls, ceilings, floors, doors, windows, hvac

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Easily fixable, but nothing makes me giggle more than McMansions with two big pointy topiaries in huge urns in front, framing the door.

Usually the McMansions are "Italianate."

Wow, do you say that about other countries? That's racist.

Interesting.

NP. Yes, Italianate architecture is very interesting. Go troll elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t hate white cabinets, but I hate white cabinets with a white countertop and white backsplash and white walls and a white sink...

The great and white is overdone. I like a house that looks like it has more thought into it (not what everyone else has).

[Anonymous]

Anything with windowboxes or built-in planters.

Full disclosure--I hate gardening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anything with windowboxes or built-in planters.

Full disclosure--I hate gardening.

And by planters, I mean indoor planters. Not outdoors, that's another story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I cook ethnic foods, as do many of my friends. So, if someone doesn't like the ethnic food smell, then we probably wouldn't get along with them that well anyways to have them over often.

IMO, the kitchen area is the heart of the home. I like it to be roomy, bright and airy.

We cook ethnic foods too but I'm completely turned off the open plan. We have a large kitchen/large family room combo and the noise pollution is absolutely horrid. You cannot comfortably cook or use the tap without interfering with the telly sound in the living room. If I use my (powerful) fan, the decibel level everywhere just rises.

In my next house, the kitchen will be large but connected to only the dining room, if that. Absolutely closed off from any living spaces. People are welcome to hang out in the kitchen, they don't need to be one foot in the living room.

[Anonymous]

My pet peeve is obviously expensive houses with stupidly laid out kitchens. Whoever built them paid zero effort to understanding how people actually cook. The sad thing is that it would not have been more expensive to put in the kitchen that would actually work. It's like they learned three things that they insist on implementing no matter what. "Sink must be by the window!" and by god, it will be by the window even if it makes the REST of the kitchen close to unusable. So sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interior columns. I’m not an Ancient Greek.

How would you hide load supporting posts? Turn it into a stripper pole?

In a wall, stupid. Like they have been for centuries.

[Anonymous]

Distressed signs that are meant to evoke the farmhouse feel. If you're in a subdivision, you don't have a farmhouse.

Cement tile bathroom floors with the high contrast patterns. Loved them at first, but I think it's time to let them go. I mean, Home Depot is selling them.

I also think the double island is a bit much...but I guess it's what you do when you have a McMansion with a ridiculously large kitchen?


Totally agree with the grey comments. I have a nice, light aqua color (Quiet Moments) in several rooms that I love. It's so much nicer than grey. I also have a soft blue that I use a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:White kitchens. Timeless? Nope. Sterile and Trendy.

Totally disagree! I was in one in Chevy Chase this weekend, fabulous! It is absolutely timeless if done in a high end manor which would include the wolf range in this particular kitchen. So jealous!

Wolf Range...trendy, too.

Jealous much?

[Anonymous]

cooktops on islands

First, the venting never works well, and it’s so awkward to make things like soups and curry or stews. Fried stuff is also difficult. Maybe it works for people who only eat frozen pizza but I need to be able to cook! I like a range hood that vents outside and a cooktop that backs to a wall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fake front porches on McCraftsmens and modern farmhouses that are too shallow to comfortably hang out on.

+1. We're city folk with a Wardman rowhouse (i.e., our porch gets used a lot) that are unfamiliar with the distant DC burbs. Went to a cousin's house in Gaithersburg and was super confused by how shallow the porch was. Then I realized it was just for show and not actually functional. Whatever, works for them I guess.

Also hate the bowling alley rowhouse flips! We renovated a fixer upper and kept walls around the living room/entry way. It's open without the bowling alley effect. Love it!

I’m quoted poster and I see this on the big new construction houses in my close-in Arlington neighborhood. It’s a stark contrast to the real porches in Maywood on all the 1910s-1920s houses. Real porches are such lovely, high-function outdoor spaces. Sad to see them sacrificed for more interior square footage on houses that are giant anyway. I also hate when the new builds just omit the porch altogether.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Easily fixable, but nothing makes me giggle more than McMansions with two big pointy topiaries in huge urns in front, framing the door.

Usually the McMansions are "Italianate."

Wow, do you say that about other countries? That's racist.

Interesting.

Go take a History of Architecture course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I cook ethnic foods, as do many of my friends. So, if someone doesn't like the ethnic food smell, then we probably wouldn't get along with them that well anyways to have them over often.

IMO, the kitchen area is the heart of the home. I like it to be roomy, bright and airy.

We cook ethnic foods too but I'm completely turned off the open plan. We have a large kitchen/large family room combo and the noise pollution is absolutely horrid. You cannot comfortably cook or use the tap without interfering with the telly sound in the living room. If I use my (powerful) fan, the decibel level everywhere just rises.

In my next house, the kitchen will be large but connected to only the dining room, if that. Absolutely closed off from any living spaces. People are welcome to hang out in the kitchen, they don't need to be one foot in the living room.

That's why we have a large telly in the finished basement where the kids hang out. If they don't like the sound of the fan, they can go downstairs.

We do still have a separate dining room, but for some reason people like to hang out in the kitchen. I do, too. So, the kitchen/family room combo is great.

The kitchen would have to be pretty huge (fit a comfy couch and table/chairs for six and bar stools, etc..) for me to consider having a "closed" off kitchen.