Home Interiors – 25+ Signs it is Time to Update or Redecorate
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aka “Honey, this is not classified as retro.”
Have you ever been in a home that felt like a time warp? Or how about one where you just want to suggest a dumpster for starting over?
We’ve all seen them, and even maybe secretly been guilty too of harboring home interiors or decor items way past their shelf life. But sometimes the days turn into years, which turn into a need, a gentle nudge or a major interior intervention (for those so far out of touch). Below I provide a list for fun, but . . . in some extreme cases — you may actually have to print it, stealthily tack it to a frig, or even mail it postmarked from another town . . . .
(At Least 25) Signs it is Time to Update & Redecorate
General
- White or crème furniture with gold trim. (How was this ever right?)
- Country, mushrooms, hearts, ducks, or geese anywhere.
- Corrugated plastic lampshades, or only white lampshades, and any that were white and are now yellow-ish.
- Peach and lavender, peach and seafoam green, burgundy or dusty rose and hunter green or blue color schemes.
- Anything representing a wagon wheel or anything that is barrel-shaped.
- Upholstered furniture in a nubby plaid fabric of unknown origin that emits a weird odor.
- Window treatments more than 10 years old. The home must be eligible for historic register if to be claimed acceptable.
- Wallpaper borders in general are very dated, and wallcovering more than 10 years old.
- Wood furniture in golden or dark chocolate oak (this includes kitchen cabinets) especially with a shiny finish.
- Visible traffic patterns in flooring or seating.
- If the trendy accessories are over 10 years old. (see: Dust-filled dried flower arrangements.)
- If children are adults and their school pictures are still up on the wall. (This is just mean.)
- Using a set or suite of furniture in the same room.
- Drapery or pillows with ruffles.
- Do I even need to mention faux wood paneling and the multi-colored shag carpet?
- Phony stick-on brick made from non-brick material.
- Using an armoire to house a television. Everyone shows off a flat screen.
- Plants hanging from macramé hangers.
- Figurines, dolls, or more than 5 porcelain tchotchkes in any one room.
- Sponge painting or stenciling in non-period homes.
Kitchen
- Avocado green, butterscotch, gold, or brown appliances.
- Fluorescent under cabinet lighting. (editor’s Note: dang!)
- Black countertops and light wood cabinets, so 90’s.
- Any appliance over 10 yrs old is likely not energy efficient and costing you $$.
- Wood edges on countertops.
Bathroom
- Sink molded into a plastic shiny countertop.
- Metal rimmed sinks.
- Tile over 20 years old and in a color no-longer available.
- Colored tub or toilet.
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And if faced with any arguments or lip, your answer is simply: “Honey, this is not classified as retro.”
These items are expected, even coveted, of course, when house shopping. They a great way for a prospective buyer to attempt to knock the price down. And hey, if it’s going to cost $60,000 to bring the kitchen into the current century or to remove the nasty foil wallpaper from every vertical surface (a.k.a new drywall), this is in fact an important negotiating point. But no matter what these are, these are items that just Got. To. Go. and STAT!
>> Are there any you would like to add?
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Note from the hosts: *smiles* In describing her sense of humor to me The Decor Girl said, “. . . (it’s) sometimes a little wicked and harsh . . . .” And okay my memory isn’t great and maybe that was in fact paraphrased. We were discussing too what she might write for us, and I told her, “. . . How about something in your normal unabashed style.” On that, I think she delivered. I wanna say thanks to tDG, she is one of my faves, and we would love your comment down below. Enjoy! ~jb
All images via the DecorGirl.net.
You can find #17 in my living room simply because I refuse to ditch my old (10 yr) TV since it still works. I would love a flat screen but until my current TV dies the armoire stays.
Ginny & Amy – yeah, I’ve got a few of these too like a whole bathroom of nasty avocado green: tub, shower and sink. There was a green toilet but that I ditched. Certain things we live with until we can afford a re-do. If I won the lottery tomorrow, it’d have to be big – there are a few other things in line before the ugly bathroom.
“pink painted wood trim…”. Hee he hee. I bought a house with lavender wood trim – back in the ducky stencil days.
Thanks for your comments. :))
Decor Girl
I’m somewaht ashamed to note just how many of these items exist in my 1930’s farmhouse that looks as though it were last updated in some time in the 1970’s. It is a work in progress. If I win the lottery tomorrow, I’ll remodel the whole dang thing. For now, I’ve got to look beyond the daisy wallpaper, pink painted wood trim (ouch…worst of all), and red countertops, trimmed in metal and know that some day they will be different.
This did make me laugh, but I disagree.
And I know I am not a decorator – I just don’t see the world that way – so I come at it from another place.
I am an architect who works with old houses and their owners. I encounter all the items mentioned above all the time. My job is to integrate them into whatever expansion and updating we are doing. The exceptions are old appliances and stained, smelly furniture, the yellowed lampshades.
Those glasses with ducks are the ones the grandchildren will cherish. If the kitchen and bath cabinets are in good shape, there may be enough money in the budget to add a half bath, a skylight.
Antiques are just old things, and pretty soon stuff from the 1990’s will get there. I’ve found fabulous tile to add and update bathroom tiles from the 1960’s that were well set, in good shape, and hopelessly dated in color.
As a ‘residential vernacular architect’ I would prefer to reuse, re-imagine and then recycle.
Thank you, Jane. I too am a huge fan of old houses, antiques and period details. Change for the sake of change is not always a good thing. Trends come about in all eras. Ducks, geese and little hearts on the wall were a trend a few years back which related to nothing from their period. Yellow,orange and green shag carpet from 20+ years ago is outdated period, if it is still present it’s likey matted and a rather gross. It needs to go.
Re-use and recycle is good if it is a worthwhile item. You are spot on about cabinets. I’m not for increasing the landfill, but some times stuff has no inherent value and should be disguarded. As a designer I’ve probably recovered more furniture that bought new for clients. But if the furniture is cardboard and particle board, a.k.a. crap, then it needs to go bye bye. Sorry, but there is not always an option to reuse a peach bathtub.
I appreciate your position.
Decor Girl
Okay, I’m going to have to disagree and of course this is perfectly legal because as a fellow designer I can. Of these 29 issues some are regional problems and some are not illegal at all…
3. White Lampshades that are new, drum shaped are still good to go on the West Coast. Any lampshade that is yellowed from age, dirt or other general nastiness is never good.
13. While not illegal, buying sets of furniture even today is still done. I agree mixing and matching is better, but people can’t be knocked points for their choice on that if they do not have a designer at their disposal.
15. Mini shag carpeting is popular out here, you won’t lose a child in it and a very good choice for homes with children.
17. We have our TV in an armoire in our bedroom. Yes, we wish we had a flat screen, but not everyone has the dough to do it and really, I can’t justify replacing something if it’s functional and not a public nuisance.
20. Stenciling is back and very popular today. It is not outdated or with the typical country duck stencil. Look at Cutting Edge Stencils to see ways stencils are cool again and transforming people’s spaces at an affordable price.
Kitchen 2. There are butt loads of homes with this lighting. I don’t know if the expense or the designer preference really can put this on the list. They do make warm tone fluorescent bulbs now and maybe that could be the alternative.
Kitchen 5. Counter tops made of wood should be noted as the exclusion for wood edge counter tops.
Bathroom 3 & 4. 50s bathrooms with colored tile and toilets, tubs, etc. should be an exception. They are cool most of the time. I hate seeing them demolished.
I guess I’m saying that not all these items can be dings against people’s interiors. Some people don’t have the money to update these, some are personal designer preferences and some are issues of cleanliness.
That post got my brain going this morning! Thanks! ~Alycia
Hee hee hee.
3. My only point was a house with all and Only white lampshades. There are so many fun options today we aren’t limited to just white.
You are right about not just buying a new TV. In our new tech world we aren’t so concerned with hiding everything.
Trying to keep my words limited I could have defined stencils to none of those hearts, ducks or faux ivy crawling across the wall.
Design isn’t about money. These are just a few fun items which when you walk into a space say, “done a few years ago.”
Disclaimer: historical accuracy always trumps current design trends – if it is appropriate to the period of architecture in a home.
Thanks for your comments!
Decor Girl
Loved the post. Great info. I ‘ve seen a few that could beat those…
Thanks, I’m sure there are many more. We could likely get to 50 or more. It’s just fun.
Decor Girl
Amen!
I love this list, and could probably add a few things too. That said, budgets are what they are, and people can only do what they can do. The trouble comes when you realize that some people have absolutely no ability to discern what good, beautiful design is, and I’ve met many (unfortunately).
Whenever I’m confronted with these types of interiors, instead of being immeidately judgmental, I try really hard to picture what it all would have looked like when it was brand-spanking new. Is age and wear & tear getting in the way of seeing something that was good. And I usually come away with the opinion that it was just as ugly when it was new as it is now in its broken-down, decrepit state. I’ve developed the opinion that just because something is vintage or old doesn’t necessarily impart value or good design creds and make it worth saving.
That said, I’m in the process of buying a house that is going to keep me quite busy for the next few years while I try to remediate the design debacles committed by the “thought-he-was-all-that” builder. Furniture can be replaced. Replacing hunter green roman tubs with gold & silver two-tone faucets may take some financing!
You got it! The point of the list is
It isn’t that these are always bad or good, just way too many decades ago. I think of it like one of those women whom you look at with the same hairstyle since high school, and with a fresh hair cut she would take years off her appearance. I mean what (over 40) person wouldn’t go for that? It isn’t about being judgmental but certain items tend to drag an interior down which effects all who enter. I could write a whole ofter post on the judgments one could make from certain interior items – but those are rarely 100% accurate.
I think as a designer we get a bad rap of everyone assuming we are all about spending untold amounts of money to re-do interiors. Decorators sort of fit that category not interior designers. Our job is to improve a space for the health and well being of the inhabitants, looking good is almost a by product of good interior design. Make a space work and make it look good. Budgets are relevant in every project.
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