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24 Home Design Trends That Need to Go Away (for Good)

Home design trends let us create a space where we feel safe while expressing our unique personalities. From minimalism to eclectic decor, we can always find at least one that resonates with us.

Yet, there are some styles that become outdated and tired. Worse, they detract the value of a space, making it look tacky or impersonal. Think home design trends like word art or gray paint — things interior designers started putting in every home twenty years ago (and never stopped).

Here are 24 home trends that should have just been fads. We hope we never see them again.

Pastels

Home with pastel decor
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Pastels are an easy choice because the muted colors complement most spaces and can make them look bigger. However, they are also dull, making the space look stuck somewhere between “safe” and “bold.”

Instead, we want to see bold colors, even if it only affected accent pieces. Replacing pastels with vibrant shades can bring any space into the 21st century.

Carpeted Bathrooms

Photograph of a rather splendid/vulgar pink bathroom suite in Skaill House, Orkney, Scotland. The pink bathtub, toilet and sink are complimented marvellously by pink walls, pink mats and a fluffy pink toilet seat cover.
Image Credit: Mike Shaw – CCA SA 4.0/WikiCommons.

No flooring is worse than a bathroom than carpet. Yes, tiles can be cold on your feet in the winter, but you don’t want to smell moldy, mildewing carpet.

Tile, linoleum, hardwood, or vinyl flooring are better, more contemporary choices that will leave your bathroom looking timeless.

Open-Floor-Plan Spaces

Image Credit: Shutterstock.

An open floor plan can make any home look and feel bigger but, for us, that’s where the positives end. These spaces offer zero privacy while also ensuring that any time you cook something, the smell permeates every room.

Plus, if you have small kids or pets, you can only corral them with doors. Let’s leave open-floor-plan spaces to offices and again use doors as intended.

Tile Countertops

Old country style kitchen with tile countertops.
Image Credit: jimmyweee – CCA 2.0/WikiCommons.

Tile countertops can look charming and give your bathrooms a lived-in air. Nevertheless, they’re also challenging to clean, making them unfit for purpose in a space where cleaning is essential, like a bathroom.

We’d love to see them replaced with more hygienic options like marble or stone. Besides, if you lose this ’70s trend, your bathroom will look more up-to-date.

Millennial Pink

Grey and pink armchair in feminine living room interior with red flowers on wooden table.
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Soft pink tones were all the rage not so long ago, especially accented with rose gold hardware. While it can make spaces look soft and feminine, millennial pink is too saccharine for most areas.

The pastel trend as a whole need to go, but if you need to soften a space, opt for light yellow or green. While we already made our point about pastels needing to go, try a different color if you must keep with the pastel trend. Soft yellow and green tones can replace pink with similar effects.

Word Art

Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Word art was fun until it took over every shelf and wall in the home. Now, it’s just cliché. Having generic pieces that spell “Love,” “Family,” and “Christmas” adorning your living room and bedroom wall is not cute.

It’s overdone to the point of becoming meaningless. Not to mention, most pieces look cheap and are dust magnets.

Tuscan Kitchens

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Tuscan kitchens look dark and opulent, and many who love the style picked them because they give their home a luxurious feeling. However, they also need help cooking and cleaning.

You need light to see what you’re doing in the kitchen, which these cavy areas don’t provide enough of. Dark countertops and furniture make it hard to see splashes and dirt. Overall, these kitchens aren’t cooking-conducive, so they’re counterproductive.

Damask

Shaped back, curved in plan, with openwork design of laminated wood in plain and foliate scrolls, and carved bunch of flowers at top. Carving on front of apron; turning on outcarving front legs, which are fitted with casters. Seat upholstered in blue silk damask (not original).
Image Credit: Public Domain/WikiCommons.

Damask is beautiful and sophisticated — as long as it doesn’t take over all the walls in the house. Worse, damask can also take over curtains, making everything match for a look that’s not been in fashion for decades.

Damask is also hard to clean and can make spaces look smaller, especially if the pattern is large or dark.

Matching Valances

Waverly Toile Cotton Tailored 84'' W Window Valance from Wayfair.
Image Credit: Wayfair.

Arguably, window valances add little to the home. They give windows a boxed-in look and block light, so they don’t belong in a living room.

When valances match the curtains and the furniture, the space instantly travels back decades, giving your home an old-fashioned look. They’re not practical, and they date the space, so we don’t want to see them again.

Avocado Green

Renovation of a kitchen. Painter painting a wall. Woman painting the wall with paint roller. Painting apartment, renovating with green color paint.
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Avocado green is a throwback to the 1970s and can look good in areas meant to be calming, like a bedroom. However, many have done the color to death in the intervening decades, and now it looks drab and outdated.

You can choose from countless shades if you love green and want it in your home. Just pick one that matches the furniture and mood.

Dark Granite Counters

A unique, bold blue kitchen with antique or inspired kitchenware photographed from the kitchen island in the center of the space.
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Dark granite counters in the kitchen immediately make it look smaller. Besides, they’re hard to clean because they disguise food spills, stains, and splotches. Yet, they don’t disguise fingerprints, so you’re left with an eternally smudged look and it’s worse if you have children living tiny fingerprints all over.

Why don’t we all make our lives easier with lighter finishes? They have far fewer downsides and are more stylish to boot.

Fake Plants

3 potted artificial plants.
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Fake plants can look good; many turn to them when decorating for weddings or engagement parties. However, sometimes fake plants in the home often look out of place in the house and gather dust.

There’s something repulsive about fake plants, even well-made silk ones. They can’t replace the look and smell of an actual plant, so why not treat yourself to the real deal instead?

Popcorn Ceilings

Popcorn Ceiling
Image Credit: Doggo19292, Public domain/Wikimedia Commons.

Popcorn ceilings are a bane from the ’80s that still exist in older homes. Because of their texture, they can make a room dimmer, which works in a bedroom but not all over the house.

Worse, they peel off easily, making a mess, and come with an asbestos warning. This dangerous mineral was one of the primary materials used in popcorn ceilings because of its insulating properties. Yikes!

Sponge Walls

A man sponge wall painting.
Image Credit: Home Depot.

Sponge walls can look whimsical and bring some personality to your home. They also often make the room look smaller and darker, and some patterns look more dirty than charming.

Clean walls go a long way toward decluttering homes. We’d rather see them used to showcase art than become it, especially when the wannabe artist isn’t a pro.

Fake Fruit

Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Like fake flowers, fake fruits can’t beat the real thing. Moreover, unlike silk plants, phony fruit is often obviously fake plastic, making your kitchen look like a ’90s relic. Should we even start on how much dust they gather?

We’d love never to see another fake fruit in a bowl again. Get the fresh stuff — it looks the part and is suitable for you!

Lace Doilies

Small lace/crochet doily.
Image Credit: Blanka Luppová – CCA SA 4.0/WikiCommons.

Lace doilies can look good in certain types of decor (think macrame wall hangers and boho spaces), but in most homes, they’re too old school to work with modern decor. Moreover, they’re dust magnets and look pretty ugly when they’re dirty.

We don’t need doilies everywhere in the home. If you inherited many of them, try making them part of a DIY project rather than adorning tables, appliances, and shelves.

Monograms

Monogram towels on a towel bar in a bathroom.
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Monograms have a place and look stylish and sophisticated on towels or pillows. However, having them all over the place as word art is neither of these things.

Why would you want random letters everywhere in your home? They don’t add to the decor and can make the space feel cluttered and random. Even if you’re proud of your initials, there are better art pieces to invest in.

Platform Beds

Oak openwork platform bed frame (Queen) from Simons Maison.
Image Credit: Simons.

Platform beds look great and are a minimalist’s dream until you try to get into them. Their square edges are guaranteed to bruise your shins daily.

We don’t appreciate the bruised look on anyone, so these ’70s relics have to go. There are lots of cool bed designs that consider your safety and comfort.

Toilet Seat Covers

Fuzzy toilet cover.
Image Credit: Etsy/naturalsheepskin.

We’re still determining how toilet seat covers became a trend. Who would want fluffy covers for their toilet seat? Just the thought of cleaning these fuzzy covers makes us nauseated.

Toilet seat covers should disappear from carpeted bathrooms—never to be seen again. Bathrooms should be hygienic places, not cluttered with barriers to cleaning.

White Kitchen Appliances

Old kitchen with Linoleum Flooring
Image Credit: Artazum/Shutterstock.

White kitchen appliances look great when they’re clean and new. As they age, that look changes to old-fashioned and drab, especially when they take on a characteristic yellow hue as they wear down.

They also immediately make your kitchen look dirty if even a tiny food stain lands on them. We’d love to see them all replaced by stainless steel or chrome appliances.

Beige

Shoes scattered on floor of home, hallway, clutter
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Beige is a safe color for any space — so secure that it became one of the staple colors of the 1990s. If you like the color, there’s nothing wrong with it, but it often makes rooms look washed out and dull.

It’s also a hard color to maintain. Dirt easily shows on beige furnishings and walls, turning your once stylish home into a mess.

Ruffle Bed Skirts

A bed skirt on a cream color bedding, grey bedframe.
Image Credit: Amazon/MIYE Store.

Ruffle anything makes a home look dated, and ruffle bed skirts are no different. While they may cover an ugly bedframe, they provide a visual that’s more at home in a bordello than an ordinary bedroom.

If you must cover the bedframe, use a regular skirt without the ruffles. Better still, find a bedframe you like and forget about bed skirts altogether!

Wallpaper Borders

Children's room wallpaper and wallpaper border.
Image Credit: Mjtmail – CCA 2.0/WikiCommons.

We’re not huge fans of wallpaper, to begin with, yet we’ll abide by it. However, wallpaper borders should never be used. They immediately make the room look dingy and old.

Moreover, they make rooms look smaller, which most homeowners don’t want. We’re good if they never appear again.

Vertical Blinds

Vertical blinds
Image Credit: David Gilder/Shutterstock.

Vertical blinds tied together by yellowed plastic bead chains shouldn’t be a thing anymore, but sadly they remain. It’s a shame because they don’t add anything to any space other than an office look that doesn’t belong in any home.

We’d love to see vertical blinds treated like the blight they are. Curtains and Roman blinds are so much better.

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