When we talk about “dated” house stuff...

[Ditto]

15 hours ago, Carol in Cal. said:

BIG CORD macrame is very in right now.  Prices are ridiculous.  

This blows my mind!  I remember that phase from the 70s and it was ugly even back then.  My mother had that stuff everywhere due to churning it out as fast as she could.  It is true that everything old is new again. However, I will happily skip have any macrame in my home. 

[Carol in Cal.]

3 minutes ago, Ditto said:

This blows my mind!  I remember that phase from the 70s and it was ugly even back then.  My mother had that stuff everywhere due to churning it out as fast as she could.  It is true that everything old is new again. However, I will happily skip have any macrame in my home. 

Well, what I will happily skip is paying $60 for an ultra simple plant hanger that I could still make myself (from memory!) in about an hour.  Crazy.

[Ditto]

This is an interesting thread to read.  When it comes to our home I never even consider what is "in" and what is "out",  I furnish it and decorate it with what we like and what makes us happy.  I really don't care what anyone else thinks or whether it is currently on trend.    Reading through the comments and looking around I have discovered that I stumbled upon a classic warm timeless look without even trying.    I truly believe that your home should be what makes you happy and what is or isn't current shouldn't be a concern.   

[MEmama]

1 minute ago, Ditto said:

This is an interesting thread to read.  When it comes to our home I never even consider what is "in" and what is "out",  I furnish it and decorate it with what we like and what makes us happy.  I really don't care what anyone else thinks or whether it is currently on trend.    Reading through the comments and looking around I have discovered that I stumbled upon a classic warm timeless look without even trying.    I truly believe that your home should be what makes you happy and what is or isn't current shouldn't be a concern.   

I agree when it comes to decorating, but it’s pretty important when redoing a kitchen or bathroom, or choosing new flooring, or undertaking some other big ticket update that can’t easily be changed. You never want to turn away a buyer because your brand new kitchen looks dated, or your bespoke bathroom is a nightmare for a different owner.

[Annie G]

I don’t care if our house is dated.  The current house is in a subdivision that is supposed to look craftsman style, but our house is clearly a Charleston Single outside.  
The things we’ve done were chosen to meet our lifestyle needs- for instance, the master bedroom door is now a white barn door because the old door opened to cover the bathroom door and it made it a pain in the butt to go into our bathroom. Much better now that we’ve replaced that door.

Took down the elevated breakfast bar and replaced all the countertops w quartz because I hated the ceramic tile countertops and needed a larger place for rolling noodles and cooking with the grands. 
 

So style wise we’re way off, but it works just fine with our mix of antiques and quilts and family memorabilia. 
 

[Paige]

3 hours ago, Bootsie said:

We bought a house last year--it is almost 100 years old and has been added on to/updated so many times we don't know what the original footprint was.  The staircase that was added when a second floor addition was built has wrought iron--that looks so dated to me.  I have been wondering if we go to the expense of updating it--I guess maybe I am in style and didn't even know it.  

I'm sure there's a style of wrought iron that is in and a style that is dated! I wouldn't change it if it's sturdy. 

[Farrar]

Interesting thread.

I think the more trendy something is, the more likely it is to look dated later. Things that are harkening back to another time or just quality materials don't look dated to me. There's a difference between dated and... dated. Like, I can date the age of a house from the molding around here, but I don't think the molding makes it look dated. Our molding is really old fashioned (which, duh, the house is well over a century old) and it's certainly not anything anyone would pick out now, but it's also not dated. It's just... old. As long as something is quality, it'll eventually just look old and not dated.

[PeterPan]

3 hours ago, klmama said:

Surely you realize that you can't make a comment like that and not share a photo!  I've never seen a glass chicken, much less a flock of them.  Please?

Just remember you asked, lol. That's hens and a spare rabbit. I have a pig, but he must be elsewhere right now. I have metal roosters on top of the cabs and one glass rooster. Fenton is made in Ohio and I got it at the factory a bit before it closed. I have another blue nesting hen that I sometimes display with them when I put them other places (on a ledge over a sink). It just didn't go with the white, so he (well technically she) is not out.

My grandma had a nesting hen like these in her guest room when I was a child, and I spent so much time being fascinated by it. I would look at the detail. She also had a picture of Daniel in the Lions' Den which, for some strange reason, also had chickens strutting around. So I guess I've just had a thing for chickens, lol. When it wasn't chickens, it was ducks. But now I'm mostly chickens. And the roosters, well that's because they're loud and colorful, like me. 

The shells in the blue jar as jewel boxes. I picked them up in Fort Myers Beach, right before I banged my head sledding. I like the detail in them too, and to me it all goes. If it doesn't, oh well, lol. And yes, the spices are in alphabetical order. I'm missing roasted garlic, hence the whole. If I were embracing my OCD, they'd all be in matching jars, haha. 

The Christmas cactus was from my grandma to my mother 30 years ago. I inherited it and keep nurturing it along. The other succulents are new, just things I'm trying. They seem to like the window. 

 

[PeterPan]

5 hours ago, Carol in Cal. said:

See, I don’t enjoy the process, so this would just mean that I was always doing it and always unhappy.  Not good.

Maybe you're trying to do the wrong thing? I've decided that for me the goals in working on a space are to make it *function* better or *feel* better. So if adding a throw makes *me feel better* when I'm in the space, then I know why I put it there. It didn't have anything to do with looks and designers and all that, kwim? And if I want a chair to play my little ukelele and I put a magazine rack beside it to hold the music, again I wasn't doing some swank seating arrangement but was just adding a *function*. 

I don't find doing this stuff easy either, and I'm certainly bunk at the aesthetics. I don't even have good visual memory, so I have to take pictures of the space to go shop and try things to see if they'll work! I look like a nut in the store, holding up my phone by the lamp or whatever, expanding the picture, lol. 

See that's the thing. I know who I am and what I value, and I don't give a rip about fashion or trends. I DO care how I feel in the space and if it makes it easy for me to do what I want to do. So I decorate/organize/design the space to do what I need. And if the next person comes in and is totally NT and turns it into some cavern of candles and Kirkland's decor, good for them! I didn't need that. I needed quirky things like textures, symmetry/balance, places to do my tasks, etc. 

I can't be somebody else, kwim? I don't decorate like anyone else any more than I do anything else like everyone else, lol. And I'm over it. If I want things lined up, I line them up. My house, my party. 

[KungFuPanda]

3 hours ago, fraidycat said:

I don't even have to wonder.

We just bought our "mid-century modern" (??) house in August. It is NOT open concept. The kitchen & dining are on the back side of the house with a whole wall and staircase to the basement between them and the living room. 
 

I fell in love with the house because of the storage! So much storage (except for the kitchen which needs more!) All of that lovely storage is in those center walls between back and front of the house. A fantastic deep pantry over the stairs which is amazing for vacuums, mops, cleaning supplies, and small appliances (instant pot, coffeemaker, etc.), a huge linen closet with shelves, and a same sizes closet for coats beside it.

The most common comment I get about the house after they marvel over the amount of storage... "I wonder if you could knock out those walls between the living room and dining room to open it up more."

😳😳 It's as if they don't realize those walls contain all that marvelous storage they just gushed about. 😖Not to mention that I LIKE having the living room separate from the clanging and banging of the kitchen.

I get that with my early 70s house.  I have an unfinished basement and people like to tell me I could have two bedrooms down there.  Bedrooms for who?  I already DIYed a dance studio in half of it.  That left room for laundry and the rest is rough storage.  I've also had people ask if I thought about removing the wall between my kitchen and dining room.  I LIKE my separate dining room.  Nobody wants to see the pots on the stove while they're eating.  It's open to the living room and that's enough already.  We liked all of our separate rooms BEFORE the pandemic.  We absolutely treasure them now.  Before my daughter moved out she was teaching high school from her bedroom, Dh was doing conference calls in his office, DS was doing classes downstairs, and I was in the basement studio facetiming my mom and sister . . . and my sister is loud.  If we WANT to be all together we'll congregate in one room.  Open concept seems like a great idea for about ten minutes when you're keeping track of toddlers.  After that it can be a bit much when everyone works from home.

[PeterPan]

8 hours ago, Kalmia said:

I have zero interest in decorating trends. My rooms are painted white or off-white.

Watch out, you've found a style. https://studio-mcgee.com/design/room-inspiration/  It's her whole thing, white walls, tons of white. See, you're trend, way on trend, on point, HIP.

[Sherry in OH]

4 hours ago, PeterPan said:

When I go in cleaning mode (which is not always, haha) I sit in a room and go ok, if I wanted to spend $100 max (pick an amount), what could I do to freshen this room? And then I might go buy some plants, put up a picture collage frame, hit the antique stores for something cute. And then, since I'm not a fast cleaner, haha, I repeat that in the next room a week or two later. 

So I try to freshen my rooms, but I don't just toss everything and redo. Just adding to the layers. Of course I'm a very pokey decorator. Maybe I don't have up enough stuff for it to look "out" haha. Like fenton and cacti, how "out" can they be?? I guess fenton is very out, but I decided it's back in. I have an indecent amount of it and line it up, which means it's now back in. At least it's not bells. My grandma had BELLS in her bay window, and I see no point. But, you know, more power to the person with that collection. I line up glass chickens, so who am I to talk? 

Ok, so I'll make a confession. Sometimes I stop and look around my house and wonder what someone ELSE would do to it if they were there. It's an interesting exercise. But I'm still not taking out my chickens and fenton over it. I just see if any of the answers are something I would like, lol.

I don't have to wonder.  They would either gut it or tear it down and start over.  That is what has happened to every home in my neighborhood that has sold in the last 3 years. 

For example, I have a pony wall between the front hallway and living room.  People ask, "why don't you remove it." Answer: because I don't want the front door to be in my living room.   We did have the wall between the dining room and kitchen removed to make a more family-friendly kitchen. The original kitchen was of the one-butt variety. The experience was so traumatic that we decided we were done with major renovations.  

[PeterPan]

2 minutes ago, Sherry in OH said:

I don't have to wonder.  They would either gut it or tear it down and start over.  That is what has happened to every home in my neighborhood that has sold in the last 3 years. 

They tear down the whole house or just the pony wall? 

3 minutes ago, Sherry in OH said:

For example, I have a pony wall between the front hallway and living room.  People ask, "why don't you remove it." Answer: because I don't want the front door to be in my living room.

I saw Studio McGee updating pony walls in houses for their Netflix series, so not everyone is pulling them out. My new mantra is NEUTRALIZE. Like they went in and painted the whole thing a soft white. And they pulled out the vertical wood pieces and put in a different kind that looked fresh. 

[Bootsie]

1 hour ago, Paige said:

I'm sure there's a style of wrought iron that is in and a style that is dated! I wouldn't change it if it's sturdy. 

The problem is that the wrought iron looks out of place in the age/style of the house, so it looks very dated, to me--but probably not enough to change it.  It is in the kitchen area, that has kitchen cabinets that are not my style.  They are well-built, wooden, custom cabinets, but POORLY designed.  So, I may have an excuse to gut and replace in a style I like better.  The kitchen has 19 drawers, the problem is that 11 of them are only silverware depth.  Of the eight remain drawers that are a bit deeper, four of them are less than 10 inches wide.  The cabinets are designed with dividers between the doors (and non adjustable shelves) so that the hole to put anything into a cabinet is less than 10 inches by 10 inches.  So, I have bowls and pots that I cannot fit in any cabinet--but I could store lots and lots of silverware....   So, replacing the non-functioning cabinets, with something that works better, means that I can replace the kitchen door handles 🙂 but they match the wrought iron part of the stairs, which makes me wonder if that will make the stairs look even more dated 😞  

[Sherry in OH]

6 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

They tear down the whole house or just the pony wall? 

I saw Studio McGee updating pony walls in houses for their Netflix series, so not everyone is pulling them out. My new mantra is NEUTRALIZE. Like they went in and painted the whole thing a soft white. And they pulled out the vertical wood pieces and put in a different kind that looked fresh. 

They tear down the entire house.  They either build a gigantic house that occupies all but minimum setbacks or they subdivide the lot and build two or more narrow two-story houses, again with minimum setbacks.  My neighborhood is being gentrified.   Dh is hoping someone makes us an offer we can't refuse.

I've thought about neutralizing my pony wall by covering the brick with drywall and paint, then thought why bother.  The sofa hides it on the living room side and all people do on the entryway side is kick off their shoes and hang up their coats.  

[historically accurate]

I've been snickering every time I see a HGTV designer raving about the gold fixtures. When I first started watching, they were ripping out those "horrid, dated" brass and gold fixtures by the dumpster-load. 

My house is a mobile home, so I don't really have to worry about resale too much, so I just don't worry about it. Right now, my house has a lot of color - green kitchen, blue bedrooms, yellow bathroom, and a purple bathroom. My living room is beige LOL. I'm trying to convince DH he wants to help me wallpaper the laundry room with floral wallpaper. So far, he's not biting - I would do it myself but we have vaulted ceilings, and it'd be hard to do it by myself or with an inexperienced teen. https://www.wayfair.com/decor-pillows/pdp/ebern-designs-ravenden-summer-garden-315-l-x-22-w-wallpaper-roll-w000254213.html?piid=1963626935

I like to look on Zillow and find houses I can redesign. Unfortunately, my budget doesn't expand for me to actually do that. 

[Kassia]

38 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

They tear down the whole house or just the pony wall? 

I saw Studio McGee updating pony walls in houses for their Netflix series, so not everyone is pulling them out. My new mantra is NEUTRALIZE. Like they went in and painted the whole thing a soft white. And they pulled out the vertical wood pieces and put in a different kind that looked fresh. 

I never heard of a pony wall, but we have two - one in a bathroom separating a sink and toilet and the other between our kitchen/eating area and family room.  I can't imagine what else would go between the kitchen/dining room other than a full wall.  I didn't know they would ever go in/out of style. 

 

 

 

9 minutes ago, historically accurate said:

I've been snickering every time I see a HGTV designer raving about the gold fixtures. When I first started watching, they were ripping out those "horrid, dated" brass and gold fixtures by the dumpster-load. 

 

Are the gold/brass fixtures back in style now?  We never got ours out due to cost and time.  All of our interior doorknobs and hallway light fixtures are that finish.  

 

I don't care a whole lot about what's dated/not dated but we do want to move sometime in the next few years and our house needs a lot of work.  

 

[historically accurate]

12 minutes ago, Kassia said:

I never heard of a pony wall, but we have two - one in a bathroom separating a sink and toilet and the other between our kitchen/eating area and family room.  I can't imagine what else would go between the kitchen/dining room other than a full wall.  I didn't know they would ever go in/out of style. 

 

 

 

Are the gold/brass fixtures back in style now?  We never got ours out due to cost and time.  All of our interior doorknobs and hallway light fixtures are that finish.  

 

I don't care a whole lot about what's dated/not dated but we do want to move sometime in the next few years and our house needs a lot of work.  

 

Gold/brass is back in a big way! https://faucetlist.com/blogs/buying-guides/modern-brushed-gold-finishes-for-your-2019-kitchen-bath

[Carol in Cal.]

33 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

Maybe you're trying to do the wrong thing? I've decided that for me the goals in working on a space are to make it *function* better or *feel* better. So if adding a throw makes *me feel better* when I'm in the space, then I know why I put it there. It didn't have anything to do with looks and designers and all that, kwim? And if I want a chair to play my little ukelele and I put a magazine rack beside it to hold the music, again I wasn't doing some swank seating arrangement but was just adding a *function*. 

I don't find doing this stuff easy either, and I'm certainly bunk at the aesthetics. I don't even have good visual memory, so I have to take pictures of the space to go shop and try things to see if they'll work! I look like a nut in the store, holding up my phone by the lamp or whatever, expanding the picture, lol. 

See that's the thing. I know who I am and what I value, and I don't give a rip about fashion or trends. I DO care how I feel in the space and if it makes it easy for me to do what I want to do. So I decorate/organize/design the space to do what I need. And if the next person comes in and is totally NT and turns it into some cavern of candles and Kirkland's decor, good for them! I didn't need that. I needed quirky things like textures, symmetry/balance, places to do my tasks, etc. 

I can't be somebody else, kwim? I don't decorate like anyone else any more than I do anything else like everyone else, lol. And I'm over it. If I want things lined up, I line them up. My house, my party. 

I’m talking about actual physical work here, like painting or changing tile, flooring, cabinets, etc.  Or reupholstering or changing out upholstered furniture.  

The little stuff I do all the time, but the bones above are what do and don’t make a place look dated, largely.  Except those pesky geese, of course, LOL.

[Kassia]

40 minutes ago, historically accurate said:

Gold/brass is back in a big way! https://faucetlist.com/blogs/buying-guides/modern-brushed-gold-finishes-for-your-2019-kitchen-bath

Thank you!  I had no idea! 

[kristin0713]

Gold is in, but I don't think it will last. 

I had to look up what macrame was.  Yikes, not my thing for sure. 

Wrought iron is totally in.  I think it's timeless and classy, but the older and very ornate styles do look dated. 

[Carol in Cal.]

13 minutes ago, kristin0713 said:

Gold is in, but I don't think it will last. 

I had to look up what macrame was.  Yikes, not my thing for sure. 

Wrought iron is totally in.  I think it's timeless and classy, but the older and very ornate styles do look dated. 

Dang, I feel old now.  🙂

[Paige]

14 hours ago, kristin0713 said:

Gold is in, but I don't think it will last. 

I had to look up what macrame was.  Yikes, not my thing for sure. 

Wrought iron is totally in.  I think it's timeless and classy, but the older and very ornate styles do look dated. 

My problem with wrought iron rails is that I find they are not as sturdy as solid wood as they age. I've had 2 homes with them in the interior, both older homes- so the rails were old- and they were not as sturdy as anyone's wood railings I've seen. It's always- "Don't lean on the railing!" 

[Scarlett]

Y'all when I talk about remodeling a room  year....I don't think anyone had in mind to rip out everything and start from scratch. And if you are happy with how it looks great, don't change it.  But as time goes on and you start thinking you need to update.....a little at a time works great instead of whole house makeover every 40 years.  LOL

[Bootsie]

We lived in a house that was over 80 years old (as were all of the houses in the neighborhood).  We wanted to put in a sprinkler system and do a few other things to the yard.  We had a landscape company come out to give us an estimate.  As soon as they started telling us that our landscaping was "dated" and that we should rip it all out and start over we found a new company; one of the things I loved about the house were the old ivy beds.

[Paige]

4 minutes ago, Bootsie said:

We lived in a house that was over 80 years old (as were all of the houses in the neighborhood).  We wanted to put in a sprinkler system and do a few other things to the yard.  We had a landscape company come out to give us an estimate.  As soon as they started telling us that our landscaping was "dated" and that we should rip it all out and start over we found a new company; one of the things I loved about the house were the old ivy beds.

I'd love to have "dated" landscaping.

[vonfirmath]

23 hours ago, Quill said:

I don’t enjoy spending $$$$ on it. I like getting something new because the old one is broken or vastly underperforming, but the thought of throwing out cabinets or appliances or flooring that is perfectly fine because that color isn’t trendy anymore is something I can’t stand. 

Sometimes I wonder if we will renovate our house before putting it on the market. Im leaning towards no, because for one thing, there’s that change-one-change-all problem and also, I think I may update it and the new owners will decide it’s not to their taste and will trash brand-new stuff for something different. 

This is why we have not renovated our kitchen even though

1) We have known since we purchased the house 8 years ago we would need to update the kitchen

2) Shortly after we bought my then 1 year old daughter decided to decorate the floor and cabinets with a black Sharpie permanent marker she got her hands on... It eventually wore off the floors but we can still see it on the inside of the lower cabinet doors.

 

[Scarlett]

10 minutes ago, Bootsie said:

We lived in a house that was over 80 years old (as were all of the houses in the neighborhood).  We wanted to put in a sprinkler system and do a few other things to the yard.  We had a landscape company come out to give us an estimate.  As soon as they started telling us that our landscaping was "dated" and that we should rip it all out and start over we found a new company; one of the things I loved about the house were the old ivy beds.

Talk about shooting themselves in the foot!  Yikes.  

This reminds me of a realtor my parents used briefly when they were looking to move to our area.  The realtor---in nearly every house----would tell my mom how easy it would be to just rip everything out that was 'dated'.   That is NOT what my parents needed to hear.  They were already stressed out about moving.