Home decor internet trends, aaargh!

[AFierceBadRabbit]

(lighthearted thread)
Does anyone else ever despair at online inspiration photo's of interiors?

I'm about to move into a new flat, so been looking online for ideas and tips to save space, etc. Ikea really good for this, but have stumbled into a world hitherto unknown to me - instagram famous decor bloggers!
WTF?

So right now I am tired of seeing endless images of the SAME:
*Flokati rug, the one in cream with black diamond design.
*Y-back chairs.
*Sectional sofas regardless whether they fit in the room or not.
*Massive expanses of artfully designed desk space in vast sized rooms that appear to never get used.
*Geo shaped lamp shades or those Scandinavian style exposed filament bulbs hanging everywhere, even ten in one row over a small table.
*Homes that are so large it boggles the mind. I searched for inspo for small apartments and what came up? Tons of images claiming to be small spaces which were actually football pitch sized with ceilings as high as a warehouse (don't forget those exposed pipes!)......one tiny mid-century sideboard in middle of this wast expanse looking lonely and uncomfortable.

God why is everything trend driven so damn soulless?

Ok I like white, and I love the Soderhamn sofa, but I need to wind my neck back in and ponder some reality.

[AFierceBadRabbit]

vast expanse, not wast expanse.

[8FencingWire]

I used an app called Houzz.
I moved in a new estate. As in brand new. Between us, we bought a whole Ikea, should be called Kallax land. 😂

[MoominFlaps]

It does my head in to but I think it's because I'm secretly jealous of how tidy their houses are

[AFierceBadRabbit]

But no, really, who would truly want to live in a giant white cube?
Those spaces, although they appeal to the creative in me, don't exactly make me feel warm and fuzzy - I do think Ikea's marketing and room tips are more realistic and attractive though, so I do like my Scandi stuff.

It all seems a bit obsessive to me. The endless string shelves, like a status symbol of insta fame. The 'oh my BF will kill me when he sees what I have spent on this tiny plastic stool we'll never use!!' emojis.

And where does all of this crap go once the trend shifts (and it will!)?
Bloody thousands of expensive rugs, minimalist cube tables, rattan lightshades and framed mattisse cut-out blue nudes with nobody to covet or love them any more

[AFierceBadRabbit]

Ha, I used to have the expedit (pre-kallax) and it was a bugger to move when you got a new place. Loved it though:)

[AFierceBadRabbit]

What I want to know is, apart from the very wealthy, who has rooms like this?
At least 2 of these were shown under a search for 'small space solutions'

[krakentoast]

That looks like a hipster office in an ex-industrial space, not a house! So many double height ceilings in those kinds of pics. Who lives there???

I am sick of seeing:

• Dark kitchen units with white quartz worktops (yes they look nice but they seem to cost a million pounds and are following me around the internet)
  

• Copper and brass fripperies (terrariums! random spiky ornaments! fake pineapples! they're fucking everywhere)
  

• Kids' rooms with walls painted to look like mountains, and loads of fox/wolf/teepee themed stuff everywhere
  

• Grey and blush pink everything.
  

• Instagram parents who dress their babies in nothing but the following: grey woollen things, mustard-coloured woollen things.
  

I might need to step away from Pinterest and Instagram for a bit.

[AFierceBadRabbit]

Ah yes, the chrome fripperies!

It's good to let it out, isn't it?

[Ketzele]

Ah yes that rug, I know it well!

And blackboard paint on kitchen walls, cacti, pineapples, copper everything, animal heads on walls, Farrow & Ball Downpipe, rolltop baths...

[AFierceBadRabbit]

...fancy log arrangements on shelves (for stove), text slogans in frames such as 'easy like sunday morning' and 'life is good' and 'I can't talk before coffee', uurgh.

sheepskin rug thrown over Eames chair.

the ubiquitous fiddle leaf fig.

those fuffing kinfolk magazines. (i wonder how many of these were actually purchased to read rather than photograph).

[AFierceBadRabbit]

rug over chair trend gone stellar....

[krakentoast]

YES rugs on chairs. Because where else would you put a rug, you untrendy rube?

Alcoves in walls filled with stacks of logs. Packed so tight, how will you get them out? Bonus points if someone has painted the ends of the logs, proving they will never be used. So hygge (never mind how sterile the rest of the room is - one blanket and some logs = hygge).

On slogans in frames, "WORK HARD AND BE NICE TO PEOPLE" is the new "Keep calm and..." imo. And fuck gallery walls. And tasselly wall hangings. Some people need to leave their walls well alone.

Random rustic doors propped up in corners, not attached to anything

Eucalyptus in a glass jar against a white wall

Mid-century sideboards.

I am partly just jealous of all the neat white houses but where is the soul? So many of the rooms look like the interior design equivalent of those staged black-and-white photos that come free in new photo frames.

[CreamCheez]

I remember reading a perfect home book where she'd stored all of the children's annoying little toys into large glass jars... Good luck with that.
Also, I hate mantle pieces / coffee tables / sideboards strewn with animal skulls / taxidermy / ethnic artefacts. Aren't we cultured... Not.

[friendlessfred]

Loving this thread, you made me smile as I look at my scruffy but loved home.
Sorry to say we have slogans on the wall for now.
Can we see pics online of coffee tables strewn with newspaper, envelopes and chairs with laundry piled high please?!

[WiltingTulip]

My pet hate is "art" that is bought or made purely to match furniture. It usually has no artistic merit or is unappreciated 😢

I'm seeing heaps of "artwork" that is presently fashionable colors arranged in pleasing shapes. I wonder if the owners throw it out when they buy new furniture?

[fiftyplustwo]

Start your own trend!

[Cwandry]

Moving house..l so just about to enter this world....

[CurlsLDN]

If you like Scandi and mid century modern, there's a great Facebook group called housfolk.
There's still an awful lot of flokati rugs and mountains painted on kids bedroom walls, but people post pics of their real houses, so you get a lot more 'brand new bovis homes' type space

[Blodplod]

I remember getting really really pissed off at Period Living magazine which I got every month as a subscription. They had a section called readers homes and did a feature every month of a PL reader and their home. EVERY single so called normal 'readers' home featured included Him, who either worked in finance or was an antiques dealer, Her, runs an interior design business or has her own interior design shop, a couple of kids and a designer dog called Agnes. Generally a huge pile bought in Surrey for 1.5mil in 2007 and renovated and now worth 8mil. Every single month.. She, was ALWAYS an interior designer.. really wound me up to the point was the sole reason I stopped the subscription.. I used to have a little competition with myself every month to see if the wife in this months story would be a lawyer, housewife, retail assistant etc but no, always Interior Designer. Drove me mental!

[TheHiphopopotamus]

I agree! There are a few house accounts I've been following on Instagram and they all look so similar I've lost track of who's who.

The trend seems to be:

A couple of rooms painted in F&B downpipe or a really navy blue, so it sucks every single drop of light out of it.

A gallery wall absolutely filled with any and every kind of print you can lay your hands on. Doesn't seem to matter if it's straight or not.

Some kind of neon sign with a slogan. You get more points if it features a pun.

Bathroom must have a rolltop bath, Moroccan floor tiles and subway tiles for the walls.

YY to the kids room with triangular 'mountains' painted on and a couple of outfits hanging artfully on clothes rails and fox cushions.

The trend also seems to be swinging to tropical wallpaper and enough plants to fill the Eden Project.

[Ketzele]

What is a fiddle leaf fig?

Blodpod, for me one of the greatest joys of reading interiors mags is the hackneyed interviews. Yes she is always a interior designer (though often just wannabe - "Friends were in awe of how I curated this space and have beggedvme to help them with their projects. So now Xavier and Anais are away at school I have started a new career as an interiors consultant."

Also love how they always say the same things: space, wow factor, bedrooms are boutique hotel chic, bathrooms are sanctuaries (not in my house), kitchens are the hub of the home where we all gather, and I can watch the children while preparing a meal. Oh, and bifolds bring the outdoors in (a great asset on a rainy Tuesday in Croydon).

[Ketzele]

One of my favourites was a fab Georgian place in Spitalfields, occupied by a pair of hardcore trendies. It was all dark walls and taps fashioned out of copper piping. Best of all, their kitchen island was actually a vintage haberdashery counter, all untoughened glass and uncleanable corners, filled with the obligatory animal skulls etc. To my great glee, at the end it said they were expecting their first baby. How toast is that kitchen island?

Though I think I remember that they had their stairwells painted in black gloss, and that DOES seem like a good idea with kids

[TheHiphopopotamus]

ketzele it's the same kind of thing with Grand Designs.

It's all open staircases and glass from floor to ceiling. The families usually have a toddler and they always have one on the way (as GD's is a great way to boost your fertility apparently).

I always wonder where they've been living beforehand as anyone with kids knows that sticky little hands and all that glass are absolute no-no. I reckon they'll just be forever wiping two foot snot trails off their windows for the next ten years

[WiltingTulip]

Now Grand Designs has been mentioned....

There seems to be a lot of people who don't need privacy bathing and who like to bathe with a view or a really big window or they need to have room for an armchair so while having a bath they can chat about the day...

[reuset]

Yes to whoever said grey! It's everywhere. Grey exterior woodwork, grey interior walls. It looks like a public house, many of whom have also enthusiastically embraced the grey.