Is there anyone left who lives in a house that doesn't have a colour scheme, style, aesthetic or what have you?

[MrsToadofToadHall]

Just musing as I scroll through social media...

Most people I know seem to have houses where there's a distinct theme - one colour/style of furniture per room, curtains that match sofas, some of it is to my taste and some isn't, but either way you can tell at a glance what they are trying to do, be it grey chrome or white minimalism or rainbow or whatever.

When I was a kid, I don't remember people's houses running along one particular theme the way they do now, obviously you'd have a few trends pop up, but I don't remember things being so matchy matchy, except perhaps for my aunt's house, where she had a "special" sitting room for the adults, all done in terracotta and pine. Mostly though it seemed to be a case of, I like this picture, I'll put it on the wall. MIL has given me a pot plant, I'll shove in that corner. Those curtains would do for the bedroom. That's a nice colourful hard-wearing rug, it'll go in the hall. I don't think there was quite as much emphasis on everything tying in so exactly to everything else. My house is a bit like this now - all the walls are white, because we had to redecorate when we bought it and I was sick of rental magnolia, the curtains in every room are different patterns because my granny got a seamstress friend to run some up for us as a housewarming present, our bedroom furniture is a complete mishmash of nothing matching, that sort of thing. I love our house and I'm not complaining, but I don't think you'd walk in and be able to pinpoint any particular style or trend.

I know people from quite a range of backgrounds and incomes, so it's not something that seems particular to any group, just that homes in general seem to be more styled/pulled together/matchy these days.

Is it because of social media? Because it's easier to get bits and pieces in places like B&M? Though there's always been home stores

My houses evolve gradually over time as I get a feeling of what will look lovely where.
My current living room is rocking colourful Turkish bazzar. I have IKEA stuff, one of recycled rustic wood sideboard and truno, antique Spanish throws from my grandparents house, my mum's 1970 rugs and various geode collections. All living very happily together.
I will see a space and think this item will look fabulous in thereliance. It's like an ongoing piece of artwork.
I dislike anything contrived and don't have colour schemes.

A friend described our house as eccentric so that’s our ‘theme’. Junk yard chic.

Gosh, DDIJ, I think it's past time that you told your mother to fuck off and got your walls stripped/painted white or whatever you want! You (and everyone) absolutely deserve nice stuff! Money permitting, but it doesn't take much money to strip wallpaper and put on paint of your choice.

@MrsToadofToadHall

God I LOVED changing rooms, I used to watch it with mum and we'd delight in being horrified at the final results. I must see if you can get it on YouTube

Oh yes - especially those done by Laurence - my goodness he had some crazy ideas......😳

Nothing is 'matchy' but the whole house kind of flows with a similar style if thats what you mean.

Our house is basically white walls everywhere, with the same wooden floor throughout (except tiled bathrooms). Then I guess our 'theme' is natural materials, wood, fairly neutral with different blocks of colour throughout in artwork and furniture. We have plants in every room also.

But there is no fixed colour of matching furniture, just a similar style.

We are white walls throughout. Grey carpet in the bedrooms. And a kinda ash toned wood - not grey though, think drift wood flooring in the living room. Furniture in the living room is a light grey sofa and matching wooden coffee table and console table with a black metal frame bottom.
Console table had a huge glass lamp with a white shade and a silver vase from Zara. That's it in the living room!

Kitchen is white gloss but a light stone colour work top and light stone flooring.

Quite minimal but still homely feeling!

But surely muddled and homely IS the theme? We're in the process of decorating ours (slowly!) and I like everything to go together. For example, all the wooden objects in our lounge (desk, tv stand, shelves) are a similar dark wood. One random bit of light wood furniture would look strange. We don't match anything, but I wouldn't have one red wall, one green wall and then pink for the other walls. Nothing wrong with a bit of colour coordination! Theme doesn't have to mean minimal and lacking originality.

Mine is rainbow colours. It is in accordance to a theme but sometimes the theme is only in my head. For example I got a lovely cushion in Ikea (forest green, duck egg blue, inky blue, with a stripe of yellow) and the living room is decorated in those colours, with white wooden floor and woodwork and some warm wood bookcases/mantelpiece. We have one grey sofa, one duck-egg, a bright yellow chair and a duck egg footstool (which is not the same colour/style as the duck egg sofa). We have a lot of Ikea stuff, but I like to think it's put together nicely. Mind you, I will tell DH what colours we're going for and then come home to discover he's bought a burnt orange cushion or 4 cushions of the same shade of ochre, whereas I want to have mismatched but coherent cushions.

No themes in our house. Just pale neutral/pastel colours on all the walls if that counts as a theme?
Oh and white furniture, just because I like light

Nothing is 'matchy' but the whole house kind of flows with a similar style if thats what you mean.

This pp describes it better

My house is in no way styled or pulled together
We've deliberately painted some different rooms different colours, and the main bedroom has a somewhat half-arsed gold and deep red 'theme' (half-arsed because I always intend to buy things/decorate but can never get round to it or afford it), but generally we've got walls that haven't been painted in forever and are rental magnolia (we rented before we bought it); a mix of furniture we bought and furniture that came with the house; old carpet that we didn't choose and that needs replacing; mismatching blinds and curtains. Etc etc.

Bit depressing really. I'd quite like someone to come along and take charge and 'style' the place for me!

Yy to homes evolving and the theme being "early marriage" we've had a lot of hand me downs too.

@DDIJ I've seen your posts about your house and your bat of a mother before. If I was anywhere near you I would take great delight in coming round and telling her to fuck off on your behalf. Then hiring a skip and getting you some new locks. I really hope you can change things someday

A few things have changed.

One is the amazing choice in paint colours now. In the past it was Magnolia, White, some Blues/Greens in very limited shades, Dark Brown. The colour cards only had about 20 colours full stop!

I remember when they invented 'Hint of a Tint' and feeling amazed by them.

Now you can match any colour by taking a sample of it in and having the colour made-up especially- and colour charts are huge.

Also, as everyone has said, furnishings were expensive. I remember buying some red velvet cushions and they were really pricey! Not to be swapped in a year or two later. We didn't have fake fur, cheap fabrics, all the lifestyle and DIY stores or supermarkets selling cushions. Everything was more specialist and more expensive.

I think of my house more as 'going together' rather than matching, I wouldn't seek out one colour and theme it heavily, but I like things easy on the eye and that means lots of vaguely blending in subtle colours which are not too challenging. I really don't like statement walls or anything like that.

I'm not that keen on overly styled houses in very neutral colours even though they look might look lovely, I think they also look too impersonal for my tastes. I like rich colours with just a little bit of clutter and homely bits and bobs arranged around. My favourite colour is blue so most of our rooms are decorated in some shade of navy or turquoise but our house is Victorian so it can take the strong colours really well.

My decorating is more about light. I hate gloom so dark rooms have plenty of colour, sitting room is calm and relaxing, kitchen is practical and cheerful, ds bedroom is how he wants it.

I don’t bother with trends or change the furniture, things date too quickly. All that austerity grey is enough to make anyone depressed. I decorate a room or two each year (lockdown has been a bit different).

I have collected art and other things I love over the years. They all feature but get moved around occasionally.

I'm shit at picturing what will go together in my head so my house is a bit all over the place. Kids rooms definitely have a 'theme' but it's one that will grow with them. My pet hate is a house that looks like it's been bought out of Next. Nothing against Next, some of their stuff is lovely but some of their stuff is utter tat.

My whole house is white, dark wood floor throughout with pale carpet in all bedrooms. Furniture is white (cupboards / drawers) and sofa is a neutral shade too.
But then I have lots of book shelves, and trinkets, and art works and throws on the sofa and cushions. These allow me to cheaply change the way the room looks and also maintain a clean neutral background that I can't get fed up of

I hate matchy, matchy styles or things that look too put together. I like objects to be interesting in themselves. I think this has all come about because people can afford to update their furniture (because it is comparitively cheaper than it was). They also aren't massively keen on second hand. The 'styled' home is a result of consumerism and probably started with all those 90s make over programmest. People aren't so interested in art. Instead of choosing a beautiful ceramic, they're more likely to pick up a load of cheap grey vases and arrange them in their grey room to look like a picture they've seen on instagram.

I am obsessed with finding and restoring mid century furniture. Over the years I have bought cheap, enjoyed for a while then sold it on because I wanted something different and enjoy the project.

In the last 14 years I have had six dining tables and am just selling my current one because I 'need' another set I have seen on eBay.

I usually make a fair bit of money but the husband and kids get a bit tired of the constant change.

I have now set up a little business doing this because I love it so much.

I absolutely hate "themed" rooms, the worst one being a nautical themed bathroom. No one ever has a Victorian taxidermy themed bathroom do they?

I have a vague sort of theme going through my house (apart from ds's room which is decorated to his liking, light blue walls, white furniture, white curtains, bedding and ceiling light all with dinosaurs on, lots of pokemon and dinosaur posters on the wall, massive ikea road map rug).

It's all painted white as it was a fixer upper and was stripped down to bare brick and floorboards, some structural stuff done and all replastered. It's white because we haven't got around to picking colours yet.

The living room /dining room are sort of knocked through with an arch separating them. We inherited some quite nice wooden furniture and leather couches.

The ceiling lights are silver chrome led lights. The internal doors are oak with frosted glass and chrome handles. The coffee table and TV stand are oak. The floors are oak.

So it's white walls, chrome fittings and medium /dark wood furniture. Very dark leather couches with a cream throw on one and grey and white one on the other. Curtains and curtain pole are silver. Blinds are white.

The kitchen is ancient and hideous. All mushroom brown tiles ceiling to floor. The floor is nice though, pale stone tiles and must have cost a mint but the grout needs redoing as its turned nearly black. It was the only room that was actually usable when we bought the house though so ugly as it is its last on the list. I want a pale yellow kitchen with pine /beech cupboards and dark countertops. The current countertops are imitation white marble melamine and are a nightmare to keep looking clean.

Our bedroom is a hodge podge of a dark brown leather ottoman bed (bought for practicality over looks as we have very little storage) and various cheap and rather shabby mdf drawers, a cheap flat-packed wardrobe and a clothes rail that is buried under more clothes than it can really cope with. Not one item of furniture matches and not one item of furniture is really fit for purpose apart from the bed (that needs a new mattress).

The less said about the spare room the better. Everything we haven't unpacked yet is still dumped in there. The only furniture is a spare dining room chair.

The bathroom needs ripping out and starting again but have no idea what we're going to do with it.

So a theme I think is emerging. Clean lines, very little pattern, light colours. But it's a fairly small three bed terrace. Patterns and bold colours would wholly overwhelm it and make it look very dark and cluttered.

Going to be quite nice when it's finished though I think.

I can't afford a lifestyle.

I'm just grateful to have a house. Most of my furniture is ancient and inherited, the rest is second hand from auctions. I don't have a 'look' or an 'aesthetic'. I've just got sofas and tables.

I am getting a new rug though and am ridiculously excited about it. It will probably be accented with mud before too long though.

No one ever has a Victorian taxidermy themed bathroom do they?

Unfortunately they do

My Mum always had a matching living room to the extent she would regularly buy new Christmas tree baubles just to match the room decor.

I don’t think my house has any sort of theme and it certainly isn’t matching. I have a grey sofa and chairs but then a yellow throw, white furniture, Boho style rug and belly baskets etc and random little bits placed around such as a lucky cat pen pot . The rest of the house is equally higgeldy, lots of film posters in black frames dotted around and hundreds of books on various different cases. Think I’m still rebelling against my Mother.

But surely muddled and homely IS the theme?

Agree with you Windflower, as I said above, my style is muddled. Having said that though, there is a colour scheme, picked out from my not quite Kilim sofa which is a vintage one that I love and my other items are from places like Neal Street East, and oriental shops, along with some antique bits that were left in a house I bought some years ago. As long as there is nothing modern looking it all works very well together in the living areas.

Upstairs is completely different though. Whites with little bits of blue, no twiddly bits, 80's Boffi white furniture, plain IKEA curtains. I would have blue and white everywhere but I can't bring myself to part with my lovely old sofa so a complete contrast between up and down.

I don't follow trends, I never have, just find something that makes me smile and feel comfortable. I don't need a show home, just a clean and friendly place to spend my time.