.... to expect my in-laws to mind their own bloody business regarding the decor of OUR house.

[sandyballs]

We are in the process of doing up our home and the in-laws keep coming round to have a nose at how we are doing and are very negative, to say the least.

"OOoh, yellow dear, you are funny aren't you"
"Oh my, that really doesn't go with that carpet"
"Now why on earth did you go for this shade"

etc etc. MIL thinks she missed her vocation as an interior designer - her house is lovely, in a 1975 kind of way and she can't understand our neutral, non-clutter idea of doing things. Well, as far as you can do non-clutter with two kids .

Same here, makes my blood boil just thinking about it
"i see you've been painting again, hmmm"
Is it unreasonable to tell her to 'f*ck off?'

Maybe something like "things have changed since 1975 you know". If she can be rude to you, throw some back.

I know how you feel, we live in the same street (almost) that DH was born so we have the same house and MIL always says things like "oh we didnt have the bannister on this side, I wonder why youve done it like that" "oh we had a purple kitchen and it really lifted it" Feck off
Have to say there not a patch on my mother who buys things that "might look nice on that bare wall" or "would hide that carpet stain"

Would you not just quietly say 'that's a bit rude, I wouldn't criticise your home'.

To which my mother would say "theres nothing to criticise about my home"

Thats perfect Carmenere, I think you should just call her on it.

all our house interior is white and our in-laws are still waiting for us to 'decorate'

they also told us not to have a white kitchen under any circumstances which ended with us dithering into almost making a disastrous dark-wood mistake and then having to change it at the last minute, costing us £600

and then they made it look as if I was a flake who couldn't make her mind up

What I do when mil is being critical is just say 'well that is old fashioned and we prefer things a bit more modern' to which she sniffs disapprovingly and I ignore it

Good one, I'll need to remember that whenever she turns up with her Spanish laced tablecloth "to cover that ugly table"

Oh I'm getting good at it as my mil is currently selling her house and is regularly trying to foist revolting rubbish that she has picked up at car boot sales on us. She actually started to cry the other day when dp repeatedly refused her rubbish. We are not talking about much loved pieces of furniture here, we are talking about musty old crap she has bought for 50p.

had to jump in here...we when moved, MIL say the potential of our big double doors - 'ohh...you could have lurverly floral curtains, with a big pelmet, and all draping etc etc'...seemed to think that our taupe tab top curtains would just be an interim thing!

Urgh, it is one of the things that really winds me up about my BIL and his wife. They seem to think it is okay to critisise us at every opportunity.

Like recently he said: "when are you going to get rid of that hideous dining table?"

Errr - it is an original 1920's oak one, we rescued it from being landfilled and we love it actually. Why would I want a bland piece of Argos crap like you have??
Of course I don't say that, I just say 'oh one day'...

I am too polite to be rude back, infact I am reduced to a quivering jellymould when in the same room as BIL and SIL as they are so rude/confident/love themselves/believe they are always right/are able to successfully argue black is white.

My sister is the same - every time she comes round she criticizes the placement of the furniture in our sitting room. Granted, it isn't ideal, but the furniture comes from another house and doesn't really fit; we'll buy more when we can afford it. But recently, after staying the night, she got up before us AND MOVED IT ALL ROUND TO SUIT HER IDEAS! AND SHE SCRATCHED THE NEW WOODEN FLOOR DOING IT!!

It's just astounding how rude people can be isn't it . I would never say anything in someone elses home, unless they were very close friends and asked my opinion.

MIL picked up a photo of my DDs and started to say how small they were at the time etc, then she suddenly clutched her chest and started wheezing, having a kind of fake asthma attack , she hurriedly put the photo down and said "oh you're not a duster dear are you" .

OMG that's so rude!!!!

Give her a sodding duster if she's so blinking precious ...

she hurriedly put the photo down and said "oh you're not a duster dear are you" .

ok it may be the gin that I’ve had but that made me laugh 😂.

I’m a bit of a smartass so probably would have said something to the effect ‘No… sadly my dusting career ended after the Great War 🥺”