To ask your interior design pet hates?

[Lotsofsausage]

Am I a horrible snob?
Here are mine:
Bowls of pebbles on coffee table (why?)
Black and diamanté furniture
Photos printed onto canvas (CRAP quality just get a good photographic print and frame it!)
Those shiny duvet sets and cushions
Fire surround but no fire place (not) even a hole in the wall!

@lanouvelleheloise and @nina2b

I do have a lot of books. I do love reading. I work in publishing, my degree is in English Lit. You will just have to take my word for it that I like books. We have 4 huge bookcases completely covering one wall of our living room. They are all colour coded.

I have quite a visual memory and find it easier to 'see' a book spine in my mind than remember the author, so it works for me, and clearly for lots of other people. It's not 'very silly' (not a phrase I'd use for anything that didn't involve toddlers).

I hate show homes. Everything as it 'should' be according to the latest interior design magazine with absolutely no clue that anyone with a shred of individuality lives there.

I see visually too but my many, many books are arranged by subject.
Cookbooks together, arranged by size. Reference books together etc.
Novels by author and so on.

I colour code now, but have different bookcases all over the house. I never really did alphabetical sorting for books anyway - I just know roughly where they are anyway. The only time organising g by courier has been tricky was when DD was going through my complete collection of books by a particular author and they were scattered across the bookcase, rather than all together, so it took an extra few seconds to find them. Some of books are in piles on the floor of the spare room at the moment, though, which is far worse for getting my hands on what I want.

Live laugh love cringe.
Sticks, pebbles, shells.
Smeg - the freezer is too small
Naff saddam Hussains art collection

Leather or "leatherette" sofas and chairs. (Goes off to get coat)

I'm wondering why it matters how other people arrange their books. Or who doesn't "see visually". But I suppose I am thus missing the point of the thread...

So many naff things listed here, I've got the best thing in my bathroom on the shelf above the sink- it's a handmade golden glittery shit...

I hate biscuit coloured carpets. I always feel like I'm in a hotel.

Oh and people who buy 'distressed' furniture - no, it's not distressed, it's just that the paint is peeling off and there's nails sticking out of it!

I see visually too

😂😂😂

Naff saddam Hussains art collection

Are these the same people who have Hitler ornaments?

No, Hiphop, there are distinct groups of dictator loving art collectors. And they don't mix, ever.

Stalin soft furnishings.

ExPresidents

Most people do not have your amazing capacity to do that visual thing. I still think it is odd, however, when books are not in alphabetical order and frankly silly if you have quite a number of books.

My degree is in English, also, if it's relevant. I do not really see what working in publishing has to do with the price of fish, either...

I have masses of books.

basket

scrum Stalin soft furnishings After reading this thread, I'm convinced interior designers are missing a trick somewhere along the line...

Mussolini drapes.

Inspirational sayings sprayed on stairs so you can read them as you go up.

All the grey now.
I live in a country where the sky is often grey, why would I want my home to be grey too!!!
It used to be 50 shades of beige aka Kelly Hoppen.

Woah ladies, getting very judgy and nasty here!

God, I only read the first three pages and felt utter shame. I love my house but I do have:-

lots of wall slogans with inspirational quotes
candles
canvases
twigs with lights on them

to be fair I decorated the house myself when I moved in and the walls werent the best so I thought the slogans hide a multitude of sins. You can't polish a turd but you can wrap it in glitter....my house is definitely a glitterered turd and I love it :)

Not wanting to sound dismissive, but 4 bookcases isn't very much! Even if they are fullsize Billy things from Ikea with height extensions. Try doing it with 4-5 times as many books spread across a whole range of publishers, so not just the liveries of, say, historical fiction! It quickly becomes impossible unless a book is very specific or you have a totally photographic memory. Also, soooo many academic books have very similar looking white/cream or blue spines.

You quickly need to start grouping them by discipline (philosophy, history, fiction, geography) and alphabetically by author. I sometimes even forget I actually own a book, and buy a second copy by accident. It's all complicated by the fact that DH and I also have offices full of books, so even determining whether something is at home or not can be a nightmare. Fortunately, we are investing in a library in the near future.

Why the fuck are people arguing about how to organise books?! Who cares how someone else does it??
I have a fair amount of books, and they're not organised at all. Just slung on the shelf. Doesn't affect anyone else.

I can't bear those trite statements etched in wood or slate: 'Live Laugh Love' or 'You Don't Need to Be Mad To Live Here - But It Helps!' - And the ones full of rules about how to live a happy life. People who give into one seem to end up with these things all over their walls. One is too many! Anyone with cliched instructions on their walls can fucking do one.

'Not wanting to sound dismissive, but 4 bookcases isn't very much'

I believe this is what the youth refer to as 'shots fired'.

My childminder's house is an aladdin's cave of plastic flowers, heart shaped pointless shit on the walls, inspirational quotes, fairy lights and sequinned cushions littering a cream leather sofa. Just wrong. Even my 9 year old begged me not to get fairy lights when we moved into our new house.