To ask what people mean when they say ‘show home’?

[churchandstate]

I’ve just been reading the ‘lived in’ house thread and have read a few others about tidy/messy homes. I’ve seen so many people on here say ‘my house isn’t a show home’, but I have literally never been inside a show home or heard anyone say their house is like a show home.

What do people mean when they say someone’s home (theirs or someone else’s) is like a show home?

Mine, before anyone asks, is a mess.

As well as having smaller furniture in show homes, I remember an architect saying that modern houses aren't built to get solid furniture in and upstairs so things have to be flat pack.

At least that leaves beautiful and beautifully made solid wood old furniture going for less than half the price of flat pack and I can admire the patina and sheen of them in my old house.

@nokidshere

Why are people on here so judgmental and condescending about new builds too? It's weird.

"It’s ‘lived in’ at the moment: laundry basket out"
Put the laundry baskets away.

"house plants looking a bit bedraggled"
Cut off dead/ damaged leaves. Water and feed regularly. If you are too lazy to care for them properly then give or throw them away.

"more cobwebs than I’d like"
Clean your home regularly so that they don't get a chance to form.

"lots of my DH’s ‘stuff’ getting in the way of my tastefully-selected ‘stuff’."
What sort of stuff? A place for everything and everything in its place.

How would people go about making their homes more presentable/attractive, without leaning towards ‘show home’?"

1. Clean regularly.
2. Put everything away if not in use.
3. Don't have colour clashes in decor when going from one room to the next. If different colours in rooms they should flow nicely and not jar your senses.
4. Declutter regularly.
5. Good lighting makes the world of difference. Daylight bulbs give a whiter fresher look to the home.
6. Invest in nifty storage for stuff that you want to keep but don't need on show.

My friend used to clean someone's house who insisted on a certain way she had to Hoover the carpets.
The owner told her to Hoover her deep pile carpets in lines like you see those perfect grass lawns and to do it towards the door so she could see that no-one had walked into the room !

Show home = looks like nobody lives there ie no crap, pots, dirty washing.

I used to have a home like this when my kids were little but it all went to pot when they became teens/young adults. You can control them when they are little but as they get older you've got no chance.

I don't have crap like dirty pots and washing laying around, but I think anyone would be hard pressed to say my home looks uninhabited because of it...

Show homes are keeping Wayfair in business.

I used to work for a lower-end national housebuilder and we would visit the showhomes. The general consensus was "Lovely. But where do you put the telly?"

(And I remember one where the "master" bedroom was so small, you couldn't open the en suite door because the bed - which couldn't be put anywhere else - was in the way 🙄)

I hate houses where it looks like someone has just gone into Next or Ikea and just bought the entire room set to bring into their house. Says a lot about their personalities - lacking in individuality, no confidence in their own style, slavishly following fashion.

There's nothing wrong with choosing grey walls because you like them of having a few throws artistically placed over the sofa. But it says nothing about you and your life or your family. We have grey walls in the lounge. But we also have an ancient welsh dresser picked up for £10 on gumtree, a picture which we chose as a housewarming present, a mixture of different picture frames, a lovely handmade glass decoration from Cornwall.... It's the whole "lifted straight out of a catalogue to be changed again in 3 years when fashions change" look which is so awful.

And incredibly wasteful too.

For me it's when everything has been bought at once, to match, rather than collected/acquired/inherited/etc over the years.

Like in the Home Decorating & Property/DIY forums when someone says "our lounge is X colour with Y colour accessories". Matchy-matchy, flipped through the Next catalogue and got a cushion, throw, lamp and ornament all in one colour or theme. Naff and soulless.

Also: no books. And putting flowers on the zoflora-soaked hob each night...

I've only been in one it was in London and the owner was an interior designer. It was classy, immaculate and looked very cold and unhomely. I felt very uncomfortable because it was too perfect.
I like uncluttered and clean but cosy homes that show the person/people that lives there personality.

No envy here, as someone who is generally clumsy and messy I (or Dd) don't want to be to cause of blemishes in an immaculate house. So rather than relax I'm watching my every step and bite and what I touch, which doesn't make for a nice visit.

This is me. As I mentioned in an earlier post I have essential tremors. I will spill things, I will drop crumbs. It isn't a question of if, but how much? In a house with cream carpets or spotless white furniture if I am offered a coffee I feel that I have to decline, as soon as I start worrying about spilling it makes my shakes 100 times worse and spillage becomes inevitable. This is why immaculate houses make me uncomfortable and I can never relax in them. It isn't envy, it is me finding the situation incredibly stressful.

@PineappleDanish

In your opinion of course.

Apparently there's a whole little specialist sector which manufactures furniture and home accessories in reduced sizes for show homes. Something like 7/8 of normal size - big enough to fool your eye into thinking it's real, but small enough to make the rooms look larger.

"house plants looking a bit bedraggled"
Cut off dead/ damaged leaves. Water and feed regularly. If you are too lazy to care for them properly then give or throw them away.

Yes, poor suffering plants. Give them to a good home. A plant isn't just for Christmas.

Generally it's a bitchy way of saying someone's home is neat, tidy and well decorated and furnished.

This but I've said it and meant it as a compliment as I love neat, tidy, well decorated and furnished houses

I agree with a PP, for me saying someone lives in a show home is someone whose gone is so pristine it makes you feel uncomfortable because you’re worried you’ll dribble tea, or spill biscuit crumbs or something. You can’t relax there. To me it isn’t really to do with how it’s decorated.

Show home for me is when things are for show within the house rather than living. We have family who have just made their place look like a show home. They are rather extravagant anyway, everything has to be designer and custom made. They are not rolling in it either. Very mediocre careers and jobs but they like to give the appearance that they are something they are not. The same thing is reflected in their home. The funny thing is they have towels and toiletries in the bathrooms that are for "decoration" and not for use. Highly amusing.

This is my idea of a gorgeous room:

And this:

A few messy books there, though.

Using smaller than normal furniture in show homes to make the rooms seem larger is one of the oldest show home tricks. Once you see it it's like walking round a weird dolls house!

Does this mean there are companies that make and sell especially small furniture, @BuzzShitbagBobbly?

And it is weird. It was a bit disturbing in a way, until I realised what it was that was odd.

@cannycat20: what sort of green is Regency green, please?

We're contemplating a dark green, slightly teal, carpet in our living room when we decorate, but if it's going to be the next grey, we'll go for something else.

I'm hoping you mean the pea soup green that they used in a lot of Regency houses though. The green we want is lovely, rich and dark.

Immaculately clean and tidy in a way that shows no signs of life. All furnishings and decor match and are devoid of personality, as show homes have to be neutral. They don't make you feel comfortable because you are scared to sit down in case the owner is upset that you squashed a cushion.