To get the rage about home decor trends...

[catpoooffender]

I've just moved house and have been looking online for style inspiration. But I'm just getting so tired of seeing the same thing everywhere. It's not that it doesn't look good, it's just that it's done to death.

Typically you will have a grey room, with throws artfully draped over the arm of the sofa. The furniture will be all white. There will be a floor lamp, probably tripod style. Candles will adorn the shelves, along with multiple house plants. On the pouffe, there will be a pretty tray, with two more of the following: a candle, a small vase, a book, some pretty cups. Hanging on the wall or on a shelf somewhere will be a framed print of some inspirational saying - possibly 'she said she could, so she did' or just a single word, like 'family' or 'love' or 'home'. Other artwork or mirrors will be placed on shelves and will lean against the wall, rather than being flat against them.

I'm not knocking any of this. I just yearn for something different.

What I find annoying is if you furnished your house in a style/colours you like and then want something else to go with it or replace an item ... and you can't find anything suitable now for love nor money. Apricot seems to have disappeared from the range of dyes available to textile manufacturers, for instance. Maybe they used it all up in the 80s?

I do think things like those white gloss kitchen cabinets will date very badly

Glossy kitchen cupboards yell fingermarks and grease spots to me. The trend I really dislike is the use of wooden cladding on bits of the exterior, there are some near here, about 6 years old and look awful.

I predict the grey thing is about to go spectacularly out of fashion as it’s been on trend for about 3-4 years now at least.

This is the modern equivalent of the 80s peach walls, wallpaper borders and Austrian blinds.

It’s the equivalent exterior fashion that bothers me - grey rendered walls, black window frames and American-fridge-style doors. Inappropriate on a 30s semi and much more expensive to change!

It's really not worth getting 'the rage' about though.... just do what you like.

Personally I like clean white lines (I don't want to spend ages tidying and cleaning) but don't do any of the extras cushions/candles/like/love/live etc or fake plants but again each to their own.

@SionnachRua

'How the feck do people keep this white decor looking nice, anyway? I presume it's a nightmare with kids, pets and bottles of wine?'

If you get a couple of expensive well made white high gloss they are very easy to clean, don't stain at all, pets and children here and my home always looks clean and tidy ... the cheaper varieties with laminate type surfaces will probably stain/discolour - who knows.

I bought my first home recently, and am slowly decorating.

I looked over my wardrobe to see what I like. I wear a lot of dark grey, denim and autumnal colours and a lot of linen and velvet. DH mainly blue. So we went with blue as a general scheme, F&B denimes in the lounge, much brighter pitch blue in the playroom, then lots of white walls and graphite/black here and there (including the stairs). Deliberately avoided Hague blue, although it's lovely, as it's so popular!

I'm drawn to loads of the current trends but hoping that by using clothes I've loved for years as inspiration, is now it was "my style" and not what's currently on.

Apartment Therapy is my favourite. The homes have personality. I've never followed trends. I buy what I love.

Haha - you clearly have passion for this. Go on Pinterest! There's something for everyone there!

@HipTightOnions Austrian blinds....now there's a bit of nostalgia!

I have grey and white furniture downstairs - I don't like brown-toned neutrals and wanted something I could change with easy things like cushions and lampshades as I hate decorating and it suits the house. The white furniture is actually because it's easier to buy basic furniture from a range of places and have all the shades match up than if you go for a wood-type look and they're all slightly different birch or oak effects - and we were on a budget). No mirrors (fingerprint magnets), no crushed velvet (with my kids)... one fluffy sofa throw for where the dog tends to lie.

Upstairs I've got colour - but I did things how I did because I liked them - no other reason (well the kids picked the ghastly purple in their room).

Can't bring myself to get het up about other people's decor choice to be honest.

@BluebellsGreenbells

You see the tropical birds is also a trend.

The carpet issue is a stock one, anything else has to be ordered in and is more expensive to do so. Stock carpets are cheaper.

I'm surprised this is still around. It started coming into fashion in 2015.

I love some of the colour ideas in the magazines incidentally but this is a small house and we couldn't really get away without it feeling like we were living in a cupboard.

That Grey house is too much but ( to be fair) you can move straight in and paint over the walls ! At least it's not too jazzy or the farmhouse look which I loath personally. It's a bit of a blank canvas and some people would like that or keep some rooms as they are as they are so neutral and don't offend anyone.
I like colour , but dh wanted grey in the kitchen and it's not too bad : it's not light grey and works well with the units.
I'm sure it'll be out of fashion by next year though.

Austrian blinds take me back, I can remember being so proud of mine, thought they were wonderful at the time teamed with wallpaper boarders.

I think you just need to look elsewhere OP, I don't see these things organically and they aren't my taste and sound pretty dated to me actually, trend wise. Shop elsewhere, look in home magazines, browse pinterest.

I did get a bit sick of Instagram earlier in the year as a result of identikit teal walls, Victorian fire places and hosue plants galore, or the alternative of minimalist picasso etc inspired gallery walls, house plants and a berber rug. I just deleted all the home accounts I followed and sought out different things, now I don't see them.

Unless you make money running a home decor page on instagram where you have to find new angles of the same rooms 7 days a week or redo everything every 5 minutes to ensure you keep your engagement up then most of this stuff is pure nonsense. It is far better to critically think about what works for your lifestyle and comforts, the way you use your home, how colours make you feel, what storage you actually need and where and engage in fashion and seasonal elements cheaply and enjoy them while they last.

The internet means you can buy literally anything these days. What a silly thread.

Austrian blinds were an awful 80s disaster !
A rich mate of dh had ' swags and tails' and blinds made to measure in his huge house at nearly every window in the 1980s ( and there were a fair few windows)
I just looked them up to remember how awful they were and probably collected a lot of dust.
It's weird how fashions change and how people actually bought flock wallpaper with red stripes, I hope that never comes back.

YANBU, I hate it. White and grey everywhere- modern boxes where side returns and kitchens used to be. And in a country which has a grey sky for 9 months of the year; mad.

Give me some old fashioned chintz, wallpaper and proper pictures on walls any day of the week! I’ll be doing the latter, if ever we stop renting...

Katy Orme (apartmentapocathery) and Siobhan McFadden (home_stead) both mix neutrals and colours beautifully.

Lots of Instagram interiors are favouring panelled walls and Sulking Room Pink!

Grey has been around for at least 10 years.
It can work but tends to be dreary.

Agree, I never follow trends, simply go with things I love, whether they are new or second hand. I tend to keep things a long time as well, I rather like my aged battered settee.

The ‘Scandi’ look I’ve seen, in the many links to estate agent particulars sent to me by a Swedish friend looking to buy a flat in Stockholm, is white and grey! With some black thrown in.

I’ve never seen so many cold and bleak looking places in my life. Only one of them had a little bit of colour anywhere.

If you try to shop for interiors stuff in high street, then it will be a bit samey. Etsy is great, and I like to look at interior designers I favour - very few with grey, teal and copper accents!

@Roselilly36

Austrian blinds take me back, I can remember being so proud of mine, thought they were wonderful at the time teamed with wallpaper boarders.

I still have an Austrian blind in my downstairs loo, teamed with a Laura Ashley border. The blind was made for the bathroom in our old house and the border was left over from our bedroom (also in old house). We moved 21 years ago.

The curtains in my bedroom were also bought for my old house and I still love them. Even older, the spare bedroom has the curtains my parents had in their bedroom in the 1960s. I always loved them and they have peacocks on them so it sounds as if despite being 50 years old they are right on trend!