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.

Loads of no grey inspiration out there, you just need to look in different places
I have a client who has gone for a very rich dark interior scheme in their home, another one that's gone for natural wood & white
One that's all brights, another modern country cottage
My house hasn't got a singular theme but the only grey room has a red ceiling

I was just thinking about this while looking at hotels. If you look at the 4 and 5 star ones they are either the whole white/grey thing, or old house/building with old tiles or wood floors or stone combined with luxury furniture and bathrooms, or crazy modern colours. I quite like whites and beige and light grey only because i find it more calming

I think for your own home you need to think what colours and surfaces you'd like ideally to be seeing everyday, what makes you feel good, and also the style of your house and what is there already. And how much work you are prepared to do, like knocking out walls to create light

If you post pics and say what sort of colours you'd like, etc, then you may get some good ideas!

Or another thing you can do is paint all the walls jasmine white or similar to make it neutral and then live in it a bit, as a blank canvas, and then you will get ideas about what would look good where.

I remember going into a fabric warehouse looking for curtain material about 7 years ago. I took 2 cushion covers from different sofas and a small blind, all different colours/fabrics but they were all in one large living room.

The looks I got when asked if they had any fabric with the colours I had to play with as well as the comments I nearly walked out, but within 5 mins amongst 1,000 of fabrics I found the perfect one with all the colours in a fantastic country plaid, perfect. (a collection of furniture etc from many different houses over the years) Curtains/cushions bring everything together and people do comment, inc the store on how nice they go together, but my tale is just chose colours you like and see how they fit together, dont be afraid to mix ones that are not 'on trend'.

Used to love my swags, but my god they were expensive (very dark green velvet in a very old house)

Choose stuff you like that means something to you. I have lots of books and paintings /drawings. Furniture is a mixture of Victorian and contemporary and Persian rugs. F and B colours. Can’t stand all the slogan y artwork stuff out there. Junk shops often have really good things. Bought a lovely mahogany side table for £50.

I get exactly what the OP is meaning tbh. We're about to move, and going from a period property to a new build which has thrown me a little in terms of how to decorate it - I love my home just now. Because it's a different style of house I did start looking for inspiration online and the grey is just overwhelming.

The house already has bloody pale grey carpets/flooring everywhere (not chosen by us) so I have little desire to add much more grey tbh. We are having some taupe/grey in our kitchen but otherwise I don't care if it's off-trend, I'm using colour!

Went to buy new sofas last weekend and the sales guy commented on how nice it was to sell non-grey as "98% of what I sell is some shade of grey".

When we were looking for new settees everything was depressingly neutral. I wasn’t sure what I wanted but I know I didn’t want anything porridge coloured no matter how practical it was. In the end I went for an opal/silver crushed velvet. It sounds awful and impractical but the irregularity of the crushed velvet means marks don’t show (not even the remains of the black permanent marker stain made last Christmas by a careless IL). With dark wood and red/gold tables and accessories and my beautiful clean, fresh magnolia walls it looks welcoming and eclectic and I love it.

Don’t worry about trends - they were invented to keep us buying new things when the old ones are still perfectly good. Furnish your house with what brings you joy and screw the haters!

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

My ensuite is in Sulking Room Pink! It's beautiful. Also have a kitchen painted in Dead Salmon with cabinets and island in Railings (so light pink walls and blue black wood, sounds awful but it works). Living room is in Denimes (love a darkly painted living room, so cosy) and hall is Castle Grey.. although not the ubiquitous 'silver' grey more of a dark greeny grey. I love F+B paints, the way they change colour depending on the time of day is beautiful

I like neutrals and minimalist ,and always have done but now, there is a compulsion to be the same as everyone to be 'on trend'. That means grey walls, white wood furniture, pastel throws, POUFFES now back in fashion, art work usually black and white (monochrome) and PICTURE GALLERIES on one wall - a single picture is now a no-no.

I subscribed to Ideal Home mag for a year and just got so p...d off at the types of homes; usually all owned by interior designers or who had partners who were property developers, living in SW London, houses worth £1+M, or a lovely seaside town. Very few houses on an estate that were your normal 3-4 bed modern homes.

Just to respond to some of the comments, it's not that I want to follow 'trends', I'm just looking for different styles for inspiration - to build up a sort of mood board in my mind. I actually do use Pinterest and look up very general terms like 'dining room ideas' but I just find that the same things crop up again and again. Perhaps, as a few people have commented, this is because of the algorithms these platforms use, and the images I have clicked on previously. I appreciate all the recommendations for websites/accounts to look at.

And to those who have commented that it's a stupid thing to get the rage about - I didn't mean it literally. I'm not punching holes in walls over it. It just annoys me. There's also a small chance that the fact that this annoyance has reached a head just as I reach the end of my monthly cycle is not a coincidence.

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

Then buy something different . Not sure why you're getting 'the rage' ! Shops stock far more than what's trendy.

@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.

yes, yes and yes.

and why does everyone have to especially in 3 bed semis have to have the same layout of extension out the back etc?? and open plan??

The grey thing is quite ubiquitous, I've been looking at a lot of for sale homes lately for a friend, and all the ones that have recently been redone are in that vein. Grey or white tiles, grey walls, grey stainless appliances, grey granite countertops...

As far as looking at things for inspiration, online searching on google can be difficult, it tends to come back with very same-y looks because that is often what people seem to want. It's better if you can identify some specific looks, or designers, you like. I also find staying away from American decorating sites helps as they tend to show more really staged homes.

My old house was 1960's and I found a lot of useful ideas at RetrorRenovation, which is dedicated to mid-century homes, and not usually fancy ones but regular kinds of houses. There are lots of colourful things there, some I didn't like but it was very useful generally as to hat could look good and sem to fit in that kind of house, without destroying its character. American, but there are no grey or greige rooms.

IN general, I've found rather than trends, it helps to start with the type of house you have, and what feels right in it. It doesn't have to be period, but often if you start looking for some inspiration there, you see the kind of scale, or the lines, or even the colours that will work with the style of the home.

I don't think shops sell much that isn't trendy.
I couldn't even find matching towels because the biscuity gold I had was no longer available and only an burnt orangey shade was there - and this applies to all the colours, new harsher shades only. I've been trying to find wallpaper with a rust shade in it. V hard.
But grey!!!! It's been fashionable for years now, but there is more and more in the shops.

I just search for gothic Victorian on Pinterest and loads of good stuff pops up

@ballsdeep

There's a house for sale near me. Every room is grey and white. It looks so sterile and clean I don't like it, it's put me off and o can't see past it! I like a lived in feel house

When I'm buying, the seller's decor, taste, furnishings etc are of absolutely zero interest or concern..

Swirly/ textured/ metallic/ wallpapers, avocado/lemon/terracotta/baby blue/peach bathroom suites....psychedelic nylon carpets, polyester curtains... textured ceilings; tongue and groove pine walls and ceiling, terrible kitchens.. I bought them all.

We're house hunting at the moment and almost every place I see with a recently done kitchen has dark blue shaker cupboards with a white marble countertop and white subway tiles on the wall.

I would say literally 9 out of 10 kitchens in our area of south London are decorated like this. It's beautiful but it is going to look so dated in a couple of years time!

Grey has been done to death, I had a grey and white about 4/5 years ago and loved it (i use art work for pops of colour and throws / cushions etc)

I’m now very much leaning towards neutrals still but warmer tones, beiges, Taupe, warm whites, wood finishes etc - I guess modern Scandinavia style? But the problem is you can’t fucking buy anything which isn’t grey!

I’ve been looking for a neutral toned upholstered bed - can’t get it for love nor money. Unless I pay through the nose for something like Loaf where I can pick the fabric. But if I want grey or silver I can take my pic from hundreds. Carpets - neutral, no, grey - yes every single one in the shop!

It is annoying I agree but ultimately you should just pick what you’re drawn to, if it happens to be on trend at that point, great you’ll get lots of choice on the high street. If it’s not then you have to work a little harder to find pieces you love.

I like looking at houses on Rightmove but the number of grey or coloured kitchens and bathrooms with white brick tiling- if I was buying I’d be reducing the price to cover ripping them out and replacing.

A house near me has just been tarted up to sell. Oh my God, it looks depressing, everything is grey including shiny grey carpet that looks like you’ll get an electric shock if you walk on it.

Totally agree!

I was househunting a few years ago. All new builds were grey. Anything else was b&q feature walls- brown and duck egg in the living room, green and red in the kitchen, stripes in one bedroom etc etc....

I painted my student bedroom grey in 1996. Back when you only got dulux “dove grey”. Everyone hated it, said it reminded them of concrete, it was depressing, boring, cold etc. I loved it then- dressed it with metallic jewel colours.

It’s everywhere now though. I don’t mind it, but its the grey and white accessories that make it really plain and boring...

"Pops of colour" gives me rage like nothing else on earth. No idea why, it's entirely irrational. I just hate it.

Our house is quite neutral in terms of floors and walls; no grey anywhere, mainly white with natural wood because it's my taste (DH doesn't give a shit, or points to awful stuff when I give him choices, so has to accept that his opinion means less than mine, but once I've finished a room excitedly proclaims "this looks amazing"). I remember when we bought this house everyone was doing one wall with wallpaper; where did that trend go? I never went in for it because I don't like wallpaper but the whole grey and pale pink will be the equivalent of one wallpapered wall soon.

Just buy things you love. I have one wall in the downstairs loo with lots of arty b&w photos of family/friends/DC/David Bowie and my MIL insists she can't pee with Bowie watching her. I'm keeping him there forever just to shit her up.

I hate the all grey look, it reminds me of old prison films. Take a look a Laura Ashley rooms they are lovely in my opinion.

One wallpapered wall is definitely still around - especially in showhomes! Admittedly I'm doing this in a couple of our rooms, I like it and I don't really give a crap if its "off trend" :D

Do what you like and what makes you happy and leave other people to do the same. I have fallen in love with grey. We have grey walls in our bedroom, landing and hallway. All other rooms are white, blue and pale green (living room). My favourite is our grey bedroom. I find it very calming.

I’ve been house hunting recently and every single new build is grey and white throughout. I like grey, for ONE room. What I don’t understand is why people have gone back to wallpaper, which reminds me of the 70s but hey! you probably aren’t old enough to have been put off your dinner by psychedelic green and orange swirls.