Naff things in other people's houses (Tongue in Cheek)

[pinkpapaya]

I know that it is a question of each to his own etc but what do you find naff in other people's homes? I was invited round to neighbour's today to gawp at their new gas barbecue that is the size of a Challenger tank. They were terribly proud of it and the husband was lovingly caressing it whilst the wife was squealing in anticipation of all the hot sausage her man was going to serve her! All I could think was 'Why? Why? Why?' What do you find naff in other people's homes and why?

@Poorlykitten

But books also look lovely and smell nice so who wouldn’t want them on view!

I absolutely love reading but hate books on display. For me, they look like clutter and make a room feel a mess. So we store the odd book away and switched to kindles to save buying and passing on so frequently as no library here.

Real lawns only become non-environmetally friendly if you insist on watering them endlessly and using insane amounts of weedkiller. Weeds are green too - just keep it mowed and you won't worry about that's grass or moss or a weed. And accept that in hot spells the lawn may go brown but will come back to green again soon enough. It's actually really hard to kill a lawn off completely due to dry weather in the UK.

Merely having a lawn and mowing it is not a problem and is always going to be better for the environment and wildlife than paving or astroturf.

what's grass, moss etc.

French bulldogs.

I have lots of family photos on display!
Also have leather sofas.
I also collect vintage painted mirrors from the 1940s-50s - they're up in the dining room.
In the rear garden we have a huge trampoline 😱 and lots of fairy lights, as well as wood animal sculptures - DS is autistic and loves them.

Your home is your sanctuary - have it whatever way brings you comfort and joy!!

God knows I’m no fan of fake grass, but I’ve known one or two who’ve installed it (while keeping natural borders) in very small and/or very narrow urban gardens where too much shade means that any grass will soon become a patchy mess of mud and weeds - and they need a forgiving surface for little dcs to play on. Which means not paving or gravel (too hard) and not decking (noisy, and slippery when wet, not to mention a haven for rats underneath.).

IMO it’s all very well for people with nice sunny gardens, or who don’t have little dcs to think of, to sneer.

Will just add, we have a gnome! He was there when we bought the house over 30 years ago, so a bit battered now, but I didn’t have the heart to chuck him. There was also a stone bunny - we’ve still got him, too.

I don’t feel the same about dvds etc. My dh and I are retired English lecturer/ teacher. We like to have our books to hand. Many of mine are my collection of old girls’ school stories so I wouldn’t look ‘well read’’.I don’t care much about being ‘naff’ , a word invented by Princess Anne I think ( may be wrong about that). For me a house without books is sterile for you it may be a house without —————(fill in as appropriate).
In my house anyone from age 2 upwards will find a book to occupy them.

I have brown leather sofas that I hate and looked enviously at a friend's inviting cream corner sofa covered with blankets and rugs.

But with young children......my sofas are still standing and look relatively ok.

My friend's lovely cream sofa has now been replaced with ...........leather sofas.

@thegreylady

I don’t feel the same about dvds etc. My dh and I are retired English lecturer/ teacher. We like to have our books to hand. Many of mine are my collection of old girls’ school stories so I wouldn’t look ‘well read’’.I don’t care much about being ‘naff’ , a word invented by Princess Anne I think ( may be wrong about that). For me a house without books is sterile for you it may be a house without —————(fill in as appropriate). In my house anyone from age 2 upwards will find a book to occupy them.

So it's straight up snobbery about judging people's reading habits. Okaaay

I'm in Oz and have grass in the front garden which needs a lot of water in summer. I'm pretty sure my strip of astroturf by the pool is actually more environmentally friendly than the lawn.

@Spandrel

It’s a bit of a funny word that one since it’s just slang and most of the time it’s not really used correctly on threads like this anyway.

I don't think the term 'naff' is being used incorrectly by most people on this thread..

Definition of naff
British, informal
: lacking in style or good taste : vulgar and unfashionable
I was going to get a pair of leather jeans as well, but it was too expensive and anyway, leather pants look naff, as I discovered later.
— Melvin Burgess, Smack, 1996

1. ADJECTIVE
If you say that something is naff, you mean it is very unfashionable or unsophisticated. [British, informal] The music's really naff....naff 'his and hers' matching outfits

I agree with whoever said those bizarre little unnaturally-green balls people hang outside their houses instead of hanging baskets, and which are presumably meant to resemble trimmed privet. Especially as they fade to being a kind of luminous turquoise.

My (lovely) SIL has a number of large wooden figurines depicting smiley black cooks, the men in chefs' hats, the women in headwraps and long dresses and aprons. God knows where she got them, they're like something from a museum of offensive Jim Crow-era African-American memorabilia. She got a new kitchen last year, and I hoped they would be ditched, but they were lovingly replaced in the shiny grey expanses of the new kitchen...

OMG I'm reading these with no glasses on and read that your SIL had 'figurines of shiny black co*ks with chef's hats on them' Goes to get specs

“GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER

God knows I’m no fan of fake grass, but I’ve known one or two who’ve installed it (while keeping natural borders) in very small and/or very narrow urban gardens where too much shade means that any grass will soon become a patchy mess of mud and weeds - and they need a forgiving surface for little dcs to play on. Which means not paving or gravel (too hard) and not decking (noisy, and slippery when wet, not to mention a haven for rats underneath.). “

I hate fake grass too, but agree with this post as I sympathise when people have children and a small space where grass will never grow or where it would turn to mud. Bark is difficult for babies and toddlers because of the danger of them eating it; paving is too hard; rubber matting bleak; decking hard and often slippery as well as sounding as though someone is beating a drum when children run on it.

@JudgeJ In laws lived near Kimberley not sure whether the the road they lived on could be the road you wouldn't like......Plainspot. FWIW Df's wife refused to live in Dragonville, probably pre empting the jokes that would be made at her expense though tbh.

SIL has a max of five books to her name. One of them is the biography of Ant and Dec. I judge.

@70isaLimitNotaTarget

Lovely little house warming gift

OMG! Not even if it came in solid sterling silver from Patrick Mavros!!!

@OVienna

SIL has a max of five books to her name. One of them is the biography of Ant and Dec. I judge.

Disown the heathen! Now!

@70isaLimitNotaTarget

Culinary Concepts do some fairly tasteful cutlery and glass ice-bucket bowls that I covet ..........................

And they have utter shite like this Crane Bottle Holder £399.20 Bargain.

Oh no! I spy velvet furniture, potted plants AND panelling! You hit the jackpot with this pic!

@70isaLimitNotaTarget

And for your Stunt Pineapples ..

I actually love both of those

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER

God knows I’m no fan of fake grass, but I’ve known one or two who’ve installed it (while keeping natural borders) in very small and/or very narrow urban gardens where too much shade means that any grass will soon become a patchy mess of mud and weeds - and they need a forgiving surface for little dcs to play on. Which means not paving or gravel (too hard) and not decking (noisy, and slippery when wet, not to mention a haven for rats underneath.).

IMO it’s all very well for people with nice sunny gardens, or who don’t have little dcs to think of, to sneer.

Will just add, we have a gnome! He was there when we bought the house over 30 years ago, so a bit battered now, but I didn’t have the heart to chuck him. There was also a stone bunny - we’ve still got him, too.

This is us. We don't have fake grass (mainly because we're too tight to pay for it) but we have a tiny patch of garden with very poor clay soil that's been rotovated multiple times and all sorts of stuff dug in to try and improve it, but it keeps winning. We also have awful drainage, and are NE facing with almost complete shade. Despite returfing multiple times and really doing our best with it we just can't keep a lawn at all, it's just impossible. We have grass - of sorts - with stubborn weeds on top of bumpy, uneven lumps of clay.

As much as I agree that it's shit for the environment, if we were going to stay in this house long term I'd get fake grass for sure, and let people who don't live with our shit garden judge away.

Why don’t you put another natural material down which won’t destroy the soil beneath it? Wood clippings for example.

Live Laugh Love canvases - tick
Hearts hanging off some handles - tick
Relax sign in bathroom - tick
Kitchen island - tick
Artwork toned to match decor - tick
Feature wall - tick
Brown leather sofas - tick
I could go on but will stop there!

I am the epitome of naffness 😂

This thread make me laugh.

I have three Woodland Wilf Gnomes in my big garden and they are so cute. My garden has lots of different parts such as a Koi Carp pond. Lots of seating area with outdoor sofa and real grass. We have so much fun in the garden, love Summer.

I don't give a shit what other people don't like

We also have a bbq

I'm trying to think what makes me think Naff and I can't because I think everyone I know has lovely houses that suit their personality.

I love gnomes!

My dad had one in his front garden until one day he (the gnome not my dad) went missing and then for about 3 years my dad regularly got postcards from ‘Gorden’ the gnome who was apparently away on his travels 😂

We never found out who had fostered Gorden, we had our suspicions (know a few pilots and cabin crew) but no one admitted to it 😆