What makes the interior of a home look tired and dated?

[FindingMeno]

Interested in people's views as it's sometimes difficult to discern in your own familiar surroundings.

@PattyPan

Any kind of faux period features e,g. non-original leading on windows/chandeliers/regency or period stuff that isn't both real and in a property of a similar period

I live in a Victorian property which had all the features ripped out and was going to try and reinstate some of it - is that a bad idea then? I was thinking of hallway tiling, cornices and ceiling roses mostly. Really struggling with which windows to get as well. The whole street has sash/sash style windows except us. Ours are like this and I was thinking of replacing with something like this.

@PattyPan - we are in a similar position – we bought a fabulous but bonkers (weird later extensions and odd design choices by former owners) Victorian house at the beginning of the year.

Our bedroom had Artex in dirty Wedgewood blue (which we have now got rid of - phew!). It also has an extension that was done in the 70s and has windows like the one on your first picture. But then beautiful wooden and yet double glazed tastefully done modern sash windows in the main part of the house. If I have heard people say "well it certainly has potential" once I have heard it a million times now...

If I was you I would go for sash rather than the ones you have on your second picture (casement?) as they don't seem quite right for Victorian house to me? But equally they do look nice and may work if yours is more cottage style. Tricky to tell without seeing a photo of the front of the house really

We are just about to do the lounge and I had bought what I thought was a really nice ceiling rose to replace an obviously retrofitted naff one that's currently there, but now our decorator has said (I did ask his opinion!) he thinks it is the wrong period (Georgian not Victorian) and perhaps too much. Too big - too fancy. So I'm now in a quandary what to do... we had really nice ceiling roses in our old house which was a Victorian terrace and they looked like they were original – and I think they looked great, but do agree with other posters that if you have to go to a repro it can look a bit naff... all v tricky!!

To some extent, I don't care what other people think but I don't want to spend the next 20 years walking into the lounge thinking that ceiling rose is a bit too much / doesn't really work...

@MondayYogurt

This

@MondayYogurt - that is actually quite fab in a bonkers kind of way – I couldn't live with, it but I definitely don't think it is dated. Just very flamboyant and out there.

I'd say scruffy paintwork and worn carpet. Personal taste is irrelevant.

Giles and Mary on Gogglebox's house is the sort of thing that makes me think dated - 'rustic' patterns, scruffy, tired.

@MondayYogurt

This

This photo made me think of Giles and Mary.

My kitchen was over 30 years old when it was replaced. The builders started laughing when they say it because it was so ancient. I was cheered up though by watching a documentary where a duchess was supervising the redecoration of a room in the ancestral seat. I can't remember whether the duke or duchess said it but one of them said it was the first redecoration in a hundred years and they hoped this one would last another hundred years.

@MondayYogurt
That’s the work of the very expensive and slightly controversial interior designer Lulu Lytle, who did Boris and Carrie Johnson’s criticised interior. I don’t think that will actually be theirs, just an example of her work. Each to their own 😊

I have net curtains but they don't look dated because they suit the age/style of the house. I do see them in some style magazines (MIL is obsessed with homes magazines) and they can look great. Not often, but sometimes. Of course, they aren't yellow, thick and nasty chintzy nets which helps.

I am just about to remove the last of the anaglypta, which was put up in the 60s and is NOT in keeping with the age of the house. We removed lots of other dated stuff like yellowing gloss paint, a peach corner bath, pine breakfast bar, brick built in TV unit, artex, textured wallpaper, brown carpet, lino. And uncovered original quarry stone flooring and picture rails in the process.

@CorsicaDreaming if you like it and don’t think it’s too much then that’s the main thing, you’re the one who’s going to be looking at it the most!

With our windows the main problem is that they changed the shape of the opening so I think whatever we do it’s going to look a bit weird 😑

@MondayYogurt

This

Definitely not dated, more "a la mode" and perhaps not affordable for most.

Short curtains are a definite no in all rooms bar cottages with low ceilings and very small high windows.
Even rooms with radiators under the window benefit from long curtains they if they can be dress curtains, of course they need to be used with blinds, either roller blinds or Roman blinds but not vertical blinds. I have seen king dress curtains used with simple short curtains too.
It's all about proportion, sometimes you can change the proportion of a room with plain or textured curtains covering the whole of the wall.
It's proportion that can be "off ".

@PattyPan - I see what you mean. Yes that is a candidate for a "what on earth were they thinking" moment! We have quite a lot of those here and are gradually trying to sort them out… 1980s bits, 1970s bits, modern weird bits... on a basically good Victorian semi. Think I will just go for it with the ceiling rose. The advantage of this place is so many idiosyncrasies already, anything we now do can only be a very small drop in the ocean!

Personally on your windows I would get a quote from a couple of builders about how much it will cost to put back proper sash shaped windows into the spaces. And so they would need to remodel the space a bit. It may not be as much as you think.

And I agree anything else is going to look like it's the wrong shape window. But if it does come out too expensive then the ones that you linked to were nice casement style and could look okay too.

It's always the retro fitting that's so tricky!

I don't think long curtains are practical in bedrooms. I have long ones downstairs

No one ever sees our curtains from the inside apart from us so fortunately there is no one to judge

@woodhill

I don't think long curtains are practical in bedrooms. I have long ones downstairs

They are a dust trap and not tolerated by robot vacuums.

I only have floor length curtains (velvet, heavy, and cover a radiator, when closed, I'm afraid) in the sitting room, and one bedroom (light type). I don't find them very practical, though generally, depending on the room type, they can look nicer.

@CorsicaDreaming it is a nightmare isn’t it? I’ve said to DP for our next house I want to buy a proper wreck that hasn’t been touched for decades so that I don’t have to deal with years of other people’s bodge jobs!

Re curtain length, I think it does depend on the room’s features and furniture for practicality and it would probably make it look dated if you had the wrong sort of curtains in the wrong room - like you had reused them from an old house with different sized windows. In my living room for example I have both floor length (covering a glass door) and sill length (for window) curtains. We can’t have floor length for the window because there is a cupboard in the way, and if I tried to drape curtains over it that would look weird.

I love an impractical long curtain, especially one that “pools” on the floor rather than kissing it. Sweeps up the dust terrifically when opening and closing.

Long curtains are pretty but not always practical. I think 'dress curtains' are dreadful, better to have proper curtains of a practical length or get beautiful blinds.

Ah ha - I am ahead of the game (not really). I have just ordered new white venetian blinds to replace the blue vertical blinds in the kitchen. They were here when we moved in 20 years ago, are probably 30 years old. The did have additional dress curtains, and pelmets when we moved in, which were ripped out on day one.

Just about to change curtains too. We brought some with us, which are now 30 years old, and some were put in when we moved, so 20 years old. Honestly, there isn't much wrong with them, just a bit of sun bleaching. They are simple plain curtains, I am just bored of them.

So, my bay window, with a radiator under has sill length. When we moved in it had sill length curtains in the bay, with additionally, dress curtains over the big opening, along with swags, and pelmets. I tell you, the first thing we did was rip those out. Made the room look twice and size and twice as bright. So, for me, dress curtains are excess clutter and cut out light for no purpose. They would be the first thing to go.

So, I am afraid I am going with sill length in the bay again. Sorry.

@JaninaDuszejko

Long curtains are pretty but not always practical. I think 'dress curtains' are dreadful, better to have proper curtains of a practical length or get beautiful blinds.

Agree absolutely - dress curtains 🤮, unnecessarily fussy.

Full length curtains in my bay that has an armchair and lamp table - fussy. The window dressing curtains and pelmet that were here when I moved in = fussy dust catchers.

The lovely triple pleat thermal interlined curtains that fall to just below the sill - fantastically easy, warm and practical. Roman blinds (interlined) in a four window 6ft drop bay are not as warm as these curtains - I've learned that lesson in this house.

Neither room looks more with it than the other one, neither one looks more dated than the other one. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I love how everyone likes something different, that’s what makes a house a home, not whether it’s seen as dated or not 💕.
I have a total mix, depending on the room. The huge square bay where I have the dreaded dress curtains 😂 looks modern because of what’s around it and the texture used. No pelmets, no frills, no tie backs, just nice and simple, good midweight fabric well made and well hung on a very unfussy pole. Yes, just touching the floor. 👍🏼😊

@Snowiscold

Plantation shutters. They look wrong in virtually every style of property in the UK. People still seem to keep installing them, though. Solid wood shutters, on the other hand, can work in the right style of property - such as Victorian.

I don't get the shutters obsession, either. Same with those Victorian or Georgian-style panelled interior doors in any sort of house that ISN'T Georgian or Victorian. So many houses that were newly-built in the past thirty years have them installed as standard by developers. Weird.

I love reeded glass, and live in a 1920s bungalow. The glazier thought I was bonkers when I asked him to replace the horrible leaf-patterned glass in the bathroom window and front door with reeded glass. He said: 'I'm usually taking this out, rather than putting it in'.

Ergo, 'that horrible leaf-patterned glass' is one of my most 'hated/dated' features, along with:

• artex - carpet in entrance hallways - carpet tiles anywhere - black glass & chrome furniture/TV stands - red & black decor - those photo frames with different sized/shaped apertures for a multitude of photos - metal chandeliers - black metal bedsteads with fleur de lys detailing or 'gothic' connotations, in fact 'gothic' anything that isn't actually from the Victorian gothic period.

Artex

I think most things can be given a new lease of life or be styled nicely if they were OK in the first place. After is a nightmare as it immediately tells you that the room was plastered quite a while back with no regard for aesthetics.

Wood effect laminates (on floor or kitchen units) in a beech colour tend to date a house too. Although I reckon there's a way of wrapping them or something on kitchen units and you can use rugs on a floor.

Magnolia doesn't necessarily date a house but I think it looks pretty grim. I prefer white or an actual colour. I've seen houses with elements that look dates but are massively improved by styling so actually look good.

I prefer an interesting 'dated' house to a dull really new one.