To ask what are the interior design ‘fails’ that make your home yours but aren’t conventionally attractive?

[RosyappleA]

I was looking at my dining room/slash continued kitchen (for which there was no space in the kitchen for) and can see I have failed miserably with the decor. I just ordered patterned curtains, theres a patterned tablecloth and pattered rug in there also. No they do not match and it looks chaotic. However, I love the curtains so just went for it. I love pattern and the kids love it too! What is something in your home which you love which you think most people will hate? (referring to the interior design of course please)

None of these are fails but they're certainly things that guests have commented on (and that I don't always see in other people's houses).

Plants everywhere - every window sill in the kitchen, the entire sill of the dining room etc. I really love having greenery inside. I know some people hate it though from comments asking how long it takes to water them, do I have to repot regularly, etc.

I also have lots of persian rugs and kilims - we have cream fitted carpets upstairs and all those big cream expanses I find oppressive (and show every mark and bit of dust). So lots of carpets everywhere in a riot of red/blue/green and patterns.

Finally we have lots of pictures of all shapes and sizes from big oils to tiny little things, up the walls and also propped onto mantlepieces, window ledges, radiatior covers etc. Sometimes overlapping and stacked with bigger ones behind. Luckily they're easy to dust as they're all framed, so I can just give everything a once-over with a damp microfibre cloth. DH and I have quite a few artistic friends who often give us pieces of art we love so everything has a back story.

We have lots of pattern, colour, art and a mix of styles - it's what I call modern country house eclectic, and on which family have been known to remark "but nothing matches!" We don't care as it's all stuff we've collected over time because we love it.

So, eg in the cosy 'snug' we have -
a huge wall of books from floor to ceiling, mid pink colour-drenched walls/woodwork, Yeabridge Green fire surround with delft style tiles, vintage Osborne & Little red 'peony pot' patterned curtains, Oka striped kilim in red/yellow/black/duck egg, lots of colourful cushions on the sofa/chair and a mix of pooky lampshades, antique furniture/mirrors, taxidermy birds, original art and plants!

None of the above are “fails”, they all sound highly aspirational and lovely. I was expecting to read something along the lines of “I’ve got a shiny brown kitchen, orange pine furniture, grey shagpile, vertical blinds and a picture of a Pierrot circa 1985 on the wall but I love it”

I think "fails" are always subjective because people like different things (see endless arguments about kitchen islands and ensures on here).

I have crittal double doors and a massive kitchen island with stools rather than a dining table in a Victorian house which I know are marmite but honestly, I think if the Victorians were here today they'd approve - they were innovators! I like a mix of modern and old- so period radiators but modern paintings and I like my house light and bright. I am on a few "Victorian renovation" groups and I like the dark and moody look in principle, just not in my house. I mean part of the reason Victorian houses were dark was that household electricity wasn't invented.

I do agree with this (and thank you!), but as @AllJoyAndNoFun says, it's extremely subjective - I recently posted on another thread where dining tables were being discussed. Talk turned to tablecloths. They were referred to as 'old-fashioned' by a couple of people and some posters commented that no-one uses them these days.

My contribution was to say that I own a number of recently published interior design books, filled with 'the new creatives' homes, many of which have lovely tablecloths, some in contemporary settings.

I don't consider the tablecloths we have in our home (some made by me using designer fabrics, others purchased from eg, Birdie Fortescue/Carolina Irving) to be old-fashioned, but those posters that do would no doubt consider them an interior design fail 😆

I love a nice tablecloth. Also love Birdie Fortescue but it's sale only for me.

Me too - mine was an eBay find, although it was still a bit £££ 😉

ooff, we have a waterproof tablecloth! But also small children and I'm not washing tomato sauce out of real tablecloths every day! Or worse, sanding and re-finishing the table every week!

@Floofle i had a great patterned oil cloth table cloth when mine were younger. Definitely saved the table and was a thing of wipe clean ( occasionally hose down) glory!! Sometimes I think people forget you actually have to live in your house. It’s like the trend to not have anything on display in the kitchen- why not? it’s a practical space!

I replaced the laminate in our entrance and downstairs corridor with a fitted carpet in a lush colour. Everyone thought I was nuts, never mind unfashionable 😂 But what a difference! Home now gives a cosy, welcoming hug when you walk in. No harsh echoing. The floor is warm and comfortable when you are barefoot. No more constant mopping and sweeping, with dust and grit reappearing seconds after you’ve finished. 15y on and never a moment’s regret.

For me it's BECAUSE it's a practical space that i don't have stuff on display in a kitchen. Stuff on display gets dirty, makes surfaces etc more time consuming to keep clean or just gets in the way.

In every room I have at least 3 or 4 wooden furniture items of different side, colours, finishes and styles. Think old pine dresser, grotty 70s teak chest, carved mahogany Oriental chest, ikea Kallax unit etc.

It's chaotic but I don't want to paint it all to 'match' and most of it was free from family members or v cheap from charity shops. Some are antiques probably quite valuable and others are secondhand Ikea!

What I’m seeing in here is the style considered unusual or even unpopular is lots of colour and pattern. Not matchy matchy but eclectic. Excellent, that’s me too. I love the idea of the hall carpet, I’m considering that as our house is all wooden floors, they’re fine as they’re original and quite worn, and white walls. I’d love a swirly pub carpet in the hall

My kitchen is pretty large but because of that I have things on the worktops. That wouldn’t be popular here. Mixer, food processor, bread maker, toaster, sandwich maker, all out permanently. And more. I sometimes put the sandwich maker away, but others get it out again.

We live in a Victorian house which had all the original features ripped out in the 60s, wall knocked out between the sitting/ dining room, all the walls insulated, basement converted. Everywhere is a bit boxy in that 60s way. Then someone came along in the 80s and changed all the doors to bargain basement B&Q type specials, put in those curved archways etc. I disapprove and would never have done it myself but also I love it, it's made it much more comfortable and I don't feel bad about painting it mad colours etc because I don't feel the house has an aesthetic image to keep up. I've been in houses similar to ours (nearby) where all the original features/ layout have been preserved and they're poky and depressing. Visitors tell me off about too many colours/ too many pictures, I do think it looks a bit chaotic tbh but I like looking at all the pictures so I'm trying to find ways of making too many look fewer (eg I'm trying to group them in batches rather than scatter them about.) Also we always have everything out on the worktop, we use it all!

We only ever buy furniture second hand. Absolutely nothing matches or 'goes', but it is what it is. It all does the job, didn't cost a lot and we don't have to worry too much about the dog or DCs damaging anything.

My collection of chandeliers and glass candelabras get a few raised eyebrows (they are quite the statement) and I get comments about all the cleaning.

We've always liked chandeliers and have high enough ceilings to take them comfortably. The cleaning of them I do myself seasonally, get my step ladder out, headphones in and off I go 😂

The thing is they are so beautiful to look at, the candelabras give off a lovely soft light, just the pure joy I get from seeing them in my home I do not begrudge cleaning them at all.

It has overflowed into me collecting glass though, so I have numerous glass vases dotted around, the sets that have containers with lids and they sit on trays got a few of them in bedrooms (I do use them), particularly fond of those glass sectional serving dishes I use them on our hallway console table for holding keys, pens, odd change.

Mismatched patterns and colours are definitely a thing- look at designers like Rita Konig or Ben Pentreath. I love this look- best when it’s been built up over years of finding things you love rather than in a job lot.

It’s all about the clear spaces for me. I’m quite a noisy bouncy person so people expect my home to reflect that. Instead it’s all about clear spaces and few if any pictures up.

I love the calm but a friend asked whether I’d only just moved in and not unpacked yet.

I’ve been here twenty seven years.

I have a huge 1960s statement light over the stairs, it hangs down about 150cm... Five different strands to it, all space age glass and ugly chrome, I love it. Art everywhere, from travel photos to actual paintings (f I'm huge to tiny), signed artists prints to 3d stuff to weird things the kids made to vintage crap picked up along the way, Japanese stuff, a found crab shell and shark jaw, skulls and stones and interesting crap .. ..all of the house is a big rotating gallery/museum at any one time 😅

I have a dark pink bedroom with teal and leopard print bedding. The bathroom floor is pink with exposed stone walls. Plants everywhere. Bats everywhere. Sculptures and objét on every surface. Tiger rug (not real). Huge thick velvet curtains.

I love my house but it always makes me laugh when someone new comes in and exclaims at all the, all the... All the everything 😅

Like @anonymous24601 we have a lot of pictures/hanging items such as old mirrors, silhouettes, ceramics and LOTS of “objets”! I collect obelisks so there’s a fair few of them around, plus random rugs, old lamps etc. It ranges from inherited from parents to charity shop finds. It is not chaotic but I call it “curated clutter”. I am ruthless about getting rid of stuff but see nothing wrong in having things simply because you like them

DD did GCSE art and did a mixed media picture of her twin which is so bad that everyone who sees it is 😂.
We love it so much it is displayed in an incredibly ornate gilt covered frame like it is a painting in the Louvre. Just reminds me of when they were hilarious teenagers. It is hideous though,

Bare walls.

i know im supposed to hang up pictures, family photos, etc. But for me bare white walls and hallways are aesthetically very pleasing!

I haven't seen any interiors magazine in the last decade where everything is matching and beige. That's a very 2010s look. I'm not sure we're quite the trailblazers we imagine we are with our colour and pattern.

I hung on to my patchwork of different coloured tiles backsplash in the kitchen. Dated or not, I love it, both for the colours and the memories, when my sister and bro in law were staying with us and he did it all.