Why are wooden letters so popular?... What are your decorative bugbears?

[Whirliwig72]

One of my pet hates are the ubiquitous decorative wooden letters featured in every homes magazine and style magazine since forever. They just seem so unoriginal to me especially when they spell out the action to be performed in the room they are put in, i.e E....A....T in the kitchen, L....O...V...E in the bedroom, C...R...A...P in the loo and so on as if the inhabitants might forget what happens where without 3 foot high gold letters reminding them at every possible occasion.
I also have a dislike of most wall transfers and also of feature walls decorated with flock or metallic wallpaper - stinks of 'Chavez' IMHO.

What decorative horrors make you shudder?

Fairy lights outside of December.
Twigs in vases. (some with lights )
Baskets of woven balls.
Union jack furnishings
Venture style family photos (think white background, white vest, denim jeans, barefeet, smug couple sharing a private joke)

All forms of beige.
Duck Egg Fricking Blue
Venture Photos -always, no exceptions, but particularly with the eyes 'highlighted' in colour.

Feature walls
Limestone flooring

Half of my house is on this thread already

I don't like veneer mahogany furniture, the Argosy kind. And collections of dolls.

Yep I'm with you on the venture one totally 'wince'. Getting really bored of the 'keep calm' slogan too!

I have twiggy lights in a vase by my fireplace. It was a gift from my Ma. In fairness most people say they like them.
Chillie shaped fairy lights in the kitchen. Whats that about?

They're wooden now? Used to be metallic. I've always had the same intense hatred of plates that say stupid things like PASTA, DINNER or GREGGS SAUSAGE ROLL.

Remember how 15-20 years ago, it was stripy wallpaper, border where a dado rail would be, complimentary wallpaper in naff stylised flower pattern in a room with beige cellulite ridden sofas?? I've noticed that what started off as tasteful statement wall wallpaper in large pattern has now become cheap, badly printed knock off statement wall wallpaper in a room with shiny black cellulite ridden sofas.

My real hate is mirror wardrobes. When we were house hunting almost 9 years ago, ever single house had mirror wardrobes. The lack of them is probably what made us fall in love with this little house!!!

Lilliput Lane cottages
Paintings of African wildlife
Large china dogs (extra points if you put a real collar on it)
Artificial plants & flowers - especially a ball of artificial grass hanging outside your front door!
Imitation leather dining chairs
DFS sofas (yes, all of them)
Metal leaves & flowers on light fittings
Shiny brass curtain poles
Curtains that have big holes at the top that the pole slides through
Tab headed curtains except in children's bedrooms
Large photos of your family on canvas

Fairy cake is the mahogany wood sometimes called wenge? I think every bathroom that was done up in the naughties used this ( with an orchid strategically placed for an exotic look!). We were certainly guilty of this one and we painted one wall brown in our bedroom... Oh the shame ;)

Keep Calm posters
Anything Union Jack
Big Letters

I don't have a problem with fairy lights though. I still have some draped along my shelves in the kitchen as they looked so pretty and sparkly in the evening. My DD LOVES it when I pop them on.

I've thought of more...
Nautical signs like 'poop deck' / aprons saying 'galley slave'
Schmaltzy fridge magnets that say things like 'a daughter is a friend for life'
Anything with kittens on
Those odd sticks you put in a bottleof room fragrance
Emma bloody Bridgewater (except for her star mugs)

lol agree with all of these
especially massive family photos
also cath bloody kidston stuff

Grown up rooms with soft toys on the bed
Loo seats with pretend barbed wre or razor blades in the resin
Personalised anything ( if you are over 16)
Neat over thought out to do lists on chalk boards in cursive (meh)
Tiny distressed wooden cabinets with mirrors on - why?
Digeridoos when no one in the household plays one

Yes yes yes to letters, twigs, pebbles, union jack cushions, Venture, Emma Bridgewater, soft toys, nautical themes.

Plus: bunting, shabby chic, those beige tiles (travertine?) that are in every fricking bathroom including my own, hearts, overblown headboards, lines of poetry painted onto walls, beds dressed with loads of throws and cushions, but above all 'boutique hotel style'.

Any house that isn't slightly messy and gives no clue as to the people who live there.
Any house without books.

Artificial plants
Bland hotel style bathrooms either the modern beige or older white and black done with no personal touches.
The pale laminate flooring everyone has.
Likewise totally impractical cream carpet WHY!
Plain White crockery.
Cream walls
Art work or themes that aren't personal.
DF who lived most of her life in Cornwall is defiantly allowed her nautical bathroom and my DH would be allowed chilli fairy lights. (being a Christmas light loving chilli head).
The DDs are allowed twigs with lights in them because they are children.
I'm not allowed the London bus vision I quite liked because I have absolutely no links with London and it would clash with the sofa.

Don't come to my house, thanks! I love my house, I worked myself to the bone to get every last thing in here, and even though its nowhere near finished, I bloody love it. Especially my duck egg blue feature wall in the living room.

Jesus, I'd better just burn my house down and have done with it :o

(hides didg) (dh thinks he can play it, but the whole circular breathing thing needs work...)

Is it ok to have a union jack or forty somewhere if you're an ex-pat?

I bought wooden letters eight years ago from the craft shop to paint myself for the dc's rooms, but still haven't got round to it. I fear the moment may have passed...

I feel I ought to warn you though, if I see chilli fairy lights, I will be buying them. So ner.

Outofbodyexperience I have Union Jack bunting in the kids room but am an ex-pat and it's all post-modern irony y'know. SO IT"S FINE.

Can I add any air fresheners to the list. They fucking stink. Just open a window people.

All of these things were fine to start with (well, apart from Lilliput cottages - WTF are they all about? ) they've only become crap because they'be been over-used and are mostly quite dated now. Whatever is the new, trendy, supposedly original thing you all think is so cutting edge and stylish now will be on this list in 5 years time, you mark my words.

My MIL has over 100 Lilliput lane houses - about 4k's worth.

If I HAD to have them I would have the Christmas ones and just put them out at christmas

Anything at all from Next interiors.

Feature walls - now look as naff as a border did 20 years ago.

Venture style photos.

The ubiquitous pleather sofa that has a corner bit. I particularly loathe these and about 70% of my friends have them.

I saw a wooden wall hanging thing that said 'Wasted' and another that said 'Skint'.

I have twigs with lights on stuck in a pot of pebbly shit.

DS1 is heavily into the Keep Calm stuff.

Shabby chic distressed wooden signs that say such wistful bollocks as "Believe" etc. Rooms that have gone overkill for the whitewashed wood effect and shabby chic accents (usually from Ikea, incorporating fake wood white chairs and large canvas pebble prints)

I never understood the EAT or SLEEP wordage but as a word-fiend I love wooden letters so my kids have them in their room. However I do not give a flying fuck whether or not anyone else likes them.

I can't say I am keen on anything wrought iron and I am pretty sure feature walls went out with the last millenium, other than that I really don't care...