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?

So... er... what ARE people doing that IS ok? Is it just plain whitewashed rooms with nothing in them..? Or does it have to be exclusively expensive to be ok?

Is it just because these things have become popular? (And what is wrong with next!)

Is a "venture photo" those studio posed ones that everyone is doing now? They're ever so expensive. I keep meaning to print some of our (home) photos out but all our snaps are on our computer at the moment!

Our living room currently looks like an ikea catalogue photo. Its not that I love ikea as such but we're on a budget and its fairly sturdy for the price!

Cushions and spreads on beds - who in Gods name can be bothered to rearrange them all every morning and evening? They don't look bad just time consuming.

I have a 'teddy bear' throw on our bed. No cushions though, unless you count the V shaped pillow left over from breast feeding ten years ago. (V comfy for reading in bed).

An entire house painted in magnolia with white woodwork and beige carpets. It just screams 'I have no imagination!'.

One small picture on a large wall - looks stingy and out of proportion.

Cath Kidson - twee and overpriced.

Gingham scares the shit out of me.

Houses that smell of coffee. Or mandarin orange.

Baths, toilets etc that are kind of sculpted like a shell. Especially if they have gold taps.

Evil dolls.

Agree- any veneer furniture (argos), almost all of Fortyplus's list. Except for DFS sofas. Ornaments.

Agree especially with the pointless wooden letters and phrases stencilled on walls. Interiors magazines are always full of this crap. I once saw a house in Ideal Homes mag or something which had bits of random poetry and stuff stencilled on the walls in each room, one of which read "and all because two people fell in love..." barf emoticon

Obviously everyone who has ever come in my house and complemented me on my "lovely decor" was either lying or deluded, as most of my house is on here

We have letters, transfers, DFS/corner sofas, feature walls, big canvas photos, twigs, white crockery, neatly written chalkboard lists, mirror wardrobes, stuff from Next....

Can someone tell me what IS acceptable so that I can bin the lot and redecorate to an acceptable MN standard please?!

I think plain white crockery is fine - it's the black wording 'Pasta', 'Soup' etc that's a problem. But then I won't have storage jars declaring 'coffee', 'tea' etc - maybe it's because I'm a control freak!

I'm not keen on anything 'arranged', minimalist or too neat. I have ten pairs of trainers in the corner of the dining room which is where my boys chuck them - it isn't a design statement I can assure you!

I think 'MN approved' decor would include some mismatched, cherished items, a horrible clay object made by your child, a few well-thumbed books lying around (definitely not 'coffee table' books').

Walls plain colours but not white, magnolia or beige - there has to be a hint of colour.

Obviously there'll be a pc on in the corner with the MN home page on one tab and if it's Friday somemething very dodgy on another after you've Googled one of those 'Never Google X' links!

I second the bunting hate.

my SIL has gone shabby chic mad and every room now has a string of bunting. I dont understand it, fair enough in one room but why in every room?

My Dsis has gone a bit shabby chic mad, too.

I am desperately trying to stop my dh from buying up the entire John Lewis catalogue. I've suggested looking at antiques fairs for some older pieces to mix it up a bit - he says he doesn't like 'old things'

'Decorative' air fresheners, Pot Pourri, and candles that make your eyes water.

I can honestly say I've never been in a house that has bunting! Surely it's for parties in the garden or maybe a beach hut or summerhouse?

I noticed that bunting has arrived in Australia in the last couple of weeks. It's shit, isn't it?

I hate things that match.

And I hate hate hate hate carpet. All of it. It's nasty. Not as nasty as my cheap laminate, but nasty nonetheless.

I like my 1970's sideboard with an actual drinks cabinet, in which I keep my solitary bottle of whiskey (need to go shopping for bottles of sticky goo and special glasses to drink it from.)

I judge any house that doesn't have at least a bookcase that looks used. Dare I say it, but there was some shit decorating/interior idea in one of this month 's mags advising to arrange books by COLOUR

Dh and I joke that one day our kids will be fighting over who gets the Ikea furniture!

Oh, I love my carpet. I don't think I could cope with a wooden floor.

Shit
I have twigs, magnets on the fridge, teddy bear next to my bed, and the magnets on my fridge!
I love it all !

Oh....and I have the word LOVE in my bedroom

My DB got wooden letters for SIl for her 30th birthday. he got them specially made for the bedroom, and they spell S H A G

Lots of magnets

DFS sofas
Fake ethnic furniture
Carpets, especially beige carpet.
Hotel style bathrooms in beige
Beige anything, or brown

I am saving up for a cross stitched sampler that says Fuck You.

And wall stickers, or whatever they call themselves, make me cry.
The wordy crockery/shower curtains etc - STFU. I will not be ordered around by furnishings. BATHE bubbles Splash SOAP. Buggerorf.

Itsjust I do my books by colour . I read about it in an interiors mag a couple of years ago and had a lovely evening doing it. I have a lot of books in every room, a stupid amount, and tend to hoard old penguins (orange) and children's novels. They look fabulous arranged in groups by colour.