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?

I notice there are no reviews for the product you've linked to. Tempted?

Who cares what other people think. I love coloured stripes irrespective of whether they are in or out and so am just about to order striped carpet for my stairs. I need a new one. I like stripes. Why would I buy a plain one just because stripes are popular at the moment? Go for it if you like it.

PLANTATION SHUTTERS.

We do not live in the West Indies.

Ok, what is the general consensus on toilet brushes? I mean don't get me wrong, I don't have it has a style statement, and I know that they are pretty unpleasant, but I CAN'T BEAR having pooh skids down my toilet!
Someone please tell me the answer to this predicament!!??

More fibre?

Toilet brushes - do you mean whether to have, or how to make stylish? If the latter, hiding to nothing . Buy cheap and white, replace often.

If whether to have, I'm with Kim and Aggie on this one. I don't use it myself - prefer the 'gloves on and have a scrub, or throw some bleach down' method. But I do have one for visitors to use - I'd rather they used it than did nothing at all.

Loo brushes-cheap and replace frequently.

on the outside those totally naff false window shutters which are attatched to the wall adjacent to the windows, why? "cute" nameplates with the likes of "COBWEBS" >CURRENTLY OWNED BY "INSERT HERE BUILDING SOCIETY NAME" EQUITABLE BUILDING SOCIETY, on them,and don"t get me started on cladding!!!

Oh dear I have well and truly sinned with my cream carpets, cream walls, feature walls (a darker cream), mirrored wardrobe, and I'm sure there is more but who cares, your not living here I am!

I forgot to mention my dfs sofa, and dining table!!

This is essentially the same as all the catty fashion threads. Essentially you dislike things that were very stylish and interesting a few years ago but have now become mass market.

There's nothing wrong with them in themselves.

I have bought a cpu

Sorry, pressed send too early.

I have bought a couple of things from Not On The High street but have gone right off it recently. It's all the personalised smug stuff.

I love having pictures which a personal to us but that's very different from some made to order hotch potch map with the day we met on.

It's all me me me.

At the moment, I don't feel I have the time, energy or money for house style and I feel a bit bitter about that.

Can you tell?

LMAO at some of the decor detailed on here

I live in Japan, so none of these feature in homes here, but I now have the irrisistible urge to decorate my home like this.

YY to hating leather sofas (I'm veggie) - especially when accompanied by several cushions made of in what appears to be the skin of a goat (like a kind of droopy mohair). The look of them sets my teeth on edge and I want to sneeze... YY - brown leather sofa, with 2 cream mohair cushions and maybe a "contrasting" beige one and a Laura Ashley union Jack one thrown in for good measure.

I detest too much Ikea, any Argos or Next, those high backed leather chairs (yuck, yuck, yuck!), fake antique tables, too much of one 'accent' colour, no originality.

I have to admit to some of the crimes on here though! My daughter has wooden letters on her wall spelling her name (looks cute imo) and I have vinyl transfer letters in my sitting room (which is otherwise very simple and retro modern).

Whenever I read these threads I can't help but wonder what people actually have in their homes.

I've got loads of stuff that is regularly slated on MN:

TV on the wall, corner sofa in the basement, bunting and fabric letters in the kids room, floral curtains, ghost chairs in the garden and shock horror venture photos on the wall

I also have

Mismatched (natch) le creuset, velvet carpets, linen sofas and original artwork which seem to be OK. Presumably because they are expensive and have not yet made their way into B&Q

Buy things you love or that enhance your life - plenty of mileage in the suggestion that things should be useful or beautiful. Don't buy things that are neither to simply fill a space.

If you love the triptych in amber from Next go for it, if you're buying it because it matches your cushions don't.

Most of all don't listen to anyone else: I've visited plenty of houses that whilst they aren't to my taste are fabulous in their own way. I've also visited plenty that are attempts at replicating someone else's style and they are always a bit sad.

Chairs that have a handle on the side so a foot rest shoots up. Three piece suits. Anything too matchy. Furniture that is too big for the size of the room.

Pennybubbly, what does naff look like in Japan? Presumably not every home is a minimalist Mujiesque haven?

Symmetry is naff.

Devora-if only..
Where to start. Plastic table covers (ike a huge sheet of thick but bendy plastic) with flowers/teddies/crap designs on them. Bloody awful toilet covers - like towelling material covers that you put on the seat itself, on the lid, and on the toilet roll dispenser - even available in muji. Oooh, and while we are on toilets, toilet slippers - slippers that live in the loo. Signs for outside your door, with your name on, often with a cute teddy bear looking adoringly on.

Christ, I could go on forever...

Of course, my home is a minimalist, mujiesque haven

Towelling covers for the toilet SEAT? Oh my word... How often do people wash them, do you know? And why cover the toilet roll dispenser?

What are the toilet slippers about? Is that a hygiene thing? Do you leave normal slippers at the door?

Do adults have the cute teddy door plates?

You have opened a whole new world of possibilities to me

Ok I know this may not make me very popular but...my DH is a nurse and works at our local hospital, he has a friend that works in a&e who has witnessed (unfortunately on more than one occasion) incidents where young children have been brought in via ambulance after plasma screen tv's have fallen off of tv units/tables onto them. At least 2 of these children (that we are aware of) died of crush injuries Because of that I'm afraid I do have my flat screen tv bolted to the wall!

I have to agree with loo brushes, toilet seat covers and frankly any carpet in the bathroom, eew

How boring everyone is getting. Not only are we not allowed to like something just because lots of other people like it, but there is actually a "club" where the ones who don't like what the uncool people like can congregate and feel superior. True style and originality doesn't even care what other people are doing. You either like duck-egg-blue or you don't. What's the problem? Every single bride on Don't Tell the Bride wants a dress that is "different" from everybody else's and then loves what they have, despite it being basically the same as everyone else's. When did we lose our confidence in our own taste?

Sorry - vent over. Anyway.

Naff (just that word makes me feel like I'm 13) for me is a room that totally coordinates and I'm deeply disturbed by living-rooms that don't have books in.

And tatty teddies. Not in MY house thanks!

Here you go Devora: The page is in Japanese, but you should be able to see the pics of the toilet seat covers:

www.muji.net/store/cmdty/section/S1070307

Have no idea how often people wash them (and I 'hover' when I have to sit on one, just in case). Toilet roll covers are to hide the 'shame' that is paper to wipe your arse with, one would assume.... As for toilet slippers, they live in the toilet, and you take off your indoor slippers outside the toilet door, put on these to do Your Business, then remove as you leave the toilet. They have them in most typical (nicer) Japanese restaurants too - they are all lined up at the entrance to the loos.

Oooh, and almost forgot - compared to many - the ones in Muji are quite tasteful - you can get all kinds of designs - flowers, Snoopy......

Can't speak for everyone else Gentleness, but I'm not being snooty when I post, nor do I feel superior to those people who choose decor I wouldn't dream of putting in my house.
I thought it was a light-hearted thread about home furnishings, not an exclusive club to mock and sneer at others