What will be the Avocado bathroom of the future?

[Eastwickwitch]

I'm doing a whole house & am questioning my taste. I know opinions are subjective but could you help with your ideas?
So far I'm thinking

-not stone everywhere e.g. whole bathrooms full of Travertine
-not down lighters everywhere
-no feature walls I can't wallpaper anyway
Any ideas would be very welcome.

Anything that is classic even when it becomes newly popular eg wooden shutters, natural stone and wood, wood burning stoves won't really date.

It's the things that are thought to be incredibly trendy style statements, usually brightly coloured that will date. A house decorated in 2004 in Dulux natural hessian paint with duck egg blue gingham curtains will perhaps be a bit boring, but it won't have dated as much as one with that garish slightly ironic flocked wallpaper in lime, chocolate and scarlet.

I think kitchen diners are more useful in the way that most families live now being more casual than separate kitchen/ carpeted dining room and won't necessarily become a passing fashion. Through on the other hand lounges were always an awkward use of space and essentially pointless.

Elephants I didn't start this thread to encourage slagging off. I am really interested to know what people think in order to 'future proof' my new house as much as I can.
I have loads of the things described (wooden worktops, butler sink, plastic windows, stupid bathroom sink) but if I wasn't moving I wouldn't be able to replace them.
I'm really looking for ideas, not a prescription.

Please god let plastic front doors go out of fashion. They are the devil's own work.

I think one of the problems though is that we all see everything as disposable now - so, if we buy a house that has something in place (bathroom suite, kitchen) that isn't to our taste, even if it's perfectly serviceable, we think of changing it (I know I do - so I'd rather buy a house with a broken avocado suite than a shell edged one with gold taps, because I think I can justify getting rid of that more IYSWIM).

Eastwickwitch - when I move again, soonish, I intend to go for solid, very basic, plain things as I don't think you can go wrong. I've put oak floors in all of my houses and never regretted that, so I'll do it again, just as I'll always go for clean lines and nothing structurally fancy. I don't think you can go wrong with that.

I like my kitchen extension at the back of my house with open plan family room and table but if I was doing it again I would have a separate kitchen I could shut the door on.

I don't wish to chat to my guests when I am cooking. we do have separate cosy lounge though so not all open plan

Taupe

Anything "soopah" that's highlighted in estate agent photos is of the moment and may date (look in the Evening Standard and every photo shows either a kitchen island, bifold doors, a huuuge open-plan kitchen/diner, or a stuffed feature baby elephant hatstand.)

And yes, I think what's important is fitting the house to suot what you need, but retaining neutral/ warm and inviting features to make it easier to flog if you're going to sell on. If you want travertine/wood burner/decking in the meantime, go for it! I think a good size kitchen will always be popular, but as more people realise that open plan and kipper curry do not go well, seperate rooms may become more sought after. Some new inventions seem to be quite practical (eg mixer taps, thermostatic radiator control things). Others (those retractable hose thingys on sinks) are more pretentious than truly useful, and so will go out of style. Kitchen Islands especially are weird: it's like a huge table that you can't move and if it has cooking/electric in it will be a huge pain to get taken out.

Of course you could go the other way, hae a riot of unusual "features" for the hell of it and risk being the subject of a Mumsnet Property Thread of shock and awe...

Glass fronted fitted kitchen units and heated towel rails, especially ones in fancy shapes (written from bath looking at aforementioned towel rail and stone floor tiles on the wall).....

Oh I LOVED the wooden work top in our old flat!! Oil it every few months, lasts forever and looks brilliant. Better than laminate, yuk.

Corner sofas might date. I still want one, though.

Yes to decking. Soooo 2006.

I'm guilty of the travertine bathrooms and sludge colours on walls (where I live, F&B is a verb ie "I'm going to F&B the living room". In fact, my whole house is a shrine to decor cliches of the last decade!

Has anyone mentioned natural flooring yet, eg sisal, jute etc? Got all my stairs covered in it and panic constantly about spillages as it's an absolute bastard to keep clean.

I think magazines like Living Etc changed the way we think about our homes - always hated those smug articles about families with massive kitchen/living rooms opening onto the garden and 'quirky' things on the walls but bought the bloody magazine myself and got lots of ideas from it And found it a bit strange the way it talked about this year's new colours etc, as if we all change our walls etc each year!

Glass bricks.

Everything dates, just a little more or less quickly. But luckily we age at about the same rate, so our ageing brains no longer notice our dated decor ;)

Go and visit the wonderful Geffrye Museum in London to take a look at how rooms have changed through time.

But seriously, OP, don't worry about it dating and just choose things you actually like, whether or not they are particularly stylish

Oh love this type of thread!
Ok, so we are guilty of high gloss kitchen, wooden worktops and metro tiles! Still love our kitchen style though and have often been complimented on it. No kitchen diner though, do we win a price?
Farrow & Ball in every room, love it. Surely, once that's dated it's time to put a fresh lick of paint on anyway, easy enough!
Downlighters in bathroom and kitchen. I insisted on them when we did the rooms 1 year ago but have now realised how they just eat up energy. Still prefer it for the bathroom though for practicality reason, what other type of light would you have in the bathroom??
Have white tiles in the bathroom (did look at travertine but we were too stingy) and mosaic border (I love the splash of colour but agree on the dating).
Don't understand the issue with parquet flooring, had it when growing up, it's one of those very classic things I always thought.
Have high quality UPVC windows as just couldn't afford to update them all in wood. Absolutely agree on UPVC conservatories. I hate conservatories full stop and never saw the point of them.
Agree that decking has probably seen its day. We will work on our garden next year and will probably choose simple natural stone slabs for the patio.

I personally think you should work with the features of the house (e.g. restoring floorboards, fire places, doors) or put period features back in if they got removed. Surely period features will retain their value/ attractiveness over the longer term! And other than that just put in stuff that you like and could possibly easily change.

I think when it comes to kitchens and bathrooms, who is going to keep the original 1970's versions in an 1970's house? They will be falling apart as they will be forty+ years old. You just have to update as best you can to fit in with the period. The Victorian and Edwardian baths can be kept and restored, period features of the 70's are made of plastic.

Gloss kitchens are revolting, imho

We recently redid our kitchen, and even though we thought that Granite might date we needed up with Granite worktop as we knew that wood would be a pita to keep form going manky, and I don't like Corian etc. Now that it's installed, I don't care if it will go out of fashion because I bloody love it.
Agree about plastic front doors and uPVC conservatories. I think the Travertine tile thing will also date soon, although I personally really like the look.

I hate, hate, hate kitchens with 2 different types of unit - zebrano gloss base and cream gloss tops - just looks like a bargain basement buy because they ran out of enough units for the whole room!!

Can you tell it's a pet hate?!

I really don't like my upvc conservatory. I'd love to replace it with a proper extension. I would never fit one, ours came with the house.

White bathrooms! I recently thought to myself that it would be nice to have a splash of colour in the bathroom, possibly via the sanitary wear.

This thought will be catching

Given our kitchen is an extension, it must have been enough fun knocking out the dinning room doorway. I fear the bathroom would land on my head if we tried to remove the rest of a two feet thick stone wall.

and one day I won't have a falling apart '70's kitchen I will have IKEA units and granite work tops and I wont care if they are out date.

What do we think of striped stair carpet?

Agree on UPVC conservatories and glass bricks

Decking is good for rats!

msmoss, a friend has recently had her sky blue bathroom suite ripped out an replaced by a white one. She's been wanting to do this for years but I actually think the blue one was rather lovely

Big bold flower wall paper

I didn't know what metro tiles were - had to Google.