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.

[msmoss]

On a more serious note, I think also think the extended warehouse size kitchen/diner/ family rooms will probably date, it's a great idea to have a kitchen with space to eat in but I just don't get the logic in building a massive extension which basically replicates all of the rooms that a house already has by building a ridiculously hard to heat space. I've seen many lovely houses ruined by people doing this.

[Belize]

I have oak kitchen surfaces and they still look fine after 15 years. Have sanded them down just twice and re-oiled in all that time.

Have terracotta tiles on the kitchen floor, not sure whether they were ever in, will date or were always out! Lots of people have them and they sure as heck can't be changed on a whim cost or stress wise.

Mmmmm... now re shabby chic, am guilty of having a few dressers and bookcases in this style - is it really over? I live in a very old cottage where everything is higgeldy piggeldy (jeez how the f* do you spell that!). Would the done thing be to just paint over it all properly as it were?

Travertine bathrooms are very dated but nice-ish (I have one, could weep to be honest but unless we win the lottery it will be like that for the next 40 years ). That's how things end up being the avocado suite of the future isn't it? We will be old gimmers who couldn't afford to update and then got to past caring!!

[ouryve]

Belize - if you have stuff that's just old, that's fine.

If it's been sanded down and painted with gen-yew-ine Laura Ashley birdshit white paint and then distressed and waxed, then YUCK!

[MrsTaraPlumbing]

:) I think I've got 90% of things on this list in my home!
Thinking of OP - avocado bathroom suite - if we saw it in a friends house we would gasp and assume they were saving to replace it.
Where as I think that is not the same with some other items.

I suspect:
floor to ceiling tiles on every wall in a bathroom,
mosaic tiles,
chrome "ladder" towel rails.
Solar roof panels.
Decking - (if it isn't already).

I do not think granite will ever be out because it is such a practical material - resistant to almost everything and easy to clean - unlike marble. However colour may be important - Black granite may be equivalent to avocado.

[Belize]

ouryve, I have a horrible feeling it is the latter . I could only admit that this late at night!

What do I do with it all short of burning it ! Is it seriously over? Even in very old cottages .

[Belize]

If i paint it do I paint it a colour or go back to orange pine !

[Belize]

Ooooh that French Grey would that be ok or is that over too?

[ouryve]

Just don't "distress" it! :o

[Belize]

Fecking thing is already distressed!! Do I go proper painted? What colour?

Sorry to hijack thread OP but am now suitably paranoid that everyone has been sniggering about my crap taste in furniture for the last decade!

[duchesse]

We had decking installed this year! However it was the only practical solution to a problem we had that could not be fixed without £££££s spent on it, so we went ahead and did it. It's made out of (local) green oak and it's improved the back area of our house by a factor of about 1000 so I care not one jot that decks will soon be out of fashion!

[garlictrivia]

Metal kitchens. I surprised myself while browsing property porn the other day, and found a fantastically expensive-looking one quite naff and dated. I think blank-faced, gloss white kitchens have been & gone already, haven't they?

Bright colours. I love them (and shabby chic,) but think they're too easy to date. I wouldn't buy a coloured fridge, no matter how much I like it.

Agree about metro tiles, too.

[MrsApplepants]

Argh!! What are you supposed to do when your house can only take one look? Our 200 year old cottage has its original wide floorboards, original flagstone floor (relaid over damp membrane thing!) and inglenook, currently sporting huge woodburning stove. The only furnishings that look right are chintzy shabby chic and old rugs and stuff. How can this date?

Any colours other than sludgy F&B look too garish/ bright.

We've got classic shaped fabric sofas, heirloom wool blankets and patchwork quilt, antique brass bed.

The bathrooms are very bog standard white suite with large plain white wall tiles and beige on floor.

Kitchen/ diner is range cooker (not aga) wood work top, massive dresser, painted cupboards and a reclaimed 1950s Belfast sink. Very ordinary wooden table with odd chairs as I have collected these over time.

I agree that Belfast sinks look silly in modern looking kitchens but seriously, what else am I supposed to put in an old country cottage kitchen.

I have no twigs or pebbly shit though!! And I would like to add fricking bunting to the list of things I am sick of seeing.

[VestaCurry]

Laminate flooring
Mosaic tiling
Black kitchen countertops (whether granite or any other material)
Overkill numbers of recess spotlights both in ceilings and floors and accompanying dimmer switches
Wallpapered feature walls
Sheet glass panels instead of stair banisters
Wet rooms
Underfloor heating

[CrystalDeCanter]

MrsApplepants I think your house sounds lovely. I agree with the poster above who said you need to go with the tone/age of any house. ie down lights and bifold doors are fine in the right place but look naff when badly shoehorned in to an old home.

I have some friends who bought the most lovely white weatherboard house ripped out the old knackered but nice kitchen and put in a ultra modern glossy glass and plastic one. It's a beautiful expensive kitchen but ALL WRONG and makes me sad as it's in totally the wrong house.

We have an original '80s green bathroom with gold taps and spa bath. It's quite vommy but we can't afford to replace it and I am growing to love it as a. I has character and b. it makes me laugh it's so Dynasty.

[BalloonSlayer]

I think some people are missing the point. OP asks for the "Avocado bathroom of the future" meaning: "What now-fashionable feature of your house will make it difficult to sell your house in the future because any prospective buyers will feel they have to rip it out - at vast expense - immediately, because they won't be able to live with it because it's so naff. And therefore buyers who don't have cash for renovations won't buy your house."

Furniture, carpets and wallpaper do not come into this category. Neither does laminate floor, imo, you don't not buy a house because it has swirly carpets.

< pedant >

[JellySnake]

We've got decking, striped stair carpet, metro tiles and Zebrano kitchen bases with white gloss cupboards! When we were choosing the kitchen DH and the showroom man were looking at 'safe' options but I felt like living in the moment. DH likes it now too in a sort of because I can way. I know we might regret it one day, but oh well. BTW I've always wanted to accesorise an avocado bathroom suite.

[Geckos48]

See I dont think most of these things will prevent people from wanting to buy a house.

I think that most of the time when you view a house you do so with the understanding that you will rip some lino off the floors, re-paint or whatnot.

I can't see how 'decking will go out' either, maybe thats because I live in hilly areas where the choice is either wooden decking to make the garden level or concrete. Concrete is Nasty. I see lots of old houses too with ancient wooden decking/pergolas and they haven't dated at all.

I think the biggest issue that people are going to find with buying new builds is the tiny tiny gardens and also wet rooms, wet rooms are really bad for this country because they are so so difficult to dry.

I go to a lot of old peoples houses with my job and the things that need upgrading are

• plaster in the walls with coves cut into it to make shelves
• those built-in cupboards that go around and above the bed
• plastic extensions/porches
• folding wooden/glass doors in between the lounge and diningroom
• wood chip wallpaper
• any textured wallpaper

-textured ceiling plaster

• concrete stepping stones

Kitchens need upgrading every 15 or so years anyway
bathrooms if kept simple can last double that

The most important thing is function and no pointless 'pretty' frilly bits because those can become really dated very quickly.

[duchesse]

We updated our 1980s installed yellow pine kitchen with a £15 tin of paint called ming or ching or something that is essentially a farrow and ball paint under another label. It's now wearing a bit, so we have several cardinal sins fighting for attention in our kitchen alone: outdated kitchen, F&B colour, and it's looking flipping distressed! The kitchen also has floor to ceiling tiles in a particularly nasty 80s pattern, and dark green lino! But we can't afford to replace any of it so it has to stay for a while yet.

[MarshaBrady]

Overkill on ensuites and spotlights.

Laminate and decking.

[bigTillyMint]

My DM still has an avocado kitchen (in surprisingly good nick). Surely its "in" now, with all things retro?!

[duchesse]

Oh yes, spotlights- recessed ceiling ones at that. They're hideous and the bulbs are always broken. Another style crime for our kitchen, inherited from previous owners.

[bigTillyMint]

kitchen? Bathroom!

I like spotlights

[PrimalLass]

Ha, I have loads of these things. Most of the comments here are about people's personal taste I feel.

[Belize]

Balloonslayer, new carpets can cost loads though. I don't think an avocado suite is any more expensive to replace than bad flooring.

MrsApplepants my house is just the same, we have massive inglenook fireplaces and wood burning stoves that are quite old, don't think they will ever go out of fashion as they've been around for hundreds of years in one form or another.

Same with lovely old wooden floors and proper stone floors. They are timeless unlike spotlights, cheap conservatories, glossy kitchens etc.

[jellybabyanyone]

just looked up at ceiling which is textured but easy to repaint. also have naff 50s sliding doors between 2 reception rooms with etched ridged glass.

have spotlights but think they are practical in kitchen and shower room which has chrome towel ladder