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.

Been thinking about this more and probably the best way to work out the features that will date most is to look at how most new builds and renovations are currently been kitted out. Ignoring the decor and soft furnishing the bathrooms, kitchens and flooring are alljust minor variations on a small number of themes.

I'm basing this on how well my mock tudour 80s new build with avocado bathroom, artex and beamed ceilings childhood home has stood the test of time!

I wonder if in 50 years time there will be people moaning about the removal of these period features.

My local museum has a series of rooms decorated in the style of baps historical period and I'm always impressed by how well the 1920s bathroom has lasted. Plain white suite, wooden loo seat, plain white square tiles on the walls and black and white floor tiles. It would be unfashionable but perfectly acceptable as a modern bathroom.

We lived in a rented house that had a weird peachy bathroom suite. it was hilarious. It was so odd and so dated that I adjusted my view of people who looked genuinely horrified at it, as uptight insecure people with no sense of fun. We had adorable babies and as all soppy parents do took some photos of them in the bath and found that the colour is really flattering to the skin tone. The babies seem to glow, whereas babies in pure white baths can look exposed and grub-like. Anyway now I understand why people put that bathroom in, it is so that they can lie back in the bubbles with a sherbert full of babysham, or asti spumanti, and their hair in a chiffon scarf, and a full face of make-up on, with a thousand lit candles along the side, and then when they hear the door click they can call out "I'm in the barth, Derek" and Derek will hoof up the stairs with his mullet and his shiny suit and Sharon will just look so lovely in the peachy bath and - fade

(oh so I glean from the things I was allowed to watch in the 80s)

Agree Rani although not sure it would be that unfashionable!

Gawd what IS fashionable though? We talk all the time about what is 'out' but rarely what is 'in'?

Mildred and piglet, love it!
In general, I think anything which is overtly out of keeping with the age of your house, anything obviously 'try hard' or very 'of the moment' will date quickly. Otherwise, just go with what you like and hopefully you won't go far wrong.

Bright colours and prints. I think a lot of the retro trend prints on the market will date (iOrla Kielty, and esp anything from Cath Kidson).

just put in some retro print leaf curtains, but they were cheap and easy to replace!

Bifold doors
White upvc conservatories
Wet rooms
chutestoonarrow don't do it go Karndean instead dead easy to clean and looks fab.

Open plan ensuite bedrooms or baths in bedrooms - why????

This bi-fold doors business, we've got two, and I can't say I'm particularly fond of them, but surely that's a space/necessity thing, not a fashion one?
I don't think we'd get a non-bi-fold door on our bathroom.
I am worried about the future fashionable-ness of my bathroom door! I need to get out more.

Remember that these things are all fine now and nobody is criticising people's taste. I love the bifold doors that open out into the garden. I want them for my living room. But in twenty years they will be old fashioned because something new and more advanced will have come along but the bifold doors will still be in the property because they're expensive to replace. Wallpaper etc wont be, it will have been changed gradually over the years.

Limestone or travertine bathrooms might be the same simply because they're expensive to remove. Fashion wise the emphasis has already switched to white and grey tones rather than the warmer tones in some travertine but in two years time we might be back to warmer tones. Personally I think that with bathrooms it's about the detail. If you have a plain look it will date less than if you have a mock roman border in your travertine bathroom.

With kitchens raised panel doors are now dated but there will be loads around for years to come, again because its expensive to change them.

Anything fashionable will become "of its time". The key to avoiding the problem (if its even possible) is getting a classic foundation to your house. Real wooden floors, decent windows, nice solid doors, deeper crown moulding (coving). But these things are expensive!

I think whatever you do think practical - having lived in lots of rented houses in my time I have quite strong views - practical before trendy!
I'm renovating a 1970s house at the moment currently an empty shell...my thinking ...

Feature walls and the like are easy to change - as are kitchen cupboard doors and worktops, flooring etc. As long as you don't spend too much on them in the first place! And also try and keep to the age and style of the house. 1970s house filled with Victorian furniture??? IMO looks odd.

Don't paint skirtings and woodwork dark colours - impossible to paint over (and chips will show through) so probably easier to replace them then strip them. (My current house had that fake wood effect dark paint everywhere - a nightmare.)

Agree to open plan living - think keeping a toddler out of the kitchen while you change your newborns nappy!

I had the 1970s wooden frame double glazing replaced with white uPVC. The 'double glazing' had a 3 mm gap - at the time it would have been the best -just not now. Thinking in 20 yrs time my new double glazing will look as out of date and useless -probably need replacing! Also wooden frames and double glazing - you won't get more than a 5 yr guarantee on the sealed glazed units -they tend to 'blow' in wood frames -fill with condensation - and wood frames need painting etc. (Kept wooden front door though cos it is in good condition and very good quality)

I had to rip out the turquoise bathroom in the house I bought - it is a compact bathroom and one of the fitted cupboard style ones will work much better...and I'm fed up with cleaning around the bottom of the toilet pan/cistern - but I was a bit sad...it was very in keeping with the age of the house...also the brown tiles on one wall and the turquoise on another...lovely (going to try and put the photo from schedule on my profile)
Will go for a toilet that is a standard shape - square ones etc are great - until you need to find a new loo seat in a few years time.
I think basins with fixed mixer taps are a pain - just want to splash your face with water and you can't without head butting a tap...
His and hers basins - is it really necessary and do you want two sinks to clean?
Basins that sit on top of worktops - especially ones with separate taps...a mistake. I have something like that in the house I currently live in - you end up with a puddle under the tap handles (as you turn them off with wet hands) - I keep a very attractive cleaning cloth under the handles! Would suggest those automatic taps might be ok - but then that is just more to go wrong!
Baths that are freestanding - pipe work!! And I want one with a shower attachment - so I can use it clean the bath/rinse off (wash a hamster cage...)!
Separate showers/baths - current house has this - can't remember the last time someone had a shower while someone was in the bath - it is just something else to clean!
I'm not having tiles around the shower/bath - having that wet wall stuff - can't face cleaning (and regrouting) tiles and that should be easier to replace ...did reclaim some of the turquoise tiles - planning on doing some kind of border/pattern with them in the downstairs cloak...
Big bathrooms in general - I have one in this house - acts as a convenient dumping ground for stuff waiting to go into the attic and also its cold!!! Give me a small cosy bathroom any day...
(I think as heating becomes even more expensive, how easy/cheap to keep things warm will become more important.)
Flooring - I think bamboo and the stripy stuff will date fast. For now (with messy children) I'm having laminate (again) one with a pattern to disguise the mess. (That's why the pale beech stuff went out of fashion) My floorboards are ugly (and IME floorboards are cold). Am having insulation under floor though and decent underlay. Was looking at engineered wood -but decided that's not worth the hassle/expense - will go for wood when children have gone (in fact I might even have carpet then!) Floors like Kardean - are 'impossible' to lift (laminate/board floors are hard too but it can be done) so if you need access under them to service pipes etc - a nightmare. (You need to make sure there is an access hole and enough crawl space for someone to get under the whole Kardean area)
I have 70s parquet in half the hall and removed it from the downstairs cloakroom and utility (wooden floor around a loo - nooooooo) -plan is to
use that to do the whole hall way - but now having second thoughts - hard to lift for access and (from experience) carpeted stairs will suffer if you go straight from solid floor to carpet...in fact plain carpets on the stairs -another mistake - thinking of going for stripes (which will date!) but a pattern shows less dirt/looks clean for longer.
Kitchens -avoid doors (shaker style) with ledges for dust etc to accumulate - smooth best and not glossy -show every fingerprint.
Downlighters/and or spots I think will survive because of the introduction of LEDs but in areas like kitchens - 6 lots of 7w will make a really well lit kitchen (compared to a central light).

Written an essay! But guess cos I've been thinking about it a lot!

unlucky that is so helpful, thank you.
My problem is that it's a lovely house that needs a lot of money spent on it. Sadly, most of our funds are going on the renovation.
What I'm trying to to establish is appropriately spending what we have left. We have splashed out on expensive windows though.

Really interesting unlucky!

It is so difficult, tastes change very quickly. I used to hate marble. I disliked the grey tones and it struck me as very 1980s. I'm now redoing my kitchen and having white honed marble tiles and am very excited about them.

Bifold doors - I thought about them - I had patio doors and have a fantastic view from the living room to the garden and beyond...after much dithering I replaced the sliding patio doors

Bifolds the individual frames would break up the view -and they either have to open outwards or inwards -and that takes space!

And decking! - A maintenance nightmare !!! Slippy when wet stick to flagstones!
Preferably stone not concrete and not coloured. Or in fact bright coloured gravel etc too ...colours will fade and just look worn but not blend in. Plain concrete if you can't afford stone.
(My parents (200yr old house) have the original stone flagstones outside and a cobbled drive - are a bit worn and need the odd jet wash to get rid of slime but still looks good ...)

Sorry carried on my rant -
I know money is an issue and you have to think where you can spend it...spend on things that will be harder to change in the future. My money is mainly going on things like the rewire/insulation/replacing pipework rather than wallpaper/paint -which will date anyway.
Also with things like bathrooms - remember you will have to match it up in the future - plainish white should always be matchable, a particular shade or style might not be. And you would need to get a good make. (You can still get Armitage Shanks coloured bathroom things but sometimes they are not an exact match and they are pricey!)
Also plain things tend to be cheaper than statement things!
(Make a statement with wallpaper not your bathroom tiles!)

I remembered dithering for ages in this house about which kitchen worktop - granite or wood etc - in the end I went for a good laminate...(wood it was maintenance that put me off)
It cost about £500 -my thinking is if it gets damaged or dated or I decide I hate it - I can replace it - and do it two or three times (including fitting) for the cost of granite!

(A neighbour has gloss laminate worktop with a matching gloss splashback -not that old - but looks really dated - but it wouldn't be overly expensive to update)

Just moved into a house with Avacado bathroom it's brilliant, has waterlilly tiles and floral shower screen , got my orla kiely towels and soap dispensers .

YY to metro tiles, downlighters, mosaic tiles, laminate flooring

Also I think stainless silver appliances will have their day as will those bathroom sinks which look like a bowl with a table underneath (not explaining that very well) and those funny waterfall taps.

Baths in the bedroom are horrendous and agree that they will be ripped out as basins/vanity units in bedrooms have been. They must once have seemed v cool and now are v tired and grannyish. And yes I think metro tiles will one day be the equivalent of toasters and tiles in kitchens decorated with a harvest / wheat sheaf theme.

yes i don't like baths in bedrooms.

we did have a basin in dds room when we moved in. we replaced it then it got destroyed by a lovely child visiting climbing into it so dh took it out.

in some ways I think vanity unit with sink in a bedroom is quite useful if you all want to clean teeth etc and only have one bathroom.

OOH my dds room was such a tip, I think I would have gone into meltdown with another sink to clean.

Have cork floor tiles been mentioned as a retro feature yet? We have them disintegrating in our bathroom. Matches DH's movember 'tache.

On to OP's query:
Mono block paving
Down lighters
Feature walls
UPVC
Laminate floors
Wall-mounted "fires" or TVs

I suspect wall mounted TVs are probably here to stay now that they are so thin.

I've been following this thread with interest, though things are very different in Australia. I live in an area that was mostly beach shacks just after the war, but is vair desirable now.

We've made minor renovations, within the footprint of rooms, and our taste is simple, (though I had to fight off the metro tiles idea of DH's that would look shit in an early 80s timber-built house).

The idea of decorating with an eye to re-sale is limited: it's very likely that if we sold our rather nice, deeply unfashionable 80s house, and lovely garden with veggie patch, sub-tropical garden and native trees, it would be bulldozed, as most are, to facilitate the construction of a house that look like a Swedish prison.

It's all about the land value.

I think the TV screwed to the wall is not convenient or practical. Like an integrated dishwasher this will become very tiresome when you want a change, especially if you are a woman the sort of person who likes having things shifted round the room.

I see a use for picture rails, or a new style of TV stand.

Yes I totally agree that wall-mounted TV's are here to stay. They are very thin and aren't really a fashion or fad thing are they? Just seen as a necessity like a kettle or fridge.

Does anyone really have a bath in their bedroom? I always assumed that was just something dressed up for magazines - looks great but totally impractical and not something anyone ever did in real life?!