Things you would NEVER want in your house:

[AlphaBravoHenryFoxtons]

I'll start.

A kitchen island.
A hall console table.
A corner sofa.
New rugs.

I am thinking of getting a plumbed-in Miele coffee machine.

What is the matter with kitchen islands? I haven't got one, but every mega expensive super kitchen in our local London property porn free glossy mag has an island.

long ago, I worked in a large London hotel, which had kitchen islands.

They were considered old fashioned even then.

They had big ventilation ducts hanging from the ceiling.

China cabinets full of absolute tat that means nothing and is worthless.

Yes! What on earth is the point of those? I've never understood. PILs had not one but two of these ugly, hulking great monstrosities in the dining room and the sitting room. They were both huge, dark, very 70s in style and took up half the room/all of one wall. They had light up compartments and shelves with glass doors. Their sole function seemed to be to 'display' stuff. They had a load of random old tat in the cupboards below, but definitely the main purpose was to display stuff. So therefore stuff then had to be bought, to be displayed.

The 'stuff' consisted of things like paperweights, prissy little crustal vases to small for flowers, Lladro (sp?) type ornaments, china crinoline ladies, school photos of the DGCs etc.

When FIL dies and MIL was downsizing she just wanted to get rid of virtually everything. She had very little attachment to any of it. I was helping her decide what to just chuck and what might be worth selling. I assumed some of these 'treasures' would be valuable collectables, given they'd had hundreds of pounds worth of glass fronted cabinet lovingly wrapped around them for 40 years, but No. A quick look on Ebay confirmed that it was all just mass market tat with no real value. That in itself made the whole display cabinet phenomenon even more of a mystery to me.

Guilty - I have always been a bit confused by reed diffusers - they look like an accident waiting to happen around DCs - but I do like a room to smell nice & fresh without having to resort to plug-ins.

But trying to find a room spray to put in the loo that isn't an aerosol with a nasty artificial smell is impossible these days because all you can get is bloody reed diffusers! Even big Waitroses and John Lewis have shelves & shelves of reed diffusers and scented candles and not a room spray in sight. Then I found my local M&S had them hidden away in a corner I'd never seen before, and now my downstairs loo is no longer pongy.

I did have metro tiles in my old kitchen but resisted having them put in again in the current house I did love them though. More bizarre on that link is the wallpaper with 'French courtesans in seductive poses' - hmmmm!

Reed diffusers and scented candles are lovely but only if you buy the mega expensive ones made with really good quality natural essential oils.

The cheap mass produced ones are nasty and cloying and chemical-laden and no better than cheap air freshener.

Sadly any of the smells make me want to vom!

Add to that scented candles and joss sticks

Just googled metro tiles to see if I have them! No, I don't, but like a pp said I might not want some of these things but can see the attraction.

I love my kitchen island, but it's not squashed in, have a big kitchen and itcan seat 6, it's one of the best things in my house along with the conservatory. Everyone would hate my house!

Reed diffusers, agreed. Do they actually make a room smell nice? I can't smell them unless I hold them right up against my nose!

Carpeted kitchens were a late 80s early 90s thing with older people as I recall. My ancient great aunty had flotex fitted in the kitchen of her new build 80s flat.

When I graduated a friend and I rented a flat which had been lived in by someone elderly. The kitchen was carpeted. I scrubbed it with Stardrops before we moved out as it was filthy.

Both kitchens were off the living rooms - don't know if that had something to do with it?

As a student I remember refusing to live in houses with carpet up the side of the bath!

Hundreds of old lady trinkets glass coffee tables/tv stand

I don't get the kitchen island hate at all. In a fairly long kitchen they're a godsend. You can do all your prep/cooking in one area - much better than traipsing up and down the long work top and if you've got seats on one side so much the better - my friend's little ones usually do there homework sat at thrives while she's prepping food on the other side. Having said that, their kitchen alone cost more than our entire extension (including fittings & decoration) so I suppose you get what you pay for!

Why do people hate metro tiles?

Those that hate kitchen islands what do you think to this?

Rousette Can we see a picture of your island?

PIL have a sort of island but one edge is attached to a wall so I don't know if you would call it an island? It has an induction hob on one side with cupboards and drawers underneath and then the other side has stools.

Fluffy loo seat covers and matching shaped mats that wrap around the base.
Feature walls.
Giant lighted glass display cabinets ad anything that would be expected to reside in them (mass produced dragon/angel/mother and child type figurines).
Sofas that recline or have cup holders - or both!
Giant photographic canvases or random mass produced paintings - usually wine bottles, Tuscan scenery, flowers etc.
picture frames that have something like "Best Friend" written on them (only acceptable in a child's bedroom).
Cheap mock vintage tat accessories - The Range has a lot of these.
Those hideous glass pebbles with the irredescent sheen.
Net/satin/super flammable curtains. Especially if they have matching polyester type cushions.
Those hideous Dr Surgery vertical blinds.

Metro tiles, like grey paint, Tramontine-tiled bathrooms, are the magnolia of their time. On their own they look good, but the so many look the same.

We get all nostalgic looking at the tiling in Midsomer Murders. :o

We have beams in our ensuite too.

I started with our house with most of the styles we like we now have many of the things I loathed. I have a disabled child so check list is wipe able and indestructible, so that includes washable floors, washable walls and leather or leather look furniture and the reinstating all the walls previously knocked down. But I love it, even my large black leather couch it has actually been a bit liberating, my home is practical and decor not quite as important to me as it was. Never wanted an island as I am short and the stools would be extra moving items to clean the floor.

An expensive kitchen that's meant to look distressed. Why would you pay gazillions for chipped paint? Infact, distressed furniture in general would be on my no go list.

An aga - I don't know why but I hate them and once negotiated with a seller to remove an aga before I bought the house.

A bed with a million cushions on. What's the point? What do you do with them when you get into bed?

NappyAddict - That's a butcher's block, placed in the centre of a kitchen. It isn't an island any more than a table placed in the middle of a kitchen is an island.

I like flexibility. I love my kitchen table, it does everything an island does. But also I love it that I can move my kitchen table and put it end to end with my dining table at Christmas or other large gatherings, or place it under a tree in the garden during a heatwave.

nappyaddict it's too identifying to post a pic of my kitchen, but I love it and it has lots of legroom, it houses an induction hob, loads of cupboard space, microwave etc

*I mean the island has lots of legroom, not the kitchen!

Asteria I think you've nailed them all!

Actually I take that back about my kitchen table doing everything an island does. It provides seating for 10 and a big space to work/bake/sew/paint/chop etc. it doesn't have a built-in induction hob or cupboards.