What current "looks" are going to date badly?

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I'm starting a house refurb next year and collecting various ideas for decor.

I'm conscious that I tend to be quite influenced by what's around at the moment... 5 years ago I probably would have chosen a house all in white and shades of grey, and a painted in frame kitchen, now I'm liking darker colours and handleless kitchens... I think I may be a recipe for a house that dates quite badly .

Please help me avoid that. What do you think is currently ubiquitous/on trend but will look all wrong in a few years' time?

Conversely what's going to stand the test of time?

It's for a Victorian house in London if that matters...

I meant to add
www.houzz.co.uk/ideabooks/31539361/list/decorating-how-to-gently-bring-a-victorian-home-into-the-21st-century

Do some browsing on Houzz for ideas, make a Pinterest Board of things that take you fancy, add and delete as you refine your ideas.

I am having a renovation done in a few months and turning house into open plan with a whiter gloss kitchen, bifold doors (south facing) and grey living room with glass banisters.

Shall I just stop it all and start again from scratch?

grey windowframes

...I saw someone the other day asking how to do Artex

I think the key is to go classic with the expensive things like kitchens/bathrooms and use textiles and furnishings which can be easily changed for expressing your style. You can't beat a classic wood frame kitchen and it can always be painted and have new handles to freshen it up and change the look every few years.
I've been using grey in interiors for 20 years - it's my favourite colour so I don't care if it is in fashion or not. Go with colours/prints that you love and you can't go wrong.

read op's opening post and thought grey and glossy kitchens, same as lots of other posters

I think things that aren't 'real' are the things that date worst. E.g. if you happened to have a genuine mismatched floor of antique faded tiles that would always be incredible. Faking it will be horrible in five years. Same for floors - if you've got wood it'll never look bad, but laminate's much riskier. Ditto brick wallpaper, 'exposed' anything that hasn't been 'exposed' so much as installed, and things that look 'recycled' or 'reclaimed' bought new.

It makes it tricky to know what to do with a kitchen or a bathroom but they'll pretty much definitely date in some way so making them as updateable as possible is a good thing I reckon, e.g. painted kitchens, and bathrooms that aren't wall to wall tiled.

I am having a renovation done in a few months and turning house into open plan with a whiter gloss kitchen, bifold doors (south facing) and grey living room with glass banisters. Shall I just stop it all and start again from scratch?

No,,,go for a Matt or wood kitchen, then everyone will think it's brand new in 20 years...😂

Bottom line is nothing lasts for ever. A twenty year old kitchen is a twenty year old kitchen. As is a twenty year old sofa. Bifold doors are not so much about fashion, that's like saying your windows will be dated. It it looks good in the building it always will.

Same as woodburners,,,we bought a house 20 years ago with one and thought "ooh a wood burner, that's cool and very expensive" and 20 years later we've just had one installed in this house. As long as it fits the property age, it's probably timeless. Both houses were period properties.

For me though, I hate clutter, but i paint most of the walls every year or two, change the soft furnishings like rugs and cushions, that keeps it fresh as for me Its about what I like,,,

Shabby chic (probably gone out already)
Typography
Yes to those random literal words everywhere. I am aware I am in the BATHroom, I do not need a sign telling me so.
Lightboxes (though I do sort of want one).

Enrique that sounds like the kind of look I'd like. Sadly DH is much more cautious - I showed him an orange velvet sofa and he went pale...

Bluntness you repaint and get new rugs and cushions every year or two? Wow!

kaputt good advice

Those wide shallow rectangles set into walls as fireplaces. Walls of logs. Copper and teal. White woodwork and banistets, everyone will want natural wood instead. I am on one of those Home Improvement fb pages. There are loads of posts from people with beautiful solid dark wood pieces breaking out the Annie Sloane. If I had the money I'd invest in the paint stripper industry. I'd be laughing in 7 years

Paint stripping was fashionable a while ago too and then went out of favour.

It's all cyclical.

Just like 50's style furniture is making a comeback now.

I'm currently quoting projects which are full of black stained ash furniture. So 80's!

I just hope the fashion of wood chip and artex doesn't come back anytime soon. It's taken a huge amount of time and money to get rid of that from my house

I can't see artex, woodchip or coloured bathroom suites coming back tbh

'White woodwork and banistets, everyone will want natural wood instead.'

Depends on the wood. I hate the trend for stripping back Victorian doors and window frames to the original knotty pine. The knotty pine was never meant to be on display, they were meant to be white.

I think the key is for the style to match the property. If it does it will become classic not dated. Never fight the architecture of the house. You also need to be conscious of the price range your house falls into as trends/tastes can be different at different ends of the scale.

IMO, the stuff that doesn't date is the stuff that is easiest to clean/maintain.

Subway tiles are bound to date - all that grouting to get mucky.

Dark grout I imagine is going to stick around - it's just so practical.

Also, stuff that looks dated is also because it starts to look scruffy / tired so you start to get bored of it. If it stays looking good you'll stay proud of it.

If in doubt, pick the easy to clean option!

"I just hope the fashion of wood chip and artex doesn't come back anytime soon. It's taken a huge amount of time and money to get rid of that from my house "

If it does come back into fashion my current house will be bang on trend.

Squoosh what's wrong with stripped doors? We've had all the original doors in our renovation stripped of decades of paint layers and they look amazing. They will be carefully oiled and loved and look fabulous. We even bought some reclaimed ones to match for the rooms in the extension.

I agree that original things and things that are sympathetic to the era don't date. For instance our current bathroom has green metro tiles like a Victorian public toilet. It looks lovely because the basin and taps are appropriate for the era and the house is Victorian so it just looks right rather than styled is that makes sense.

I'm having my house decorated at the moment.
Victorian terrace that's had a lot of features ripped out and all the woodwork stripped back to bare pine.

It looks lovely with a fresh coat of white eggshell on the skirting and architraves but I'm leaving the doors stripped as I like it.

I can always paint the doors at a later date if I decide too

'Squoosh what's wrong with stripped doors?'

Nothing wrong with them as such, just not to my taste. And if you're trying to be authentically Victorian then painting the woodwork is generally more in keeping with the era. Often when making doors and window frames, skirting boards etc. they would have used the cheaper and more knotty wood because the intention was to paint them anyway.

'Never fight the architecture of the house.'

I don't agree with this in all cases. Did anyone see that documentary last year about people who transformed their council houses? There was a guy who lived in a high rise flat and he'd kitted it out to look like a luxury cabin on a vintage cruise ship. Not one bit in keeping with the architecture of his home but I really admired his vision. Likewise the guy who painted his version of Renaissance frescoes all over his three bed semi.

Skirting and cornice etc will be painted white but doors staying stripped. Ours are lovely quality. Some were made to be bare wood, e.g. the "tiger" ones.

What's a "tiger" door Paleontologist?

Batteries I agree, the ideas which are very practical will stick around.

I will be painting my woodwork white.

Bluntness you repaint and get new rugs and cushions every year or two? Wow!

Yes, sometimes more often, I just paint rooms myself and it takes a weekend for a Large one and a day for a medium or smaller one. I've a low boredom threshold when it comes to things like that.. Cushion covers aren't expensive, and I'm on my second sitting room rug in the three years I've been here, but imagine this one will last longer as I love it.

I just hope the fashion of wood chip and artex doesn't come back anytime soon. It's taken a huge amount of time and money to get rid of that from my house 

Yes dilapidated! Every surface in my house is currently wood chipped. Therefore, every wall is being stripped back to brick and re-plastered.

I don't see why plantation shutters will go out of date after, what 15 years, when curtains haven't gone out of date in about 1500 years and people still have blinds that were invented in the 50s. It's just another window covering/privacy option now surely?