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...

@Hellofromme your house sounds like my house.... neutral/greyish carpets, grey bathrrom, grey bed, got my eye on a grey sofa....!

I've got dark purple in my bedroom. I'm sure that went out years ago but I still like it.

I love teal. Always have, always will, it's never going to be out of fashion in my heart.

But those awful phrases on walls, one wall with horrible bold wallpaper and everything matching in the kitchen... burn it now!

Come and see my crazy kitchen when it is done pickachew, I'm obviously not far from you at all. Where are you looking in meadowfield?

Oh no ...I've wanted a deep blue & white kitchen for years and this year i finally get to replace my falling apart beech plastic kitchen and its everywhere....
I have large metro tiles in my bathroom and was going to put in downstairs loo as well - although not putting in kitchen -phew

and grey bifolds are in the plan although debating sliding as relatively small gap so think less framing will be good and can't imagine opening up the whole way a lot..am sure neother iwll be fashionable in 10yrs!

the rest is a hotchpotch of colours/artefacts from travels and art so hopefully that will mitigate ...

What is with the teal hatred.... about to paint my stairs in teal tension. Uh oh!

Just call teal peacock blue and then it will still be fashionable.

I had a dark blue and off white kitchen in the early 80's, it was glossy, maybe it will be back in fashion now.
Glossy kitchens and no handles, surely they are on the way out by now? Good quality wooden doors may not be too everyones taste but they are classic and would suit a Victorian house.

Pine, anything pine, looks so stale and 80's.

Had subway tiles in 1990, I have been tempted to get them recently but felt they were already becoming dated, also the little mosaic ones with patterns. In the same way that travertine has dated already and looks like hotel bathrooms.

Laminate flooring, big in the 90's, dated now, I suspect dark wood will also be dated soon. Classic parquet won't date.

Teal, yes, it has been a fad, along with the feature wall and the revival of the 70's wallpaper. I have longed to find blues that are not teal based/duck egg. Traditional blues.

We have encaustic tiles in the hall, they are the hideous variety in brown and orange, been there since at least the 80's. Can't wait to replace them with something classic, I think it depends on the style, something less loud would not date.

Bifolds will always be an option but they ruin an older house. Proper French doors are classic and wouldn't date.

Modern, trendy and fashion fads will always date, plain and classic may not appeal to everyone but they won't date and can be lifted with a clever twist.

I really want to paint my sitting room in Juniper Ash. Even though I suspect this will look very Living Etc. circa 2014.

I love your Juniper Ash - may I copy?

We've recently renovated a Victorian house and tried to stick to a fairly classic look keeping all the original features.

Downstairs the floor is a mix of parquet and limestone. The bathroom tiles are mainly marble effect porcelain but with some subway tiles in the smaller new ensuites (they are tiny so obviously new and needed a small tile). We chose really classic bathroom fittings too - Burlington stuff which I don't think will date.

In the kitchen we went with an in frame shaker style in painted wood. Its currently the blue and light grey that lots of people have mentioned, but the great thing about hand painted kitchens is that you can just sand and paint it again if you want to change it.

We got rid of all the orange wood and aertex ceilings (yuk) and painted the door frames and skirtings etc white with dark stained doors.

Colour wise the house is mainly greys but has some feature rooms in olive green or my favourite is the downstairs toilet in aubergine. its all painted though as we have a toddler and dog so they'll ruin wallpaper so we can change it easily.

We made it a bit more open plan, with a orangery extension which turned the lounge into a kitchen diner. We also have bifolds, but went with ones with beading so they aren't just a huge expanse of glass and I think fits in with the rest of the house a bit better.

Having read the thread it ticks the boxes for loads of things that will date - oops!

What is an 'in frame' kitchen?

You can indeed Swanny!

Where did you get your bifolds from doublechoc...I think your refurb sounds lovely I'm a big fan of aubergine and am currently in negotiations with Dh about using it I'm not sure my kitchen will be big enough for an inframe although I love them

Apparently anaglypta wallpaper is about to be the big thing (unless it already is, I'm hardly cutting edge on these things!) And "luxe" which I suppose makes sense as home/interiors companies always tend to push the opposite of the last trend as it makes people feel the need to overhaul everything, and Scandi-clean has been massive for ages, so it makes sense that the next step would be to tell everyone that the copper terrariums for your succulents and clean white lines are out (along with the travertine and the subway tiling) and whatever looks least like all that is now IN! Why do we fall for it?

"in frame" means the doors come with a pretend frame, more like a picture frame than a doorframe, within which they are hinged, and the frame is screwed to the cabinets.

IMO the decorative frame is a nuisance as it gets in the way if you want to wipe out the cabinets (it sticks out beyond the cabinet sides).

I expect it will be very difficult to get matching doors and frames in a few years. The doors have to be a bit smaller than standard to fit inside the frames

One of the joys of being older is that you have seen so many styles come and go. One day they are amazing and original and quirky, the next they are stale and hideous and passé.

Just go with what you like. I have maple wood floors and cream walls, wooden Venetian blinds and colour from cushions and rugs. I have a wooden kitchen with a light tiled floor, cream tiles and very pale blue green walls with lots of brightly coloured ceramics.

One of our bathrooms is white and blue tiled and very classic, one is mosaic (and I love it) and one (teens shower room) is very dated beige travertine (they don't seem bothered).

I loathed the trend for grey and hate the current fad for dark gloomy paint colours. And don't get me started on grey green front doors. Still, each to their own.

What colour is your front door, Tinkly?

I don't think you can beat a nice navy blue composite front door :-)

I've always wanted a bright yellow front door.

My living room is grey with chevron curtains, huge sofas and throws and the grey and white kitchen and bathroom have metro tiles

We have original small herringbone parquet in our dining room and hallway. When we moved here 21 years ago, no one liked it - they kept saying it was like a school hall - and I wasn't mad about it. But we couldn't afford to change it. Now it's considered a classic and is much admired. So yes, parquet can definitely date, we have just forgotten that because it's in favour at the moment.

Having lived in houses that are a good 200 years old with original features, I don't agree that parquet would 'date', it is part of the original house, and in keeping with the style. The parts that were updated with laminate are another matter, a rush job in the kitchen for example.

I am not a fan of the open plan houses that have been talked up so much that it is becoming difficult to buy a house with actual rooms. That is a style that will date, so suggest not knocking down any walls. It is a fashion which hopefully will pass very soon and will see rooms being fashionable again.

I also prefer older properties with decent sized rooms, Edwardian especially, hence not liking lary wallpapers, shiny kitchens, bifold doors and all the other modern fads. I like a proper fireplace, a focal point for the room rather than a huge screen, traditional style bathrooms instead of stainless steel industrial mixing tubs for baths and toilets for square backsides. I suspect the prison style toilets and ugly square ones will soon be dated.

I assume/hope that the real issue with stuff dating is if you plan to sell or have lots of friends round who are style icons and will judge you. I'm not doing the first and don't think I know any of the latter so should be ok. I'd like my house to be contemporary but mostly to have things in it that make me smile and suit my lifestyle.