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Original poster

Does your house just look dated

112 replies

Wavymess · 04/05/2021 20:37

A few years after you moved in?

I’m just about to complete on a sale of a house that needs a full renovation. It’s my first time doing this and the whole house is going to be decorated all at once.

Styles come in and out, all grey is out in favour of all dark bold colours
And with regards to building and layouts an extension with an open plan kitchen/diner/lounge space and bifold doors is super popular right now, but will it be when I come to sell again

How do you stop your house being dated
Without having to just redo the entire house every 2 years?

OP posts:
SpiderinaWingMirror · 05/05/2021 08:02

We are just doing a cheap do over of our current house.
We have just had the downstairs altered to kitchen diner across the back of the house. And separate lounge. Did that in last house too. Cant see that going out of fashion, cost less than 2k.
Great fan of white walls, white kitchen, subtle tiling.

NoBetterthanSheShouldBe · 05/05/2021 08:03

Decor dates if you follow fashion. Personally I prefer houses that have not had ‘building’ work done to them such as extensions, removing walls, changing windows - it usually results in an unbalanced house. Too many too small bedrooms with no storage / too much house too small garden / no natural boundaries between workspaces, etc.

ElephantsNest · 05/05/2021 08:07

Find a copy of Plain, simple, useful by Sir Terence Conran. I have one of his older books and his advice is very sound.

HildegardeCrowe · 05/05/2021 08:15

I have a good eye and always go for what I like and don’t follow trends. My walls tend to be neutral colours and I fill my home with different furniture styles/accessories and am always guided by what I believe to be aesthetically pleasing. When I sell my home (a small Edwardian terrace), the new owners will no doubt renovate from top to bottom. But I’m glad I still have the original quarry tiles in the kitchen and the stained glass panel in the front door.

Bluntness100 · 05/05/2021 08:18

No house looks dated after two years unless you decorate it dated in the first place.

BeechTreeView · 05/05/2021 08:23

Ummm, we are putting an extension on the back, but it’s turning a box Edwardian kitchen into a utility so the washer and dryer can come inside from the laundry in as shonky lean to in the garden. And there’ll be a kitchen big enough for a 5 bedroom house where more than one person wants to be in there at a time.

Houses have to adapt and change otherwise we’d all still have outdoor loos and baths that get pulled in front of the fire every Sunday.

coogee · 05/05/2021 08:23

My house is supposed to look dated.

harknesswitch · 05/05/2021 08:30

My kitchen and dining room look dated but they need a good makeover. Kitchen is nearly 16 yes old.

Bedrooms look up to date but we've just finished decorating

Lowlifeinhighplaces · 05/05/2021 08:37

Dont care for 'whats on trend' I have some rather non fashionable colour schemes in my home but love them, they match favourite furniture and the like, to me its home and cosy.

But was in fashion when it was not in fashion 15 years ago when I used blush pink in one room with a rather striking F&B paint, cannot remember the colour now but a bit like beetroot!

But on a side note I went with a friend to The Range (for pet food) the other day, my goodness I was hit by the amount of sparkly, shiny, glittery silver 'stuff' everywhere on everything, is that a trend, started to give my a silver headache.

Chloemol · 05/05/2021 08:40

Mine May be considered dated but I don’t care, it’s how I like it and suits how we are. If we ever sell them it’s up to the next person to sort it how they like it

StCharlotte · 05/05/2021 08:43

I don't think so as I've decorated it in what I think is a fairly classic style. We haven't done anything structural but replaced the kitchen and bathroom about five years ago. The bathroom is a classic white suite. The kitchen is cream shaker style. Exactly the same as the one I chose 20 years ago Grin

Having said that we have replaced flooring in both rooms with something that is apparently "on trend" but which we really like and we're considering a herringbone wooden floor which while particularly popular now has been around for centuries.

Judging from my hours trawling Rightmove, grey is enduring but I have to look closely for a cushion or something as a lot of house pictures seem to be in black and white at first glance.

StCharlotte · 05/05/2021 08:45

As an aside, I think the kitchen-style bathroom units are will become very dated.

daisypetula · 05/05/2021 08:46

I have no idea if it does or not but I decorate it with no consideration of fashion and do it how we want and like it as it's our home not a fashion statement.

MustStopSnacking28 · 05/05/2021 08:49

I don’t really care if my house is dated because I will decorate how I like it with a plan to not have to redecorate for a long time! Because I’m lazy!

BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz · 05/05/2021 08:54

We lived in our last home for 10 years and the decor was the same as what we put in when we moved in.

We kept it simple - plain (well plastered) painted walls, no wallpaper. Sanded floorboards (appreciate not everyone has this option). New furniture which had a shape / material reminiscent of older styles, in classic colours. We repainted all the white woodwork before we sold to freshen them up, but other than that, the decor still fitted because it wasnt "on trend" just more classic with a slight modern feel.

Worldgonecrazy · 05/05/2021 09:03

If you keep the big things such as walls and floors simple, you can then modernise through accessories and furniture. I always start off with one item that I love and pick a colour based on that item, e.g burnt orange accessories based on a painting that I like. You can also follow themes through rooms, so that the house flows, so if you have an item you like in the kitchen (I have unusual door handles) you can use those in another room too and the brain will pick up on the flow.

Anything that is overdone will look dated. A good rule of thumb is that by the time a trend reaches Home Bargains it’s on its way out of fashion. But then decor should be about personal taste not fashion anyway, so if you like grey go grey. If you like 70s orange and green go for it. When it’s time to move you can always hide the accessories and paint everything cream 😎

Doilooklikeatourist · 05/05/2021 09:14

Mine was built in 1830 , so , yes it is dated !
We’ve had most walls painted white , lots of colour elsewhere though
The kitchen is dated , it went in early 1990s and is a very expensive handmade one ( with a very bad layout , useless enormous aga taking up your much room )
Not my taste , but we can’t afford to change it , and I don’t want a flat pack kitchen I would want a new one of at least the same quality , so it’s staying

hennybeans · 05/05/2021 09:22

I can remember the first time I saw grey used. My friend painted her living room grey in about 2011 and I was really struck by it. I remember thinking grey, wow, I had never even considered that walls could be grey! And it was only light grey as well!
My 2011 self would be blown away with my 2021 self having Downpipe dark charcoal walls ( which are already a few years of of date but I love them!).

JKMalone · 05/05/2021 09:24

We thought we would have to spend a fortune getting our house to look good. We talked to a few friends who made a lot of great recommendations - conservatory, new front door, garden landscaping - but we settled on just getting new windows for now.

And wow, what a difference it made. We swapped out our warped timber windows for some more uPVC in a lovely anthracite grey, and it's brought our home right up to date. You can find lots of places online to compare prices too, so it doesn't have to cost the earth!

BeechTreeView · 05/05/2021 09:28

...anthracite windows...I do wonder if they'll be the dark brown UPVC of this decade. As I put them in for our sliding doors in the new extension.

PattyPan · 05/05/2021 09:30

@SpiderinaWingMirror

We are just doing a cheap do over of our current house. We have just had the downstairs altered to kitchen diner across the back of the house. And separate lounge. Did that in last house too. Cant see that going out of fashion, cost less than 2k. Great fan of white walls, white kitchen, subtle tiling.
I’m looking for a house with the living room at the back so you have a view of the garden Blush
senua · 05/05/2021 09:41

How do you stop your house being dated
Without having to just redo the entire house every 2 years?
I hope that the idea of "redoing every 2 years" becomes dated!
We have moved on from fast-fashion in clothes and I hope that we will do the same with the churn in home decoration. It is a waste of money and not good for the planet.

ExConstance · 05/05/2021 09:45

Bifold doors already look dated, as do those Lantern roof lights, unless they are extremely good quality and very plain.

We have opened the back of our house up a bit but have retained french doors, and ensured it can easily be reinstated again as it was if needed by a future owner.

Original poster
Wavymess · 05/05/2021 09:50

@BeechTreeView

...anthracite windows...I do wonder if they'll be the dark brown UPVC of this decade. As I put them in for our sliding doors in the new extension.
Yes I love them, and the other colours feel dated (depending on the house and rest of the style obviously) But I’m very concerned about changing all the windows and doors and this being the new brown I think that would be a slower process than the time I’m planning to spend in this house though
OP posts:
BeechTreeView · 05/05/2021 09:50

It's a bit sad though if you don't do stuff that would suit you and your life because you are worried about the next buyers.

We saw some ridiculous things people had done in houses we were looking at...like huge out of proportion exensions, converting basements to all tiled gyms, room in long skinny extensions without any external light or where you had to go through corridors to get to a skinny room that was so badly laid out.

But on the other hand we saw where people had carved out a downstairs loo or shower room, not something we needed or would necessarily have done but done sympathetically enough that you'd live with it. Or a house that was seriously bottom heavy with a new massive extension and only 3 small bedrooms upstairs and a tiny boxroom - but it was on a lovely plot, obviously suited them and sold immediately.