Does your house just look dated

[Wavymess]

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?

How do you stop your house being dated

By decorating it how I like and not following trends.

With regard to Open Plan, I think a mix is the safest option. I want to tweak my layout to have a bigger kitchen diner but still have a separate living room and the old dining room almost separate.

To the pp saying their houses are ‘traditional’ or ‘classic’ what does that actually mean?

I’ve not been following interior design ‘fashion’ for very long, but a lot of the things I would previously have thought were ‘traditional’ (like shaker cabinets, farm house sinks) are all very much a fashion it seems.

The house I’m buying is 1960s so I think some ‘traditional’ looks that may look stunning in a victorian house will perhaps look a little stupid in there

My sofa is grey because we got a secondhand sofa 26 years ago,. Consequently my carpet has grey in it. (It's not a plain colour and thankfully doesn't show where I spilled Ribena) Are you telling me it's now out of fashion?

I’m sorry to say I do think the anthracite windows will look dated. There’s a lovely Victorian villa being renovated near me and they’ve done all the windows and the bits around them in anthracite and it looks awful, not at all in keeping, which suggests it is not a classic look.

Weve been in our house 16 years and it took about 10 years to get it how we wanted (DH loves a project bit of DIY) including an extension.
I've actually enjoyed a few years enjoying the space, where there hasnt been decorating/projects happening! It probably is a bit dated but not that its unliveable for someone else. We are going to make a few changes to DS bedroom this year, but nothing too major.
I'm sometimes surprised at what some people are unwilling to live with, on the property boards when posters invite others to insult critique their home and advise why it might not be selling.
One place had a fairly inoffensive, reasonable condition, light wood kitchen that looked probably late 1990s/early 2000s and a few people said they would have to rip it our and change it before they moved in.

I think you're right that a lot of what makes a house look classic is more to do with respecting the period and architecture. If you're buying a 60s house a classic look for it would be more of the scandi/mid century look rather than a shaker kitchen.

In houses of that era I've seen and loved they've always had light wood floors (ideally the original 5 finger parquet) and handless kitchens, clean looking modern bathrooms. White walls and Scandi or Mid-century furniture. I don't think that look in that era of house will go out of style as it's in keeping with the original architecture.

I've not followed my own advice though as I'm in a 90s house and have not respected the period by rag rolling the walls or theming them around different countries!

But , a lot of what looks dated and what doesn’t is very personal , if your Granny had pink walls and green curtains they’d be dated in your eyes
Someone choosing it now would think its fresh , and contemporary looking and better than magnolia which it might be replacing
have just ordered anthracite windows as they’ll be much less dated than the white wood single glazed that we have now

I think if you're moving in 5 years then most of what you do now will still look good. I do feel bored when I look at all the identical kitchens when browsing rightmove - all with bifolds, navy/grey units, herringbone floors. They look so lovely but surely they will look of their time in a few years. I would happily buy a property with them though!

@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.

I’m probably alone here, but I much prefer dark brown pvc to white as the fake wood grain isn’t shiny and so fools the eye unless you’re close.

We bought an old house with these in and while I’d have preferred wood, the dark brown frames looked smart, from inside especially. We moved to another old house with shiny white pvc, planning to replace with wood. Now thinking to move again so won’t spend on windows, and I really dislike them. I’d swap for my old faux-wood in a heartbeat!

@PattyPan what budget option do you think would work though? White upvc is typically a bit dated, brown is definitely dated, a colour is too risky I think. It feels like the best of a bad bunch??

@Wavymess I think white is fine to be honest. I live in an area of Victorian terraces which almost all have white windows and it looks fine. Definitely less dated than brown.
If you live in a white Art Deco house then anthracite windows are fine though.

I think interiors move on a much slower timescale than other things. Grey has taken about 15 years to cycle from 'fresh! fashionable!' to 'everywhere, the new neutral' to 'Ok this is a bit much now.'

And even then, I think grey won't be totally out, what will be is painting everything grey. We went for an off-grey carpet, even though I didn't really want grey, because it was basically the only 'neutral' option that was available to us, and I don't think its going to date immediately because its all what goes with it.

We have black windows and taps and fittings, which I imagine will be fashionable-ish (or at least not shameful) for at least another ten years. Our downstairs bathroom is a bit on-trend (encaustic tiles, bowl sink with black tap) our upstairs one is a bit 'basic' family bathroom (white tiles and fittings, chrome shower and tap) but I imagine will last longer. But again, I'm not imagining getting either of them redone inside the next decade.

I think you can swap in accessorises and not worry so much about the expensive bits. Our kitchen ended up being white, handleless, with wooden counters, its actually very similar to one my childhood best friend's parents put in in the nineties. I was in their house recently, they haven't especially changed it in thirty years and it really doesn't look dates - lovely dark rust paint colour in the living room, white in the hallways, their own unusual artwork on the walls. It was never especially in-fashion, so it doesn't look out-of-fashion.

Big 'trend' things - dark blue kitchens, very dark paint in 'snugs' - may signal strongly to a particular decade, but if you use paint for the most trendy things its easy enough to re-do. Go with what you like, OP: if its desperately on-trend, at least that means lots of other people like it too.

My advice would be emulsion paint is relatively cheap - paint whatever colour you like and it won't be expensive to repaint.

reworking the house in a more serious way so e.g. big kitchen / diner etc then I would say do it as suits your family. I think kitchen dining things have been OK for over 25 years - My parents have one and they are in their 80s. Bifold doors are expensive so wooden patio doors - depending on your budget I reckon would be just fine .

Wish you well @Wavymess

@SushiGo

There's no such thing as true neutral. We've just moved house, the first rooms to be redecorated are the magnolia ones and the grey ones! I don't like 'neutral' and never have. I still wanted the house.

Wait until you are almost ready to sell, cast a critical eye over your house, repaint the most out of date rooms and restyle the rest, it will be fine.

^ This is probably true.

That said, I'd go for styles that have stood test of time for big ticket items (floors, bathroom fittings. tiling).

Accept that kitchens will date unless you go for a pale Shaker and wood worktops (I like that, though its not what I have)

I'd expect to repaint & possibly do some other updates to sell, so do what you want and suits you in the interim

Our house is Edwardian with lots of period features so I try not to detract from that, I do love colour but we've stuck to more heritage shades than IKEA brights and we just had our bathroom done in a very classic style, roll top bath, antique brass fittings etc, we have column radiators and have tried to salvage as much as we can, the original internal doors were sanded back and traditional style beehive handles added , original floorboards sanded and oiled etc. I think it's easier when your house already had a particular style as you just enhance it. I don't think it will date much as it's in keeping with the house rather than current fashions, things like lamps, soft furnishings etc are different but easy to change

I think everyone's lost sight a little of the fact that its a home - yes to not spending a fortune on something that is certain to repel future buyers (there are very few things that fall into this category) but even 5 years is a long time to live with decor or a layout that you don't like or doesn't work for your family just because you don't want an alternative choice to date.

I've done / have quite a few of the things listed on this thread as dated / likely to date - but it really works for how we live and I enjoy living in the house. Thats all that really matters at the end of the day.

I think people worry far too much about what is fashionable/looks dated/will date. I'm far happier in our house since I just started making decorating choices according to a balance of what I like and what suits the space. If you're concerned about resale, keep the big elements reasonably neutral - walls, floors, tiles and fitted furniture like kitchen units/fitted wardrobes. Everything else is just paint and fabric - easy to change, so choose what you like. What looks good is all just opinion in the end, yours is as valid as anyone else's.

@Africa2go I understand what you’re saying but I wouldn’t do my house in a way I don’t like. Just that perhaps I would choose more neutrals over more dramatic ‘fashionable looks’ even if I liked them
Or perhaps even if I thought anthracite windows looked best, I may choose white, which I may think don’t think look as good, but I don’t hate them and they may be less dated in a few years.
Maybe I’ll stick with patio doors instead of a bifold, both good options but maybe ones a bit more timeless, Even if I do think bifold doors look amazing.

@Wavymess: I think your points are very logical. I'm doing a renovation right now and trying to not make it things that other people will be aghast at in 5 years time, while still making it nice for me primarily

I was thinking of white tiles, grey grout, grey tile borders but wondering if that is not very '2020' / already out of date. Grey anything maybe :)

Even though its a home, when you've just spent all your money on it, I can understand not wanted to wreck the investment!

I renovated last year and found Sarah Beeny's Renovate Don't Relocate series very good for inspiration and confidence.

I was going to say windows should be white as standard - but I think that came in the 80's when UPVC windows only came in one colour - 80% of upvc windows are still white and it doesn't date, it's just not fashionable.
The thing is people used to have to repaint window frames regularly to maintain them, so it was easy to change/update the colour and they lasted a long time if looked after. There are still Victorian buildings around with their original windows. In old (black and white) photos the houses clearly have different colours of window frames.

Now we think everything should be maintenance free, ie. plastic, but it can't be repainted or altered and so the "everlasting" windows are much more likely to be ripped out than the old timber ones ever were.

Same story again for bathrooms, kitchens, doors, flooring...
I think the permanent fixtures of a house should be classic/fit to last and the decorations and furnishings can follow trends as they are easier to change. The industry is very cleverly giving us a succession of extreme trends in products whose useful life will have hardly begun when they are ripped out for being dated.

I saw a house with a kitchen that looked like it was from the 70’s. Turned out it was very recent...that was a bit awks.

@Smokeahontas

I saw a house with a kitchen that looked like it was from the 70’s. Turned out it was very recent...that was a bit awks.

This happened to me when I was looking for somewhere to buy. The kitchen and bathroom both looked at least 20 years old, when the EA was talking to me about work that the house needed I casually mentioned obviously I would change those rooms but he informed me that actually they were brand new, put in especially to hell the house sell

I looked closely and realised that it did all look in remarkable condition so I had judged entirely on the odd colours and patterns they’d chosen rather than on the condition

**Sell not hell
Obviously

Help not hell actually

Oh dear
Sorry