What's one home trend you have done that you now regret?

[MyCheeryPearlTraybake]

Turning a small room into a bedroom.

Also a white kitchen, including a lovely white Blanco sink. Or, well, I guess it stays lovely if you follow the instructions, helpfully hidden in the small print, to wipe it all down with a cloth every time water touches it; if you don't, no amount of scrubbing and no substance known to humanity will remove the orange rust stains. The all-white kitchen with a light-coloured tile floor kind of falls into the 'who in their right mind' category, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Recall, back in the dim reaches of trend history before everything in the home was grey, when Scandi-minimal white had a brief moment? All the white does indeed brighten up a little poky kitchen tremendously, but I've since learned that while a white-walled bedroom can stand the test of time, a white kitchen is a terrible idea.

Not so much a trend, but we chose matt black handle-less cupboard doors for the kitchen.
Instant regret! They show every mark, I clean grease marks and finger prints off them daily!
We also had real wood worktops but maintaining them is a pain, wish we'd made different choices but its too expensive to change now!

I feel your pain! When we first moved into our current house there was one space for a washer but we used it for the dishwasher and had the washer plumbed upstairs instead (there was a sink in one of the bedrooms so we had that taken out and the washer plumbed there as a temporary solution)
It was a nightmare every time it spun, felt like the ceiling was gonna go through, not helped by the fact the room under it had a little chandalier stlye light fitting that jingled and jangled aswell!
We redid the kitchen a year later and had space made for the washer and dishwasher which is so much better!

This thread is precisely why I don’t follow ‘trends’ 🤣

Hated the grey from the start and my neighbours at the time painted their whole council house grey, even the back fences so it looked like a prison yard…! Bloody awful…! All in the name of ‘trend’. Talk about Emperor’s New Clothes!

Utterly crazy. Why paint your environment the colour of HMS Belfast??

I’m about to have a striped stairs carpet fitted after we foolishly went for a light biscuit colour - drives me mad how awful it looks within minutes of hoovering. We used to have stripes so know I like them but fancies a change.

I also love my slatted blinds - don’t have them in the kitchen or bathrooms thankfully so bedrooms/living room only need a quick dust once a month year.

I also love the panelling in our hallways - so much easier to clean and touch up marks and breaks up the vast expanse of white.

And LOVE our understairs drawers and cupboards. Best money we’ve spent on our house.

hate the vinyl floor tiles effect flooring we have in the bathrooms. Stains easily, never looks clean and just isn’t as nice now just 2 years on.

I am thinking about going for striped stair carpet, so pleased you said this. It'll be this or a plain one (bit with flecks of differing colour tones in).

I regret my perfect fit blinds, nightmare to clean, if anybody has any tips I'd appreciate it. I've also noticed they easily get bend marks in. Are you supposed to take them off to clean underneath? I have no idea how to do this , and they cost a fortune as well. I was thinking about the wooden slatted shutter style, but they look heavy and dark/clunky, and I wanted lighter looking.

hate the vinyl floor tiles effect flooring we have in the bathrooms. Stains easily, never looks clean and just isn’t as nice now just 2 years on.

Yep. Same - vinyl floor tiles in bathrooms - light grey here. Always looks skanky and you have to really scrub to get it clean.

I really think you will regret this and it's very very difficult to undo. There's a whole social media genre of people stripping paint off good quality wooden furniture.

Instead I'd find a way of dexoraing that works with your furniture.

I have a room with some mahogany furniture in, it's painted F&B Dix Blue and looks great.

Hi, why is south facing a problem with bifolds?

@Whataloadoffuss can’t see a link - do share as I’m still choosing ours and ideas welcome

Nooooo! I hate curved arches!!!!

Reading the full thread at 3.50am (can't sleep!)
I sometimes think I OUGHT to change things in the house.. kitchen unit doors are starting to peel a little.. hate the worktop (already in house when I bought) I have carpet everywhere except kitchen & bathrooms.. & you know what? I love it. There's no other kitchen unit colour I'd like. I'm old enough to know now that whatever you put in will date, so keep it basic. I COULD replace the worktop but again, can't find anything I like, plus it might stand out like a sore thumb & I'd end up replacing everything else! Carpets suit my lifestyle. Saving money, too!

Thank you, think I will take a look around.

We had wooden worktops and kept it looking great. We bought the osmo oil as we were instructed and found we had to do that regularly.
One thing to consider is the design around the sink. Every time you washed your hands or something and then turned off the tap you would inevitably drop water near the tap. This meant you then had to dry the area. I had youngish kids and would have to go in reglularku after them to dry any water.
It requires a lot of vigilance. I wouldn’t do it again

Have a look at Berber style carpets. We have it on the stairs and as it is a mixed tone, it doesn't look flat and worn even after 10 years of being fitted.
If you've pets the carpet people might try to put you off as the carpet is looped rather than cut at the ends (like normal carpet) so if they get clawed they look worse but we've a dog and had no issues.

Stud walls don't cost a lot to install.....

Filler and paint the whole room.

Yep, that's what I did in the end 😁I did think before posting this that for all you DIY-capable people some holes in the wall would likely seem trivial. I however am not at all handy. My mother could probably have built an entire house in a day using only matchsticks and her bare hands, but I can barely boil water and generally tend to leave houses as they are unless I really, really hate something.

We had oak worktops, the one without a sink was easy to keep nice. Occasional run down, worktop oil, scrape, repeat 3 times. When I say occasional I mean every 2/3 years. Replaced the side with the sink with a laminate as i got annoyed with the staining from water.

As a previous poster has said, I try to stick with classics for high cost, permanent additions. Wooden flooring, wooden kitchen (can be painted if you really must), neutral tiles, beige carpet, white bathroom suite. Means everything else can easily be switched up with trends.

Also, picking things o love, not a trend. That way things evolve as my tastes change, but I never have to do a full house refresh. And really thinking about how I use a space. I'm happy with a small, efficient kitchen, I don't need a big one. And a separate lounge was a must with 4 kids. A washer upstairs really suits us too. And 3 years in, no leaks. Slow reno, it's where it's at.

Perfect fit are when the blinds are fitted directly on to the windows with a frame around, so they fit the frame inside existing window frames; we didnt lose much window space, and they have made the existing frames look newer, which is a plus. We got them because it means when you open the window the blinds stay put, and you can have things on the window sills that stay on show when you close the blinds. I don't recommend them at all however, they were very expensive too. M I wish I had have gotten a different type, I just don't know what!

We converted a big landing airing cupboard to a laundry/airing cupboard with hanging space for drying and it's so much more practical I can't believe we didn't think of it before.

@lechatnoir sounds ideal. I just don't like washing in the kitchen, so upstairs made sense.

Because it gets so hot with the sun streaming directly in. Our summer house has south facing bi-folds and I worry at some point it's going to spontaneously combust! That's even with the blinds closed.