Thought it would be fun to hear of anyone's decorating pet peeves they have seen at friends/family homes. Figure this might be good for a laugh or too:
My pet peeve? Well, too many nic nacs. My Mom (bless her heart) has a lot of expensive royal doultan's and crystal bowls, candle holders, etc. and I am always saying "less is more Mom". She has little groupings everywhere in her living room. I can honestly say, she has at least 25 "nic nacs" of different types and styles in her living room - drives me nuts!
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You know, many of the pet peeves mentioned have been popular at one time or another. (Now that doesn't mean pictures hung too high, etc. - no excuse for that!) Maybe I'm showing my claws here, but I do get tired of hearing some of the shows always recommending taupe walls, or sisal rugs, or pot lights, or matchstick blinds, or stainless steel appliances, or whatever is their particular favourite.
1. Pictures hung too high
2. Large pieces of artwork that seem to be floating/are not anchored
3. Tacky colour combinations
4. Balloon draperies
5. Seeing wires anywhere (this is a big one, my boyfriend is a networker, we have a home network set up with SOOO many wires and cables.. ahh)
6. Bad space planning and furniture placement.
7. Too much clutter (I live by the Less is More motto)
8. Wallpaper borders
9. Most wallpaper in general.
10. Too much pattern in a room.
Oh geez I could go on and on and on!!
I can excuse lack of taste, different tastes, ugly furniture.... after all, if the person living in it is okay, what else matters? But plain old dirt is another story. I don't think there's any excuse for living in a pig sty. I've been in beautifully decorated homes where the pictures are at the right level, the accessories are tasteful and the beautifully coordinated bathroom was so filthy I didn't want to sit down.
and need to add, bad colour combos, plastic on furniture ( yes I still know a few of those), but probably the biggest: too much clutter from things on display that shouldn't be, ie. perfumes, make up, hair products in baskets, videos stacked on the floor, baskets full of papers (not the new storage baskets, the ones with one handle that you get as gift baskets).
Oh yeah & dirty homes: with a small child there is always something under foot, this is normal for us too...I'm talking about grime, crusties, toilets you don't dare use & kitchens that haven't been cleaned in forever LOL
It amazes me where builders place the hanging light fixture in the kitchen eating area. We are in our 2nd home where it has been placed centered in the entire nook area. The nook area has a door to the deck and so space is needed to pass by the table and chairs. Logically the table should be centered around the windows and leave a good amount of space to get to the door. The light fixture hangs at the edge of the table (and I hit my head on it occassionally) !! I did manage to get my husband to rewire and swag the fixture over to the proper position in our former house but he has made no move to do the same in our present one... been here 3 years.
that made me laugh! No I did not ask for a refund and the tour of the home was on the last evening of the course. Thankfully, she did not focus on PINK during her lessons or I would have been "outta there".
The only theme room I have seen that I liked is a well executed British Pub themed rec room in a basement.
Copenhagen, a totally pink home sounds like a nightmare to me. Did you ask for a refund on the basis of incompetence?
I agree Dreamer. About 8 years ago I took a decorating class. Great class and learned a lot. The last class involved going to the instructors home which was all PINK! Yup, pink - every room was a shade of it - some lighter, some darker. I said in an earlier post that I loved continuity but come on, what man (or woman for that matter) can live in a pink house?
I really feel nauseated when I see a theme room. For a kids bedroom ok but anything else I truely don't like. Like a sail boat bathroom. Yuk.
I don't like overly feminine decors in a house where a man lives - I always feel he's been left out.
I also hate to see cutsie decor themes suited to children's rooms.
1.dried flowers ahhhhhhhhhhhhh
2.pictures hung to high
3. molding with the nails showing, if you are putting it up take the time to fill
4.clutter on the counters
I dislike interiors that may be pretty to look at but could not possible stand up to kids, cats or dogs, especially when the homeowner has all of the above. Design a home for living and beauty both. House and Home had this beuatiful ice blue ultra suede chair on a show and suggested it for a kid's room. "Hellooooo". Decorating should not invite family conflict.
One of my biggest pet peeves is open concept type homes where the owner has done a completely different colour in each room and they are all visible from oneanother. It is possitively shattering to my eyes. I am a big fan of continuity.
Hmm where should I start? It also drives me crazy to see plastic on lampshades, pictures hung too high, pictures hung just anywhere- my mom hangs pictures like that (grabs a nail and a hammer and just puts it anywhere.) Mirrors hung so high no one can look in them. A tiny picture above a sofa with a dried flower arrangement above it. A TV infront of the window. And tinfoil in a window... I guess it must have some kind of helpful quality-that I'm unaware of, but don't they ever look at the outside of their house and think it's just awful? Oh and flags as drapery treatments.
Well I grew up with three brothers & visiting friends in collage the saturday morning garbage bag was quite the norm. Myself I like to try to sleep in on the weekend so I found for really cheap some black denim cutain panels from ikea for cheap. I surprised you haven't seen this but at the same time you probably wish you never will.
are another thing that drives me nuts. Many of my other peeves have been mentioned.... but here are a few more: little plants on every windowsill and empty space on tables. Get one or two big plants and call it a day. Also, really bad fake plants. How about Christmas decorations that stay up year "round? I better stop now or no one else will have room to post.
here is a pet peeve that I actually did something about and am still basking in the glory of actually beginning a project and completing it to such wonderful results...My husband and I (extremely NOT handy...my husband doesn't even know what DIY stands for!!) installed closet organizers in BOTH of our closets!!!!!! I feel like a whole new world has opened up to us!!! We purchased "Easy to Install" kits from Canadian Tire and the rest is chaos history!!! I urge every homeowner to take charge of their cluttered closets and make the organized choice...it is absolutely liberating!!!
Generally, I don't like to see art that is too small for the wall space. I don't like a view from one room into another that is discordent. I don't like a home that is so devoid of personality it looks like a display in a furniture showroom.
My peeve about my own home is the renovations by previous owners that were done without regard to the 70's exterior. I have a notion that there should be some consistency between the outside and the inside, and it is going to take some time and money before I can acheive the congruency I want.
I have many pet peeves, but the ones that bothers me the most is magnets of the fridge, seeing hanging wires (lamps, t.v. etc). and the worst one is seeing the back of a t.v. in a window.
LOL...me too, do people actually use garbage bags for drapes?
Being a renter I get annoyed if I see someone that is lucky enough to own their own home not take care of it. People that are happy just to live in a mess and not do anything to make their home beautiful or at least presentable!
As my list grows longer, another of my pet peeves are "temporary" solutions which somehow become "permanent". This is a particular problem with window coverings. I have seen everything from bed sheets to bath sheets to newspaper sheets but I have yet to see garbage bags on anyone's windows...whoa!
While I have many pet peeves the 4 biggest ones are:
1) Bed in a bag (don't light a match)
2) People who don't decorate & live in a state of disaray or don't feel like they are worth it. I can't tell you how many homes I see where nothing matches. 20 different plates from the dollar store. Junk everywhere and couches that are 30 years old. My mother is a designer so growing up everything was always picture perfect. I find it dificult to amagine how people can live in kaos.
3) Bathrooms: When make-up & products are littered over the counter, tub edges and over the toilet.
4) Garbage bag drapes
....he's the apple of your eye, after all!!! I saw a great idea on "Home to Go". They purchased these magnetic sheets and cut out picture frames out of them. The cool thing was that each sheet could make several "frames" as you cut into them. The children were able to "decorate" the frames with paints, and their artwork from school or home crafts were very NEATLY displayed on the fridge!!! It looked fantastic!!
My mother in law is guilty of this! People who hang pictures/artwork on every possible bit of wall space!
I am guilty of the fridge clutter!!! I can't help it...I know it's wrong but I just have to show off my son's artwork. I leave it there for a couple weeks and then store it for safekeeping or throw it away.
...another thing that drives me crazy is lighting fixtures that are hung too high, particularly over a table!!
This is fun... it appears I can rhyme off pet peeves all day long!!!
I have seen one too many cluttered fridges in my life and I couldn't agree more about the artwork hung too high. My hubby is 6'5" and needless to say, he IS NOT allowed to hang anything at out house.
I have many pet peeves but here are a just a few: pictures or art hung too high on walls, framed photographs EVERYWHERE, and fridges covered in STUFF.
My pet peeves are too much clutter, way outdated decor, pictures and wall ornaments that are not centred properly or don't hold the wall correctly.
I have alot of them huh? lol