Some home design trends are polarizing, but others are downright infuriating. Recently, I wrote about the "terrible" design trends that are found in many new homes. Apparently, it resonated — since I was left with hundreds of comments from readers (like you) expressing their personal gripes with the way homes are designed and decorated nowadays. These were the best responses.
1. "My main pet peeve in home design is the intense lack of closets! I like clothes and holiday decorations. They need to go somewhere. My house has huge bedroom closets — and not even a single storage closet."
2. "I love an exposed beam, but it has to suit the style of the house. Adding them into a house that doesn’t have them is infuriating — like, we can totally tell your brand-new McMansion doesn’t need those faux wood beams to support it."
3. "No bathtubs, just car wash-sized showers with a ridiculous amount of spray options."
4. "I despise all of the outside lighting on the new builds. The rows of can lights look cheap, like a hotel in the middle of the neighborhood. I’m not sure how the squirrels and other critters sleep at night. Is it a hotel, prison, or airport? Who knows! It’s just ugly."
—Lisha
5. "Here, every new house seems to have the modern look of having your microwave built into the lower cabinets. Sure, it’s tucked away, but I cannot see the damn thing! How can I use it without bending over or kneeling down? It makes me so mad every time I see it."
6. "I can’t stand the raised-side bathroom washbowls. They invite a splashy mess and wet spots on shirts and pants. They also bring to mind the dental offices' round sinks by the dental and hygienist chairs — yuck, and scary!"
—Dave, 69
7. "For me, it’s the weathered gray faux wood flooring that I find absolutely atrocious. If that look doesn’t date itself in the next couple of years, I’ll be shocked."
8. "In-wall (or in-counter) appliances. My friends bought a house with an in-wall stove. Everything was great until the stove broke and they found out it wasn't a standard size. It was an RV STOVE the previous owner had wall mounted! They had to redo their whole kitchen because no electrician would install a new RV stove. They all said it was a fire hazard."
9. "Double sinks and mirrors in the main bathroom. I’ve seen it played out to the extreme of separate vanities on different walls. Double sinks kind of make sense if two adults are leaving for work at the same time — but who wants to constantly have to keep two sinks and mirrors clean? And I do not want anyone in the bathroom with me, thank you very much."
10. "When new builds cut corners by not putting flooring under cabinets, appliances, and even toilets — knowing full well you may have to replace them someday."
—Anonymous
11. "Kitchen cabinets that go all the way to the ceiling. It would've doubled my kitchen renovation costs for me to take my cabinets to the ceiling, and then I would have had cabinet shelving that I could only access with a ladder."
12. "I dislike the lack of entryways found in most new, open-plan homes. Maybe it works in California, but in states that get cold, it's a terrible idea. Every time you open the door in winter, a cold blast of air will just blow through your entire house. If you don't have a big hall closet, you also end up with a giant pile of shoes visible to the rest of the house. I'm sure they are cheaper to build, and some people love the look of walking into a giant space, but they just aren't practical for daily life in a cold and windy place."
13. "Fake shutters. Plastering shutters on the outside of a house that aren't functional looks stupid. Being placed flat against the outside of the house, and not proportional to the size and shape of the windows, looks ridiculous."
14. "None of the new homes have medicine cabinets — especially in half baths. They just put up big mirrors. What if people need an Advil, or toothbrush, or a hairbrush? And then, how can they put them away so that things stay neat? What are these people thinking?"
—Anonymous
15. "White cabinets. I dislike white cabinets with every fiber of my being. Have you ever tried keeping them clean?"
16. "We're going to see the pendulum swing on open floor plans. A well-done open plan will never go out of style — but the builder-grade stuff we see today definitely will."
17. "Walk-in closets that are accessible only through the bathroom! Who wants to have their clothing saturated with the humidity and other airborne 'contaminants' from the bathroom?! And who wants to put their suit or dress on in the bathroom?"
18. "Agreeable gray. When we were house hunting, about every other listing had the phrase, 'Newly painted in agreeable gray paint in every room,' or, 'Freshly updated with classic gray paint!' Well, unfortunately for them, we didn't want grey. The first thing we did when we moved into our house was repaint all the rooms."
19. "When new-builds add alcoves meant for TVs — but they will only accommodate at 42" model."
20. "Waterfall countertops! What is the point of the extra expense and color overload? "
—Linda, 64, Nevada
21. "I can't stand meandering pathways from the driveway to the front door. Just give me a straight path so when I am lugging things in from the car, I don't have to take the 'scenic view.'"
22. "Few, if any, skylights. I love looking up through the trees or staring up at the morning sky, or up to a starry night."
—Anonymous
23. "Converting perfectly-nice older homes into 'modern farmhouses.' I recently did some work in a neighborhood that had been 'revamped.' Someone had gone through this little neighborhood and either painted the brick houses white or put up white vinyl board and batten siding on them, trimming them with black metal and bright pine...but it was only on the wall facing the street. The rest of the houses were the same as they had been when they'd been built in the '20s, '30s, and '40s. It made it look like someone ran out of funds when flipping houses."
24. "Luxury vinyl plank flooring. It looks and feels like plastic flooring. TV rehab shows must be getting paid to push it. People are covering or tearing out real hardwood, terrazzo, and quality tile with this cheap-looking paneling for floors."
—Pamela, 52, Maryland
25. "Making hallways super narrow to add more square footage to other rooms. What was the builder thinking? Not everything can bend around the sharp corners of the hallway turns!"
26. "The worst thing, I think, is turning homes that weren’t built to be open concept into open concept. I grew up in a 1906 craftsman-style foursquare. It was beautiful, with four large rooms on each floor, hence the name of the style. When my parents sold it a few years back, after lovingly restoring all of the original wood paneling, the realtor had plans drawn up to show how all the interior walls could be knocked down and it could be changed into an open concept house (thus destroying all the original wood. It makes me so sad to think about it. All of the new-money people who were moving into that neighborhood were destroying the insides of those beautiful old houses — Seattle, tech idiots. I now work in an old Victorian house museum with all its rooms and original features preserved, and it makes my heart happy. Our ghosts prefer it that way, too."
27. "Here in Arizona, a lot of new homes are being built with RV garages. Absolutely horrendous-looking two-story garages — in addition to the standard garage. They're the worst design trend I've ever seen and a testament to conspicuous consumption."
28. "Showers that don't have doors. Try showering without freezing."
—Anonymous
29. "The 'lamp shade' that is just an open wire frame, or bare bulb. You see them on every home improvement show, and some look nice...but who wants to look at a bare lightbulb all the time?"
30. "Opting for white vinyl fences instead of wood. They loop cheap and plasticky, they're way too bright, and they look dirty all the time."
—Kelly, 52, Massachusetts
31. And finally: "Sliding barn doors. 👎🏼"
