10 Home Decor Faux Pas Dating Your Interiors (According to AD)

Hi Everyone,

Yes! We’re taking a break from my place. I’m planning on doing this more frequently.

One idea I’d love to do once a month is to take a poorly renovated home and fix it to function and look much better. I have done this before with this typical Boston renovation mess and these two studio apartments where I created a bedroom where there was none.

 

However, today is my roughly once-a-year “eye-roll post” about yet another shelter mag that gets most of it wrong.

 

Typically, the post headline reads something like “10 Design Trends You Need to Drop in 2025.”

This post was inspired by an article from Architectural Digest that recently showed up in my Inbox, but it was written in 2023.

 

I hope you’ll be able to see the article, in this link, so you can follow along, but if not, this is the headline:

 

Home Decor Faux Pas That Date Your Interiors, According to Designers

 

Poor people. Little did they know what image would be associated with their quotes.

To avoid C*pyr!ghtTr0lls, I have created a collage-style image in case you can’t see the article.  I am repeating it two more times.

 

To be clear, in some cases, they didn’t get it wrong, but they ignored dozens of other more pressing issues.  So, let’s get started with the article.

1. Too Small an Area Rug

 

Good grief. The area rug is the least of this room’s problems, although I have serious doubts that this is a room.  In fact, most, if not all, of these appear to be AI.

That horribly proportioned fireplace mantel has no nonflammable material between the wood mantel and the fire, should there be one.

One of the most irritating home decor faux pas in this image is the linen curtain puddling for a mile on the floor. On top of that, it is hung way too low. This ceiling might be eight feet, but it looks closer to seven. I would hang the curtain at least a foot higher.

 

Next, I’d like to call your attention to the sconces.

 

This image, I need to share.

 

 

First, this type of sconce should be about 60″ on center, never up near the ceiling.

 

However, they were photoshopped onto the image. I copied the one on the left and superimposed it on the left one to show you that it is the same image. Then, I flipped it (see below) and superimposed it on the right side. Yes, they are identical mirror images, which in real life is not possible.

 

Yes, it’s possible that a human did photoshop, as well. However, if they did, they could’ve at least put the sconces at the proper height.

 

I’m not going to talk about the hideous brick.

 

You can, but I’m not. Nor will I mention the lone chair smothered with a way too big throw and pillow. They shoved that mediocre piece as far into the corner as possible so it would not sit on any portion of the area rug.

 

The area rug is absolutely fine for this size room.

 

However, if we’re talking about dated home decor faux pas, the problem at the floor-level is the beige, infested with rat droppings, broadloom.

Oh dear, I’m already over 400 words, and I’ve only covered the first one.
I need to pick this up, so the rest will be briefer.

 

2. All Gray Interiors

 

The gray kitchen has nothing else in it, so of course, it looks dreary. Paint the walls red, add some black accents, green plants, a colorful pot on the stove, and a much better floor.

 

3. Carpeted Stairs

 

The problem is that carpet and the way it was done.

This image has to be AI. Look at the bizarre goings-on on the right side with multiple ceilings and one step that I guess is there to help the children hang from the balcony more easily. Plus, the entire thing is phenomenally bland and one-note, along with the 1980s Ramada Inn decor.

 

As for the carpeted stairs, it’s more weirdness.

 

The carpet is a runner on one side and wall-to-wall on the other. It should be a runner on both sides. The carpet itself is the kind of stuff we used to put in a basement playroom, not on a rather grand curving front hall staircase.

This could be incredibly lovely. However, they bent over backward to make it as boring as possible.

 

4. Marble in the Kitchen

 

Hey! I have marble in my kitchen, and I adore it! How dare they call it “dated.”

They say that marble can veer towards ostentatious. Well, yes, that is true. Please see this post from last year to see ostentatious marble.
As an aside, as my lovely realtor, Maureen O’Hara, predicted, this house has not sold and was taken off the market after a few months.

However, please look more closely at the image with the “marble” countertops in AD.

 

Wait, Laurel. Isn’t that granite? 

 

Uh-huh.

Maybe it would help if they had an actual interior designer or architect on staff to supervise and catch inexcusable mistakes like that.

Yes, I’m being harsh. However, this drek was published on ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST! Shouldn’t they be able to tell the difference between marble and granite?

 

 

5. Tan Exteriors

 

The problem is that no paint color will make this bad architecture look any better. Some decent landscaping, complete with a thick forest of trees, might help.

 

6. Gaudy Hardware and Light Fixtures in a very dated bathroom.

 

Again, the entire room is horrid. This room was dated the day it was finished. The iridescent mauve tiles and a very strange, darker mauve patch of mosaic tiles on the floor is an odd choice. Plus, the shower door is several inches wider than the opening. It has to be AI.

 

7. Pretentious Window Curtains

 

hahahaha! I have to share this one. ;]

 

Well, I wouldn’t say pretentious as much as absurd. This is a contemporary room, and the formal pelmette clearly doesn’t go. That type of window treatment needs a much more traditional room without a slanted ceiling.

Not only is it the wrong style for this place, it’s too low, and it’s butting into the little window on the side wall. All of it is horrid, and so is the ratty carpet. To cap it off, they threw in a 25-year-old lamp from Target, and in a two-fer deal, they got a free minuscule chandelier that nobody else wanted.

Okay, it could go in an entryway, perhaps. However, it is way too small for this high ceiling in a good-sized bedroom.

 

But wait! Look below. Dear me, talk about your home decor faux pas, or rather, four paws. ;] It looks like the dog pooped on the tray with the deformed teapot and conjoined tea cups.

Understandably, he got confused by that heap of moss masquerading as a vase.

 

 

8. Mirrored Closet Doors.

 

That is a strange space with a closet on a wall that doesn’t quite reach the ceiling. I don’t think this type of door has ever been manufactured. Oh, wait. I found something similar at Ikea. However, mirrors on closet doors can be gorgeous.

 

Christina Murphy & Meg Gabriele mirrored closet doors bedroom.

 

9. Ancient Appliances

 

Oh my!  This little kitchen has tremendous potential to be a darling vintage kitchen; but all they can do is complain about the “ancient” appliances.  Please notice the sink and how it overlaps the dishwasher. Fine, but I need my sink to be a little deeper than one inch. And, can anyone tell me what is sitting on top of the cabinets?

 

10. Torch Lamps

 

The word is “torchiere,” not torch.

Below is a torch.

 

In this case, the torchiere lamp looks to be from Walmart before they went all high-end on us. Oh, we didn’t know any better in the 70s, but now that we do, it’s safe to say that they’ve always been and will always be awful. Okay, I will concede that a handful might be okay, but most are quite tacky.

 

Below is a widget with some of my favorite floor lamps.

 

 

Okay, that’s a wrap for the analysis of Architectural Digest’s ten home decor faux pas.

xo,

 

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