I loathe wall borders anywhere other than an infant's room. My mother had the most horrible maroon-and-hunter-green-paisley one in our living room. *shudder*

plastic covers on a lampshade? matching nightstand?

Roosters, checkerboard drapes, and cross-stitched homilies. Blehhhh. Also Jesus paintings over the bed. or anywhere else.

White ducks; especially little lines of ducklings following their mother on a Williamsburg Blue background with Dusty Rose bows and white daisies. I simply cannot stand it.

I'm really not a fan of needlepoint or cross-stitch. Can't bear crocheted toilet-paper cozies with or without a small doll in the middle of it, as if she were a Southern belle wearing a cylindrical hoop skirt. Tissue-box cozies make me want to light a match.

Angela, are you from the South? I am, and your list includes many Southern home design nightmares! Growing up, my mom had a friend whose home had on display at least 50 wooden figurines of black people eating watermelon. I get it that that's supposed to be "folk art" but I always thought it was kind of off.
Other pet peeves - wallpaper borders, fuzzy toilet seat covers, and the plastic couch protector on the 40-year old sofa in my Great Aunt Terry's Staten Island co-op (I love you Aunt T!)

I love it! Curtis you are so funny when you are all riled up

Seems like there's need for more than one kind of interior redecoration here.

Wallpaper. Hate it in practically any form.

What a great picture - I didn't even notice the camo guy for a little while.

Puffy leather sofas are my biggest pet peeve.

How about those ruffely shower curtains that pull back like drapes? Like the shower is one big picture window.

Anything covered with a crocheted koozie. Remeber the ones for tissue boxes and toothbrush cups? Ick.

I had a partner once who collected Star Trek memorabilia. Books, movies, badges, and even a few dolls and busts of Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock.

When I objected to displaying them in the living room, she said I had "too many control issues."

Yeah, we broke up.

I also hate chintz, ruffles, dolphin art, painted china doll figurines, "collector" objects bought on installment from magazine ads, Bob Ross-esque paintings, molded resin anything, and toilet paper cozies.

When my husband and I were looking for a home to buy a few years ago, I would immediately and emotionally reject any house with a lot of wall paper. Rationally, wall paper is not the biggest problem to overcome, but I didn't care.

Now, I actually like a lot of the more modern wall paper that has come out, but I still can't imagine putting up wall paper in my house. I've considered putting some wall paper on a big board and hanging it as art, instead.

hilarious, the camo + couch guy pic, and Curtis; i second all of those horrors, but people, not all toilet paper cozies are evil!

the rooster thing, my Mom loves it, gave a small army of them to my sister; usually i like what she does, love what she lked 35 years ago; the cocks are telling us yay! virility! or whatver?
i guess the figurines are preferable to the real things.

yah I've had some wallpaper resistance after a run in with giant orange yellow and black flowers in a bedroom

plaid couches

oak anything makes me want to vomit

nick-nacks make me crazy.

wood paneling and wall to wall shag carpeting makes me break out in a cold sweat.

Virility? Really? Well, if it's a small ARMY of roosters, with guns and everything, then they're ok, but only if they are truly dangerous.

WOW! I totally missed the camo guy, too!

For me, it's P. Buckley Moss prints. Those spooky little people he draws put ants on me.

The house we purchased looked like Kuntry Kute threw up all over it. You know? That medium blue color, wooden hearts and baskets all over the place. Cutsie sayings. Ugh.

As for crosstitch, I do find this site funny. http://www.subversivecrossstitch.com.

The thought of cute bunnies and hearts surrounding a "Go $%&* Yourself" never ceases to make me smile.

-green carpet...or any other color other than beige

-wicker furniture (i.e bed frames, dressers, night stands.)

-wallpaper

-any kind of toilet seat cover

I have a friend who's mother never did redecorate after the 70's. Her entire house is brown, orange and tan. And the bathrooms are a pale yellow and green. it's the worst thing you've ever seen. I wish I could take pictures and share it. :)

I come from the midwest where people put cement ducks on their front porches and dress them up in seasonal outfits. Seriously.

Everything u guys said
Incl. fake flowers

Another one hating ducks, here...my mom's kitchen is in boring good taste, except for the ducks and geese on pot holders, tea cosies, white ceramic duck-shaped vases, etc. Augh! I don't know what's worse, the "country" style ducks or the "pretentious French farmhouse" geese.

I don't even know if the ducks are her fault. My ex-mother-in-law used to like foxes. So everyone, all the time, would give her things with foxes on them. She had to officially annouce that she Did Not Want Any More Fox Themed Items - and she still got them, and because everyone knew they were "so her", she couldn't re-gift.

My name is Deborah and I hate furniture with turned legs. There, I've said it. I feel better.

What was it with the duck/goose thing in the eighties? It was like some awful mental disease afflicting every midwestern home maker. Fortunately my mom has moved on but now her house is plagued with fake plants and flowers. Oh- and the preframed art from BB&B. Ick.

Cookie cutter mid century modern. Oh ver IT! It's gotten as bad as cookie cutter Pottery Barn.

Love this photo btw!

this is like one of those magic eye paintings. but creepy.

Southwest patterns, and the color salmon. It's a fish, not a wall color.

A smokey black dinette set with rose-colored upholstery, set with all black place settings, and a Nagel poster on the wall behind. This scenario actually broke up my engagement. (that and the fact that he had a tv in every room, including the shower stall.)

THAT is a FUNNY photo.

popcorn ceilings were terrible. that's what you'd have to stare into if you couldn't sleep!

oh, and using wedding favors as decor in the living room.

The "Cow in the Kitchen" thing. Cows on the dish towels, a cow to hold the sponge, cow rugs, cow borders.

I'm from south america....three words...plastic covered everything. ok and gilded-goldish-flaking furniture...and velvet. oh for shame.

love this posting!
personally i thank those old ladies for the plastic cover on her couch as i now have a FABULOUS and pristine early 60's lt. cream couch.(w/out the cover thankyou)

so i am adding some bad decor--
1)those really gross couches/ chairs that are some kind of velveteen w/ wood trim and are printed w/ pheasants and other hunting birds.
2) those nyc apts you see which have the round florescent light bulbs and really cheap icky lace curtains

1. IVY anything.
2. Fake flowers.
3. Red carpeting

When I bought my house the previous owners had hand painted an ivy border around EVERY nook & cranny in the kitchen. I had a gallon of paint in the trunk of my car at the closing. ICK!!!

Fake flowers. My Mom lives with me, she keeps magically "growing" pots of fake flowers. I have 2 very expensive vases - she puts the plastic flowers in them. It makes my skin crawl. I've tossed the flowers out before, and then they reappear. It's voodoo, it hasta be.

Red carpeting ala every italian home I visited in the 70's. EEK

Sadly, one tacky thing I do like...fake fruit with beads. HAH!

Two words: Thomas Kinkade.

And after living in England? Four thousand different floral prints in one tiny room. It made me car sick.

Oh my god! That couch in the photo? I have it in my apartment in a beige/maroon color. Grad-student hand-me-down furniture. . . (aka free)it is pretty gnarly.

My mom, she had good taste, if original. She called it "Japanese Country" and had rustic/minimal/craftsman kind of thing going. Also some west coast craft-object woven and carved stuff and some cutesy crafts. Not bad overall. What I hate are those bumpy, textured walls. ARRGHHH! My ceilings have that now.

I knew there was something wrong with that sofa (besides just being ugly), but I couldn't figure it out ... I didn't see the guy!

So my list:

1) complete living room sets bought together (couch, loveseat, armchair, tables, lamps, art) at those bad cheap furniture stores
2) wallpaper borders
3) "country" kitchens
4) big tall brass and glass curio cabinets with Precious Moments-type figurines inside
5) preframed BB&B art (someone beat me to that one!)
6) wall-to-wall carpeting in every room of the house (including the kitchen and bath!) which you then put area rugs on top of
7) nautical-themed bathrooms (unless you live at the beach, and even then ...)
8) floral sofas
9) those HUGE TVs (not even flat-to-wall plasmas, or anything) in tiny living rooms
10) ruffled bedskirts

Oh, and those ugly, goliath Sauder entertainment centers that totally sag under the weight of too much junk stuffed into them.

And one more ... popcorn ceilings. My parents ruined TWO gorgeous A-frame great room ceilings with hideous white popcorn texture ... ugh.

Those enormous oak headboard/entertainment center things with a mirror over the bed and all kinds of clutter and crap stuck in the side bookshelves.

Anything with raffia tied onto it. Especially tied around the neck of a white duck.

I have very fond memories of the popcorn ceiling above my teenage bed that was sprayed with gold flecks. Oh, the sparkle!

In the spirit of the hilarious photo above, I offer something new which is dreadful: camo bedroom decor.

http://www.daniadown.com/product.aspx?ProductID=370&deptid=50&PriceCat=1&Lang=EN-US

I don't even want to think about the "marketing" behind this one!

White carpets.

I don't care how bright it makes the room look or how sleek or catalogue-y or whatever. It says PLEASE, DO NOT WALK/EAT/DRINK/SIT/LIVE IN THIS ENVIRONMENT.

Whenever I walk into a white-carpet house as a guest, I know that, in some way, these people do not want me to actually be there. And that makes it a hostile, chilly, poorly-designed environment, no matter how pretty it is.

Design should be geared towards human beings, not the other way around.

...I...I feel SO much better now.

tess jr., I'm willing to learn, if you can show me examples of non-evil T.P. cozies!

nshgrl - Thomas Kinkade! Yes! UGH!

I forgot to add these to my earlier list, but these items come straight out of my 45 year old bachelor cousin's house:

* black smoked glass and chrome tables, shelving, and other similar furniture

* dining chairs made of black tubular metal and covered in a dated "abstract" print (accompanying
a smoked glass/tubular metal dining table, of course)

* over stuffed puffy furniture of any style, but especially leather

* gigantic black fabric wall hangings of Pink Floyd and Bryan Adams...come on, you're 45, not 15

* waterbeds

Thomas Kincade, painter of crap
Bev Doolittle, painter of hidden crap

Furry toilet seat covers; they're not only ugly, but it's freakin' difficult to do my business when the lid won't stay up. I won that war when I was a kid...I got a spanking, but mom never put the covers back on.

Cheap brass trim.

Fake wood anything, almost.

That brick paneling stuff. Eeeyuck!

Spray-on granite paint. Car subwoofer? Fine. All the trim in your house? Yikes.

Avacado vinyl.

Beer signs, neon or otherwise, unless you have an entire room dedicated for use as your bar. Exception: Guinness, limit one sign.

Anything designed solely for use as a collectible, such as the Franklin Mint Excalibur Sword or little ceramic duckies.

Oh my god, Dorianne, the black tubular metal chairs with the "abstract print" -- I am so with you! Just the bachelor look in general. I mean, I like black, I like chrome (or even "tubular metal") but when there's nothing BUT black and chrome it's kind of nauseating. If my boyfriend had decorated our apartment on his own I'm afraid that's all the furniture we would have except for a smattering of recliners, bean bag chairs and speakers, speakers everywhere.

That reminds me, pet peeve: too many ugly speakers. I also once stayed at a ski cabin that had been expensively painted to give the illusion that the walls were crumbling and exposing their brick foundations. It was like buying pre-ripped jeans from the Gap.

1. McMansion furniture
2. Ducks, geese, wolves, anything that belongs in the wild, or at the very least, a zoo.
3. Popcorn ceilings with panelling and shag carpeting (think 70's rec room vibe)
4. Water-coloured upholstery prints from the 80's on black lacquer furniture.
5. Silk flowers.
6. Oak. My god. Oak, a beautiful tree that should never be cut to build furniture.
7. Oak with brass, or oak with brass and glass.
8. The 80's peach/beige/teal colour schemes.
9. Masstige SouthWest Style.
10. Matching livingroom suites consisting of sofa, love seat, two chairs, end tables, coffee table.
11. Entertainment centers.
12. Dust collecting tchockes.
13. Brass
14. "Bed In A Box" linen sets.
15. Masstige "art", the kind you find thousands of at Ikea, Target, where ever.

Oh, this is the best thread I've read yet.

-black, brass, and glass decor
-cheap white melamine assemble-it-yourself furniture
-lots of stuffed animals as decor in the bedroom. Creepy! (I have one well-loved teddy bear, and he is unobtrusive. ONE.)
-fleecy blankets with nature scenes
-quilted satin bedspreads with wide ruffled skirts
-ruffled pillow shams
-fringed roller blinds with scalloped edges
-bad faux-veneer
-"themed" rooms

Entire Sears catalogues are running through my mind!

My landlady and I were discussing popcorn ceilings just the other day--she used to look for constellations in the sparkles.

P.S. If you want to see the n'est plus ultra in bad decor, you should see the theme rooms at West Edmonton Mall's Fantasyland Hotel. The link in my name should work.

Mlle Kate, THANK YOU for posting that link to the Fantasyland Hotel. I had no idea it existed but now I don't think I can stop myself from emailing everyone I know about it. The descriptions are almost as cheesy as the pictures. My favorites - the Truck room and the Igloo room

Matilda, you're welcome. The fact that it brings (dubious) joy to others somewhat lessens my embarrassment that the mall is advertised as one of my city's best attractions!

Oh, the SHAME (put hand to forehead, swoon). :)

Any decor item that bears the name of a sports team, unless it's in a basement rec room or brought out while watching the game.

Science fiction or fantasy mass market items displayed in otherwise conventional rooms. Examples would include action figures, signed cast member photos, the Lord of the Rings commemorative spittoon.

Anything too "themey". I don't even like themes in kid rooms.

Stupid sayings, usually posted in the kitchen. "Don't be a Dirty Bird!" with a picture of a seagull was part of the decor in our winter rental. See also, "When Mama ain't happy...", "Bless this mess" and so on.

Toilet seat covers. Gross.

A shower curtain should not have ruffles.

Mass-market "collectibles". Buy Beanie Babies because you love them, not to display them in their little plexiglass coffin hotels.

A visionary said:

"Puffy leather sofas are my biggest pet peeve."

Me too. Or puffy velour, or herculon. Especially with reclining function and an arm that swings down with drink holders. That's a minivan option, not a decor choice.

Why are these still sold? Why?

What a great list. I can't really add to it except to nod a lot.

The country ducks of the future: metal grilles on the wall and over half of the offerings at Kirkland's.

i like oak.

I once went to a house that had four different chandilers in the front room and outside of the front door was a large fountain with two life size dolphins leaping. This was in the middle of Minnesota.

You guys have a lot of it covered...(this posting is a riot! Giving me a good chuckle) but also;

Brass. Shiny, horrible brass furniture (bookcases, knick knack shelves, bathroom etagere) etc.

Decorating with teddy bears.

Country-cutesy (I grew up in Pennsylvania Dutch area in PA and it is rife). Plaid explosions.

Ducks make me feel violent.

English floral patterns (I lived in Australia and this was prevalent...as if the more patterns increses the taste level!????)

Fake horse country decor.

Any rooms decorated as a college football shrine. Needs to be left in dorm rooms!

Smoky glass bachelor mafia style pads.

Oops typo, meant to type "increases."

Also ban fake and plastic plants. period.

Shabby chic -- unless you, yourself, personally found the item at a flea market, thrift store or yard sale.

Brocade Home-like furniture -- Unless you inherited original pieces and had them re-upholstered yourself, it screams nouveau riche. On a good day, it screams "nouveau riche rock royalty" (an esthetic that I think came from English rockers trying to emulate the British aristocracy, but without the pedigree or history) but that doesn't quite make it better, does it?

I sooooo want to rent the "igloo" room and have a party of vomit-proportions.

Hannah- my neighbor has a cement pig, always dressed for the season in outrageous hats. I do enjoy the, hopefully ironic, sight.

Mlle Kate, I am literally wiping the tears from my eyes after looking at the Fantasyland Hotel site. You made my day.
This has been my favorite post on AT in a long time - so much fun. No matter how much our tastes may vary it's nice to know we can all agree on what is hideous! I wonder what this list would include 25 years from now.
ridge - your comment made me sad. Were you saying that your parents had perfectly good plain ceilings and then made them into popcorn ceilings? That is a travesty!
So many good things on the list it is hard to come up with more:
1. fake brass. As much as I hate real brass, fake brass is a whole 'nother level
2. when people frame those pictures that you have to stare at a long time to see the image
3. most yard ornaments - plastic flamingos, lawn jockeys
4. mauve

ridge-

When did you visit my sister-in-law's house? Just there at Thanksgiving and she has every one of those items. It is pretty terrifying. I am always afraid if there is an earthquake, I will be crushed to death under the TV

Kathleen

My sister had (she sold it...) a MCMANSION and she put TEAL carpeting everywhere.

Course, the bridesmaid dresses for her wedding were also TEAL and tea length. I hate her for making me wear it and then taking pictures. ICK.

I think I must be adopted.

Parquet floors. They just look like cheap dated apartment building too me...but they're still way better than wall-to-wall carpet

"Modern" 80's renos with oversized windows at odd angels on Victorian houses

Vertical blinds. They are dusty and the cords get tangled and you can waste about 15 minutes a day trying to open and close them so you get those panels all lined up...a nightmare for obsessive-compulsives

all of the above, so i'll just add:

-those horrible pastel puffy velour jc penney sofa-recliner-sectionals with some clashing orangey wood detailing

-80's style glossy black fake-chinoise cabinetry with little gold pinstripe accents

-lavender/purple. if you're old enough to drink, you're too old for purple. maybe a very dark eggplant, but that's it.

Have velvet paintings been mentioned yet?

The Fantasyland Hotel looks tasteful compared to the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo, where I had the privelege of spending a night while on my honeymoon (specifically, in this room:
http://www.madonnainn.com/tour/218.asp ) I loved it! I wish the Madonna Inn had a hotel store like the W does--I'd get that cherub chandelier for an anniversary gift for the husband!

PUFFY curtain toppers...you remember...everyone had to crinkle up newspaper to keep them truly "puffy".

Those hotels are a riot. My personal fave is also the Igloo room. I think I saw the Madonna Hotel on an old Travel Channel show. Too funny. Is it bad that I still want to stay there?

As for Southwestern decorating, there is a HUGE difference between true rustic and what I call "faux southwestern as interpreted by someone in the Midwest." THAT's the taupe/pink/sand/teal color combos with the horrific whitewashed furniture. ARGH. It's rampant with the Snowbirds and the McMansion buyers out in the far suburbs.

Thomas Kincaide! The epitome of bad taste and absolutely no art education.

My in-laws are guilty of the hunting/duck/pheasant theme EVERYWHERE.

Oh, I love parquet floors, as long as they're real parquet.

Herringbone parquet is particularly cool. I covet some.

Oh yeah, and that "Colonial" sofa in the pic... my parents had that in the den, but it was brown plaid. Stylin!

Still have a lot of good memories of making forts with those fugly cushions, though.

Thomas Kincade anything, and let us not forget those gawd-awful Precious Moments figurines.

Sunburst mirrors. Hate!

My sister and I shared a room with red toile curtains and PINK shag wall to wall.
Flocked and silver mylar wallpaper in the bathroom.
I still have nightmares about that house.

Gregory, your mother and mine must have similar tastes - the loud floral upholstery was definitely a part of my childhood home, with loud floral, but clashing, drapes. Ugh.

Equally wretch-inducing for me are collections of delicate, breakable stuff, again thanks to childhood traumas - pricey porcelain cup-and-saucer collections and creepy multitudes of "lifelike" dolls are a couple examples of what I had to endure.

No wonder I'm a minimalist now!

I despise purple/eggplant painted walls. And another thing, this isn't decorating, but why do people feel the need to spray Glade, Fabreeze, and other aerosols into their homes? It actually makes their house smell worse than not spraying anything at all. The only thing worse is reeaally bad incense purchased at a truckstop or porno bookstore.

I love this thread. So many things to agree with!

Have one thing to add: macramé. Plant holders, owl wall hangings, anything.

Oh yeah, and lawn ornaments. Did anyone say lawn ornaments?

Flocked wallpaper!!

When I was a kid we moved into a house that had more bad decorating fodder than I have time to list here. Yes, of course the three inch shag carpets which nearly ate my dog, etc., but they loved flocked wallpaper in regal color combos. Much gold and green and red and black, rooms within view of each other with clashing flocked wallpaper. In fact, the stuff in the living room was hung upside down--the egde was labeled with a "this direction up" arrow which was pointed down. Obviously this edge was also supposed to be trimmed.

They also had a bathroom done in black, including black painted tub and sink (yes, flaking latex, big surprise the first time someone used it), black velvet shower curtain pulled back picture-window style with gold cords and tassels.

Why does my mother wonder at my hatred of wallpaper and carpeting now?

oh no! not macrame- how am I to hang pictures in front of a window without good old seventies macrame?

Being sadly possessed of an infected tooth, I had to go to a walk-in clinic today. It was decorated with:

- country-esque watercolour prints of white geese, whitewashed country cottages, and/or bonnetted Amish-esque country girls...matted in hunter green;

- lots of fake oak...or maybe some was real, it's hard to tell when it's mixed in with the obviously fake stuff;

- puffy hunter green and pinkish window-toppers, over mini-blinds;

- dusty fake plants and dusty dried flower arrangements;

- cherubs, angels, and other assorted stone (or fake stone) miniature statuary.

Oh, and I have to confess a latent love for purple....I'm going to hell, I guess. :D

Leopard-skin prints. There's a McMansion down the street from me that had an OPEN sign out, so I checked it out. White marble floors. Trophy kitchen. The owner had installed a fridge and stove in the laundry room, apparently because she didn't want to mess up the kitchen. Leopardskin prints draped about here and there all over the livingroom, and did I mention white marble floors. Marble, except in the bedroom, where there was cheap beige carpet. She didn't have a decent closet in the bedroom either - didn't care about rooms people didn't see. Jacuzzi she didn't use because it was too hard to clean. And this bathroom all in black marble with a shower curtain from Versaille, except in black and brown. What's with the black and brown? She called it "a classical decor." Patio from a Renaissance villa, fountain, cherubs. Ooh haha, this is listed for $680k (this is western PA, ,$680k is a lot). Makes me love my modest mid-century house even more.

"You just can't imagine!", nor would you want to. What about "The Polynesian Room"? No one mentioned the faux lava-rock jacuzzi-bath. ACK!

My mom (bless her) has the worst taste EVER, and has incorporated many or all of the decorating blunders mentioned in the above thread.

Mom is all about the hunter green, beige, burgundy, reproduction-oak, country-themed barf-fest. She owned a 1960 ranch home that she painted and carpeted completely in beige, and then slip-covered her furniture in these forest green monstrosities, that did not fit- the list goes on.

I don't think anyone mentioned these, but what about the wooden or foam plastic covered toilet seats? The wooden ones usually went with that "country-outhouse" look so popular in the 80's, the oak toilet paper holder, the oak medicine chest, oh god! Those heinous foam toilet seats, that always had a tear in them- probably harboring a cornucopia of e-coli bacteria. YUCK!

Oh, and did anyone notice that eighty percent of the rooms at that Canadian hotel have GIGANTIC mirrors hanging over the beds?

Classy.

Lladro figurines

La-z-boy chairs with the crank handle to recline.

Berber carpeting

And if you liked the Edmonton Hotel link- you should check out www.sybaris.com- a midwestern chain of "couples" getaway suites. Mauve carpeting on the walls, mirrored ceilings, etc.

Almost everything at Pier 1, ie wicker crap.

Putting saran wrap over stovetops and remotes - or is that just my chinese family?

Overbearing ceiling fans.

Oddly shaped neon colored furniture trying to be modern but looking more like something from Alice in Wonderland.

Did anyone ever stop to think why there's so much reproduction oak, big pieces of furniture upholstered in floral fabrics, faux southwest decor, and white country geese and so on ? because it was once the coolest freaking thing out there !!! You better learn to love it, because it's the kind of stuff your children will be scouring the thrift stores and estate sales for the decorate their homes !!!

...Oh, and I'm beginning to have a stong dislike for faux nostalgia, you know "old" traveling trunks, "old" victrola's, "old" signs. There's enough of the real old stuff out there at reasonable prices to not have to fake it.

"You better learn to love it, because it's the kind of stuff your children will be scouring the thrift stores and estate sales for the decorate their homes !!!"

No... no... god please... no! This can't be happening! Noooooo!!!!!

"Oh, and did anyone notice that eighty percent of the rooms at that Canadian hotel have GIGANTIC mirrors hanging over the beds?

Classy."

Nicole Marie, that's for checking out the bottoms of our cowboy boots!

Snort!

I am in hysterics over the Madonna Inn. Truly.

Sheila, its sad, but you're absolutely right. While I was mortified to bring my friends over to my mother's house (wall-to-wall mauve carpet, fake-brick wall inset behind a woodstove, blue and white velvet pit group, artsy-craftsy knee-high wooden rabbits with victorian garb on, lots of angels and cherubs,etc), I'd pay new prices for the stuff my grandma used to have in her house.

My friend said her SORORITY HOUSE had CARGO FURNITURE in all the bedrooms. Can you think of anything less feminine?

I hate Hate HATE fake oak. And carpet. And beige of any color, really. I moved out of the house and painted my place Creeping Jenny, Floral Tape Green, Lost Mitten Blue, and Bougainvillea (Sherwin Williams) and then painted all my wood furniture black. I don't care how dated it will look, I just wanted a change.

Indian / wolf / eagle decor.
A ceramic bust of an Indian head next to the roaring eagle = puke!
Dream catchers...
mass produced African masks...
clowns... never ever decorate with clowns!
NASCAR...
Computer Armoires...

Stenciling! Who does that? Who are those people that actually go to the craft store, gaze at grape or vine stencils.....choose every shade variation of colors and spend hours painting? I'm all for art and free form and can even respect silk solid wallpaper, but stenciling NO WAY!!!!

Love this thread!

my list...

leather furniture sets--sofa, loveseat, chair w' ottoman--and as stated above, if they're all puffy, even worse

overused artwork themes: Mediterranean house by the sea, French cafes, aged urns, magnolias, Victorian ladies and garden benches

Americana-themed décor purchased after 9/11

Sofas with puffy pillows protruding so far out there is almost nowhere to sit down

Heavy draperies laden with tassels, swags, ruffles and other gewgaws

Old-school living rooms, usually with powder blue, mauve, rose or cream carpeting and color schemes and fancy parlor furniture never intended to actually be used

cheap made in china country decor!!! I can't stand that crap or cheap southwestern wanna be style. Lasty, the tacky victorian style that has overtaken parts of California and the Midwest....YUCK!!

funny thread - though i can't help feeling bad for some of our parents - they were cool in their day i'm sure.

my absolute biggest pet peeve - the tuscan / italian countryside look - the wine glasses an grapes and ivy, and heavy heavy furniture in all the purply, maroon, hunter green and beige.

every time i hear one more soccer mom say "i want the tuscan villa look" i am truly amazed.

Oh My! That is a "farkin" great photo! I definitely didn't see the guy for the longest time. What a crack up!

Just a side note on bash against west ed I understand that theme rooms at west edmonton mall do seem cheezy the luxery theme rooms are not that bad but I dont think they are worth the money thay charge per night.

i cannot find leather furniture without those fake brass buttons on the arms. laksjdflaksdf.

SUCH a great post. Haven't enjoyed myself so much in a while.

Yes! to all of the above. Did anyone say the following yet?
1.Dark rooms
2.Black floral carpets, especially with yellow flowers
3.Stuffed animals and any other animal parts that legitimately belong on some other creatures’ back or head or grave. No offense, but very few of these things are irreplaceable w.r.t. their design contribution.
4.Huge heavy furniture that towers over you and was made yesterday. Dressers so tall they make you feel undersized.
5.Ruffled shower curtain, especially lacy red ones
6.Tasteless modern recreations of old things, i.e. faux vintage.
7.DIY impulses gone wild; extends to 'folksy' and 'ethnic' without humor, irony or reflexive judgment.

Omg, puffy curtain toppers!! I actually helped someone decorate her Mcmansion with them as little as 5 yrs ago. At the time, I thought it useless and eccentric, but went along. Oh, I plead guilty to ignorance that such things existed! Same house had red lacy shower curtains and same owner didn’t want ‘African’ things in her house. Shiver.

Get your barf bags, and have a nice seat, because I think I can top these.
My youngest oh my God moment happened when I was 12. I had a decent blue room, with drapes that blocked out alot of the sun.
One day my step mom decided to paint my walls canary yellow. She hung bright yellow shades, and on the closet she hung dark brown cork board for my rock star posters.
She hung a rainbow over my bed, and had an ugly green macrame frog she hung over my radiator. I had a williamsburg blue chair, and avocado carpet.
She was awlays yelling at me for leaving the light on. It was the sun coming thru the shades.
We moved to a red house.
The house had tons of potential, but my parents are not the decorating type. I'd dream up colors in my head, and what I would have done. Strange for a 14 year old.
Inside in evey room was short loop dark red carpet. In the master bedroom bath had yellow tiles with that carpet. The kitchen had a brown fridge, stove, washer, and dryer. My room was the worst. Red and white quilt style wall paper, even the ceilings, and the closets were mint green.
As an adult I have fixed up alot of places. One was a hippy flop house. They carpeted the walls and over the windows. Another was a farm house where the land lord was a peeping tom. when I trimmed the hedge he evicted me. He demanded I keep a moldy matress in one on the upstairs bedrooms. It was a souvenier of an old girlfriend, and it was moldy. I duct taped the door cracks, that also made him mad. The duct tape helped keep in the moldy smell...
My last Iowa house nailed the front door shut. They had wall to wall carpet in every room in the house. They milked cows and didn't take their boots off, so the house smelled like cow shit, and I had to bleach and bleach after tearing out all the carpet. The upstairs bedrooms had chocolate brown carpet. My roomate's room walls were peach, mine were carnation pink. The teen girl grafittied down the stairs, and on the wood trim, in crayon how much she hated her mother.
All of this prepared me for this house!
I moved in with my much older boyfriend who's wife died.
She NEVER threw anything away. I am still throwing out papers from the 80's. She saved soap slivers in a box, under the sink. That and her sex toys, and old fashioned douche sets freaked me out. The garbage was amazing, and everytime I think I have the upper hand on it, I find piles more. I found expired canned goods from 2002.
But her decorating, My God!
When you come in the front door, you step onto old linoleum. The walls are pale yellow. In the first living room is a nice blue victorian sofa, some nice antique lamps, and nice end tables. The coffee table was nice.
Then the bad. Boogar gold shag carpet.
In a plant room the same carpet, and dead plant leaves, and junk mail as far back as the early 90's stacked on a stained blue velour window seats.
The half drape was sewn on so I couldn't do anything but throw this plant stained thing in the trash.
2 Desks were in there, and a plastic file box filled with trash. She kept prescription forms as far back as 1946.
Also, Im the new lady of the house. Keep this in mind.
There were pictures of his dead wife over the fire place, over the one desk. On the desk, and her christening paper framed by the desk.
Lets go to the kitchen.
Ceiling and walls are Williamsburg blue. Nailed to the cabinets are while ducks with hearts.
On the stove is a ribbon neck duck trivet and 2 ribbon neck duck cookie jars!!!
The wall paper border, ribbon neck ducks!
Towels, pot holders, wash rags, meat platters, cups, saucers, bowls, plates, soap dispensors, and on the shelves, RIBBON NECK DUCKS!
I used to scoot my food over them so I wouldn't have to look at them while I ate.
There were so many of them I wanted to go to a farm, and tie a blue ribbon around a white duck's neck, and shoot it. But I like animals too much.
The tv room. Blue carpet, blue furniture, blue throw rugs, blue drapes. Too much BLUE!
And pictures of the deceased on the end tables, and on top of the tv, as well as her Valentine stuffed animal collection. I dont know about you, but I dont like other women's stuffed animals.Especially poodles with I love you embroidered on them!
The hall. Yellow. With a hand drawn picture of the deceased,and picture when she won some olympic event
The room I slept in when we argued over all her pics, all over the house had a "book case headboard" if that is such a thing. He filled it with Zane Grey books, and they fell on my head all night long. That room had 2 yellow walls and Mrs. Perfect Wife wallpapered the other 2 for a bizarre half and half look. She had an assortment of reproduction mixmatched lamps on the oversize dresser.It had beige half drapes.
The master bedroom. 3 pictures of the deceased. Some needle point. At the foot of the bed was a farm cutsy boy and girl kissing. They made a plaque that said Don and Muffins, and their wedding date. When I slept in there that was what I saw first. If I turned over I had 2 8x10's of her staring at me, and a smaller pic of her on the dresser I couldn't bear to use. It was like she was staring at me!
It had 3 yellow walls, and one mauve and white polka dot wallpapered wall, and forest green carpet. Ona beige drapes.
I couldn't be intimate with him, with her staring at me. I woke up, and saw the wedding plaque, I rolled over, and saw her, when I went to the bathroom, her pic was staring at me in the hall.It made me feel like his mistress, not his girlfriend.
I threatened to break up, my 2nd year of living here, if he couldn't put those away, and to drive my point home, I began hanging my ex's pic wherever I saw hers! Finally they came down!
The basement (or cemetary).
The stairwell is blue with a blue ceiling, and brown carpet. The main thing you see down there is dead animal heads. 3 dead deer legs tied together with a light socket on top, and hideous lamp shades. HE has alot of those "amputated lamps". A bar thats cluttered in junk so you cant use it.
A blue walled and carpeted room with cat crap everywhere, and dead animal heads, horns, and legs.
A blue bathroom. God, these people sure loved blue.
A pool table surrounded with more dead animals.
A tool room that the way these folks put away their tools was to pitch them on top the floor like bowling balls. Trash too, and staples, tacks, broken glass, and nails. I've been trying to clean this mess up.Mostly with bloody feet.
A yellow laundry room with matching venetion blinds, and last but not least. The ugliest room I've EVER seen!!!
A bedroom.
It had long gold shag carpet. A bed with mauve sheets, a gold blanket, a mauve blanket, a ruffly white bed skirt, with matching pillow shams.
One wall was white, the entry door was unpainted, the closet door was white, and so was the trim. 2 walls were wallpapered in a golden hay pattern, and the other was leftover mauve and white pokla dots from the master bedroom with matching half drapes.
If you can top my house, I feel sorry for you.
Im moving, this place is that bad, that I'm going to move, or I will be fixing it until Im 70.
I hate:
All carpet.
All wallpaper including borders.
RIBBON NECK DUCKS
Dead animals. What do they mean by trophies? These are dead animals.
Half drapes.
Metal venecian blinds.
Toilet hoodies.
Toilet rugs.
Toilet tank toppers.
Padded toilet seats.
Any carpet in the bathroom or kitchen for any reason.
Rugs that cant be washed in a washing machine.
Any non swiffer style mop.
Any non flushable toilet brush and toilet plungers that arent kept in a container like a painted nicely coffee can...
Sand in paint used indoors. Southwest adobe excluded.
Country cute.
Over use of any color. Example blue.
Pressed wood furniture.
Clutter, garbage, piles of junk.
Clothing thats not either in the wash, on you, or put away.
Dirty dishes, and full trash cans! Also unflushed toilets!!!
Mail left on tables or the floors.
And porno pics of your boyfriends previous relationship, and any of her "personal" stuff.(ie: douches and ky)
Your boyfriend hanging up pictutes of prevous relationships.
I may think of more later, but this is a good start.
OH YEAH, when I was a kid my parents propped up these broken painted wagon wheels at our driveway posts. I hated those too!

extreme sea creatures/dolphin art, southwest heritage themes, and anything farm animals. that about covers it.

Black leather or pleather overstuffed sofas, with chrome and glass living room tables, fake indoor "silk" trees and floral arrangements, lots of burgundy and gold pseudo Tuscany look decor; area rugs ontop of wall to wall carpet, "popcorn"ceilings, aluminum framed windows, family photos in small frames (no mats), arraigned on wall behind sofa, or one portrait photo in the middle of a large wall behind sofa, shelves with knick knacks and "collectables".

I read this at work, and was trying so hard to stifle laughter, I was tearing up.

My own mom (bless her) is perpetually remodeling the 1980's middle-income suburbia home where I grew up. I think she and my dad have single-handedly kept the local oak supplier in business with their floor-to-ceiling oak kitchen. (I now hate entire rooms done in one type of wood, regardless of species.) She and my dad recently installed carpet that, despite being sold in the 21st Century, is very, very shag. They decided to do half of the upstairs now, and the bedrooms, which still have the 90's beige, later.

Other highlights from my mom's decor? A red Oriental rug and seafoam lace valance in the living room, fake flower arrangements, teddy bears, roosters and birdhouses, wallpaper, puffy curtain valances, stained glass, wicker, puffy cream leather couch, a t.v. in every room, “collections.” Every year, her lawn ornaments reproduce, and average out at about 4-5 dozen. At one point in my life, I contributed to the nautical stenciling in our hallway bathroom. Half of the living room “décor” consists of dog beds (and old bedding) for their multiple labs.

I think "chez shoes" said it best, and shared my sentiments exactly, with: "No wonder I'm a minimalist now!"

I hope my mom never sees this! :)