I feel like this only ever looks good in an editorial, or maybe some really wealthy person's paris apartment. IRL it just looks like your just too lazy/poor to paint.

I agree with paigep. I think rough-hewn places only work if you have really expensive things and/or an expensive neighbourhood, just like "shabby chic" only works (if you think it works, lol!) in a really nice, well-put-together place.

@paigep couldn't agree more. It takes a lot of work to make distressed walls look amazing and not like they are falling down and full of cockroaches. I don't think many of these rooms would be very nice to actually be in, no matter how well photographed.

All I can think of when I see walls like that is lead poisoning.

I had a spare bedroom one time in a huge old farmhouse that I needed to make ready for a student tenant.
My girlfriend and I slathered plaster on many cracks and did some fun mixed shades of yellow, making it look like what she called "French country chic." It ended up looking somewhat glazed with darker shades toward the corners.
I loved it and so did the tenant.
It saved me a lot of bucks and the creativity was fun.
I think there are places where this works really well.

Remember that massive room in The King's Speech?

Yeah, I'm going to jump on the bandwagon here, poverty is only cool if you aren't actually living in it.

Another vote for what paige said.

I think maybe this would work for me in a very small industrial loft that had cement walls. But, I'd expect the ceilings to be perfect and the floors to be very high end with high end cabinets and appliances as well. In short, it would have to look deliberate and only in a very narrow set of circumstances.

Well, all I can say is that I'm on-trend. I guess I won't have to spend the summer painting the new kitchen walls and woodwork.

Some people have to live with it, whether they want to or not. I bet living with some honest "Bohemian romance" doesn't usually involve being comfortable in any sense of the word. While I can appreciate the history behind some of these walls, and I can definitely find the beauty in peeling wallpaper in an abandoned building, I'm pretty sure I'd never want to live there. Most people wouldn't. And I have trouble identifying with people who are wealthy enough to think that adopting random symbols of poverty in order to be fashionable is acceptable. Living in a centuries-old farmhouse because it's your family home, I get that. Building a new house and installing pre-aged MDF cabinets in the kitchen, because you want your suburban middle-American mcmansion to "feel like Tuscany," is just gross.

Not a fan. It's like showing up to a gala in an evening gown and dirty, distressed combat boots. Helen Bonham Carter might be able to get away with it, but the average person would just look like a redneck doing it. Same goes with the exposed walls. Photo number 3, in particular, gives me the heebie-jeevies.

Sometimes I feel like this aesthetic is lovely and homey, like in the 1st and 5th pictures, and other times I feel like it's cold and unfriendly, like in the 3rd and 7th pictures. Not sure why I like it some times and not others, maybe it has something to do with the decor.

Glad that the loss of my back boiler and 70's gas fire twinned with badly splatted plaster (I live in local council housing in the UK) puts me right on trend!

I"m with previous commentators. Not my cup of tea at all!

Distressed wall wallpaper pattern? That is trying a little too hard.

I also agree with paige - this is so not my thing. It's just too unfinished.

I think this looks gorgeous in a vast, raw space. It certainly isn't a look to emulate in a regular sized home. And yes, the lead issue is a big one.

I absolutely love this look but agree it needs to be real aging (not faux) in an old place, the room needs to be large with a high ceiling, and the space itself needs to be spotless.

I liked image 5 at first sight. Then I imagined sleeping there and my thoughts turned to splinters in my feet, dust, insects, drafts... Perhaps these are too much for my active imagination.

another upvote for paigep comment.

Bobo only works in very specific situations as many have outlined in the comments. Rich, foreign or rustic... but for most it just looks unkempt, dangerous and dirty. I personally like it in small doses, or when it is translated to art...but other then I cosign the poverty isnt cool...when you are actually living it statement.

#5 I like & not really a fan of plain Jane country farm. #10 would be great abstract are; on a canvas; not a whole wall. Didn't grunge clothing go out of style maybe a decade ago? Did it literally sneak back into the HOUSE?! This is one of those looking back 'this was so stupid' trends.

these are walls I can appreciate in photographs but would never want for a home. I also appreciate in homes where I see areas of the home that are well worn or dirty because of a routine use that often tells a story of their home in that one spot BUT don't appreciate if I have those areas in my own...

Agree with those who said that indications of poverty are only chic for the wealthy.

lead paint is back in style

Much more shabby than chic.

Well, I LOVE it!!

When I first looked, well, nevermind, I think everyone previously commented what I was thinking.
#5 looks like my former "loft" apartment when I first moved in-but I sure as heck wasn't going to leave the walls & ceilings looking like that!! I spent months painting every square inch.
Couldn't help what was underneath though. After 8 years of painting, renovating the beautiful wood floors and knotty pine walls in the "sunroom"-the building was condemned last March & I had to move. :(. (The "living room" ceiling and part of the roof sat on my living room floor, (and over ruined furniture) for over 2yrs. Hauling 37 buckets out EVERYTIME it rained or snowed wasn't exactly "healthy". LOTS of sweet memories though...and I DO miss my, (and my cat's), "pet" bats though!! (Now living on a farm, my cat has plenty of other "pets" she thinks should be playing with her.. ;)

Some of us have these walls not because we are in poverty or are rich (funny extremes in these comments) but because it takes time and energy to get things fixed "just right."

Now me, I prefer an old genuine plaster wall, maybe not in perfect shape, to a flat, perfect drywall panel. But unfortunately it's not easy to find people who can repair that old plaster sensitively so that it doesn't look brand new.

I can see doing this in a museum or restaurant, maybe, but not sure I can live with it, They all remind me of set designs which is pretty interesting.

Does anyone else see a llama on the wall in the 3rd photo? Just me, then? Okay.

Yup, it's a llama. I can't help but wonder what event burned its image into the wall though....

I'm in the "this is great for editorial pictures but not in real life" camp. That said, I admire the recently posted work of the Jersey Ice Cream Co., specifically this house, because the entire home is done in a rustic/salvaged/pseudo-decayed/aged fashion with neutral furnishings: http://www.jerseyicecreamco.com/beforeandafter

Thank you for this post! I live in an 1800s Victorian house and our bedroom in particular has very aged and worn plaster walls. In some rooms it has worked to just paint the walls as normal, but I want to embrace the irregularity of the walls in the bedroom. Trying to make them look perfect would be working against the space. I want to do a really dark purple distressed wall. I think the key is to have more perfect, glossy pieces to contrast against the "dirty" walls so it doesn't just look like a hovel.

I also have a hallway where I started to scrape the paint off the walls. My intention was to sand and repaint, but scraping revealed layers and layers of beautiful old wallpaper from as far back as the 30's (when the addition was put on the house). I've kept it as-is and it looks lovely.

Hail wabi-sabi!

Also, I am a few steps away from a "starving artist", so this is not just a trend for the wealthy!

Looks like a good portion of homes in New Orleans, mine included. Most of my walls still have their original blue casein paint that's over a hundred years old and other walls have no paint because they were wallpapered their whole lives, an I scraped it down to the original warm grey plaster. I think if your walls have enough character you barely need anything in a room to make it feel interesting, plus we don't mind the age of things." La beauté de l'entropie ". But yeah, plenty of tourists I've meet speak of wishing everything was freshly painted an new looking. Unfortunately 60 percent of housing stock here is at or over a hundred years old. And 25 percent is closer or over 200 years old.