apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Anything on the diagonal, LOL (see picture).

that pesky flat screen above the mantle!

Clothing on a wall as a design element.

Hmmmm.... I guess the top 10 would have to be ... in no particular order:

1. plastic furniture, whether in the garden or in the house
2. wall-to-wall carpet
3. unpainted panelling (wood or otherwise)
4. garages attached to houses
5. "window treatments"
6. textured ceilings
7. vinyl siding
8. non-movable kitchen "islands"
9. fiberglass tub/shower enclosures
10. wallpaper

Rugs that are too small.
Draperies that are too short, Tab-Tops and thin drapery hardware.
Furniture arrangements that ignore/block focal points (such as fireplaces) and block entrances.
Monumental Televisions.
Lack of lighting
End tables/nightstands that are too tall, too short - or just missing.
Kid-clutter that takes over the house.
Catalog-Interiors (you can easily determine what store each piece came from, but not the personality of the occupant)
Landlord Beige and Tract-house White.

But the saddest are rooms and even entire homes where people have just given up and let the place accummulate boxes, plastic bins, old clothing and piles of junk.

decorative candles.

toilet covers
popcorn ceiling
snow white and so on on the yard
fake plants and...OUR diagonal fireplace in the guestroom

Clutter!

I hate when people try to fill up space just because its there! Why add an extra side table or an extra flower vase just because you can? If you choose your furniture and basics (rugs, throw pillows, lamps) wisely, you don't need much else. I hate cluttered spaces. I like the flow and layout of a room to be breezy and open. Less is more!

I can't stand things being too matchy. Like someone went out and bought their sofa, love seat, chair and coffee and side tables right off the showroom floor. There's no personality there. Some people just don't know how to infuse their personality into a space, so they buy the model home look.
And I can't stand new decorative pieces from stores like Home Goods. They're cheap and tacky, don't have any character or history behind them, no meaning. The objects that adorn someone's home should have a unique presence and character that speaks to the homes occupants.

I have always abhorred when adults have no kids but do have stuffed animals all over the place (usually piled on the guest beds).Ew~!
Katy
http://fengshuibyfishgirl.com

i really dislike multiple photos in one frame...I feel like it cheapens the captured moment.... diminishes the sentimental value...

One picture. One frame.

The only exception to this is a few small photos...and even then it takes the right grouping of photos to pull it off properly. My mom has a frame with B&W pics of her siblings in the 60s and it actually looks great

Also, taxidermy.

Form over function, like arranging books with the spines facing in, having too many pillows on the bed or couch, or those Bertoia diamond chairs.

Faux patina or aging.

Shutters that are too small for windows.

A/V equipment is in general big and ugly. It irks me when I see people arranging entire rooms around giant TVs and stereo equipment.

Beige-white paint, carpet and tile.

Wall-to-wall carpeting.

Houses with the garages facing the street.

Greenwashing.

1. matchy matchy
2. carpet
3. when people paint all the wood work in craftsman houses
4. catalog look

popcorn ceilings
wall to wall carpet
antique white paint (should be called dingy drab white)
plastic furniture
fake wood
"early american" style

Tuscan and Napa style interiors. Too dark, neutral, and boring. Even thier burgundy colors seem beige.

Blue and yellow together. Oh, how I cringe. It looks so juvenile! The picture in this post is killing me. Must. Not. Look. Directly. At It.

Color grouping books. I love how it looks but it's so impractical that I can't do it, it makes me irrationally angry. I guess I just have a knack for remembering the author's last name rather than the color of the book jacket when I want to locate a book.

pretty much everything slowdown said, plus...

art hung too high (MAJOR peeve)
too-big TVs (and wall-mounted flat-screens, especially over fireplaces)
too-small rugs
wall-to-wall carpeting
small prints on upholstery
futon couches in the homes of grown-ups
meaningless decoration (like cassielynn said)
traditional decor with no twist (as if the home is really monticello)
too many throw pillows
boring lamps
"bachelor" decor (black leather sofas and such)
no personality!

crackle glaze finish

those tall chunky candlesticks, sometimes arranged in groups of three.

home theater rooms

i am surprised no one mentioned the "keep calm and carry on" poster;-)

for me its
popcorn ceilings
melamine furniture

pictures hung too high
picture groups hung too far apart
neutral rooms without texture
accent walls
any couch or armchair with the "puffy" arms
fake plants

Uncomfortable chairs. Why bother?

*fake antlers (or real ones for that matter)
*the terribly ugly eames rocking chair
*cushioned vinyl toilet seats, or wood-laminate toilet seat covers. bleh!
*extra, non-functional pillows
*wallpaper borders

Textured ceilings for sure (someone textured on top of the beautiful plaster ceiling in my living room!)
and TV in the bedroom. Not really a design pet peeve, more like a life pet peeve. I just can't get behind it.

I'd love to hear more about that melamine furniture...

Antlers or taxidermy
w/w carpet (disgusting and am living with it now)
large flat screen tvs
sharp edges
so many things in rooms that it begins closing in on you
fake plants
windows that are always covered.

pictures hung too high. why oh why do people do that?

Living rooms that look like a shrine to the TV.

"Princess" themes in little girls' rooms. My hypothetical daughters will NEVER own anything with a damn tiara on it.

IKEA bashing. Some of us will just never be able to afford DWR, so get over it.

Furniture lining the walls of large rooms, leaving a huge void in the middle.

Those couches that look like they're made out of leather Hefty bags. Also, anything by La-Z-Boy.

Too-small rugs and too-high artwork. Also, a tiny little piece of artwork on a large, otherwise empty wall.

Wall-to-wall carpeting
Popcorn ceilings
Sofa/Couch with a million pillows or with them all turned where they are standing up like DIAMONDS...
Tuscan-style wrought iron
Lack of personality in the home
CABLES
A crapload of clutter

That's it for now...

1. obvious, but suburban aspirational mcmansions with absolutely no tension anywhere in the design either inside or out. they don't feel lived in or even livable.
2. anything from either rooms to go or ashley furniture. it all looks like the price is right to me.
3. i was inside a suburban aspirational mcmansion (by my criteria) recently and the owner had fake books in the built-ins and on the coffee table. they were just segments of wood painted to look like the front of books. i literally got a cold sweat when i realized what they were. very creepy.
4. dust, but especially on lampshades.
5. weeds. untrimmed or unkempt landscaping. if you are lucky enough to have a yard then have a little pride.
6. the names of suburban neighborhoods always give me a laugh.
7. front loading garages. i've only seen a handful that managed to pull that off.
8. red dining rooms.

Wow coming in late here but yes to all of the above.
I have had to edit and pair down my pet peeves but here are some that come to mind-


A bunch of tiny cutesy non art on the walls
Fur and animal skins
One small piece of art hung over the sofa and too high
Accent paint color on a wall
Too much ceiling and overhead lighting, just not flattering to the space nor on you.
Long dinner parties with ridiculous overly mix matched dining chairs that are uncomfortable.
Overly coiffed beds with layers of pillows, says you are high maintenance and your not getting any.
Cutter
Microsuede fabric that leaves an impression
No fresh air, closed windows and drapes 24 hours a day, yuck.

In friends' and family's homes: BAD LIGHTING.

Because it's not just them suffering, but me too, when I'm over there.

1. Yes, someone mentioned catalog interiors, that's it! Ughhh.
2. And again, laying out the rooms around the ubiquitous flat screen tv, tivo and other black modern sub-par hi fi equipment. And of course, oh no---not over the fireplace mantle!!!
3. Barcelona chairs! (SORRY!) I hate them. I once worked for a design firm where the big boss was permanently stuck in his glory days of the '60s/'70s and NOT in a cool way. Mind you, I love mid century mod, but the way he curated it, still leaves a bad taste in my mouth and I haven't gotten over it.
4. Book covers that match. I've seen it and cannot understand why. Books are lovely in all their quirky unique-ness, why cover them????
5. Magazine-perfect interiors, not a thing out of place. Order is good but perfection kills the soul.

bepsf nailed it with the tab top drapes on thin rods. i work in the window fashion industry and that RUINS. MY. LIFE.

also: nude/"artistic" photos of the home owners. if that's your thing, fine. but WHY do you have to put them on DISPLAY?

finally: there was a post about this a couple days ago, but that cheap "art" you buy at like, zellers.. it's always potted flowers or something in awful colours with that fake texture? CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP.
(my brother in law bought some of that and tried to convince us it was an original painting. talk about embarassing)

Disproportionate furnishings for the space (small space filled with bulky pieces, loft spaces with too-small furniture).

Mixing metals in furnishings and accents.

Overstuffed couches and armchairs.

Beige jack-in-the-box apartment walls/floor/ceiling/appliances
(I gladly pay a little extra to rent a craftsman style house with wood floors and walls painted the colors of my choice)

Plaid couches...really that whole overdone country style with the wooden painted kids with rosy cheeks and 'clever' wooden painted signs.

"Diva" style. You know what I'm talking about. Zebra print, pink, feather boas, rhinestones, glitter, plastic crowns and tiaras. In an adult woman's room. I think I just hurked in my mouth a bit.

Oversized, over-posed family pictures on display. Especially those where everybody's wearing matching jeans and a white shirt. Sorry if I offended anyone... but I can't stand them.

Decorative word art thingy's you find at TJ Max such as "Family" "Faith and Hope" "Live Love and Laughter" etc etc.

Too many decorative pillows. Especially those covered with materials you would never actually rest your head on--such as beading.

Cutsey Folk art

Price tag stickers left on anything. The "Do Not Remove" tags on pillows, etc. Kitty litter boxes in bathrooms. Carpet in bathrooms.Vinyl placemats or tablecloths. Burnt out lightbulbs.Dusty ceiling fans. dead plants.

farleece: YES. "Decorative word art thingy's" ARE SO BAD!

Also, instruments used as decorations. Arrrgghhh!!!!! World Market sells decorative versions of the West African kora, as well as tiny metallphones and things like that. They're not real, functioning instruments, so why the heck even buy them? If you can play it, then have it in your house! Yahahrgggh, I wish I could succinctly sum up how I feel about this!

1. Form over function
2. Word art ("Eat", "Love", "Peace", etc.)
3. Decorative candles
4. Fake plants
5. Decorative pillows on beds
6. Rugs over rugs
7. Dry-clean only fabrics
8. Rugs and fabrics that trap too much dust

"Princess themes in little girls' rooms. My hypothetical daughters will NEVER own anything with a damn tiara on it."

Lol, good luck with that!! You'll go along swimmingly until grandma gives her a Cinderella doll and the accompanying DVD for her birthday. It's a downward spiral from there. That princess stuff is powerful! You'll lovingly try to direct her in a better design direction, but you'll realize that her love is princesses and pink and that she has the right to be who she is. And you'll want to see the joy in her eyes, that happiness that comes when she gets to be herself.

Anyway - pet peeve:

Fake flowers and plants.

Especially that row of fake ivy over the top of the oversized fake wood looking TV cabinet.

Rounded wall corners!!!! Add drop-down texture with a peach-tinted neutral paint job EVERYWHERE and you've got my current rental home conundrum.

Art hung too high

Fear of color

The "Tuscan" look. Though sometimes it's done well, like when the house is a Tuscan villa. ;)

Fake ivy on top of a media cabinet or china hutch

Bad lighting, or too much dependence on overhead lighting

Sponge-painting and most other painting "tricks" unless they're subtle and carefully done

Those plastic 3-drawer carts with caster wheels (though I own three or four of them)

Oh yeah, and monograms or words on the wall.

themed rooms
the color peach, or coral, or flesh.....
uncomfortable furniture
any sort of animal head/ animal skin/ antler thing.
mcmansions and cookie-cutter suburbs with all the foliage and trees ripped out. talk about desolate.
impersonal rooms from big box stores

In no particular order:

1. The "odd number rule". I fundamentally disagree with this.

2. People who ask a GOOD QUESTION about their place and after 50 excellent suggestions in the comments add an "oh by the way I'm not allowed to paint".

3. Wall light switches and electrical sockets in typical American style with big plastic panel and awful colour. The prettiest sockets are the Danish "smiley face" or the Italian three-in-a-row sockets.

4. Overly styled children's rooms with mitchy-matchy classy old-fashioned toys you're afraid to play with. Lighten up...

5. Gigantic beds for people who live alone in small places.

6. Fireplaces. They have no function in 99% of all homes. They pollute. They waste heat. Just... get rid of them.

7. Square furniture place on the diagonal in corners. I always wonder how much dust is back there.

8. Trophy pieces of furniture, e.g. Eames chairs, in settings where they don't really fit in.

9. Open shelving everywhere. It's a dust trap.

10. Toilets in the ornamented-ish swing-swang old-fashioned style. Clean European look for me, thanks.

Oh, yes, wall to wall carpeting is so hideous and trauma inducing that I blocked out mentioning it in my previous post.

Aww, reading all the great pet peeves is great!
Here are mine:

- Zebra rugs
- those arrangements of cutsy etsy 'art': I know there are lot of those out there (seen them in house tours), but I just really dislike them
- another one i've seen a lot on House tours: those creepy looking stuffed animals! if you are a grown-up and have stuffed animals, at least let it be a teddy bear you grew up with and hang on to for sentimental reasons. Otherwise, no stuffed animals.
- carpeted rooms
- ikea bashing
- anything that tries to creat a fake version of a certain look: best example of this is tuscan, but it can be any other look. Mostly these things try to make a new house look old and it never works!
- taxidermy: why would anyone want to look at dead animals in their homes (unless they are Sarah Palin...)
- sorting books by color and not content: makes me think you value the look of your books more then their content

Sorry, I have to ask - what is the issue with wall-to-wall carpeting?

im not going to post any pet peeves, because they are all listed. I just wanted to say thank you because Im reading this at work and laughing out loud! Perfect thing for work on a Saturday morning. Thanks!

PLASTIC FURNITURE -- unless it's for your kid's play room or your kid's bedroom, get it out of the house.

Let's see...pretty much everything above, but especially:

Dolls or other creepy collectibles. That goes for those little "villages," too, or any tzotchke with a face.

That stupid, stupid poster. It was cute for all of ten seconds.

Fake/ department store art/pottery.

Any of that genre of tubular steel/smoked glass dining furniture. White leather upholstery. Round-cornered matchy oak furniture.

Curtains that match the bedclothes. Windows wearing five layers of fabric.

"Vessel" sinks...I think people are really going to regret those.

Wall sticker...augh.

The thing that makes me most nuts, though- decorated laundry rooms. Nothing says "spoiled American" more than shabby chic in the garage. Blegh.

i hate my wall-to-wall with a passion, but it's a sanity saver if yoiu have active kids. my sister's house has hardwood throughout except for the family room, and with two kids practicing tae kwan do moves it saves a lot of bruises. and she's always carping about the noise if someone is dancing to High School Musical in the upstairs bedrooms.

All of the above. Especially furniture sets, disproportioned things, bad lighting and covered windows. Did anyone mention those all too common puffy recliners? I hate them.

But my greatest pet peeve is an architecturally significant house that's been "updated" in a completely wrong way, like an Eichler with a Tuscan kitchen. That really hurts!

the design of middle range toilets with all the nooks and crannies somebody has to clean!

What's a vessel sink? Are they the ones where the bowl sits way up? If so, I agree; seems like you'd always be whacking your elbows on the rim.

- bad lighting
- hiding a computer in an armoire
- mounting a phone on the wall
- dark wood furniture
- trying to make things look antiqued that aren't
- visible wiring for electronics
- clear glass doors on a book case/shelving unit (frosted are fine though since you can't see all the stuff behind the door)
- any brown/beige/yellow tint in the wall paint
- random thrift store toys being used as decoration
- fake plants
- too many photos/art pieces in one place
- non-functional furniture pieces
- using cheapo Target stuff in the entire room then throwing in a DWR, Anthropologie, or other stylish item and thinking it "makes the room"
- trying to pass off clutter as a "design element"
- using stock Ikea furniture. I -being too scared of OR too liberal with bright colors

- Large ornate faux baroque furniture that can be found at places like Ashley, The Roomstore, etc.

- Art that is randomly hung at different heights and not centered.

- ALL Mid-century modern throughout the entire home. Style does not equate personality.

Oh yes and wall-to-wall carpeting is my nemesis. I would rather have any sort of hard surface flooring than wall-to-wall.

and while we're at it..............

i don't like barcelona chairs either
or long branches in a tall vase on a table or a floor, just waiting to be tipped over.
or clocks made out of common objects, like a chunk of wood, a hubcab, or a dinner plate.

or anytime a mouse is dressed as a human being, be it a cover for your upright vacuum or to sit on top of the toilet paper. and then try to pass it off as "colonial styled." in colonial days women didn't have time to make that kind of shit. they were too busy growing food and stoking a fire.

and if your vacuum cleaner isn't attractive why not just put it in the closet.

Vertical blinds
White tile with dark grout
Carpeting
Textured walls/ceilings
Fake flowers
Yellow kitchens
Posters as artwork
Shoddy new construction (suburbia and in other new buildings)
Mismatched dining chairs
Hideous ceiling lights (my apartment has several)

My only actual pet peeve (as opposed to just not liking):

mini-blinds

Minimalism.

Less is more only to a certain extent, then it's an institution.

those pesky shelving type things above the toilet - can't stand them! why have they not been mentioned????

and of course, most of what everyone else said.

Antlers!
Taxidermy
Wall paper
Wall-to-wall carpets
Plastic furniture and flowers

Overstuffed 80's style couches with the big rounded arms. They still make those! My question is, who BUYS them?! (Other than my parents....sigh.)

hipster irony

1. hipster tchotchkes/knick-knacks -
ie globes, dead animals, unused appliances (ancient vacuum cleaners, radios etc), family photos of people you don't know, taxidermy, books you don't read but which have hipster-cool 50s style image on the cover, colorful kitchen aid mixer that you don't use.

2. color-coding books: no one who really likes to read does this.

3. too much ikea.

4. too much dwr.

5. too much thrift shop stuff so that the place looks like a thrift shop

6. anthropologie/pottery barn: corporate versions of the hipster knick knacks - see above - found in thrift stores.

7. Chinoiserie and/or (oddly) pictures of Mao.

In other words, function over form. remember who you are when you decorate your apartment and let it take its form naturally, gracefully, meaningfully so that people can see who YOU are.

I say - each to their own! If it makes you happy then its good for you!

by the way, i just bought The Complete Robuchon - a French cookbook. And he advises against the colored Le Creuset enameled Dutch ovens and cookwear.


They can chip and it will get in your food and poison you.

So much for the mock French country style kitchens of Brooklyn generously stocked with Le Creuset.

Okay, yes, there are many valid "peeves" here, but come on people, lighten up a little. If one were to try to avoid every pet peeve listed above, I'm not sure you'd have any options left! And to those of you complaining about Ikea, Target, Home Goods, etc - can you honestly say you've never bought anything from any of these places just because you liked it and it was affordable? I'm all for being a responsible consumer, but if I were to agonize over the ethics of every purchase I ever made for my home I would be a miserable person. Sometimes I buy stuff because I want it and it makes me happy.

http://www.swankydigs.blogspot.com/

My major pet peeves are as follows:

-Shelves full of unread books. I know someone who constantly acquires books and never reads them. I don't know if people believe having books on display makes them look well read, but it does kill the conversation when you ask them what they thought of a book they have on display and they have not read it, and seem to have no desire to do so.

-Art on the walls just to have something up there. Art should be emotive, should jump out at you, make you feel something. It's okay if other people don't like it, but the person who owns it should feel like they absolutely can't live without it.

-Blinds. I like the sumptuousness of textiles on the windows.

-Too much kitschy hipster stuff. I'd hate living in a place that could be the set of a film set in the 50's (but I guess that's just me.)

-Hello Kitty, stuffed animals, and other such things that make the place look like the Sanrio store threw up on it.

Of course, I do some things people dislike (my furniture is relatively matchy, I display a bunch of photos, and I'm relatively OCD about color coordination). To each his own, I guess.

Oooh oooh - just thought of another one - those ugly black metal "torchiere" floor lamps. You know, the kind you excitedly bought for your dorm room. Giving it a French name does not make it any better. In fact, I'm pretty sure it makes it worse.

This is a great conversation! I already submitted my list but I agree with a lot of the additions. I hadn't thought about the hipster chic, but I really like that one. Two comments, though...

First, tinyblonde, what difference does it make if someone has read a book they own or not? I always have every intention of reading the books I buy books but I often don't get to it till months (or sometimes years) after I acquire them. Books are in a person's home for his or her enjoyment, not for your entertainment as part of a "book club" type discussion.

Second, re wall-to-wall: there is no good reason for it. It is very unhygienic and harbors all manner of nastiness. Aesthetically I find it unattractive too, although that is just my opinion. I have two kids who have grown up in houses with hardwood floors and area rugs. As long as you don't let them run around with socks on (have them be either barefoot or in slippers with treads) they will not incur more than the usual number of bruises. And if it turns out one of your kids is a dancer, you can just roll up the rugs, shove the furniture aside, and let them practice in the living room or den. I even let my daughter tap dance in my last house, once I determined that the finish could withstand it!

Built-in window seats that no one would ever actually sit in/on.

Barstools at a counter and counterstools at a bar. If they are the wrong height, then no one can functionally use them. Why have them at all?

I *loathe* all that etsy crap, which is just a way for my hipster friends to avoid growing up.

The Keep Calm poster has the opposite effect on me...

Oh, and all of this owl nonsense. WTF?

10: Lots of framed photos.

9: Framed wallpaper as "art". Real art is not expensive.

8: Framed prints of famous art. See above.

7: out-of-context interiors...why is there a moroccan tea house in your livingroom in St. Louis?

6: plastic mini-blinds.

5: Clutter - buy storage or throw sh*t out.

4: Affected design sense. If like it, do it. If not, dont, because everyone can tell.

3: Fake furniture. If you can't afford the real thing dont buy a fake. Pretending my Oldsmobile is a Porsche isn't going to cut it. And everyone can tell.

2: Books arranged by color. Nuff said.

1: Form over function.

-Fake plants

-w 2 w carpet

-Nasty sink counter tops from the 80's that so many landlords refuse to update

-litter boxes out in the open for everyone to see fluffy's intestinal sculpture

And I am getting sick of my blah living room... it's time for a change.

The "Bed-in-a-Bag" merchandising concept.

By this, I mean those awful, polyester comforter, shams and sheet sets for the totally uncreative.

Feh!

Oak furniture with smoked glass and no drawer pulls.

Ugly, overstuffed, wood and metal-trimmed, overly patterned fake-velour couches.

Torchieres, period.

I live in Alaska. Welcome to our craigslist.

Use of beige.

And driftwood - it's creepy.

sally305, I think my problem is not about having any unread books as much as having no intention to ever read them. There was a post a long while back about a company that would package together books with a specific look and sell them to you by the foot. Books are pretty, but they should be more than a decor element!

Ah, I knew this conversation would dredge up the color-coded book display vitriol. I never understood that- I honestly do it because I am horrible with remembering names, but I always remember jacket colors. Especially with all my career-oriented and how-to books. Who is going to commit to memory the author of AutoCAD 2007- A Professional's Guide? But I damn sure remember it's blue.

I can't really say I have a lot of design pet peeves but to whoever said that people who colour-code books on the shelf don't actually read? Yeah, I colour-code my books because it looks cute (to me) and I've read them all. Many of them, two or three times.

Anywho, I really dislike those bed in a bag things... Give me a good duvet and a nice sheet set any day.

Cables everywhere. I currently have this problem with no possible solution :(

Lack of personal effects. I'm nosy, I like to see my friends stuff! Even if it is just clutter and knick-knacks.

LOL, sheilasinn! Although if it makes you feel any better Wisconsin is just as bad. Lots of knotty-pine bedroom sets and oak entertainment units and dusty blue glider chairs, complete with ottomans.

tinyblonde, I get it now. I had no idea there was such a ridiculous thing as that. I am dismayed. :(

Eames chairs.

I agree with most of the above-mentioned, however, I love fireplaces. If I could find a house that had a fireplace in every room, I'd be in heaven. And if you've ever been snowbound without electricity, you'd have a new appreciation for a fireplace.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is wicker furniture. It's fine for a porch or a three-seasons room, but I absolutely hate wicker in any other room in a house: hate, hate, hate!!!

Books stacked randomly on a useable chair

Overabundance of recessed lighting (the swiss cheese effect)

Collections, esp. bear collections that are in every room, every armoire

"Trophy" Kitchens. Use the damn kitchen, dont spend 200k on Viking, Wolf, two Sub-Zeros and a Miele espresso system if you prefer to eat out. In my line of work, this is sadly what 90% of our jobs are.

The Eames Wire base chairs

Clip tab curtains

Steamer trunks as coffee tables

Pottery Barn homes (everything down to the soap dispenser is PB)

Silk plants

Chinese Blue/White pottery

Linoleum

As said before, the "Tuscan" look. takes a talented eye not to make it look oppressing

I don't understand why people are complaining about people complaining on a thread specifically designed for complaining. A pet peeve is a pet peeve, which in a lot of cases means it's a sometimes irrational, but also a highly personal dislike of x or y. Doesn't mean all the folks on this thread are grumpy killjoys or design autocrats, just human.

Overpriced, trendy, vulgar crap like those light up counter tops. I mean, how vulgar does a person need to be?

The Shakers had it dead on. Plain form following simple function.

I really dislike seeing old appliances (or sinks) in avocado green, harvest gold or almond although it's great for the owner their major purchase has lasted this long, isn't it time for some appliance paint?

Not for the sinks though and I know it isn't cheap but avocado green? It's just ugly and sad so please go to your local hardware store and replace it if you own the place or petition your landlord until he or she gives in and has a new one installed. Thank you.

Also, I didn't see it anywhere else but how about refrigerators just plastered with stuff, so much that how can you tell if there is something in all that clutter that matters? Although it's wonderful little Suzy drew something but after five years you might want to take it down, don't you think? It just seems so irrelevant and messy. Maybe the refrigerators are plastered with notes and kindergarten art to hide the color but again just invest in a can or two of appliance paint and in a couple of hours voila! you have a fresh, clean looking fridge. One that doesn't make me afraid of the food you have stored in it when I am an invited guest at your house for dinner. Because if the outside is a wreck, God only knows what you might have stored on the inside.

I agree with several posts about fake flowers or fake houseplants, they make me shudder because not only are they are never as beautiful as the real thing but the ones I've seen are dust traps. And all of them cost so much more than the real things too -if you really want to display a plant they have them for sale at the grocery store for $6 and up. All you have to do is water them once a week and not only that but they grow a bit bigger every year so you even get a return on your investment. You can buy fresh flowers at the grocery store too, but even better - learn to garden and you'll have fresh flowers you can pick to display in your house during spring, summer and fall months. I've seen several garden ideas right here on AT for apartment dwellers so don't try that as an excuse. Just do it right or forget about it.

I'm not sure what all the complaints are about attached garages or garages facing the street, but I love having both of these conveniences, and besides I don't have an alley running behind my house so pray, what other options are there for parking? I can pull up to my garage in full view of my neighbors, tap a magic little button attached to the visor that opens the door, then glide in and close the door behind me before any lurking criminals might try to stop me or harm me in any fashion. From there I simply climb five steps and unlock the door that adjoins my kitchen and I'm safe in my cozy little home. I think you might just be jealous of the people who can park their cars in garages, out of the elements. Because a car is less likely to be stolen from a garage that faces the street and is attached to a house and the car owner is less likely to have their car hijacked or to have their person molested. And as the saying goes, to each his own.

Although I too abhor their sense of decor, your attitude should be one of pity for people who buy their beds in a bag, or those that shop at IKEA because they must not have enough money to shop at better places. These are the same people who display the torchieres they bought for their first apartment and haven't updated anything since. Maybe they have other expensive habits that suck up all their money like medical bills or sending money to their old mothers in the home country etc., etc. Or maybe these people lack the gene that allows them to decorate their homes tastefully. Again, you should adopt an attitude of pity for them because maybe they hate their space more than you do but they don't know what to do about it. You should try to be helpful to these poor souls and tell them about AT so they too might be enlightened by the many great pictures and articles.

I'll add one more pet peeve: Super-girly (not just 'feminine', but girly) decor. Too much sweetness and light just sets my teeth on edge. For whatever reason, I find this look to be particularly grating when I find out that the home also has straight male occupants. Yin and yang, people!

did anyone mention that painting technique with the base color and then different color sponged on top?

definite favorite. (NOT!)

Massive Oak Entertainment Centers (yuck!)
Green or Maroon Carpet
Lack of landscaping in the yard
"Miami Vice" fabric on furniture (or anywhere else in the house)
It depends on the house and how it's decorated but, I don't prefer when people don't have crown molding.
To much decor, or not enough decor.

I could go on and on...

Two words: Andy Warhol.

Fear of color.

Overly spare rooms that don't seem lived in. No sign of people = no design charisma.

Too many (new) plastic things.

Pictures hung with no sense of scale.

Kitchens with nothing visible on the countertops.

No plants/pets/sign of children.

MCM everything. One lonely Eames chair for no visible reason. Name whores seem insecure.

Overly leggy furniture or too much wrought iron.

The notion that ripping out working fixtures/appliances in a space is acceptable just because they don't suit your particular 5 minute style.

(It takes creativity to work with limitations but that is where the real beauty is in home decor-for me)

Popcorn ceilings, or texture of any kind. It looks dated out of the can.

Laminate floors. I hate them. They are our avacado green appliances.

Catalog houses as others have mentioned. I prefer a few older pieces that at least add character.

Product design that features form over function, like molded buttons that break and ruin the appliance instead of durable toggle switches that last a lifetime.

I'm all about DIY, but if you can't paint a straight line, hire it out.

Melamine cupboards. Enough said.

Why are people complaining that we're all "complaining"? This is a post offering the opportunity for us to ...complain. Tough.

This post is hilarious!! My top three:

1. Tab top curtains!
2. Torchiere lamps!
3. Couches and chairs that have those flat pillow thingys on the arms. They only seem to come in hunter green and maroon vinyl. Ugh!

magnets of any kind on the fridge door

"keep calm..."poster

big posters of Monet, Picasso, and Dali...classic artists. Get something that reflect your true personal taste. Those artists have made masterpieces, they belong to museums.

spice rack and knife rack on the kitchen counter

Those bottles with oil and some herbs stuffed inside...I have never seen anyone use it, I always wonder how long they are sitting there. World Market should stop selling them.

last words: FAKE PLANTS!

Most of everything listed I have to agree with.....but I also have to admit (sheepishly), I'm guilty of some of them.....

Also,
-- entryways with no roof or overhang on the exterior
-- bathroom *vanities* (both the word itself and the concept)
-- front doors that open directly into the living room
-- absence of landscaping around the house foundation
-- manicured, chemically fertilized lawns, and overly-controlled gardens
-- appliance "garages"
-- "picture" windows that look out on busy streets or unattractive views

I think this post is cool because this is why I praise really good interior decorators. They put aside their pet peeves to decorate for other people!

I hate it when people DON'T hang their flat-screen TVs over a fireplace...I mean...c'mon.

@youenjoymyself- you are very right.

fringe on rugs, lampshades, towels, curtains, etc... just collects dust!
tvs above fireplaces
"entertainment" centers
overbuilt homes with rooms no one ever uses
adults with no kids who have doll collections
rooms lit by one overhead ceiling light
bad lighting
art hung too high
futons
decor that looks like it was all bought at Hallmark
bad repros of anything
kitchens that are shrines to needlessly expensive, show off appliances
granite counters with the texture of corned beef hash
puffy arm sofas and chairs
bathrooms with no operable windows
fiberglass tubs and shower surrounds
shower curtain rods installed too low
posed group photos where everyone wears white
halogen lighting (gets too hot, uses too much energy, difficult to replace the bulbs)
pergo type flooring (it's just a print of wood laminated onto plastic folks)
plastic shelves
plastic yard "ornaments"
plastic placemats
uncomfortable seating
Victoriana run amok
water dependent gardens in desert areas
fountains in deserts
dirty salt and pepper shakers
Las Vegas (I know this is about design but to me Las Vegas is one big design disaster especially from a environmental standpoint)

My mom's entire home is one big design pet peeve - but I digress...

- So much kitsch that it becomes clutter
- Ceramic figurines on display
- "Themed" rooms make my skin crawl
- Useless "Art Nooks" or "Plant Shelves" (i.e. dust collecting nooks) in newer homes
- Vast rooms filled with small, out of scale furnishings.
- Beds floated in the middle of the room or on an angle, ostensibly to avoid a "boxy" feeling. It just looks contrived to me.
- Huge, expensive McMansions filled with cheap-looking, overly ornate Greco-Roman furniture that screams, "I'm living out my blue collar wet dream and, by the way, I have no taste whatsoever."
- Puffy furniture, especially if it features rolled arms
- Chesterfields (sorry, just can't make myself like them...)
- Ikea bashing (Amen to the poster who said, "Not all of us can afford DWR.")
- Faux paint treatments since they always just look awfaux
- Nurseries that have been designed around a kids movie character, particularly Disney. Babies will be consumers soon enough. No need to sell them out before they're too young to choose who/what they want to enjoy.

I really hate those photo frames that have words on them. The ones that you find in the stores that say "friends" or "love" or "Hope" and have pictures of people jumping and/or running on beaches, always in black and white. Any other saying is really annoying too. Why do you need words when there is a photo to go in the frame? Shouldn't I be able to look at a framed photo of my friends and know they are my friends? Also - I feel a picture truly is worth a thousand words, not just one generic one. A great photo that is worthy of being framed doesn't need a title, and probably can't be pinned down in one word.

Worse yet is those wood cut-out words! What are those FOR?!

- Mediterranean-style architecture with columns and arches.
- "Front-face-design" houses with architecture only designed for the front of the house. Usually found in "cookie-cutter" neighborhoods.
- Fountains in the front yard, or worse, in the middle of a giant driveway.
- Garages facing the street.
- Not really a design element, but gated communities.
- When people buy cheaply-constructed houses designed to have the appearance of wealth.
- Interior design that is so "well-to-do" looking, that if you live in it at all, it looks like you live like a slob, and if you keep it clean, it just looks like a museum or a shot from a catalog.
- Wrought iron.
- Dark wood with beige or khaki walls.
- Living rooms that have giant, over-stuffed furniture.
- Ginormous flat-screen TVs, period. Has no-one ever heard of a projector?
- Bed in a Bag.
- Pottery Barn, Pier 1.

There are several large neighborhoods just a stone's throw away that fit this bill. It makes me want to vomit every time I think of the kind of people that live there. And it makes me very grateful that I live in a charming prairie-style craftsman house, even though we do have beige walls...

The words that people keep mentioning remind me of tatoos people get that have the same uninspired words like: love, hope, peace ect.
At least in a home you can throw it away once you get over it!

-pink
-black and white photography alla 'naked male torso holding a baby'
- reproductions of great paintings
- fake wood (like berch veneer from ikea)

brand new/glossy. I can't stand it when furniture looks like it has never been used, carpet never been walked on, windows never opened and no one actually living there. I love to see how people are living in their space whether it's minimal or cluttered.

Well, reading all these pet peeves makes me realize not much does bother me so much...and if some of you came to my place, you'd be gasping!

Overstuffed matching beige leather reclining furniture? CHECK.

Matching recliners? CHECK
Picture Collages? CHECK
stuffed animals? CHECK
Bookcases with open shelves? cHECK
Clutter? CHECK
Wall to wall carpeting? CHECK (it's not our house!)
magnets on the fridge? (oh, AND our chest freezer!) CHECK...
cusioned toilet seat, CHECK....
Bland tan carpeting...check......

I don't have a showy house, it'll never be in a designer magazine. My house is comfy, my furniture is comfier and that's fine with me!

Accent walls.

Peeves --

* Open kitchens (I don't want my dinner guests staring at the dirty pots)

* Humongous "ottomans" that are supposed to double as coffee tables, guest beds, etc.

* Wine fridges (really, now, what do you keep in there that you couldn't just walk ten minutes and buy when you need it?)

* Vessel sinks

* Stall showers instead of bathtubs

* Laminate floors

* Stainless steel appliances

* High-maintenance countertops

And open shelving. And overly twee Etsy stuff. And once- pretty furniture ruined by hapless DIYing. And cheapo wall decals.

Guest rooms with bad sheets, soft mattresses, poor lighting, and crappy pillows. Raggedy frayed tibetan prayer flags. Homes where the TV is CONSTANTLY on. Clutter. Antique chairs that don't fit with tables that themselves are too wobbly to use. Overhead lighting.

I don't have peeves over avocado or gold appliances, or dorm lamps... some people can't afford to redecorate.

I DO loathe the following:
oversized furniture (especially giant couches with pillow arm rests... adding a wood inlay just seals the deal)

fake plants

art that isn't art (the design shows that show someone making "art" in 2 min by simply swishing 3 colors together... in a kindergarten fashion)

words on walls, shelves, picture frames (family, love, peace...)

fake flowers and trees

fake "antiques"... distressing furniture, oxidizing candle sticks... yuk. get the real deal or use something new.

Repurposing items in an awkward and obvious fashion. (look at this side table I made! you'll never guess what I made it from... uhhh, yeah, it's a dresser drawer on top with staircase spindles for legs... and that's what it looks like!)

65k kitchens in homes where no one cooks.

and I'm SHOCKED no one mentioned this one:
tupperware mailboxes!!!!! bleh!

carpeted bathrooms

30 lbs of drapes on a window

i love the bed in this pic? what is it?!

if I see another antler I'm gonna lose it

1. Any decor treatment that will be a colossal pain to remove or paint over, like the genius who advised using beeswax over a sponged paint treatment, or people who texturize the walls, or venetian plaster. How the heck will you remove that in 3 years when it's no longer in style?
2. Words as decor, especially long quotes on walls, and those cut-out words.
3. Tole Painting, and the people who teach other people to do it.
4. Mattress manufacturers who now build new mattresses super high. Bedside table makers have not caught up.
5. Flat screen TVs over fireplaces. What a wiring nightmare when anything needs connecting or disconnecting! Not to mention, your sensitive expensive electronics getting fried over the fireplace.
6. Decorative buttons on pillows. Ouch!
7. TV credenzas that won't hold the weight of a TV. (Ikea)
8. Bookshelves that aren't deep enough to contain most books.
9. Bookshelves that aren't sturdy enough to hold books without the shelves bowing in the middle.
10. Sofa fabric that isn't washable. How have sofa manufacturers found the only fabric in the world that you can't wash or dryclean?
11. Kids decor items in red, yellow, blue combo, and the alphabet as decor for kids, and that fake backward kid writing.

Oriental rugs! I think they are hideous. Every time I see them, I think of a person with no original style who doesn't realize there are other options. And matchy furniture sets, for the same reason. Perhaps not true, just in my head.

Feature walls.

Being a Thai Buddhist born and raised, the use of Buddhas in inappropriate places. Art is possible, but you wouldn't use a crucifix as a spoonrest, would you?

I was invited to Someone-I-Thought-Would-Be-Cool's for dinner and was greeted by a broken Buddha's head used as a doorstop, several other idols on the low shelves and another in the bathroom. I was mortified. The host, learning more about me, cheerfully pointed out where she bought what, and they were all mass produced for retail.

"There are several large neighborhoods just a stone's throw away that fit this bill. It makes me want to vomit every time I think of the kind of people that live there."

that's a little strong.

i'd have to agree with the feature wall idea; it seems commitment-phobic to me.

knick-knacks and dust gatherers

american standard tubs which seem to be only standard if you are 4'2"

the mistaken north american idea that you need flat sheets under duvet covers - do you put pieces of fabric on your pillow cases to keep them clean? no, you wash them. a duvet cover is just a big pillow case.

front-facing garages in old subdivisions which actually have back alleys. it should be outlawed. it is the least human friendly set up out there. "neighbours? what neighbours? you mean other people live here?"

by extension, people who buy a lot in an older neighbourhood and then build a suburban monstrosity. if you like the character of the older neighbourhood, why are you ruining it for others?

lawns are an environmental disaster and a bourgeois affectation, unless you are the queen of england or live in areas where grass is naturally green.

blinds. and condo associations that have a nazi rule that all window coverings must be blinds, or at least white. come on, it's a multi-unit dwelling, not a mental institution. if mrs. smith in 2B likes chintz, well, that's her problem. just specify no foil or confederate flags or blankets with eagles on them and we're good to go.

family photos in the bedroom. i'm sure you love your grandma, but do you really want her gazing down at you as you get busy with your honey?

wall to wall carpet is a repository of dust, allergens, VOCs and crap. we know, having ripped out blue hag from our two bedrooms.

good lord, i could go on and on, but it's all been said.

p.s. it's mantel, not mantle, unless you're draping it on your shoulders and THEN popping the TV on top which could get uncomfortable.

Tupperware makes mailboxes?! And people fork over good money and install them where everyone can see?! Yech.

My upper lip curls up all by itself at the sight of stainless steel appliances. Pretentious. And show every fingermark.

Houses without a single solitary book anywhere.

Granite counter-tops. Vulgar, vulgar, vulgar.

My sofa, which I bought in a moment of insanity for which I cannot account. I cannot bring myself to describe it here and embarrass myself. It's too big, I paid too much, and it's hideous and bland, at the same time. Buy in haste, repent at leisure. Every time I tell myself life is too short to live with such a horrible possession, that evil little voice crops up and says but it's only 3 years old! And it cost... oh, dear.

Wood-burning fireplaces with nothing in them. Come on, pile up a few logs. But not candles. The 70s are gone and they're never coming back (I hope).

Anything that is the very latest fad. Fake antlers, begone! Also that brown aqua color combo that has been hanging around a year or two now, please leave. What can we call this style, Instant Datedness?

Dirty houses. They don't have to be utterly spotless, but how long does it take to pick the place up and dust a bit?

Went to an open house once, not only was there popcorn on the ceilings, but it had sparkles mixed in, hey, you can't make this stuff up. One room had green sparkles, another blue, another... you know what's coming... red sparkles.

And I ESPECIALLY HATE people who knock down tiny perfect cottages on tiny lots and build some hideous lotline-to-lotline aspirational monument-to-their-ego mcmansion, especially if they do it on my street, and ESPECIALLY if they then never even live in it. Or maybe it's better when they don't, because who wants people like that next door. Go live in some ghastly gated community, with others of your kind.

Is that show "Flip that House" still around?

It stood for all that was bland and soul-less about homes:

- Khaki Walls
- Stainless Steel appliances
- Granite counter tops

and of course...

- Travertine tile throughout. Let's put it in the hallway, the kitchen and the bathroom - just...because it shows well.

It makes me sick to think that if I choose to sell my house within this decade, that I must install the above. Blech.

"Hipster irony" - lol

I'm going to add:

- overstuffed furniture

- "wall art" that you get from World Market or wherever with leaf prints and zen detailing. It's not a hotel, come on. Buy art, or buy an object to mount, but don't buy a $39 print because it matches your curtains.

mmm...leaf prints...so niiiice.

I hate designs that try to hide the tv. I enjoy tv. No I'm not going to sit and read a book or talk to you or look at a stupid fire.

Hate when TVs are put at a bad viewing angle. That's like going to the movie theatre and intentionally sitting in the end of the front row.

Don't like beds on a diagonal or in front of the mirror.

Don't like crowded seating areas where I have to shuffle sideways between the sofa and the coffee table. I need breathing space.

Don't like any themed rooms.

Buddha's heads in gardens. Maybe I should put Jesus' head on my lawn.

Tiled kitchen counters. Disgusting.

Oops. I meant, I don't like beds in front of the window, not mirror.

Some of these suggestions just seem stupid. Oooh, I better throw out my driftwood, because some random person thinks it's creepy! And a knife rack on the kitchen counter?? The horror!
The main thing I can think of is fake plants whether indoors or out. They are just wrong. Like someone else said, real plants are cheap, don't actually require a ton of care, and get bigger every year. You can even buy seeds super-cheap and grow your own. CHILDREN know how to plant seeds. I walked past a house today that had some hanging "plants" on the front steps, they were all faded from the sun and made me shudder. I'm sorry, but WTF.
My mom buys bouquets of fake flowers and sticks them in her outdoor "flower beds" every spring! Noooo Mom

Following on from Rebecca's comment - there is a store in my town that has fake plants actually PLANTED in the ground in their flower beds. Soo ugly.

Um, and like carolynapplebee pointed out, it's one thing to list your dislikes and pet peeves, but it's a very different thing to make judgements and say awful things about people who have different tastes from you. Comments like those make it very upsetting to read otherwise fun and lighthearted threads...

- Carpeted Bathrooms: we have one now and the drywall is crumbling along the floor and the Landlord has known about it since we moved in (it was preexisting damage) and has yet to do anything about it. At least it doesn't smell, but honestly, the structural damage is going to come back and bite him

- Cupboards above the fridge. This one is totally irrational, because what else are you going to put there, but it's so useless. Sure, I store stuff there, but it's stuff I never, ever use, so I'd be better off just getting rid of it.

- Homes without books. It feels creepy to me.

- Ladders on normal height bookcases. Just silly and showy.

1. any kind of textured ceiling or wall--they're a nightmare to paint, and it's hard to hang anything from them
2. paneling--real, antique paneling is ok in a historic home, but I grew up in a place with that horrible 60s/70s faux wood paneling, and now it just makes me angry
3. carpeting in general, but specifically in the bathroom--gross
4. yellow walls--they remind me of the classroom in which i had to suffer the horrible indignity of geometry
5. frilly, wal-mart or k-mart "country" style curtains
6. any kind of heavily-laquered 80s wannabe-deco furniture--I can't believe that you can still find that stuff in furniture stores in the 21st century!
7. too much junk on the kitchen counters--if I have to move a bunch of stuff before I can roll out my cookie dough, it's just not worth it anymore
8. sectional sofas--they only work in one or two configurations and I get bored too easily for that
9.that weird buddha trend that's happening now--I think it's disrespectful to use any kind of religious symbol purely for decoration--if you don't believe in it, why is it in your living space? To me it screams "pretentious"
10. curio cabinets full of tchotchkes (sp?)--if you don't care for them enough to dust them, why are you letting them clutter up your space?
11. vertical blinds--can we say dentist's office?

Wow, I started off thinking that there wasn't very much that bugged me. Once you open the floodgates...

There are many things I don't like, but these drive me crazy

1. plastic toilet seats
2. the tupperware mail box (actually made by rubbermaid)
3. shiny leather sofas
4. popcorn ceiling ( I still have this in some rooms, have to justify the pain it will be to remove and resurface the ceiling...but I hate it so much!
5. homes with not enough closets (the bedrooms are not enough!)
6. Primitive folk art style, with it being shabby, this picture best captures it.


Oh well, to each their own

There aren't many things that really make my skin crawl when I see them, but I absolutely can't stand those Grecian/Roman-inspired columns INSIDE McMansions (like the entrance to the formal dining area--yuck). I also hate those developments where the sides and backs of houses look horrible, but the fronts look "nice." And not that I really ever see this, except on design make-over shows, but I hate wallpaper boarders, especially when they're in the middle of the wall.

Others mentioned lots of things I don't think, but these are probably the only that I'd call "pet peeves." For some reason I think there's a difference.

I don't like white walls and beige carpet. I grew up in a house where every room was white and every piece of carpet was beige and I'm sick of it!

I hate symetrical anything, but in particular I hate the couch with two end tables on each side with a lamp on each one that seems to be everywhere.

I really hate fake laminated wood paneling.

I hate heavy curtains/drapes.

I hate wall paper borders.

I don't like posters in any space but bedrooms.

I hate when people paint their outlets and light switches. I hate when people paint poorly and the paint gets all chunky.

And my biggest pet peeve is when people paint their ceilings. When someone paints their ceiling it makes the space feel so tiny and dark. I've never seen this enhance a space before and I think it's incredibly ugly.

About those Rubbermaid mailboxes. After the 40th time you wake up to find that a pack of bored, joy-riding teenagers has bashed in your mailbox with a baseball bat, Rubbermaid might start to look really good to you. The joys of country living are many and varied.

I can't stand open shelving in the kitchen. Whenever I see it, I can't help but think about how dirty everything must be. O gross.

I don't understand purpose-bought knickknacks. Surely, people have accumulated enough stuff without having to buy more for the sole purpose of displaying it? I'm not anti-clutter, but the stuff sitting around my house is stuff I've acquired over the years because it has meaning to me, not because it was on sale at Target and I had a design void to fill.

I also loathe beige with the heat of a thousand suns. Unfortunately, my apartment is beige from top to bottom, including the dreaded wall-to-wall carpet. I am a color lover, so this is especially galling to me. And no, I am not allowed to paint. Ick.

How about those puffy toilet seats from the 70s that go "pfffffff" every time you sit on them as they deflate? LOVELY!!

Oh! Speaking of puffy toilet seats, why, oh why, do people put those horrible little matching (acrylic!) rugs on their toilet lids and around the toilet bases? It's unattractive, but worse, it's dirty and gross. I can't help but wonder how much mis-aimed pee they've soaked up.

Faux finishes. Why would you want something fake adorning your house. Ugh! There's a million-dollar home for sale in a local yucky sub-division, and it boast 39 different faux finishes on the flyer. What the crap?! Who would want that?!

I thought of more things I hate

-Those little fuzzy toilet lid covers
-Hiding your pet - even when my house is neat as a pin, I let my dog keep his toys and things out in the open. Our house says "these people are boring and spend too much on electronics, but at least they love their dog."
-tissue box covers...I mean, come on!
-I agree with the wicker furniture thing, reminds me of the Golden Girls set...eww.
-When parents decorate their kids' rooms in an overly adult manner. Sure, the Hannah Montana comforter and Care Bear wall stickers are tacky, but let them be kids and enjoy it. Or else find a stylish compromise that teaches them good style but uses colors or designs that make them smile.
-Huge kitchens, especially since the people who can afford them are rarely the type to use them
-Small bathrooms. I know lots of people who like to pretend that they never poop, but for those of us who do, we don't want to feel like we're in the closet.
-Matching designer pots and pans sets
-Trying to pass pots, pans, fiestaware, etc. off as decor
-Extravagant and painstakingly organized "craft rooms". You probably spend more time organizing your fabric and color coding your scrapbook paper than you do actually crafting.
-Anything countrified - ducks, chickens, piggies, gingham, horse and cowboy motif, furniture that is supposed to look like a white washed fence, etc.

1. Anything "country."
2. Shabby chic. That's an oxymoron.
3. Lovey-dovey phrases above the bed (TMI).
4. Wholesome family photos near bed.
5. Cheap glam look -- chandeliers, velvet everything, metallic paint.
6. Long-haired fake fur rugs. Imagining the dust mites or amount of pet hair trapped in those things makes my skin crawl.
7. Any Olan Mills style family photographs.
8. "Collectables."

Sofa, loveseat, chair, (ottoman) sets.
Recliners.

I think AT should have a PEEVE month, with a certain peeve and how to combat it/why it is wrong -- ie, my major peeve, inappropriate art placement. STOP. HANGING. ART. SO. HIGH. :P

Hmmm...

I'll be curious to see how many of the above-mentioned become the newest droll outward signifier that one is indeed ironic, thus hip.

My money is on toilet seat covers and family portraits.

I dislike clothing used as decor--kimonos or schmancy dresses hung on the wall and so forth. And dressmaker's forms and mannequins weird me out. Standing guard oh-so-weirdly in the corner of a bedroom, either draped with bunches of jewelry or all dressed up with no place to go in some prized thrift store garb. I happen to use a dressmaker's form for sewing. But it could come alive and hurt somebody at night, so keep I keep it locked away and out of sight...

Showroom living areas. Not because it was put together by someone else and matches too much, but because they want to preserve the look so much that no one is allowed to sit on it or touch it.

Bad color choices for wall paint that you can't design around. Friends have a blue wall color that's very moracan, but they don't know what else to use except black and white to design the room with before it falls in that category.

Popcorn ceilings. I used to pop all my balloons on that crap as a kid and wasted too many tears on it.

Knobs that don't lock. I can't tell you how many places I've lived or visited where I have to hold the door to the bathroom so no one busts in on me. $10 fix people, just replace it.

Collections. They take up too much space, are a waste of money, and prove they have no better design ideas than a bunch of the same thing.

Wood paneling. Which I have, and I hate. But other projects took priority so far.

Open shelving. I refuse to eat at homes where they store their dishes on there. Can I really trust that they just washed them so I could use them? Probably not. I'm not eating your dust.

Neutrals. Everywhere. You say rooms that have accessories or furniture from showrooms has no personality... how about when they throw beige up everywhere? One of my friends has a beige sofa, beige walls, beige countertops, beige rugs and beige pillows. Because that's what HGTV says sells houses. That to me is no personality. It's just... blah. My husband likes neutrals. I provide neutrals to please him, then I throw in jolts of color in it to please my need for color. It works together very nicely. But you must break up the beige with something!

I really don't care where accessories are bought, and I think it's stupid when people complain about how some have no personality because they bought all their stuff from Target or Ikea. What does it matter where I bought it? If I like it, I buy it. There's my personality! I like the red vase at Ikea, and I like the white ceramic pony head from target. Put them together my house is filled with things I love.

iheartmini,
I don't think it matters where someone's tchotchkes come from, but I *do* think it's kind of weird to buy purely decorative stuff just to fill a void. It's an alien concept to me.

It's one of those things that makes me scratch my head whenever I watch design shows (call it a mini-peeve, if you will). Don't people already have enough "stuff" in their homes--stuff that's important to them--that they don't need to go out and buy tchotchkes to decorate with? I guess I'm one of those people who doesn't keep purely decorative things around unless I have an emotional attachment to them, and stuff from a big box store just doesn't make the cut.

Seconding tenderleaf's suggestion of an AT Pet Peeve month.

This has been a fun -- and cathartic -- post.

Since I bought my current house a year ago, I've been living with w2w in my bathroom, hating it all the while. (The house is over 100 yrs old ... god only knows how old the carpet is...) This morning I was finally moved to rip it out w/my bare hands. Now I have a plywood bathroom floor, but already it's an improvement.

Suggestion: how about a post on "Things You Really Love" ?

OMG.

Color-sorted books. Who thought of that? It looks stupid.

And carpeting.

And pastels, almost 90% of the time.

And fake wood grain cabinets.

Pets as design elements.

Way late to the party, but my hugest design/renovation pet peeve is that everything thinks VINYL flooring is LINOLEUM!! They are two completely different things!

My list - in no particular order:

- Toilet rugs and those nasty little shag things you put on the lid and tanks. Unsightly and unsanitary.

- Use of the word "typography" to describe tacky "TJ Max word art". Typography is an art form people. Typographers spend their entire careers perfecting the art form.

- Giant stainless steel trashcans used as a display object in the kitchen. You know, the ones you step on to flip open the lid. They match the appliances....urgh

- Coffee tables that are too big or too close to the sofa, making it difficult to walk around.

- Stained concrete.

I second the picture frames with words pet peeve.

I also really dislike those track lighting fixtures that swoop around the ceiling from which you can hang multiple types of lights - i.e. a set of small spot lights AND a pendant light. They are especially bad when the track is hung in a swirly early 90's shape. I understand its an easy way to install new lighting but it creates an unnatural focus on the track they are hanging from.

I really wish I could abolish these two "features" from some friends' homes.

I'm pretty much against plastic. And disrespecting religious icons.
But, the Tibetan prayer flags are supposed to be ragged if they have been outside. The idea is the prayers, in the form of threads from the full printed prayer on the flag, are blown to heaven.
now, faded and ragged? I can't bring myself to bring my almost spent flags to the new home. all the panels are off white now.
Pergo: it's better than carpet and I'm a renter.
I'd rather have bamboo or cork, but this is my chance at not having other people's skin cells in my home.

For me the beige/white/other basic neutral used everywhere is a turn off. But I saw the ultimate no-no while apartment hunting:
tri-shaded green shag carpet. I swear I had the same in 1974.
avocado green oven, fridge, bathroom sink, tub AND loo!
Gold threaded popcorny stuff on ceiling.
gold-veined smoked mirror wall.
this was my auntie's home all over in a shrunken, crack head neighborhood form.
I had to make sure I was carrying a mobile and had not fallen into a time warp. Cue the Land of the Lost TV theme.
Did I mention the smell of ether from the neighboring apartment? and the yard that was all gravel. Ugly road gravel?

I sort of love the "keep calm carry on" poster, but only for the bathroom.

Diagonal furniture placement makes me feel like I'm going insane.

I loathe huge overstuffed sofas, particularly Jenny Convertibles. Yechh. I also feel like retching when I see "framed art" from Pottery Barn, Ikea, etc., anywhere but in a baby's room, and even then it's a stretch. Have you no family to take photos of? Sheesh.

My least favorite, most uncomfortable living space is an over-decorated bathroom - I don't need anything ornamental on the sink or the toilet tank, and if the pictures on the walls match the rug, I will scream into a pillow. It has a revolting JCPenney effect.

I realize that I expressed many violent emotions in this comment, but rest assured that I am a perfectly polite houseguest and would never cringe, scream, or set your shower curtain on fire if I were a visitor in your home. I would just change your names before I tweeted about it later in short, angry bursts.

Framed posters, prints, or, God forbid, paintings that are on a shelf or on the floor leaning against the wall. Hello? You are not done decorating! Hang it up! You realize I'm going to put my foot through that when I come over, don't you? I don't even care if you hang it too high! I'm tall. It will look fine to me! Just, please, for the love of all that is holy, HANG IT UP!

Taxidermy isn't one of my pet peeves, but it does say to me, "the person who decorated this room is mentally unstable and is a danger to her/himself and others."

Thank goodness nobody mentioned cows! Gotta a house full of 'em...

MICROFIBER SOFAS!

In addition to Eames chairs, I also loathe the chalkboard paint obsession.

And I hate when I walk into someone's home and they have the dining room table permanently set. It's sooo pretentious.

HATE, hate, hate Espresso furniture. Those overdone capiz chandeliers,and the overly juvenile LOVE posters from Etsy sellers.

Electronics in front of a window so that cords and back can be seen from the outside through the glass.

Dusty candles that have never been lit.

Pillows or cushions as extra seating for guests--my back wants a chair, thank you! Actually, I would also include stools or backless benches as dining table seating.

Reading many posts back when someone mentioned fake plants outdoors made me laugh. I've seen places in the dead of winter with snow on the ground, have their windowboxes filled with bright colorful 'flowers' in full bloom. How stupid that that?! I'll have to agree with some of the posts against granite. It's not so much the material, but that it's being crammed down our throats. The 'if you don't have granite...it's not good' argument makes my skin crawl and my blood boil! There are many nice alternatives out there.
Carpeting in the bathroom...that obvious...not hygenic. I liked stainless steel, but it's getting like the granite argument...so now I'm starting to hate it. It's part of a formula now. There are other things, but these are at the top of my list.

I'll also add....tons of throw pillows on a bed that almost take up half the bed doesn't make sense to me. When you're dead tired and want to plop on the bed, who wants to deal with all those pillows? That would be a major pain. That goes for sofas and chairs, also.

Oops...I meant 'how stupid is that?' in my previous post.

@webherring

Your post is frickin hilarious! "No,I'm not going to talk to you", LOL!! And I happen to agree with most of it, except the bed. Why hide the tv? That's just more work for me to unhide it when I wanna watch it and it's the most used thing in the room.


@ RedOrangePink or anyone,

What is a feature wall?

@Rebecca_J

My mom put fake plants mixed in with her real plants. But she enjoys gardening, so I dunno why. But I get the fake plant thing, cuz I always kill plants, so they're my only hope.

I do hate stainless steel appliances, but mostly cuz they are fingerprint magnets.

If y'all hate popcorn ceilings, how about popcorn walls! I grew up with them and they are just horrible. They're like a harder version of popcorn ceilings. Oh how I hated when they'd make bumps in my Nick Carter Teen Bop posters! But really, the are annoying to paint and hang stuff on.

Carpeting in the bathroom is not even a pet peeve, it's just plain stupid!

Why is everyone so down on garages? I miss having a garage. Scraping snow off my car, walking out to it in the rain, and getting in it after it bakes in the summer sun can be a drag.

If it doesn't face the street, don't you have to cover up more of your nice green grass with driveway to get to it?

And to remain on topic, my pet peeves are:

- Closed windows all year,

- Big stainless refrigerators with kiddie handprints all over them,

- Wall to wall carpet (which my rental has),

- Nerd Caves (common to dorm rooms with electronics, cables, etc piled on a bowing-under-weight desk),

- Ruffles (the fabric kind, not the chips, which are fabulous),

- Bandwagoning some store or designer because everybody else is,

- Ruffles again, because they're particularly heinous,

and finally,

- Dust - We fight an unending war.

Great description lucy love - "corned beef hash" granite - I'm surprised that this look appeals to so many people. That same design is available printed on laminate (formica, wilsonart) and in solid-surface, so somebody must like it.

Someone said real art isn't expensive and I'm wondering where you find inexpensive real art because I'm pretty broke! Expensive seems relative...

When I lived in a condo I was getting the floors tiled and the guy tiling it suggested I go with wall-to-wall carpeting. He said that he had carpeting in his kitchen.

That doesn't strike me as sanitary whatsoever.

Mini-bars set up in the living room or dining room. Why not just go to an actual bar? Do you really need the stand for this?

Pool tables in the living room. When I moved back into my old house and the previous tenants were moving out, the first thing I saw was a giant pool table in the living room taking up all the space.

These same guys put a full length mirror in the bathroom directly across from the toilet. This means the guy had to be looking at himself sit on the toilet.

TVs in the bedroom. I guess it doesn't bother me in the homes of others but I don't want it in my home because my husband would want to watch TV when I wanted to sleep.

Closets that are not walk-ins. I like clothes!

Giant strubs cut and shaped into rectangles or boxes.

Mirrors so large they take up most of a wall.

Popcorn ceilings: home of spiders, cobwebs and dust.

Animal prints.

Living room and bedroom walls that are covered in video game wall scrolls or posters - I'm a nerd too but when you are an adult there's a time and a place.

Baskets/plates of fake fruit.

The throw pillow collection you spend 10 minutes removing and 20 minutes replacing when you use the bed.

Garden 'art' (gnomes, globes, that sort of thing)

Why I love Pet peeves:
1. It means that we've seen something often enough that we have created a negative opinion ...same function as a trend which is positive, but can often blur because:
a. saturation becomes the basis for contempt (eg. keep calm)
b. mass following is an exemplar of bad taste (popcorn ceiling and vertical blinds).
a. represents a choice, b. is often imposed by builder/contractor because cheap/mass produced.
2. I love pet peeves, because it reflects the fact that we are judging and thinking about, not just what we see, but what we do. We live against what we hate and what we hate must be communicated!
3. Could there be another design manifesto around the corner? Please may it include no animal-hides.
4. Pet peeves allow one to rage against the banality of the same. I don't hate MCM, I hate that that is the predominance of what one views at this site.
Design is dead.
Long live design.

@wondermart: for me, the objection is not to garages per se. What I hate is when the garage appears to dwarf/overpower the house, whether by its placement or its orientation. Especially awful, IMO, is when the house front door and the garage door are virtually side by side, making the house front door -- which should be a welcoming feature -- look like an afterthought.

Anything "distressed". That's just shorthand for "beat up."

Theme rooms

and worse yet:
Theme rooms that have no connection to your architecture or geography, like a Tiki room in a New York highrise.

Anybody else have theme room issues?

"-Extravagant and painstakingly organized "craft rooms". You probably spend more time organizing your fabric and color coding your scrapbook paper than you do actually crafting."

I understand what you're saying, but as an avid crafter if my things aren't (almost) meticulously organized, it is totally off putting to work. Crafting- any kind of crafting- makes a HUGE mess, so if everything is organized to begin with, it makes it SO MUCH EASIER to find things etc.

Onto the pet peeves:

-Horrible 80's/early 90's furniture.
- tile in every single room of the house (this is the past TWO houses, mind you, and it hurts my heels!)
-my mother-in-law's decorating sense (I call it "old lady chic"- ruffles, lace, and more ruffles and lace.)
-faux anything
-people who PAINT over perfectly good wooden objects, thus ruining the purpose of it being wood.
-people who go in and "update" i.e. RUIN older houses- I see this WAY too much on craftster. Leave them alone and go buy a Mcmansion.
- people who DIY/"upcycle" common objects into furnishings- for the most part, it just looks stupid. Yes, we know your lamp was made with dixie cups. Good for you.
-Taping off squares on your wall and painting them.
-Framing fabric as wall decor
-the same granite countertops in the kitchen, master bathroom, and guest bathroom (Hello my current rental!)
-The fact that I can't see what's on the granite countertops in the kitchen- if I am going to cook, I have to know its clean!
-decoupage. is. awful.

I think that's about it for my personal pet peeves, but I have enjoyed reading everyone elses.

1. Popcorn ceilings.
2. Too small windows. Too much grass.
3. Heavy drapes, except in a warehouse.
4. GLIT.
5. Vignette windows, especially etched (was there a fire sale on those here in L.A. ?).
6. Wall-to-wall (I know, it's a given, but if I'm making my list...).
7. Black granite.
8. Shabby chic, when it's actually trash, not French. Or Craigslist's "solid wood".
9.Unlit candles at the dinner table when dining.
10. Sprawl.

When many of you say you hate wall-to-wall, do you mean all over the apartment? I have wood everywhere (living/dining room, kitchen, hallway) except the bedrooms, which have carpet. Do you all prefer wood floors in the bedrooms too?

This thread is soooo long! Well here are mine, and they are truly "peeves" not just things I hate (like wall to wall shag carpeting) because they are things many people have and like that BUG me (as opposed to things most people hate like popcorn ceilings):

Magnets, etc., on refrigerators... terrible visual clutter, plus they get SO dirty (this is not speculation, I had them in my first apt out of college, they were so nasty)

Almost anything with a faux-antiqued finish. It's easy enough to get things that are actually old! And it never looks right.

MDF. Enough said.

That microfiber faux suede crap everyone's couch is made of... I HATE IT. And it makes my hair staticky.

Scrolly wrought iron things. Especially frosted glass light fixtures, especially paired with oak anything. It screams "Home Depot" to me.

Embroidery in home decor (used to love this as a teenager, now mostly hate ... especially on shiny throw pillows, etc... I do love nice crewel though)

Soy fragrance candles... PAY FOR BEESWAX AND REAL OILS. You are already buying an expensive candle, buy a really nice one that doesn't have that slimy feel/ overpowering scent.

Granite granite granite.. ugh. same for stainless anything. Soul killingly boring and impossible to clean. And really busy, I guess I just crave white surfaces.

Stuffed animals. Too creepy after age 10.

Giclee prints of art... just buy an original!!! Cutesy Etsy prints are the worst of this... they are everywhere. Buy a linocut or something PLEASE.

Little cluttery things everywhere. I am guilty of this, but working on it. You have to stand in your doorway occasionally and really look at your place... then freak out and run around sweeping away the knicknacks that have accumulated everywhere.

Fake Asian-themed decor (you know, blocky black wood, red accents, gold fan things and cherry blossons)

Decoupaged anything (Ok, shabby chic generally... I like flea market eclectic, so when I see a shbby chic place I want to run in and rescue the three nice pieces and take them somewhere they can actually shine)

Fringy trim thingies on pillows, furniture, curtains, etc. UGH.

OK I should stop. =)

The one thing that used to be a peeve and I now like is color coded books. We are avid readers... we have a LOT of books and we love them. When we moved we got rid of our terrible Ikea bookcases and most of our books are stored until we can afford to have custom cases built, we accumulate paperbacks at a rate of 2-3 a week (commuters, sigh... and yes we re-read). Without shelving they ended up piled on the floor to about mid-thigh height... so one day I organized them by color because I had to do SOMETHING to make them look less messy... and actually I really love it, it's bright and cheerful and a little tongue in cheek and people always laugh and comment when they see it. I'm super visual and remember books most easily by their covers so it's easy to find stuff... no longer a peeve! But when we have our real bookcases I will do it properly by author... I'm the child of a librarian after all. People who hate it should try it though... I agree it looks irritatingly precious in photos but it's kind of fun to live with if you don't have a better solution.

These comments are cracking me up!

Many of my pet peeves have been mentioned, except for these...

1. "art" by Thomas Kincade
2. when people tie decorative ribbon or raffia around their hand towels in their bathrooms making them impossible to actually use. wtf people?
3. going into open houses that have been professionally staged with fake plants and fake food (I'm talking wine glasses with fake wine and a tray full of fake hors d' oeuvres). OMG, why????

storing things in baskets...particularly in a bathroom...particularly on the floor near the toilet

candles for decoration or room aroma

anything designed to cover up room odor...just eliminate the odor

trash cans bigger than standard grocery store bag size

piles of shoes...anywhere

spices stored in open...in their original plastic jars

holiday decorations

walls that aren't painted neutral

excessive kitchen cabinetry

liquor displays

dining rooms and "the good" dinnerware

large grills

unnecessary gadgets

refrigerators that aren't completely emptied (save for a few condiments) and cleaned once a month

The motivational words combined with too small pictures hung above and below behind a couch (or anywhere).

Open garbage cans.

Faux wood paneling.

Rugs that don't lay flat or are constantly askew- use a mat under it!

Houses where ALL the frames match in ALL the rooms.

Style that doesn't fit the area- and I am not talking country because you like country, though I do tend to think it is hideous unless you are actually IN the country and that is the stuff you have to decorate with. No I am talking "Santa Fe" in a sky resort or "beach casual" in a minimalist highrise.

Crafty places filled with stuff they will never use. I am not talking inspirational stuff or things that might be useful they do some day, but the boxes and piles of stuff people never get rid of for a craft they no longer do.

Mismatched kitchen appliances- especially when they are new/high end- WHY would you get a black over and stainless steal fridge when they are right be each other??

Lots of electronics in the bedroom (and their cords).

"Decorative" items above appliances or on the tops of cupboards where you cannot reach them to dust and they are never used.

Houses that are totally obvious that one person had NO input on the style at all.

Accent walls that have no point or that have the two walls next to them a neutral.

Colored caulking that is done really poorly.