If you've ever watched an HGTV show like Fixer Upper, Flip or Flop, or Property Brothers, you've probably seen the trends in design that come and go throughout the years.
Some of them look absolutely stunning but end up being inefficient, expensive, and sometimes down right useless.
The trends are a flash in the pan in the fast paced home buying market because people find out how terrible they really are in practice. We went to Reddit to find out exactly which ones were the worst.
Redditor wazzel2u asked:
"What is a terrible trend found in new home design?"
These are honestly just laughable.
Going in the open.
"Open concept bathrooms."
"I don't need to see you taking a dump from my bed."
- 02K30C1
"My dad has a huge bathroom that's open concept and has high ceilings, like the toilet is surrounded by nothing for a solid six to ten feet in all directions but the one where it's backed against the wall. I don't know why but there is some deeply buried primal instinct that comes out when I use that bathroom, I feel panicked. Like my lizard brain is screaming, 'Don't sh*t out in the open you're going to get eaten by a bear.' I hate it. It's unnatural."
- mandy_skittles
"A someone who lives in Alaska this fear is not unsubstantiated. Its also a reason to carry around deterrent like a high power firearm in to the bathroom... which comes out handy too when the bear steals the poop knife."
- Traumatized-Educator
"And In contrast, vanity and bathtub open to the bedroom, but the toilet is in a tiny stall that isn't even big enough to put an extra roll of TP in."
- helena_handbasketyyc
Hollow doors.
"Hollow interior doors that don't keep sound out from within the house and hallways - especially hollow bedroom doors when you're trying to sleep."
- Back2Bach
"I just purchased another home and one of the first things I did before making an offer was 'door inspection.' Having solid exterior AND interior doors is important to me. I would say it's more of a builder cost cutting measure rather than a trend though."
- TickTacWhat
"You know, this kind of thing perplexes me. So often I find people make changes to up the value that I think are ugly or irrelevant, but a serious QoL upgrade like good doors gets ignored? I don't understand people's home priorities man."
- Qadim3311
"As an appraiser, we look at the overall general condition and quality of a home. Things like doors and windows certainly don't go unnoticed, however, there's no real difference to the average buyer between types of doors. People mainly look at what condition they're in and are they functional."
"Now, if we're talking high end homes, then the quality of finishes really matter, including building materials. I've started adding solid doors as a personal preference as well, but I'm doing it for my own comfort, not for added value."
- Purposefulpurple
Storage is a must.
"Lack of storage space. Just bought a new home and didn't realize how little space there was. We have one storage closet upstairs. That's it."
- A_Bit_Off_Kilter
"It's so weird - I grew up in a place with snow - so these were critical and in every home (even new construction as of 6 years ago) but I live in warm climate now and have no use for it - since we don't need to shed layers and snow covered boots - so they don't have those here. Never really gave thought to it until you said that."
- cantwaitforthis
"Absolutely this! The house I just moved out of had zero storage aside from bedroom closets. It was something we didn’t notice when purchasing, but sure did when moving in. Luckily the house I’ll be moving into very soon has a good deal of storage space."
- Annhl8rX
"One of the 'games' I play when watching house hunters is 'where do you keep the vacuum cleaner?'"
- tjdux
Mullet houses.
"Go to a high end gated community development ($800k - 2M price points in my area) front of the homes is beautiful stone, brick, etc., but on the back every house has cheap ugly vinyl siding all the same color as far as the eye can see. I never understood this since you actually spend time in the back yard not the front."
- MisterSolid
"Mullet houses. Business in front. Vinyl in the back."
- Express_Simple9726
"It's obviously a cost saving measure. Typical on McMansions where they want to sell you as much house as they can without spending too much building it."
- PD216ohio
The TV is too high.
"I really don't like the fireplace design where you are intended to put your TV over it. A TV is way too high when over the fireplace."
- 0rangePolarBear
"This is why I don't like fireplaces in general. Most people who don't live in areas where fireplaces are functional don't even use their them more than once a year. Despite this, if your living room has a fireplace, it pretty much determines the layout of the whole room with almost no flexibility."
"Every TV I've seen mounted over a mantle has made my neck hurt just seeing it for the first time, but it would look stupid to put a couch in front of it, so basically there's no good options if you have a fireplace."
- Revenge_of_the_Khaki
The bedroom is not big enough.
"Bedrooms that are only juuuuust big enough for a double or queen bed and a nightstand."
- makovince
"But they use that extra space upstairs for a 'loft' that no one is going to f*cking use."
"My house was built in 2006 and has what can only be described as a 'proto-loft.' The upstairs bedrooms are still a decent size, but there is what was described in the real estate listing as a 'nook' that’s just big enough to fit a couple of chairs that will never feel the warmth of a human a**."
- b-minus
Too many rooflines.
"I don't like it when they have like ten different rooflines that are only a foot or two deep. Are they hoping it looks like an older house that's had many add-ons done?"
- LeonardGhostal
"My brother's house has this and my god the leaking and drainage problems it has! His siding is rotting away from it."
- Coconut-bird
"One thing it does is hide shoddy workmanship. It's a lot harder to see that the framing isn't straight or the cheap materials are sagging if there are no flat surfaces more than 10-12 feet long."
- katlian
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While we've all been cooped up for the better part of two years, many of us have been dreaming up exciting plans for the future. Maybe it's finally time to s...Cookie-cutter layouts.
"The grotesque housing developments of the same like 4 models and 3 colors with no trees. Not to mention the houses are built like sh*t. The terribly inefficient road layout with a million cul de sacs."
- Individual-Text-1805
"Cookie-cuttervilles."
- valkyriespice
"Exactly. They're all the same and all soulless. There's a liminality to them. Something about them is so creepy and completely unnatural."
- Individual-Text-1805
The barn door trend.
"Barn doors are so stupid. It's a heavier, more expensive, harder to open door. And then it still has a public bathroom-style gap that eliminates actual privacy."
- mywifemademegetthis
"We had one of these for the bathroom door in our freaking hotel room one time. Guess what happened when someone took a shower? The ENTIRE room filled up with steam and felt like a rainforest."
- neko_brand
"They're fine for a closet, but it's horrible for something like a bathroom because of the gap. Give me a pocket door over a barn door any day."
- s404064
A garage made for two... kind of.
"Garages that fit two medium sized cars with about one inch to spare."
- kryppla
"...in Texas where nobody owns medium sized cars"
- havereddit
"I tell people we have a one and seven-eighths car garage."
- west-egg
Never enough secret doors.
"The lack of secret bookshelf doors. I mean, who designs their custom home and does not Include a bookshelf secret door? People design houses for a reason, and that reason should be secret doors."
- foxsable
"Heck yes! This is my plan: we're planning on doing an addition in a few years, and I'm totally including a secret bookshelf door to my office and other cool hide-a-ways. I want some whimsy and adventure in my life and I freaking love escape rooms!"
- kc2sunshine
More room for washing up.
"Most sinks are absolutely terrible. Looking better is nice, but not at the expense of hitting your hand on the bowl every time you wash your hands."
- zed910
"The sink in the utility room at my grandparents house was amazing. Grandad was like 6'4 in his prime, with a crazy wingspan. He said when they added that part of the house (utility room and attached greenhouse, it's dope as all hell tbh) he bought the deepest sink he could find so he would have room to actually wash his entire forearms after gardening. It's like a restaurant sink. It's magnificent."
- lovelylayout
The affordability.
"Not being able to afford one."
- NotSoGreatOldOne
"This bothers the hell out of me."
"My parents bought their home for 2x what my father earned annually, in a good suburb of the state's capitol. His salary wasn't particularly high or anything, pretty average for its time."
"Where can I buy a house for 2x my annual salary? Literally nowhere in the country. Not even the sh*ttiest, most desolate and remote places have a house I can buy for that price range."
- Richard_D_Glover
"My parents asked me and my husband the other day why we hadn’t bought a home yet. When I said we couldn’t afford one they point to our combined salary of $75k and said we should be able to afford a lovely house in a nice neighborhood, maybe even some land. They went on to explain that they had bought their first house (in the 80’s) for $70k and that it had been a very nice 3 bedroom home with a little land. I tried explaining that where I live falling apart crack-dens are being listed upwards of $150k. They just kept saying we weren’t looking hard enough. The older generations are just soooo out of touch these days."
- MrWhite_Sucks
"My dad and I had this discussion last night. His dad bought his 5 bedroom house for 1.5x his yearly salary. My dad bought his 4 bedroom house for 6x his yearly salary. For me to (maybe) buy a 1 bedroom or 2 bedroom apartment in the same city I will have to pay 22x of my yearly salary."
- wanderingsteph
Words are not meant for walls.
"Live laugh love."
- patronsaintofshinies
"OMG. WORDS do not belong on walls! It's like somebody went to Michael's crafts and decorated their home. EAT. 'Kitchen'. 'Wash your hands'. Any iteration of 'In this house....'. I loathe that trend."
- Whats4dinner
White on white on white on...
"All white, white carpet, white furniture, white f*cking shiplap."
- Defcheze
"I blame Joanna Gaines for all the shiplap. I don't think I've seen a single house they've done that doesn't have it."
- nachobitxh
"The shiplap has to be done right or it doesn’t hold up over time. We looked at a house with ship lap and you could see every knot in the wood through the white paint. It would have driven me nuts. The floors were really dark and we could see every scratch and ding in them."
- librachick104
Open shelves.
"I don't know if it's new new, but it drives me crazy when people replace cabinetry with open shelves."
"Don't people understand dust? Bugs ring a bell? Pet hair? Speaking of pets, how do you keep your cats from messing around with that setup?"
- lyan-cat
"Where the f do you cram all the crap that lives on your counter, when company comes unexpectedly? Cabinet doors, people!"
- UsernameObscured
"CA here, earthquakes. Do you enjoy suddenly having a pile of broken glass?"
- OurLadyOfTheChickens
Whether it's open concept bathrooms or a lack of storage, there's a lot that goes into finding a home that is functional and fashionable.
If you're looking into your next home, really take a good look at what you're getting into. Is it functional? Or is it just a bad trend.
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