Have we lost the ability to make our homes comfortable and cosy?

Also lots of pine furniture

It works somehow

Well I suppose the neutrals/monochrome look is easier on the eye than the mid 70’s browns and oranges!
🤣

I don't understand the lack of carpets, especially in bedrooms, even if they have underfloor heating I can't imagine not having decent carpets to step out of bed onto.

I loathe carpets. No matter how clean they are, something about them feels unhygienic to me. And they so easily get shabby. Rugs can brighten up a room and are easy to replace.

Houses look very much the same inside now, grey and white or beige and white, pristine and uncluttered, also knocking all walls down so it’s just one big room, if I wanted that I would live in a barn, no privacy, all the cooking smells. Smaller rooms will come back soon. When selling you declutter so you are looking at a blank canvas, give me individualism and cosy any time, I don’t care if it’s not todays fashion.

VioletSky

My living room is grey, blue and magnolia with lots of warm lighting and lots of pillows

Why would you have pillows in a living room.
I thought pillows belonged on beds.
Did you mean cushions ?

I wasn't really talking of any particular style of home decor. I am not favouring chintz or minimilism, but in the past the British were admired from abroad for their ability to make their homes, regardless of their style, look comfortable and welcoming to visitors as well as those living in them.

But the interiors I am seeing on Rightmove - and because we are thinking in terms of moving house, where else should we look? No matter what their style, it is impossible to look at many of them and feel, that the house looks something that one could be comfortable in. I get the feeling that the houses have been decorated and furnished to be admired by other people on Rightmove and social media sites and that the owners only pretend to live there, that somewhere else they have a nice house, with modern decor, but comfortable and welcoming and that is where they really live.

I agree with you about the ubiquitous grey, whole houses decorated in the same depressing shades, including bathrooms and kitchens. I think many of the houses shown for sale, particularly new-builds on an estate, are decorated professionally in a deliberate attempt to be impersonal so the buyers could move straight in then add their own personality. But try buying furniture that doesn't come in 50 shades of grey, or more recently, dark blue.

Foxygloves

VioletSky

My living room is grey, blue and magnolia with lots of warm lighting and lots of pillows

Why would you have pillows in a living room.
I thought pillows belonged on beds.
Did you mean cushions ?

I’m guessing she means pillow back sofas, which are very popular - they are called pillows to differentiate them from the more traditional sofa cushions?

I acquired a bit of a Right Move browsing habit, or property porn as it is sometimes known when we moved a couple of years ago, and I still find myself looking on line from time to time, essentially being nosy interested. It does strike me that there is a ubiquitous look a lot of people go for, for example a ginormous telly focal point with a curve around the room sofa and sometimes little else, it lacks a certain amount of character, but taste of course is very personal. . I like an ordered amount of clutter, we have overloaded book shelves in both the living and dining rooms, another in the kitchen with cookery books, and a couple more upstairs! I like cushions, rugs and throws, much to my husband's annoyance. Whilst I don't like too much in a room, but neither am I a minimalist it makes me ponder on "where's your stuff" Greys are a bit passe now, although yes they went with everything! We've recently invested in a good decorator who is working his way through the house with "Little Greene" paints who do similar colour palettes to Farrow and Ball but have a better to work with consistency wise apparently! This time we're going for a deeper, more vibrant look.

Of course it’s a matter of personal taste, but when you see all those beautiful paint colours, fabulous wallpapers, so many colours and textures, what makes anyone think, oh grey would be nice.

We looked on line at a beautiful house, 17th Century close to where we want to move.
Inside every period detail has been removed, grey walls, shiny black kitchen, so disappointing, tiling on all ground floors, made me shudder.
Some houses look as though they all left in a hurry without making beds or putting anything back where it belongs, Sink full of dirty dishes, rubbish in the gardens.
Properties for sale seem to veer from one extreme to the other.

I’m changing my home from my years long cream and gold going grey and white I’m loving it!

When we bought our present house over 20 years ago they left the curtains, really beautiful fabrics with gorgeous matching linings. I've had them remade and repaired, moved them around and then decorated using them as my inspiration. My home is full of colour and I love it. tbh I don't care what anyone else thinks, when I'm dead and gone they can strip the place and paint it grey. I have changed floors, stone to match the dogs coats and carpets where dogs are not allowed. Furniture is either inherited or custom made as some of the rooms are quite big and modern furniture just gets lost. I do have grey and white bathrooms though, very clean almost clinical and very functional, actually like most of the rest of the house.

I fell in love with designers Guild fabrics about forty years ago. I was just browsing for inspiration, when the lady who owned the shop produced a book which had just come in.
I was absolutely blown away by the colour combinations, and the bold designs, never looked back.

biglouis

I think the reason many homes on EA type websites look so cold and chilly is because sellers are advised to declutter and make them look "neutral" so that buyers can imagine their own belongings there. Personally I hate minimalism to the very nadir of my being. However thats because I like (and sell) antiques which are quirky and characterful.

Yes, that's probably the reason.
House Doctor your property before it goes on the market.

Esmay

I agree with you .

I'm regularly watching charming kitchens , bathrooms , fireplaces and leaded light windows being jettisoned into skips and the finished product is a hideous uniformly grey and trendy open house that I wouldn't call a home .

I'd really like to jettison my 'charming kitchen' but I wouldn't choose grey.

Sara1954

Of course it’s a matter of personal taste, but when you see all those beautiful paint colours, fabulous wallpapers, so many colours and textures, what makes anyone think, oh grey would be nice.

Perhaps grey is the new magnolia.

As a friend once said "Magnolia is for people who can't make up their minds".

On the other hand, they are colours which don't fight with any pictures hanging on the walls.

I have a RM habit. The number of ‘feature walls’ covered in ghastly garish wallpapers - no, just no! I like to see something neutral that would accommodate colourful soft furnishings and pictures.

Callistemon
My friend is a lover of Farrow and Balls fifty shades of off white.
I can admire what she does to some extent, but I couldn’t live there, and she feels the same about my decor.

I don't like the trend for vast, open spaces - a friend has just bought a house with a large area that has been created from several rooms to incorporate living, dining and cooking, and it is like an airport lounge. I can't feel 'cosy' sitting there - and it will probably be bleak in the winter. We have smaller, conventional rooms in out old house, with lots of cushions, books, paintings and flowers to add colour. The current trend for grey has led some to have kitchens, bathrooms- even window frames - in this colour - or 'neutral' as it is, and once it is no longer fashionable it will be expensive to change.

It's the weird layouts, particularly of bungalows, which I find odd.

I wouldn't let a colour scheme put me off, and other people's furnishings are going to move with them in most cases, so I can look beyond that, too.

What would put me off if we were going to move is the trend for open plan living - the kitchen/living room with a central island and bifold doors opening onto the garden. It's ubiquitous on every TV programme about house decor (I like the George Clarke ones, but they are all the same design in the end). It can look lovely, but I wouldn't want to live with it. It would be hard to heat in winter, and too hot in summer, and whereas they always show the kitchen as clean and uncluttered, keeping it like that would be difficult, and I'd struggle to relax with dishes everywhere and food smells. I also like rooms where I can shut the door, so that one person can be listening to music or working, whilst another can watch TV or read quietly in a different room. Not so bad if it's just one or two people but they are usually shown in family houses. My neighbours have knocked down internal walls so downstairs is one huge space, and I would hate to live in it, although it's very stylish.

We once rented an open plan place when we were between houses and had two young children, and I couldn't wait to move out and into our old-fashioned house with separate rooms for everything .

Cross-posted with LovesBach!

I have a dreadful Right Move habit, as has DD3, we share our finds every morning.

I get really excited about the interiors with mid century furniture - but they are few and far between.