whats up with the decor? lol

I know this has been covered in an early post but i thought i would start a new updated one...

While i am looking on the internet at places I can't help but to ask myself were these ppl blind, high, or drunk when they decorated some of these houses and flats.

It seems like a good 80% i have seen so far have umm interesting colors.... even more interesting carpet... and that good ol gravel back yard lol

luckily i haven't spotted the carpet in the bathroom i read about in earlier posts.. so thats a good thing

What are some of your stories with decor when it came to your house/flat hunting experience?

Well, I came to visit my boyfriend in March just days after he moved into his house. By no means is bad decor limited to the UK (I’ve seen some interesting choices stateside), but this was pretty memorable.

The entire house, all three floors, all the walls (except for accent walls) were painted in this truly heinous taupe color. The lounge and all the bedrooms had accent walls. Each was covered in some sort of 70’s inspired floral design. Was the house built in the 1970’s? No. It’s about a decade old. So, we thought maybe the previous owners were just trying to spruce it up quickly to sell, so they didn’t want to bother with various paint colors or nice wallpaper. No. The neighbors told us that the wife just really liked the color. Bleh.

Much of my trip this summer was spent trying to redecorate. 

Just bought a new house, it has orange polka dotted carpet circa 1975.

Lived in a purpose built Victorian in Kew that had forest green carpet in the lounge, bright blue in the 1st bedroom, 2nd bedroom was salmon pink and the bathroom royal blue. The furniture was insulting: Lack coffee table and a red couch that had likely been there since the 70s.

One day two women walked by whe the DH was doing some gardening and one said they'd lived there 20 years earlier, did it still have the awful carpeting?!

It was damn cheap and had a big kitchen so at the time we weren't too fussed.

My favorite rental was the one we got unfurnished!

... and that good ol gravel back yard lol

We're hoping to buy a place in the UK so I spend a lot of time looking at houses & flats.  I'm amazed how many have back gardens that are completely covered up - gravel, paving slabs, or - I saw today in a terraced house in Norwich - completely decked over with quite nice looking wooden decking.  This was not a tiny yard, it looked to be about 45 feet long and 20 feet wide.  It had a gazebo on it, some raised beds full of tomatoes and flowers, but not a blade of grass or a natural bed.

The house we live in now was apparently pretty bad.  The owners re-did it a little while ago, but one thing they couldn't afford to do was plaster over all the Artex in the house.  The only rooms that don't have it are the kitchen and the 2 bathrooms which had both been gutted.  Otherwise, every wall and ceiling is covered in this textured nightmare.  Apparently it was a pretty popular at one point and is irreversible.  You just have to tear it out or spend a bunch of money plastering over it.

Sometimes i just have to shake my head. 

The house we live in now was apparently pretty bad.  The owners re-did it a little while ago, but one thing they couldn't afford to do was plaster over all the Artex in the house.  The only rooms that don't have it are the kitchen and the 2 bathrooms which had both been gutted.  Otherwise, every wall and ceiling is covered in this textured nightmare.  Apparently it was a pretty popular at one point and is irreversible.  You just have to tear it out or spend a bunch of money plastering over it.

Sometimes i just have to shake my head. 

My Dads house in NY has it. It used to hurt as a child when we accidentally bump into it. I think it was a popular thing to do in the late 60s... Same reason for woodchip it was a cheap, easy fix to cover damp, cracks, etc.

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We looked at a house that all the upper rooms were painted in fluorescent colours (master bedroom was fluorescent blue, bathroom fluorescent green, box room pink and the attic was yellow) Surprise surprise they only wanted £85K for it.

I saw one house that had a psychedelic tiling in the bathroom. It was brown, tan and blinding.

We settled on a house that has been painted in all caribean colour scheme (jungle greens, bright yellows, turquoise, terracotta floors) and lets not mention the woodchip that was on the CEILING (even my MIL was scratching her head at that one)

The previous owner had some dodgy electrics done and they PLASTERED over the woodchip in the hall. So we cant just steam the wallpaper off, well have to remove plaster from basically the largest and tallest wall in the house.. Speaking to a neighbour, she never did any work on the house so the carpeting, wallpaper and some of the light fixtures are at least 25 years old..

So far we've re-done the kitchen and our bedroom and moving on to the living room (with its faux-brick bookshelves) and getting rid of the fire ([!!!!] i have a great disdain for them) Hoping to come out looking like a city loft and not a something left in the 70s...

Artex usually involves asbestos in places decorated before the mid-1980s. 

So, yeah it is pretty expensive to remove.

Artex usually involves asbestos in places decorated before the mid-1980s. 

So, yeah it is pretty expensive to remove.

Yeah, we had asked our landlords about that!  Fortunately the house was built in the 1980s so we're clear for that.  They had some kind of test done, I think, before they bought it, because they didn't want to have to deal with asbestos on top of all the other stuff they wanted to do to the house.  But, yeah, they still didn't have enough money to gut the entire place so there we sit in our little wall treatment time capsule. 

We're hoping to buy a place in the UK so I spend a lot of time looking at houses & flats.  I'm amazed how many have back gardens that are completely covered up - gravel, paving slabs, or - I saw today in a terraced house in Norwich - completely decked over with quite nice looking wooden decking.  This was not a tiny yard, it looked to be about 45 feet long and 20 feet wide.  It had a gazebo on it, some raised beds full of tomatoes and flowers, but not a blade of grass or a natural bed.

With terraced houses many of these have long been concreted back yards. Not sure the reason why, maaybe in my area men who had worked 8 hours down a mine 6 days a week didn't want to be digging up a yard on their day off! Ours is concreted and we are thinking of laying gravel as it looks better and we both like it.

yeah i know crappy housing can happen in the US... lol for one my grandparents old house still have shag carpets, mirrors on the wall and this horrible gold couch with plastic over it lol...


... but my grandparents are now deceased and even tho the house still belongs to the family as a whole... they havent took the time to update the decor lol...i wish they would!

i am very anxious to see what type of housing i will end up with when i move to the uk in Dec... lol... hopefully something in the 90s decor wise lol

My in laws are doing up their rental before letting it out again.  They have put in additional insulation, new curtains, new paint....and woodchip wallpaper! 
For reasons  I can't fathom they like woodchip. 

I dont mind graveled over gardens as theyre easier to keep up with.
We only have a small area and decided with our neighbour to combine the space with decking. The area is now usable and makes the whole back row of terraces look neater.

Also, usually we're both in work and generally dont have time to keep up with lawns and what not. If we ever have kids, we may move to somewhere with a proper garden, but for two adults who like to have BBQs and parties, it works VERY well.

Before, well sorta. Both our yards looked the same - just tarred over uneven ground with weeds climbing up the wall...


After and has LED lighting around the perimeter of it.

We also have hops in pots growing up the back wall and random other potted plants..

Woodchip in 2011 is mind boggling. Dont they realise it HURTS the rental?

Kerri- That's a fantastic improvement! I agree with everyone on this thread some of the choices for decor just disgusts me:P I try to decipher why someone wants floral carpeting through out their whole house, cracked vinyl floors in kitchens, 40 year old appliances that can cause a fire hazard and horrible textured or wall papered walls!?!?!?! Phil and I are always in agreement of what looks good and what is just plain disastrous! I've seen rentals online that have carpet in the bathrooms ICK!! Even on the walls! Things that are a MUST for me: Updated and/or modern kitchen, bathrooms with a toilet in it that are updated/remodeled and a washer/dryer! Other than that I can work with crummy paint jobs and small gardens because I can always paint over walls and spruce up a garden!

Discovered this tonight while starting to redecorate the living room:


DOUBLE WALLPAPER - WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!?!