Doilies are literally one of the most pointless decorative accents because they are like coasters for almost everything but drinks. They are particularly popular if you are a grandma, but sometimes you can find these in boomer’s homes too. Doilies are the tackiest way to decorate anything in your home and instantly make it look like a retirement home.
Old tv remote? Apparently, you can just put a doily under it and call it a day. Doilies are cheap and, maybe, an okay way to serve a pastry in a fancy way, but why would you want to fill your home with them. They get dirty and if they get wet, they are absolutely ruined. Try minimalist, not everything needs to be showy and even if it does, doilies are not the way.
Save the ruffles for your bed and breakfast. Who wants to sleep in a bed that looks like the one grandma kicked the bucket in? Ruffled bed skirts in this decade are for people trying to hide dirt or junk under their bed - maybe even a skeleton or two.
Bed skirts are just going to make your room look dated, and they're just another thing that needs to be washed and cared for. Extra laundry might not be tacky, per se, but no one wants to deal with it! Plus, if you're rocking a bed skirt, you're just begging for a monster to set up camp underneath there!
Wall decals might be fine if you are decorating a kid’s room but for an adult, they are always tacky. Whether it’s a giant wall decal of the Death Star for a bachelor, some flowers or stars, or a popular quote like “Live. Laugh. Love” for someone basic, stickers don’t belong on any adult’s wall.
Instead, find other ways to decorate your walls. Put up some art pieces, or learn to paint, and paint something on your wall – anything it better than putting a sticker up. You’ll find, however, that when it comes to decorating your walls, less is more – and we mean a whole lot more.
Once again, you haven't earned the right to throw a dead bear on the floor unless you've killed it yourself. That being said, why would you want to in the first place? Faux fur rugs have no place outside of a hunting lodge and hunting lodges aren’t exactly the pinnacle of interior design.
Faux fur is just a poor replacement for the real thing. It doesn't feel nearly as nice, and even an untrained eye can usually spot fake fur from a mile away. Real fur may be a rare luxury, but faux fur is annoyingly everywhere. An animal might have to die for a real fur rug, but a sweatshop worker probably had to stitch together that fake monstrosity you bought at Target.
Vertical blinds are literally the worst window treatment that anyone could ask for. These blinds are not only outdated as a relic from the ‘80s but they are just plain trashy. They can be difficult to open if anything becomes unaligned and they break incredibly easy too, whether you open them when there are not aligned or someone just runs into them.
But their fragility is only half of the problem. They don’t look nice at all and they don’t even do a good job of insulating your home. Blackout curtains are the way to go if you want to keep light and heat out of your home in the summer. Apartment complexes use these all the time and that’s only because they are super cheap.
Accent walls are just a nice way of saying your paint job looks lopsided. It's definitely a bedroom trend for the very indecisive. An accent wall is not going to make your paint job look any better. Anyone that gets up close is going to see that. This only looks decent in pictures, but the reality is horrifying.
While accent walls might look a little ridiculous, they do have one saving grace about them. Since an accent only covers one wall, it doesn't take too much effort to paint over your work once you realize what a bad idea it was! Stick with one color for all four walls—your bedroom will thank us.
This is a ridiculous trend happening right now and we don’t understand it in the least. These decorative balls can often be found in a decorative bowl or hanging, while literally serve no purpose whatsoever. Although people putting them out undoubtedly think they have something artistic and sophisticated on-hand, that’s not the reality.
You have a decorative bowl and don’t know what to use it for? Just try putting some walnuts in it or some fancy candy. Give people something you can actually use. The only reason you should have decorative balls in your house is to throw them at salespeople that come to your door. Disclaimer: We’re kidding; Don’t do that. But you probably knew that…that is unless you already own decorative balls because then you are probably used to making bad decisions.
We don't even have to make fun of water beds for them to seem like a bad idea. Who wants to be tossed and turned by the waves night after night? One mishap with a pet and you'll be sleeping in a puddle of water. And you are getting almost no support.
If you want to make a waterbed look stylish in your bedroom, it's actually much easier than you might think. All you have to do is set your time machine to 1975 and start hosting swinger parties. For anyone without a time machine, it's probably time to drain those things and put them away for good.
Lava lamps might have been a hit back in the day, but now they're the purview of teenagers and creeps, or those longing to return to the past. But you've grown up now and it's time to move on with your life. The '70s are over and they aren't coming back no matter how many aging rock star concerts you may be attending.
But we'll give credit where credit is due - the lava lamp had a serious moment both in the '70s and the '90s. But isn't two decades of dominance and popularity enough for this tacky lamp? It's time to put these away for good and move on to the next ridiculous, tacky decor trend!
Seriously? The fact that we’re still having to cover this is completely ridiculous. Linoleum isn’t just tacky, it’s offensively tacky. What was once a “luxury” flooring option is now something people actively avoid when buying homes these days. If you’re still living with linoleum, ask your therapist why you like punishing yourself so much.
Sure, it’s cheaper than actual tile, and it was probably also already there when you bought the home, but why would you settle for this? We swear to Joanna Gaines herself, that your life would improve ten times over if you removed that tired sheet of plastic on your floors. Have you actually gotten down there to look at the shape of that vinyl? You’re probably growing penicillin on there.
Listen, we’re here to tell you that, literally, no one has a handle on their daily fruit and vegetable intake. So, don’t feel like you need fake fruit to fake out your friends into thinking you’re getting your vitamins and antioxidants. You’re not fooling anyone. Besides, by day two of sitting on your counter, those faux fruits will be covered in grease and grime.
Instead of turning your countertops into a house of wax, take a multivitamin. Or better yet, eat some REAL fruit. Maybe once your body gets used to eating like a human being, you can actually justify a real bowl of fruit on your counter. Signaling that you really have your life together.
Oak cabinets or even cabinets that are just colored oak are absolutely awful. They are the quickest way to make your kitchen look dated because it’s the color used for homes in the ‘90s. If you want your house to look like a nostalgia trip, go ahead and keep that color. Otherwise, it’s time for a change.
While it would be impossible to find a truly timeproof color for your cabinets, the safest way to go in repainting your cabinets would be a solid color and not one that is too bright or bold. White is fairly safe but that tends to age and stain, which means you’ll need to repaint anyway.
White appliances look great right out of the box. But give them a year and your shiny white appliances will go from pristine to stained and dingy. Those pearly white appliances have also become the calling card for an outdated and low-end kitchen, and nobody wants that! Just don't even think about replacing them with black appliances, because those are really just as bad. If you’re looking for a sign to replace your dingy appliances, this is it. It’s time for them to retire.
Not only do white appliances show every speck of dirt and grime, but they also are prone to stains and discoloration over time. So next time you're in the market for some new appliances spend a few extra bucks and go for the stainless-steel set. There are even more cost-effective options these days! Just make sure they're a matching set because that’s just as tacky as the old white appliances.
For some reason, people used to think toilet seats needed carpeting for some reason. And indeed, some still do. You can often find sets of bathroom mats with fuzzy toilet seat covers together, but we have to say we have a big problem with them other than the fact that they are tacky and completely outdated.
For one, these things don’t even stay on well pulled over a plastic or porcelain toilet lid. They sleep right off ending up being more of a nuisance than anything. And then there’s the fact that it’s a freakin’ carpet on your toilet seat, just accumulating bacteria from your toilet. It’s disgusting!
Colored bathrooms are just a bad idea for a wide variety of reasons. The first of which is that choosing a color for your bathroom is the quickest way to make it look dated. Colors that look good and trendy now, inevitably, will become dated tomorrow. And then you’ll have to remodel the whole bathroom.
Most colors just look plain tacky in a bathroom. It’s better to go with some kind of theme or just go with plain white. Because plain white also has an advantage over a colored bathroom. White looks cleaner and when you are cleaning the bathroom, you can actually see that your bathroom is actually clean.
It’s your home, you're not on broadway. You don’t need marquee lighting. Do you know who has marquee lighting in their home? Celebrities and people who are full of themselves – sorry if that sounds redundant. But anyway, marquee lighting isn’t doing you any favors, particularly if you are self-conscious in any way.
Do you really want to see too much on your face and overthink your appearance? Having too much lighting in your bathroom will definitely help you with that. Nobody needs that much lighting in their bathroom and if you do, that’s just more lightbulbs you have to use and more energy you are wasting in your home. Say no to marquee lighting unless you are in a Broadway dressing room or a strip club.
Knickknacks are just clutter under another guise. While your knickknacks might mean a lot to you, displaying them all-around your home is just plain tacky. As we’ve said before, less is more and you don’t need to fill your home with a bunch of useless junk. You’re running a home, not an antique store.
Kitschy stuff is particularly off-putting. You don’t need little porcelain statues of Mickey Mouse to show you have a personality. Your decorating and the colors you choose will do that for you. Having knickknacks around your home isn’t just tacky though, it makes you seem like a grandma.
This is not to say that all posters are necessarily bad to put anywhere in your home, but it is easy to choose the wrong posters and in the wrong spot in your home. Posters are not for your living area or bathroom or bedroom unless you want to look like a college student and cheapen the look of your home.
If you are going to put up something like a movie poster, be sure to put it somewhere appropriate like an entertainment area. Putting up posters of cars or half-naked people on your wall is always going to look tacky anywhere and should be avoided at all costs. And if you have to put up a poster, for the love of all things, put it in a frame at least.
Some people really do this: they put their TV on the floor like in the old days when they just had to. Nothing is going to make your home look cheaper more a TV on the floor. Your Tv should never be sitting on the floor. At the bare minimum, you should have it on a dresser or nightstand. But a better solution is to purchase a TV stand or hang it on the wall.
And it should go without saying that there should be furniture surrounding your TV and not like a bean bag chair. Actual furniture. Again, this is a problem with some people. Have furniture in your home for the sake of your own sanity or at least for the sake of your guests. Never have any guests? Yeah, there’s a reason for that…
If you are not living in a cabin in the middle of the woods, plaid bedding is just plain tacky. Plaid bedding might be okay for a country home or a child’s bedroom, but for just about everyone else, there’s no way to make plaid bedding work for a bedroom. Solid color sheets work best, or maybe some monochromatic stripes at most.
Certain plaid patterns can, once again, make your home look dated. If you want the feeling of visiting your grandmas house every time you go to sleep, then that’s your business, but if you don’t want a cheap, tacky looking home, upgrade your sheets to something with a whole lot less pattern.
Wallpaper is just about the worst thing you could do to yourself and your walls. I mean just think about it…it’s paper! Paper can stain, it can peel or cut...so it just doesn’t make any sense to put on your walls. Wallpaper is outdated too. Paint is always the better way to go in terms of look and maintenance.
If your paint job gets messed up, you can just paint over the spot or repaint the wall if completely necessary. If your wallpaper gets messed up, you have to strip the whole wall and apply a new roll of paper to that wall. And if you have ever had to do that, then you know how tedious it can be.
We don’t know why we have to say this but maybe try a little harder to use things for their intended purpose. Flags don’t belong on the walls, nor do walls. If you want a flag, hang it on a flag pole, outside where it belongs. If you want a rug, put it on the floor, where it belongs!
Flags and rugs are not intended to be wall decorations, and putting these things on your wall just makes it look like you have no idea how to decorate. If you want to put some fabrics up on your wall, consider purchasing some tapestries – things that are actually designed to be hung on a wall. And the only people who should be hanging rugs on the wall are people that work at IKEA.
Want to look pretentious without even trying? Consider purchasing an obscure bust of something like an ancient Greek god or something of that nature. And then when people ask you about it and you realize you actually have no idea what Greek god it is, you can lie or just say, “Uh, I don’t know. I just thought it looked cool.”
Reasons to own busts: to honor someone or remember them. If you have no idea who you are honoring, then why are you spending money on it. What you just bought yourself was a knickknack and we already told you that was a bad idea, so we don’t need to tell you again.
Plates are for eating and yet some people also see them as decorations. It’s tacky to use because it just makes us think you don’t have any personality beyond dining. Decorative plates serve literally no purpose and sometimes they aren’t even food-safe, so you can use them even in cases of party emergency.
Decorative plates are just another thing to make your home look cheap and ancient. Even post-WWII babes are starting to ditch the decorative plates. Choose some actual art to go on your wall, whether that’s a painting, metalwork, or whatever else your heart desires – as long as that’s not plates.
Tacky musical decorations like a dancing Santa that sings “Jingle Bell Rock” might be okay at Christmastime but even then they make your home look cheap. And every other time of year, these decorations are an absolute no-no. Was there anything ever tackier than the Big Mouth Billy Bass?
But whether it’s a singing fish or dancing and singing Santa, there’s just no way to add these cheesy decorations to your home without embarrassing yourself. As funny as they may be to you, they aren’t for everyone and the only thing you are going to do is annoy or make your guests cringe.
Taxidermy is a way to show you like the look of animals without actually caring about them. If something dies, you bury it or cremate it, you don’t stuff it with a bunch of stuff and put it on display. You wouldn’t do that to a loved one, we hope, and you shouldn’t do it to some random animal.
And then there’s the fact that if you aren’t living in a hunting lodge, there’s absolutely no reason to have taxidermized animals in your home. Just about everywhere else, it’s just super creepy. Just consider Norman Bates and all his stuffed birds. If you want to be associated with Norman Bates in front of your guests – well then you go right ahead.
Fake Flowers may give you the slight appearance of having fresh flowers on your table or mantle, but with a closer look, it’s apparent to everyone just how fake and cheap they look. Having fake plants and flowers in your home only tells people how incapable you are of taking care of plants.
And chances are, if you can’t take care of plants, you probably aren’t taking good care of your home either. Fake flowers don’t belong anywhere other than a model home and even then some fresh flowers would be a lot more impressive. Nobody is impressed with your fake flowers, so why bother buying them?
Plasticware is fine to use every now and then. If you have children, you probably have some Tupperware, plastic bowls, and cups around so that they can’t break the good stuff. And for parties, you might have some disposable plasticware lying around, but for the love of all things good, don’t put that stuff on display.
If you have glass cabinets, be sure the plastic stuff is not in them, so they are not visible to your guests. Don’t leave plasticware out anywhere people can see. Keep that stuff in the deep dark abyss where nobody can find it. There’s just no way to have plastic anything without it looking tacky.
If you don’t want a tacky home, remove all the clutter. Having a cluttered cabinet, closet, desk or kitchen, or any other room is just going to make your home look cheap. Having a lot of stuff isn’t impressive to your guests if it isn’t organized. And if you have nowhere to put it, consider just throwing it out.
Organization is important because clutter makes your home look messy. Your home will look more spacious and feel less claustrophobic if people don’t feel like your clutter is about to swallow them whole. As for knowing what to get rid of, if you haven’t used it in a year, you don’t need it.
Hanging photos of friends and family are nice but if you have to many, it can be overkill. You don’t need to hang up every family photo in your possession or even every family member on your wall. Photo albums exist for a reason and if you want to reminisce you can just pop open one of those.
Keeping a clean-looking, elegant home is all about minimalism. Displaying a ton of family photos will only make your home look cluttered. Your home won’t look barren just because it’s not covered wall to wall in photos or art pieces. We know you love your family, but you should also love your home!
