Some of the best home renovation advice is to avoid fads and go for classic renovations that won’t date. So how can you know what is a fad? It is usually brightly coloured and jumps out at you. It doesn’t really add value to your lifestyle in any way and it fades in popularity after a few years. That said, the latter won’t help you if you’ve jumped in and included it in your design when it first came out.
However, you will be able to identify and remove it, then you’ll have learned to wait a while before doing the next thing. Here are some fads to avoid.
- Brightly coloured walls or a feature wall that is too dazzling. Both make a space look smaller and because they are busy, they take away from the calm relaxation you should be able to feel when you walk into a room. There is nowhere to rest your eyes and hence, your brain, when the wallpaper jumps out at you or if a colourful feature wall is looming up from the end of the room. That’s not to say you can’t have a feature wall, but it should be done tastefully and in a colour that complements the rest of the room. Classic colours such as white and neutrals allow you to have fun with accent colours and they don’t go out of fashion.
- Thick shag pile carpets, especially in bright colours are faddish. In a year or two the pile will be tangled and dirty and the whole thing will look ugly. Unless you love cleaning chores, forget them and use a carpet or a rug with a low or no pile. It too, should complement the overall colour scheme rather than jumping out at you.
- Quality counts and your fittings and fixtures should reflect this. Taps or cupboard handles that look gold may look wonderful for the first year, but after that the gold will wear off and the taps will look patchy and tarnished. Hinges, draw runners, light fixtures and even the kitchen sink should be of good quality, even if you have to save in other areas. These things are used a lot and if you buy quality they’ll last the distance and still look good.
- A small bathroom can easily devalue the home. If yours is small, renovate by adding a frameless glass shower screen and a larger window, or place a mirror opposite the window to reflect light. Keep the ceiling and wall colour white or light coloured with white trim, which always makes a room look larger.