Out-of-Style Photo Frames

Memories make life worth living. But covering the walls of your home with framed photos of your family is quickly running out of fashion. In the age of social media, those cherished moments with loved ones should probably be kept inside your phone and computer.

That’s not to say it’s corny to have a few framed photos decorating your house. The trick is to find the right balance and, most importantly, not overuse them. Nowadays, pictures of happy days and proud achievements are best displayed on the walls of your Facebook and Instagram profiles, not the walls of your actual living room!

Floral Prints Look Dated

Decorators still rely on floral prints now and then. They’re good, for instance, for covering the walls of a charming little bookstore or café. But if there’s a place where you don’t need flowers, that’s in your living room. Floral prints look very dated, especially if used in furniture, carpets, or bed sheets.

When someone steps inside your house and sees floral prints, he or she will immediately think of an elderly lady. Flowery patterns were very popular during the ’70s, back when they were considered to be groovy. Nowadays, they’re as old-school as the word ‘groovy’ itself.

The Nautical Theme is a No-No

Once upon a time, it was beautiful to decorate a bedroom using beach-inspired symbols and ocean-like colors. However, the nautical theme hasn’t aged very graciously over the past few decades, and bedrooms that look like the place where Princess Ariel rests her head are a big home-décor no-no.

There’s something soothing about taking a nap in a place that resembles the bottom of the ocean. But there are ways to sleep peacefully without scaring your friends and family away! In today’s world, trendy bedrooms are simple, minimal, and rely on neutral tones such as white, grey, and beige.

Sofas Should Be Kept Simple

The old-school term “groovy” comes to mind once again; and no, that’s not a good thing! Sofas that use wild patterns with combinations of colors that make your head dizzy are as uncool as it gets. If there’s a home décor rule your sofas should live by, it’s “keep it simple, and don’t try too hard.”

Sofas are a must-have item, but they shouldn’t be the centerpiece of any living room. They’re a piece of furniture people use to sit down to watch some TV or hang out with guests, so they should be as simple and discreet as possible. Nowadays, monochromatic sofas are the way to go.

That ’90s TV Isn’t Cutting It Anymore

Every millennial will agree there’s a certain charm to electronics from the ’80s and ’90s. Millennials love their nostalgic grey-box computer screens, vintage consoles, and VHS players. But if you want your house to look good, you should throw your old ’90s TV in the garage and get a new one.

A new TV can be costly, but it’s worth it. Unlike chunky ’90s TV sets, modern-day TVs are slim, discreet, and neutral. Unless you’re watching TV, you don’t want your TV set to be the number-one focus when people step into your living room.

Rugs Belong in the Floor

This one screams ‘dated’ at every fiber. Using rugs as toilet covers is not only out of fashion; it’s downright creepy. When you have guests at home, they don’t expect to find one of these in your bathroom anymore. So please do them a favor and keep your toilet as rug-free as possible.

If anything, rugs belong on the floor! But just to stay safe, you should avoid this type of old-school, fuzzy rug completely. To make matters worse, these rugs can accumulate a lot of dust and have to be cleaned constantly—which is far from easy, by the way.

You Don’t Need These Anymore

Table doilies were once considered to be chic. They were used on special occasions and deemed to be beautiful and fancy. Well, not anymore! These dinnertime ornaments are not only dated and over the top: they’re also very unpractical and ineffective when you consider the alternatives.

Everybody wants to keep a dinner table clean, but there are better ways to do it. Instead of flimsy table doilies, you should go for a modern-looking woven placemat. They’re way more protective and, most importantly, they don’t have that corny 19th-century look to them.

That Antique-Store Look

We expect to find a living room that looks like a Victorian-era display of wealth in a museum. We can also deal with it if we’re paying a visit to the Queen of England. But if we’re visiting a friend or family member and step inside one of these creepy old rooms, our instinct is to run away!

Yes, Victorian-style living rooms were once considered to be luxurious, and we’re pretty sure every chair, table, and ornament you see in the picture is probably worth a lot of money. But do you truly want your living room to look like an antique store?

Overcooked Oak-Stained Kitchen

Some kitchen decoration styles are still going strong after decades. Tiles, for example, are very trendy and continue to be used in beautiful, modern-day kitchens. Sadly, the same cannot be said of oak-stained cabinets. While these made for a kitchen-decoration must in the ’90s and early ‘2000s, they’re definitely past their heyday.

Kitchen renovations are especially costly, so don’t feel too bad about your oak-stained kitchen just yet. But if possible, you should consider getting yourself a new kitchen with simple, square-paneled doors in a white, grey, or blue shade.

Please Don’t Keep Your Tea Set Out!

Hanging an entire tea set on the wall used to be okay. Now, it makes for yet another outdated home-décor detail that screams ‘elderly lady.’ It’s fine to find one of these utterly unpractical tea-set cabinets in your grandmother’s home. But if you want your house to look fresh, you should stay away from these.

Surprise, surprise: the best place to keep your tea set is inside a kitchen cabinet, where they can be safe, not on the wall where they can fall at the slightest vibration. There’s truly no point in showing off how “cool” your tea set is anymore.

Vertically Out-of-Fashion

Vertical blinds were very popular during the ’80s, but they have run past their expiration date for a few years now. You can still find these in old-school motels and Bauhaus-inspired offices made by Yuppies, which is not a good sign if you consider 1981 was a long, long time ago.

Vertical blinds are not very easy on the eye, but they’re also very unpractical. The gaps in the blinds are not as effective at keeping the light out as a regular horizontal blind. To make it worse, these vertical blinds are a nightmare to clean and tend to accumulate a lot of dust and dirt.

As Cringy As It Gets

Remember the La-Z-Boy? These chairs used to sit at the corner of every mall and were mainly used by exhausted husbands waiting for their wives to finish shopping. Today, they’re as out-of-style as the situation we have just described.

La-Z-Boys were already cringy when they first came out, and not a lot of social credit was given to the people who bought these for real after trying them at the mall. But this horror furniture has only got exponentially uncool as the years went by. There’s nothing wrong with being a bit lazy… But please don’t be La-Z!

On-Display Pickle Jars

A good pickle jar can outlive most of us, but that’s no reason to keep it in plain sight. These durable jars tend to linger in people’s homes for ages, and homeowners once had the habit of displaying them on their kitchen shelves. Needless to say, that’s not a good home décor practice anymore.

If you’re a pickle lover, that’s alright. But pickle jars should be stored where they belong: in a dark pantry, where they can be kept away from peeping eyes. While we agree pickles can be delicious, we think it’s fair to say they’re far from attractive…

That Dated Farmhouse Theme

Most things thematic have run out of style in today’s home-décor world. That farmhouse theme that once made its way to every kitchen is not an exception. Decorating your kitchen or living room with ornaments of roosters and other farm animals is pretty dated nowadays.

There’s something comforting about farmhouse decorations, as they make you feel like you’re living a peaceful countryside life, away from the stress of the city. But if you want your house to look modern and trendy, little statues of chickens and cows are not the way to go.

Rehash Your Antiques

Antiques can be cool and trendy, but they must serve a purpose. Having a collection of vintage objects just lying there is not only useless: is also considered to be pretty dated… That doesn’t mean you have to throw away all of your precious antiques, though, as you can make something new out of them!

One of the best things you can do with an old object is to rehash it and turn it into something else. If you love DIY arts-and-crafts, why don’t your turn your vintage Chinese vase into a floral arrangement, for instance?

Every Guest’s Nightmare

We don’t think covering furniture with plastic was ever cool, but we’re pretty sure it’s not anymore! Plastic covers are not only ugly and uninviting: they’re also morally questionable. When you use plastic covers to keep your furniture safe, you’re sending the wrong message to your guests.

Fans of plastic covers will immediately be perceived as overprotective and cheap; it’s like they’re screaming “don’t touch that” at each one of their visitors. Furniture is there to be enjoyed, but that’s not possible when it’s covered in plastic! Everything will get old at some point, so just make the most of your furniture by keeping it plastic-free.

Keep It Real With Real Plants

Plants are one of the most beautiful things you can use to decorate your house. They will never run out of style, and they come with plenty of benefits: they can help to purify the air, they’re associated with stress reduction, and they can turn a boring living room into a lively place.

People who use fake plants are often frowned upon. They want to have beautiful plants in their homes, but they don’t want to go through the hassle of taking care of them. Watering plants takes five to ten minutes of one’s day, so why wouldn’t you want to have real, alive plants at home?

It’s a Mismatch!

Curiously enough, making everything in a room match equals a mismatch. You wouldn’t want to go out to the street dressed in yellow shoes, yellow socks, yellow pants, and a yellow jacket, would you? So why do people insist on using the same color, theme, and style of ornament in one area?

The clear downside to making everything match in a room is that it will lead to fatigue. The nautical-themed bedroom in the picture is so self-referential that we’re getting dizzy just by looking at it. Home decoration is about getting creative, so please don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

Popcorn Ceilings Don’t Pop Anymore

Popcorn ceilings were very popular at one point, mainly because they were so challenging to make. For home painters, coming up with a popcorn ceiling took twice the work, so it had to be twice better, right? Well, not exactly…

Popcorn ceilings ran quickly out of style not just because of the way they look, but also because they’re pretty inconvenient. It’s already tiresome to clean a ceiling, but it’s extra hard when that ceiling is made up of a rugged texture that’s perfect for storing dust and other debris. When it comes to ceilings, simplicity is the answer.

Overused Wood Paneling

Wood paneling was a home-décor favorite during the ’60s and ’70s, but it’s not quite in style today. We admit that wood paneling can be beautiful when well applied, but it was so overused in the past that ended up being considered dated. Nowadays, it’s better to avoid it.

While some of the outdated decoration trends in our list look utterly horrible, wood paneling is one of the few that we expect to make a comeback. To be fair, some modern-day design catalogs still use wood details to great effect, so don’t worry too much about this one.

Get Rid of Elaborated Windows

A home without windows is like an ice cream cone without ice cream. Windows let the light inside a room and make it feel alive, so why would you want them to look this pompous? Curtains and blinds are pretty useful, but overelaborate window decorations are nothing but an unwanted remain of a distant past.

The one function this type of ornament has is to make your windows feel self-important, at the cost of sacrificing some much-needed natural light. Elaborated windows were a must in the old days, but they’re a must-not in today’s world. Once again, the trick is to keep it simple!

Fringe Means Cringe

Sofas with fringes are far from being the raging new trend. While you can still find a lot of these in furniture stores, they have an outdated look to them. They’re overelaborate, a bit too flashy, and not very easy to clean. They’re far less practical than a more neutral sofa.

Yet, sofas with fringes (almost) made a comeback in recent years. In 2017, multiple home décor outlets published articles on how fringe was making a return. The trend was short-lived, however, and today, fringe continues to be a thing from the past.

Outdated Shower Curtains

There’s a reason why most modern showers come with glass doors. Glass doors are easier on the eye than old-fashion shower curtains, and they have many additional benefits. They tend to stay cleaner, and they don’t have to be replaced from season to season.

Old-school shower curtains, on the other hand, accumulate lots of dirt and are far from hygienic. Even the simplest shower curtain can make a bathroom feel outdated, and cleaning it can be a real nightmare. If you have the chance, you should replace your unpractical shower curtains with shower glass doors.

Overdramatic Sleigh Bed

While some outlets swear sleigh beds are still in-style, there’s no question this overdramatic design belongs to a different era. Even the most impressive master suite bedroom can make an impact without counting on this outdated type of bed, which used to be a symbol of status.

Well, not anymore: sleigh beds aren’t the rage nowadays, and they’re unnecessarily elaborate, heavy, and clunky. Characterized by their curving silhouette, sleigh beds are supposed to be decorative and comfortable, but we’d rather take a nap in a simpler, more neutral bed than sleep in this 18th-century creation.

Gold-Framed Objects Lost Their Cool

Once upon a time, having lots of gold-framed objects at home used to be cool. It was a way of displaying wealth and impressing your friends. But pretty much like any other decoration style used to exhibit status, gold-framed objects have long lost their charm.

The gold-framed mirror in the picture draws too much attention to itself and takes the focus away from the other items in the room. Mirrors can add a sense of depth to any area of the house, but they don’t need to look like they used to belong to Marie Antoinette. Simple mirrors with thinner frames are favored nowadays.

Paint Beats Paper

Modern-day home designers continue to use wallpaper now and then. In 2021, for instance, wallpapering within panels was considered to be a cool, comeback trend. But nine out ten times, wallpaper makes for an outdated home-décor solution.

Old wallpaper can make a room feel heavy on the eyes, and some wallpaper patterns are so ugly we get tired just by looking at them! Unless you’re very confident you can pull off a fashionable wallpaper (which is not easy), you should snub your old wallpaper for a fresh coat of paint.

A Fluffy Floor is a ’70s Thing

House parties got pretty crazy during the ’70s, and there was something comforting about having carpet-covered floors back then. But just like the wild spirit of the ’70s, carpet as a go-to home-décor solution has long lost its place in today’s modern world.

Getting rid of carpet is not just one of the best ways to make your house have a more up-to-date look, it’s also one of the best methods for getting rid of household dust! According to the Chicago Tribune, carpets hold onto dust and are harder to clean than regular, uncarpeted floors.

Carpeting Everything is a Big No-No

Just like carpet floors, carpet-everything is no longer the rage. People used to love to cover entire rooms with carpet, but doing so can have a real impact on one’s health. Not only because carpets are great at accumulating dust, but also because they can give way to allergies and other respiratory problems.

While cleaning a hardwood wall is relatively easy, cleaning a carpet wall is way harder. No matter how thoroughly you scrub, you will always miss one or two specks of dust. Needless to say, carpet-covered rooms aren’t exactly a modern trend either…

Light Blue Isn’t Pink’s Best Friend

Pink is a tricky color. You can pull off amazing home décor styles using pink, but you need to be very careful about it. It used to be cool to match light pink with light blue, but this once-trendy color scheme has long lost its charm. It has a dollhouse look to it that doesn’t sit well in the context of a modern living room.

Nowadays, pink is usually paired with a stronger, darker blue, which provides it with some much-needed contrast. Combining two unsaturated, light colors like the ones in the picture is not recommended, with nursery rooms being the acceptable exception.

That’s Too Much!

Impeccable home decoration is about embracing limitations. You should ask yourself about what you don’t want to have in your living room, and only then consider color schemes and furniture placement. This way, you’ll avoid putting everything into just one area!

Having too many patterns, colors, ornaments, and pieces of furniture was never trendy and, to be fair, it will probably never be. “What is going on?” is not the question you want your guests to ask themselves once they step into your living room, so please avoid this over-cluttered look.

Why So Many Pillows?

We’re not sure if there ever was a good reason to have too many pillows in the bed. We guess people used to do it because they thought it was beautiful. However, the all-the-pillows trend (if there ever was one) has surely run out of style in today’s world.

Using too many pillows is outdated and illogic; there’s no reason for you to burden yourself with it every morning when making the bed. Decorative pillows don’t have a modern look and take up a lot of unnecessary space. In one word, they’re annoying, both for guests and homeowners.

Avoid the “Furniture Corner”

More than an outdated decoration trend, the “furniture corner” can be described as home décor malpractice. The main goal of the “furniture corner” is to put a lot of things into a small area and preserve some room to walk around. If everything is cluttered in the same corner, thought many homeowners, then the room will feel bigger.

Sadly, it’s not that simple. The best way to make a small room feel spacious is to embrace a minimal look and use just the furniture you need. The “furniture corner” is unpractical, lazy, and quite claustrophobic.

Tiled Kitchen Countertops

Tiled kitchen countertops have been around at least since the ’40s. But while tile is still a great look to a modern kitchen, tiled kitchen countertops are no longer the rage. This decoration fail is not outlandishly outdated, though, and some outlets claim tiled countertops are making a comeback.

Comeback or not, though, the fact is that tiled kitchen countertops will always make us think of grandma’s kitchen… A truly modern kitchen will stick to minor tile details and opt for more practical, solid, and linear countertop surfaces (such as quartz, granite, or soapstone).

Frame Them Up!

Having lots of framed pictures at home is not exactly trendy, but if you do, please make sure you hang them in the appropriate place. Framed photos should be placed high, to be seen by humans that are standing up, not at a sitting-down level.

Hanging photo frames too low gives the impression that one’s too lazy to get out of the chair to take a close look at his or her cherished memories. On the other hand, it’s not cool to force guests to bend their backs just to see that vacation picture from three years ago.

No Love For Novelty Clocks

Unless you’re a hipster looking for an ironic, nostalgic decoration piece, novelty clocks are one of those home decoration items that have been eradicated from the list of “things that are cool right now.” Cat-themed, cuckoo-inspired, or Mickey Mouse novelty clocks, it’s all the same: they’re outdated and should be taken off the wall!

Novelty clocks manage to look childish and creepy at the same time, and a single one of them can utterly ruin the vibe of a well-decorated room. If you have one of these, please put it down and save it for your next garage sale.

Uncool Linoleum Flooring

At first glance, linoleum flooring looks like actual flooring. But it’s not. Walking on top of linoleum flooring is not a pleasant experience, and homeowners who go for this outdated decoration trend are likely to regret their decision very quickly.

After all, linoleum flooring is not only ugly and out of style: it’s also pretty inconvenient. It needs to be sealed routinely, as even the tiniest water damage can cause it to detach. Linoleum flooring has since been replaced by PVC flooring, but even its modern version should be avoided.

The Old-School Thermostat

When you see an old-school analog thermostat like the one in the picture, you know you’ve stepped into the past. Spotting one of these at a motel is never a good sign, as it gives the impression that such a motel hasn’t been renovated since the ’90s. Well, we guess the same applies to people’s houses!

In the age of the Internet of Things, when pretty much every home device is getting smarter, relying on an analog thermostat is a no-no. There’s vintage and then there’s just plain old: analog thermostats are an example of the latter.

Please Renew Your Outlet Covers

Outlet covers are relatively discreet, and an ugly outlet cover will not make a well-decorated room look outdated. But home décor is all about paying attention to the details, and most homeowners tend to ignore the state of their outlets.

Luckily, replacing your old outlet covers with new ones is very easy and accessible, so there’s no excuse for not doing so. It’s just a detail, yes, but it can make a huge difference in the long run. Pretty much like analog thermostats, old-timey outlet covers are a bit cringy to look at.

Curb Your Shiplap

It’s a common home décor mistake: if one thing looks good in one place, why not put it everywhere else? Shiplap has a rustic look that can be used to great effect and continues to have trendy applications today. But well-decorated houses are about balance, and there’s no balance to putting shiplap all over the place.

Keep in mind shiplap tends to get dirty very easily, and it’ll not always boast that pristine, farmhouse-white look. Most importantly, though, it can feel exhausting to live in a house that’s covered with shiplap from the floor to the ceiling.

Ugly Mirror-Covered Walls

There’s nothing beautiful or trendy about standing in a room that looks like something taken straight out of a fitness tape from the ’80s. Unless you’re a professional yoga teacher, there’s no reason to cover the entire walls with floor-to-ceiling mirrors.

It can get dizzying to live in a place that’s constantly being duplicated in a gigantic reflection, and mirror-covered walls without a purpose feel a bit narcissistic. These look great in places like ballet schools, not in people’s living rooms. Not to mention they’re quite expensive and hard to maintain!