Designer Rose Tarlow once said: 'An object added for effect instead of affection will always look like an affectation.'
In other words, you should never decorate your home according to what other people think looks good at the time. Interior design should reflect your personal taste and lifestyle.
When it doesn’t, the result are trends like the ones listed below. We take a look at some of the worst interior design trends ever.
Inflatable furniture
Pioneered in the Sixties with a resurgence in the Nineties, inflatable furniture is cheap, easy to assemble and looks quirky. The trouble is it also looks cheap, is easy to break and looks like a mutant balloon. There is nothing practical, life-enhancing, or aesthetically pleasing about inflatable furniture.
Shag carpet
Even if you do want your floor to look like Muppet fur, the sheer thought of cleaning a shag carpet should be enough to put anyone off. One that should definitely remain in the Seventies.
Carpeted bathrooms
You can almost see the benefits of this one. The bathroom is a room for relaxing and what is cosier than carpet?
The bathroom is also a room for cleanliness and hygiene, and there is nothing hygienic about a carpet permanently exposed to damp, dirt, splashes and stains.
Themed rooms
Changing Rooms has a lot to answer for with this one. Influences should be used to create a look that reflects your tastes and needs but using MDF to turn your living room into the Coliseum is unlikely to complement your lifestyle or stand the test of time. There is a difference between reflecting a style or culture and turning your room into a novelty.
Murals
The jungle painting over your baby’s bedroom walls is great, and modern wall art and decals offer something fresh, but a giant painting of a vineyard across a quarter of your lounge will overpower everything else in the room.
Of course, as much as we dislike these trends, we are sure there are some homes out there making them work. There are as many living solutions as there are lives to be led. The most important thing is finding the right solution for you.
