Some homes appear so timeless that you can’t tell whether the interiors are the result of a recent renovation, or whether they might have evolved slowly over five decades. On other occasions, there are obvious hallmarks of the past that haven’t held up quite so well. Ruffled swag curtains – while not for everyone and loathed by some – can still work in the right period home, whereas time capsule relics such as the Artex ceilings and clunky gas fireplaces of this writer’s youth were best left in the 1980s.
House & Garden has always celebrated individuality, and we don’t believe in frequent redecorating to keep up with the neighbours, so we’d encourage you to ignore any of the below if you recognise something that you own and love. Decorating should be for your pleasure only, and if that pleasure is found in the wedding cake swirls of an Artex ceiling, so be it.
Plus, a decade ago we might have predicted that the coloured bathroom suite was gone for good and look what happened there. There are surely few baths as beautiful as the Rockwell in powder blue from The Water Monopoly. All that to say, do your own thing, regardless of trends – most things will sway in and out of favour as the years go by.
However, some ways of decorating and shopping have evolved for the better and our homes can benefit from a different approach. We explore some of them below…
Matching furniture sets
Much like Tom Selleck on our TV screens and chicken Kiev on our plates, the three-piece suite was once a staple in most homes. These days, matching furniture sets are a dated decorating concept and it’s far more interesting to the eye if you eschew the urge to kill three birds at once by buying a suite. If you need some semblance of order and symmetry, a pair of armchairs opposite a complementary (but non-matching) sofa is a more contemporary approach, even if the pieces themselves are traditional in style.
This same logic could also be applied to other rooms in the home. If you choose a matching dining table and chairs, that’s a great place to stop. Don’t be tempted to add a dresser and sideboard from the same furniture range – it crosses the boundary between tasteful and overkill.
Likewise in bedrooms; with so many brilliant makers and brands to explore and the growing need for space-saving solutions that don’t waste an inch, it’s a dated look to buy bedside tables, a chest of drawers and a freestanding wardrobe from the same collection. We can all be more creative (or, if budget allows, bespoke) than that.
Your furniture needn’t clash aggressively, but experiment with tones, shapes, materials and woodgrain; looking for a common thread that will make everything feel cohesive and intentional. Choose pieces that look like they could be cousins, rather than siblings.
Dated tech
Perhaps your DVD player, six racks of DVDs, an iPod dock (that’s no longer compatible with any device), bulky speakers, CD towers and hefty TV are in your living room because you never thought about overhauling things? It would be wasteful (and foolish) to part with dated tech that’s still in regular use, but if the shelves are full of dusty discs and old devices because of an overdue clear out, take this as your sign to part with bulky things that you don’t use anymore.
