squirrelking – thats actually black rubber cast into every gap – and we are in the weird position of having no one living underneath us. I don’t think I would have done it if we had folk living below us but maybe that one room as I love the floor.

I quite like the unmolested time warp houses from say 60s, swirly carpet, g plan furniture, brick fireplaces, Corby trouser press…

If I bought one I would keep most of it intact and have a retrotastic party.

A friend of mine bought a house that hadn’t been touched since the 60’s and paid over the asking price on condition that they left all the furniture, carpets etc. It was ace.

See, that’s a good floor TJ.

We have crap laminate boards in our house that were here when we moved in, but some of the better laminate floorings are very good, if it is a quality engineered timber system. Dimensionally stable, available in all sorts of widths and timbers, and can be finished in much the same way as a solid wood board because the bit you see and touch is real wood. Expensive, yes, but a quality product.

We lived with this for 9 years.

How do we stand on the Farrow and Ball type wall paints? Personally i really like them as they are not flat colours but subtle mixes. However I bet they will date as badly as the 80s/90s strong colours on walls or the 70s flock wallpaper

As far as us muggles go they’re supposed to be the trend setting paint of choice, their current range in B&Q at least could be described as ‘fifty shades of grey’ with a few grey-blues/greens thrown into the mix, there’s others, but the bulk of the range is greys, at some point most of those greys will disappear and the next big thing will arrive.

As paint goes, they do come in interesting shades and there’s a ‘look’ about the finish you can see, it’s not very good paint IME though, needs multiple coats for a decent finish and isn’t very robust.

I can take a photo of my living room that will show.

Grey wall
A GIANT MidCentury sideboard in teak
Bare floorboards with mad gaps
Mustard rug
two african drums
an early anglepoise
….
aaaaaand….

I actually prefer barefloorboards to other flooring options. I haven’t got round to it in all my rooms but the ones i have retrofitted with wood slithers int he gaps looks good

Some cork tiles on the old harth…

Previous owner thought this looked good.

It probably did in the 90s, laminate floors, pine furniture etc, that was probably the last time they could bring themselves to give enough of a toss about it to redecorate.

Someone spent a bit of time fitting these ….. Thankfully they took about 30 seconds to remove.

Aye – but in many years time will the F&B colours be as dated as 70s stuff is now?

https://twitter.com/hashtag/greyplague?src=hash&lang=en

I quite like the unmolested time warp houses from say 60s

Marvel at the beauty of this

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-76777290.html

Some of it looks a little impractical (such as the hobs), but I think it great that it has been preserved as true to the original design intent over the last 60ish years

As with most things its all about not over doing it. Take TVs:

TVs on walls are fine.

TV’s on walls so high up its like sitting at the front row of the cinema are not fine.

TV’s on the wall so high up because they are above the fake mantlepiece in your new build that doesn’t have a chimney are ghastly.

TV’s on the feature wall so high up because they are above the fake mantlepiece which is also liberally decorated with “LOVE” and “HOME” ornaments strategically positioned to catch the light from the LED downlighters, well you get the point.

TV’s built into fake chimney breasts with full width glass box gas fires…

Oh, and a wall mounted TV (at the correct height for watching TV from the sofa.

Oh yes the whole place was done in the 90s. But it aged directly 90s.

They had lived here since 1950 . The original lino tiles were still on the floor under the laminates in all houses.

The kitchen was good quality full solid wood carcass and doors just horrible to look at and worn out after probably 25 years.

The kitchen floor was parador and looked like new.

Those god awful feature walls with some mad indian restaurant style wallpaper.

One I always question with bifolds, glass walls and modern looking houses with no smaller opening windows is what happens when you want some fresh air but not all the doors open? How about when you go out for the day or to sleep.

I mean. Who really cares?

Next thing you’ll be saying that you need to be redoing things every five years, and bang goes a few more years of your life paying stuff off.

If you *need* to redecorate then do it – but if you just fancy a change or think things look “tired” – do they look more tired than working another year, when you could have that year off and suit yourself?

Am doing a mahoosive renovation of an old welsh farmhouse and a full demolish of an old outbuilding and rebuild. It’s going to cost me a fortune.

However, at 47 years old, if it needs redoing before I die I’ll sell up, buy a big boat and spend the rest of my dwindling years sailing around the planet.

Eff spending money on constant updates to keep up with the Jones’…

Peekay, that’s lovely. I’d live in it.

Not nice 1960s modernism, but this has some spectacular interior features..

https://www.rettie.co.uk/properties/13069746/sales

Eff spending money on constant updates to keep up with the Jones’…

Amen.

plastic grass

Some folk in 25 years time will be wearing brown and beige , cordoroys, tena pants etc
You will still have the receipts kept in a quality st tin from when you bought that Meile washing machine, 5’Samsung telly from John Lewis and still loving your out of fashion grey windies with condensation inside the glass , you will constantly be contacted to sell up and buy a brand new old folks bungalow you can’t pass on to your kids and your meals delivered ready made to stick in the micro

Previous owner thought this looked good.

I can do better than that:

What you can’t see is the transition to a slightly darker shade of terracotta just behind the TV. Not a different wall, just a line straight down it where they obviously just changed brands.

@himupstairs

Not nice 1960s modernism, but this has some spectacular interior features..

I think that, and a few of the other mid century houses and images that have posted show that it isn’t necessarily the avocado/pastel bathroom suite in itself that is disliked. It is about the context of the surroundings.

Curating them took hours and hours of work.

You should know better than this, TJ. 🙂

I can do better than that:

I’ve worked in social housing refurb for two decades.

You people have no idea.

There aren’t even any pictures of houses with graffiti on the inside, dogshit on the floor or floor to ceiling “specialist” pornography.

The range of peoples decorating “choices” is waaaaaaaaaay wider than you could ever comprehend.

There aren’t even any pictures of houses with graffiti on the inside, dogshit on the floor or floor to ceiling “specialist” pornography.

I spent 2 summers refurbing such flats for social tennents. I know where your at. Baths full of human feaces are more common than you’d think. Was essentially full hazmat to go in there.

Good money though if you can do it quickly.

Well when we talk about decorating we’re actually talking about otherwise sane choices rather than slum living.

Good money though if you can do it quickly.

I’d imagine you would want to given limited lung capacity.

Martin – glad someone picked that up 🙂

Aye – but in many years time will the F&B colours be as dated as 70s stuff is now?

Yes.

Everything that is fashionable now, will look as dated when the next trends come.

The reason some houses look dated, but not worn/grubby is there’s a point in all our lives when you just don’t care about that sort of stuff anymore, I thought reached that point years ago, but my Wife who is a bit younger than me, and well… cares about stuff hadn’t. So I try to steer her away from anything too permanent or expensive to replace that’s too ‘on trend’ because in a few years she’ll hate it. It’s a funny old world.

It’s funny, I’ve been obsessing about the colour of the living room, because for some reason I’ve decided that after painting it all about 6 months ago, it’s a big boring. It’s a HUGE room, not because it’s a big house, but because it’s a 70s semi with a big long, combined living / dining room which would have had some horrible big sliding glass doors in it year ago. I wanted to paint the living room in one colour and leave the dining room whatever marketing name of magnolia it is now.

After 5/6 taster pots of, yes, shades of grey, she’s settled on a F&B grey for just one wall, to my mind it’s neither fish nor fowl, it’s not dark enough to be that sort of ‘Heritage look’ which I sort of had in mind, but then, it’s not a heritage house, and it’s not light enough to be ‘just paint’. It’s just boring. It reminds me of the Spitting Imagine puppet of John Major.

Despite “not caring about that sort of stuff” it seems I do… so, and I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, but I’ve been reading up on new trends, lots of bright colours coming according to Home and Gardens (as well as **** grey).

It seems green is THE colour for 2021.

https://www.homesandgardens.com/news/paint-trends-206929

I’ve thought of all of this as I type it, time for a convo with the Wife I think.

Micro en-suite shower rooms / bathrooms and barn sized open plan living, dining, kitchens…

Don’t use the estate emulsion from F&B as it’s very very Matt and chalky finish and isn’t very durable – but it isn’t meant to be, it’s supposed to be a traditional finish. The modern emulsion from them is good. Yes it’s expensive but you generally need a lot less coats so works out similar in price sometimes.

I’m using some modern emulsion (grey obvs) for a current job. £73 for 2.5 litres! 😳
You could buy a car for that.
Luckily, the customer specced it.

I’m not convinced I’m getting good value when I’m buying paint from a brand that has multiple swanky high street showrooms.

Micro en-suite shower rooms / bathrooms and barn sized open plan living, dining, kitchens

This one actually makes lots of sense….not that I have an ensuite but why would you want a massive bathroom. You spend minimal time in it-unless I’m doing it wrong 🙂

can’t believe no ones mentioned baths in bedrooms.

not like en-suites or the like, but a bath in your bedroom like in some boutique hotel. seems to of trickled down from the likes of grand designs and now ‘normal people’ appear to be doing it. why in gods name would you want a bath in your bedroom or watch your partner have a bath whilst you are in bed. it’s just really weird and future generations will judge us harshly

I have been looking at houses to buy in an idle fashion – some of the interiors are utterly hideous. My fave is the faux stone fireplace thingy that runs along all of one wall at differing heights

It seems green is THE colour for 2021.

We’ve just done our living room in F&B Pigeon and have to say it looks fab – and I was very skeptical.

You are doing it wrong trail rat. My bathroom is even linked into the sound system with proper hi fi speakers

You are doing it wrong trail rat. My bathroom is even linked into the sound system with proper hi fi speakers

And there was me thinking my last land lord was odd for suggesting I broke the toilet through some kind of bathroom party. I guess maybe they are a thing afterall.

And there was me thinking my last land lord was odd for suggesting I broke the toilet through some kind of bathroom party.

That’s also more common than you would imagine.

In buildings with communal toilets like office buildings, the correlation between broken toilet seats in cubicles and the discovery of empty vodka half-bottles above suspended ceiling tiles is surprisingly high.

It seems that bathroom parties are actually a thing.

You are doing it wrong trail rat. My bathroom is even linked into the sound system with proper hi fi speakers

we’ve just moved to a normal-sized house with a weirdly enormous bathroom that has a spa bath. Guess the previous owners enjoyed a good soak! It is a really nice luxury tho 😃 Read a book or listen to an audiobook/podcast via the HomePod. Have even idly thought about putting a projector or big telly on the wall (would take a bigger telly than our living room 🤣)

Speak for yourself Percy.

Ex MHA house clearer.