If you're decorating a new house and don't know where to start, you might spend hours browsing Pinterest mood boards. Looking for new ideas and trying to figure out your style and what's considered in this year can be exhausting. But remember one thing—home design trends come and go. While some of them turn out quite nice, others might be expensive and inefficient.

Reddit user u/wazzel2u raised this question in r/AskReddit: “What is a terrible trend found in new home design?”, and more than 5K people replied. Whether it's lack of storage space, hollow interior doors or open concept bathrooms, the comment section under their post is full of some of the worst design solutions that you should leave behind.

Bored Panda collected some of the most messed-up decor tendencies shared in this Reddit thread. If you have some insights on the topic, don't be shy and share them below!

#1

Lack of storage space. Just bought a new home and didn’t realize how little space there was. We have one storage closet upstairs. That’s it.

Image credits: A_Bit_Off_Kilter

#2

Hollow interior doors that don't keep sound out from within the house and hallways - especially hollow bedroom doors when you're trying to sleep.

Image credits: Back2Bach

#3

No broom closets. Where the hell do people put their mops and vacuum cleaners? Or do the people who buy those McMansions just not do any of their own cleaning?

Image credits: CristabelYYC

#4

Open concept bathrooms.

I don’t need to see you taking a dump from my bed.

Image credits: 02K30C1

#5

I really don’t like the fireplace design where you are intended to put your TV over it. A TV is way too high when over the fireplace.

Image credits: 0rangePolarBear

#6

Bedrooms that are only juuuuust big enough for a double or queen bed and a nightstand.

Image credits: makovince

#7

Removing stair banisters for a crisp look. Like your drunk friend Brooks is going to fall of the side and die one day. There are building codes for reasons

Image credits: ProofBelt5

#8

I don't know if it's new new, but it drives me crazy when people replace cabinetry with open shelves.

Don't people understand dust? Bugs ring a bell? Pet hair? Speaking of pets, how do you keep your cats from messing around with that setup?

Image credits: lyan-cat

#9

Live laugh love.

Image credits: patronsaintofshinies

#10

Carpeted bathrooms. I’ve seen way too many of them

Image credits: Weekly_Noodle

#11

Rich people putting marble absolutely everywhere. It looks tacky

Image credits: coolandschmidt

#12

Small laundry rooms, small pantries, no linen closets, but here’s a 20x20 media room to watch TV. My next house will either be laid out by me or made in the 70s/80s when they designed homes to be lived in.

Image credits: oldbulldog22

#13

Floor-to-ceiling, clear glass showers. They look great when they are spotlessly clean, which means it looks terrible most of the time in most homes.

Image credits: wazzel2u

#14

Kitchens that they cram into a narrow rectangle. A lot of apartments and town houses come with these. They are so narrow that if you open the fridge door, nobody can walk past you.

A kitchen should be open, not walled in all sides and shaped like a narrow rectangle. It drives me crazy when I see these.

Image credits: Effective_James

#15

Gables on symmetrical colonials. All it does is date a house to the 2010s.

Image credits: leftonspitbrook

#16

I may die on this hill alone, but I HATE open concept kitchens. Not the ones with a nice bar separating the space, not the ones with a window. I'm talking wide open, no barrier to determine where the kitchen ends. It's hideous.

#17

Open concept everything. There is value in being able to separate some rooms of the house. I very much prefer to have a kitchen that is not completely exposed to the area where I am going to be entertaining company.

That way, I can cook dinner and not worry about having to clean up everything in the kitchen so its spotless because the kitchen is basically in the main living room of the house.

This and also the trend of having big ass fucking windows in the front so everyone in the street can see your whole ground floor. Makes your first floor into a fucking fishbowl that I would never be comfortable in. I like to be able to walk around my house without worrying the people across the street can track my every move.

#18

Painting over bricks. It's just like how people used to put carpet over nice wood hard floors.

#19

That bluish-grey wood or faux wood flooring that’s “in” right now. Every house and apartment with those will look dated in 5-10 years

#20

Every inch of acreage is used. Houses are really close together, streets are narrow. It’s crowded

#21

In some newer neighborhoods, the houses all look the exact same.

#22

The grotesque housing developments of the same like 4 models and 3 colors with no trees. Not to mention the houses are built like shit. The terribly inefficient road layout with a million cul de sacs.

Image credits: Individual-Text-1805

#23

Glass railing. Gets dirty really easy and a big pain in the ass to install.

#24

Disclaimer, I live in a 100 year old house.

However here are the things I can’t stand about all the new builds in my area and that some of my friends have purchased;

In no particular order,

Faux modern farmhouse style everything; seems like every builder watched to much of Joanna Gaines and just wants to use shiplap and slider barn doors everywhere; or just likes yo use the term “modern farmhouse” in their marketing material when there is nothing even remotely farmhouse about your vinyl sided box house on a 1/4 acre lot other than a farmhouse style sink any maybe a bit of shiplap in the kitchen

All houses in a development using the same color of vinyl siding or hardyboard. There are whole new built subdivisions here that literally every house is either dark blue, medium blue, or gray. Boring!

Houses that they only really tried to put brick on one side or windows and then the sides and the back of the house are super ugly and just all vinyl; and that is what your neighbors have to look at from their backyard

Open concept everything

Houses now that due to materials are “air tight” and don’t breathe, and have poor ventilation or air circulation

I could thing of about 3 dozen more if I really wanted to

#25

All white, white carpet, white furniture, white shiplap

#26

Wasted space. This includes enormous bedrooms with sitting areas, homes with equal number of bed and bathrooms, extravagant foyers that eat half the front of a house, formal living and/dining rooms that never get used. Etc

#27

These toilets that don't even come up to my kneecaps with how low they sit.

#28

A gabled ceiling to make your room taller.

Open floor plans that let your neighbor see completely through your house.

An undersized front stoop.

No landscaping or trees in your whole development. Or even worse when they half ass it in front of your 400k new house.

#29

That modern metallic design that's taking over practically every new development. The homes just feel cold

Every new building in my neighborhood is like it. The only big positive is that they all are typically multi-purpose so there's like stores and restaurants at the bottom.

#30

The mishmash of different architectural styles in one house.

#31

I don't like it when they have like ten different rooflines that are only a foot or two deep. Are they hoping it looks like an older house that's had many add-ons done?

Image credits: LeonardGhostal

#32

No attention to lighting temperature (kelvins) or even worse, mismatched light temperatures.

Most cheap LED bulbs are way too "cold" looking and lack the natural warmth of old incandescent lighting.

Aim for 2700kelvin or lower for that warm cozy atmosphere.

#33

Go to a high end gated community development ($800k - 2M price points in my area) front of the homes is beautiful stone, brick, etc but on the back every house has cheap ugly vinyl siding all the same color as far as the eye can see. I never understood this since you actually spend time in the back yard not the front.

Image credits: MisterSolid

#34

Most sinks are absolutely terrible. Looking better is nice, but not at the expense of hitting your hand on the bowl every time you wash your hands.

Image credits: zed910

#35

Agreeable Grey. Everywhere.

#36

As an electrician; putting 600 potlights in every room of the house. Sure it makes me money but it looks ridiculous having so many lights every 4 feet of every room.

#37

Why is everything so damn bland? Why is white and grey the popular colors? Whatever happened to color? Why can't we have living rooms wallpapered with big bright flowers, long suede couches in deep fuchsia? And, mile-high blue carpets that you sink into when you walk? Whatever happened to walnut paneling and colored subway tile in the bathroom? Whatever happened to delicate stenciled flowers on the inside of the bowl of the bathroom sink?

When did we lose our personalities? I just want a house that looks like a manic-depressive toddler version of myself was set lose in a JoAnn's with a limitless credit card.

#38

Barn doors are so stupid. It’s a heavier, more expensive, harder to open door. And then it still has a public bathroom-style gap that eliminates actual privacy.

#39

I've seen several homes with appliances integrated into the construction of the kitchen itself. Not just in an alcove but actually built into the wall. Sure, it's convenient that there's a fucking cappuccino machine built into the wall next to the cabinet over the center island countertop. But what happens when (not if, when) it needs maintenance? Do I have to call a goddamn carpenter as well as a cappuccino machine repairman? Do I have to consider if this is a fucking load bearing wall that contains my broken appliance? And something that's just a convenience like that is one thing, but they do it with stuff like fridges too.

#40

Open floor plans where the main floor is just like one big room.

Backyard that is only 12' deep.

#41

I have not been inside a new home in quite a while, but the exteriors seem to be designed by a committee of people who can't work together. Every possible exterior finish is on there, faux brick/stone, stucco, siding at all angles, board and batten, shingles/shakes, you name it, some part of the house has it, often in disparate colours. It looks very bad.

#42

No door between the master bedroom and master bathroom. It’s so annoying.

The last 3 houses I’ve lived in have had this issue. I like to be able to close the door when I take a bath or shower.

Image credits: oleander4tea

#43

Garages that fit two medium sized cars with about one inch to spare.

Image credits: kryppla

#44

I hate the design of homes that have a massive garage in the front; “welcome to my garage, the home is in the back.”

#45

might be an unpopular opinion but i don't need my home to be smart...I just need things to happen when they are supposed to happen and not completely shut off when some douche thought it was a good idea to play who can touch the powerline

#46

The cold and sterile look. White, black (high polish please so you see every single fingerprint)... why?

Image credits: Satures

#47

those dumbass fake balconies

#48

The lack of secret bookshelf doors. I mean, who designs their custom home and does not include a bookshelf secret door? People design houses for a reason, and that reason should be secret doors

Image credits: foxsable

#49

Homes built on the cheap with so many corners cut in their construction that they end up being horrible places to live in, plagued by mold, damp, noise and plumbing issues and more.

#50

The cookie cutter houses with no personality and no room, where the windows look directly into your neighbor’s bedroom. Ugh!

#51

Giant home, 2 feet of grass around it. There were two homes in my old neighborhood that were actually capable of hitting each others windows. Fucking nuts

#52

They think that transportation crate homes are environmental. Due to factors such as toxic unlivable condition, size after putting in plumbing and electrical, hipsters buy brand new 40ft crates and feel like they did something for the environment.

#53

There’s a builder in our area who tears down perfectly good, full-of-character pre-WWII homes and then packs in these grotesque Craftsman-style-hulk-mode houses that take up every available square foot of the lot. They look absolutely ridiculous. The proportions are wrong, they blight the neighborhood. Bleh.

#54

Having a built in faucet with swing arm over fancy dog bowls. They’re putting single, easy turn handles on them! It’ll take the dogs 2 or 3 days to figure out how to turn ON the water. They’ll never learn to turn it OFF! Lol

#55

Double washer and dryers. Really necessary?

#56

Skinny, three-level townhomes that cramp you into a vertical space. They feel so unnatural.

#57

No trim on doors and windows. The drywall comes up to the door jam and it's squared off. It looks like a Greyhound bus station.

#58

Having lots of glass doors, walls, and ceilings.

#59

Terrible refrigerator placement. You can't open the door without slamming them on a wall.

#60

Microwaves over stoves. That built in ventilator is not a substitute for a proper exhaust. All it does is turbocharge smoke/grease into the cabinets above the microwave. I just want a real vent over a stove so I don’t need to worry about setting a smoke detector off whenever I cook bacon or sear something.

#61

Why do new modern houses have a butlers pantry? Firstly, who entertains to that scale and secondly they are not a real butlers pantries (that is, a place for minor food prep before dinner is served in the formal dining room that is far away from the kitchen. They have really become the real kitchen that gets used while the big kitchen in the open plan living area is just a show piece.

#62

Fake shutters. They dont even look like they would cover the windows on most houses and they just look like garbage. If you love shutters so much, install real ones.

#63

I don’t get why people need a bowl full of ornaments or just shiny balls

#64

People think designing a home to look all creative and flashy and personalized and expressive is a good idea before selling it, then they find out the person that bought it renovated it to be neutral colors, minimalism, and back to being a blank slate, and act like that wasn’t inevitably going to happen.

People want to buy blank slates, because modifying that blank slate is what makes your home yours.

#65

4"x4" tile countertops... So many crevices to scrape and clean.

#66

re purposing old corporate tower blocks into luxury apartments on major roads, starting at £180,000 in the UK, the all day traffic noise is free.

#67

Small kitchens with little to literally no pantry. Some of us still cook!

#68

Clear bathrooms in studio or one-bedroom apartments!

#69

Tiny back yards and HOAs

#70

Shitty bathtubs. I grew up in a 100 year old house. It had a nice bathtub with a sloping back so you could comfortably lounge in the bath. Modern tubs are pretty nearly straight up on the back so there's no comfortable way to soak, smoke a joint, and read a book.

#71

A lot of new box-looking modern builds near me and when it rains the eavestroughs freak out and don't know where to put the water. Overflow from the roof all over the freshly mulched gardens with two flowers and a tuft of giant grass in it.

It's like the builder misunderstood that "rain" is a plural of raindrops and they were only expecting one singular raindrop to descend from the heavens.

#72

Rounded corners. Sure. They look cool till you want to paint your kitchen a different color from your living room.

#73

Total lack of solar panels/windmills. I think its criminal that new builds don't have any form of energy generator built in.

#74

Rushing the building process just to get the house finished as fast as possible. One of my sister's friends moved into a new house a few years ago and her dad found out while decorating that one of the walls of a room was at an 85 degree angle or something like that. Really badly designed house.

#75

The obsession with space. So many people won't even consider anything under 2,000sqft. People don't even think about what it would cost to heat and cool. They just gotta have a McMansion.

#76

Weird fixation perhaps, but I cannot stand kitchen cupboards that don't go all the way up to the ceiling. No cabinet storage + a big gap on top for my husband to pile all kinds of crap = no thanks.