There’s a big difference between having a vintage item that is interesting and unusual and having items that make your home look old and forgotten. If you’re looking for a modern aesthetic for your place, follow our selection, and let’s try to fix some details that might make your home look dated.
Of course there are some old items that can still be charming and look vintage and cool, but, let’s be honest: that won’t be the case for every old thing you have. So, how to avoid having a dated home? We selected 8 things that, well, might make your home look dated AF.
To create this list, we used two videos from the amazing Nick Lewis and his Youtube Channel where he will give us tips about home decor and how to fix this kind of problem. Let’s see if you have any of those items in your place. If you do, I’m sorry, but they will really need to GO. (Or be customized!)
1- Colored Carpets
Talking about those really colorful and heavily saturated carpets (especially in the colors blue, pink, and green). These were trending in the 70’s until the 90’s.
Could it be vintage?
As Nick Lewis says in his video, carpet isn’t a bad thing. It can actually be comfortable, it can make your place warmer and it’s also a great alternative to an engineered hardwood or luxury vinyl planks. “But carpet tends to age and doesn’t really weather as well as those other materials.” says Nick, “So, it is important that, once in a while, it gets a little bit of a refresh and specifically, when looking at styles of carpet, the really heavily saturated colored carpet are the ones that are looking the most dated.”
How to fix it?
Well, if you want to keep having carpet at home, that’s totally fine. You can avoid having a dated look at home if you try to choose other colors, like light cream or off-white. Neutral tones are usually the best choice for carpets. Try to avoid dark colors or heavily saturated tons. And please, keep the carpet away from your bathroom! “Because there are some hygiene issues with the carpet in the bathroom that we need to talk about”, says Nick, in shock, “I’m a man, okay? We’re not getting into this! The point is: there are hygiene issues in the bathroom. Don’t do it, never do it, it should never have been a trend and it definitely makes your place look dated.”
2- Wallpaper Borders
Wallpaper borders were really popular in the ’90s but, yeah, maybe we should keep them there. These can make your home look really dated and not at all vintage. It’ll look like your wall needs a refresh. Nick thinks they’re unnecessary. “I think full wallpaper can be really interesting, you can buy some beautiful wallpapers, you can buy stick-on wallpapers if you’re a renter, that’s a really great option as well,” says Nick, “but these wallpaper borders just really break up a wall unnecessarily, they don’t make a lot of sense.”
How to fix it?
How to avoid having a dated home? Well, paint your walls! If the place is yours, you can go crazy on colors and patterns, get your family together to help you, it’ll be fun and your home will look so much better and more modern than before. Also, as Nick Lewis said before, if you rent your place, a good alternative is stick-on wallpapers. There are so many different nice wallpapers for you to choose from! Just… don’t go for the borders, if you can.
3- Tile Countertops
These were trending in the 70’s and also in the 80’s. We can still see them in some kitchens nowadays, but that doesn’t mean it is vintage or retro. There is kind of a hygiene problem: to put the tile together, grout is used, and it is a very porous material, so it’ll absorb liquids. This may lead to bacteria growth.
“This is a hygiene red flag for me” says Nick “and they can also be really prone to cracking as well as prone to different chips.” And once you’ve already put your tile all together, it’ll probably be very difficult to change it. That’s why we can still see this style in some homes because people don’t usually change or refresh it. “This is a trend that we’re probably not gonna see coming back, so I would say if you have tile countertops, consider changing them.” says Nick.
How to fix it?
If you wanna avoid having a dated home, try to go for something like laminate countertops if budget is an issue for you. Nick suggests simple colors, like gray, white, black. Clean and Simple. It’s going to look very good and elegant and it’s not hard to clean it.
Now, if money is not an issue for you here, you can always go for natural stones, like granite or marble, or even quartz. If you know how to and can take care properly of your natural stone, go for it! They will look amazing and so fancy in your kitchen. “But ditch the tile countertops: there are the hygiene issues, it’s a busy pattern on your countertop, you don’t need this,” says Nick, “but I will also add that, if you really like the look of tile, consider a tile backsplash.” According to Nick, the tile backsplash doesn’t bring the same hygiene red flags, busy pattern, and dated look that real tile may bring.
4- Outdated Hardware
This really depends on the hardware. Of course, there is some old hardware that will give your home a really vintage look. If it’s really beautiful and elegant, it doesn’t have to go, you can try refreshing it a little bit if you think it’s necessary.
On the other hand, those ceramics knobs that were so popular in the 80s and the 90s (they can be really nostalgic, I know) or that old builder-grade hardware that is starting to look old won’t look good, it would be nice if you change them. It’s really easy and affordable to fix them.
How to fix it?
Since you want to avoid having a dated home, the right thing would be: to get rid of the old hardware and change for more modern ones. But, of course, if you really like your old hardware, you can still spray paint it with matte black spray paint – if you don’t want or can’t afford to change the hardware. “Of course, it’s gonna wear eventually,” says Nick, “I mean, it’s spray paint! It doesn’t work miracles. But what it will do is sort of really refresh it.”
5- Toilet Seat Covers and Matching Rugs
As we said before, having carpet in the bathroom isn’t a very good choice due to hygiene issues. “Here’s the thing, we all know what you’re using the toilet for,” Nick says, “you can dress it up all you want: it’s a toilet.” Having your toilet just simple and clean, without fluffing it up is the best way to go. The toilet seat cover makes the toilet and the bathroom even harder to clean. As Nick says, it has to GO. “If you have one of these, get rid of it. If you know someone that has one of these, send them this video.”
How to fix it?
Just keep your toilet nice and clean. Avoid the toilet seat cover and matching rug combo, especially if they’re fluffy.
6- Vertical Blinds
These were so popular in the 80s and even until the early 2000s. These blinds are usually made of fabric or plastic, they’re very difficult to clean and get very dirty easily. And, let’s be honest, it doesn’t do its job properly, since it can’t filter light well. Maybe it’s really time for the vertical blinds to go. They’re really out and can make your place look like a lawyer’s office from the 80s. “These are not actually really all that chic, they’re not very stylish and it’s time to change them out,” says Nick
How to fix it?
If you are really trying to avoid having a dated home, maybe consider changing them for other options, like roman blinds or roller blinds. Another good choice to upgrade your windows is drapery panels, those are really going to filter the light (as it should). Nick believes you can go even beyond that. “You might want to just consider going completely bare, (…) if you’re looking for a Scandinavian space or even mid-century modern, you might want to consider just having no window treatments at all, that’s perfectly acceptable as well.” It’s up to you, just try to avoid these vertical blinds that look weird and are so difficult to clean. Make your life easier!
7- Popcorn Ceilings
This is the dotted spray to put on top of your ceiling, it’s a very simple and cheap way to make your ceiling look, let’s say, different. But, do you really want a ceiling that gets so easily dirty and dusty and even harder to clean? We know this was trending not a very long time ago and, well, it’s much easier to just go and spray the ceiling instead of work to eliminate all the imperfections it must have.
But let’s be honest, there’s nothing better than a beautiful flat ceiling. The popcorn ceiling attracts shadows, making your room look darker than it really is.
How to fix it?
This one is a little hard to fix. It’s expensive to have someone scrape the popcorn ceiling off. “I think it’s worth it,” says Nick, “It’s going to increase the value of your home and make it a lot more modern, a lot more chic to go for a really beautiful, flat ceiling.”
8-Themed Rooms
There’s a difference between a design style and a themed room. “If you’re gonna go for something like a modern coastal look or a farmhouse look, subtlety is really key in these sorts of design styles.” says Nick, “Because, if it gets too much, too far, it can start to turn into a theme”. These kinds of rooms were so popular, especially in the 90’s, but the thing is: too much information. It can make the room look insanely small because of the amount of themed objects used to decorate the themed room. If you go easy on the decoration, maybe it will work.
“I’m looking at you, coastal bathroom” says Nick, “with the seashells and the coconut soap, you got the seashells, you got the conch shell and you’ve got the coral and you’ve got all this stuff around the space and it just looks a little too on the nose, a little too themey.” The problem is the amount of information and the lack of subtlety, it can make your room look tacky. So, if you are trying to avoid having a dated home, this is something that will have to GO.
How to fix it?
“Introducing things like soft heavily tinted teals, or white into a bedroom, if that’s appropriate for you, but if you’re just gonna go for a big giant anchor over the top of your bed, it’s not gonna look subtle and it’s gonna look a little bit too in your face and just look really dated, very quickly.” Says Nick.
Subtlety is the key, here. You don’t need to give up on having a design style, just be careful so it doesn’t turn into a themed room.
