10 Decorative Tricks That Are Hopelessly Outdated

Whether you're redecorating like a glove or sticking to a style chosen once and for all, walk through our list to refresh your interior and banish ghosts (and signs) of outdated living spaces.

Prints and Photo Wallpapers

If fish are swimming down the walls of your bathroom, tulips blooming on your kitchen apron, and stars painted on the living room wall, there's a high chance you did your renovation in the mid-2000s. Today, even the highest quality photo wallpaper looks strange. It's better to highlight a feature wall with decorative plaster or solid-colored wallpapers.

Prints on the same wallpapers, cushions, curtains and throws quickly get annoying. In the past year, leaves of ficus, pineapples, and cacti bloomed everywhere. If you don't live in a tropical climate, these pretty pictures will look out of place even if they're on the right plate.

Wooden Letters

Or wall inscriptions. Or posters with motivational quotes. Let's leave those lovely sayings for greeting cards, and loud declarations for stage performances. Five years ago hanging wooden letters spelling something uplifting on your kitchen wall was considered a creative solution. Today people understand that comfort won't come just because you wrote about it on paper and hung it on the wall.

Artificial Fruits and Flowers

Although in the 2000s it was fun to guess whether that plum in the basket or flower in the vase is real, the dust that collected on them wasn’t so amusing. Despite manufacturers achieving astonishing similarity in some cases, we're now more pleased by a bouquet of fresh flowers and a bowl of strawberries, even if they don't stay on the table 24/7.

Bean Bag Chairs

Another greeting from the 90s. Perfect for lounging with a slice of pizza in a dorm or resting with a sandwich at the office. Also fine for the veranda and kids' room. But in a modern living room, it's more appropriate to place a chaise or a comfortable armchair with armrests.

Vertical Blinds

They not only, to be honest, start to irritate when you open and close them, but also suggest that the owner of such an interior doesn't care much about comfort. It's better to buy simple solid-colored curtains so your room doesn’t look like a past office.

Multi-Layered Curtains

Windows need a break! Kilometers of ruffled fabric are better replaced with simple voiles or linen cloths. An abundance of draperies, brushes and embroidery looks cheap, even though textiles are expensive. Moreover, homes need natural light, and it's hard to wash curtains.

Makeup Mirror Lighting

Yes, it's great to feel like a movie star! But squinting every morning as bright lamps shine in your face turns out not so great. Soft lighting is more appropriate in the bathroom.

Meaningless Decoration

If you don't use an item, it means you don't need it. Today people believe that extra clutter in the apartment not only gathers dust but also clogs the soul. The fewer useless things there are, the freer you feel. An abundance of magnets, figurines and tableware sets is an absolute anti-trend.

Jars as Decoration

To be strict, they're still in trend and found on store shelves. You can put a candle inside them, pour a cocktail or place soap in them. But let's be honest, it's time to return jars to their rightful place: basements and barns.

Soft Kitchen Corner

Yet ten years ago, it was impossible to imagine a cozy evening in a typical apartment without it, and many never replaced these heavy sets. At the time they saved space, but now more ergonomic solutions have been invented for such purposes.