Just me or traditional home designs/styles dead? (light, ranch, space)
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Everyone watches HGTV. HGTV is setting the standard for everything. People in the 25-35 don't have much of a clue how to renovate a home, and they believe HGTV. They fail to understand that gray and white is what you have to have to sell the house not to live in it.
I don't think HGTV is setting standards. It's just a mass disseminator of information and trends.
I'm a millennial and wanted traditional touches when we purchased our house. Now our cabinets wound up already being painted but I did not want the sleek/boxy/new look. Nor have any of my friends...not to say that no one does but I don't think it's as prevalent as you think. Or at least not in all of the markets.
Painted cabinets are pretty traditional; all the houses I can remember in the neighborhood I grew up in, built in the late 30s, had painted kitchen cabinets.
When it's overdone.....when all your rooms are painted gray....it will get old. In 10/15 years, gray walls will look like hunter green does today. But who cares if you love it?
Jeez, all you people act like it's impossible to paint the inside of a house or something. Get a 6 foot ladder, a couple of rollers, some good brushes, and a few other things and get after it. One weekend = 1 room repainted. Done it so many times I can't even remember.
I mean, in 10~15 years you need to repaint anyway, if not before.
I don't think HGTV is setting standards. It's just a mass disseminator of information and trends.
Oh I think HGTV (house porn as I call it) has changed standards a lot. People who shop for a house now expect the latest and greatest and have little imagination beyond dated paint or decor. I never have seen a time before when selling your house has been such an intense process. It used to be you'd clean up your house and list it, but now you are expected to spend thousands (update stainless, paint, bathrooms, etc) before even thinking about putting it on the market.
Right now "midcentury modern" is en vogue. This too shall pass, like it did once before already.
Traditional styles are traditional because they have staying power. They don't go out of style just because some trendy style pops up on the radar for a few years. Think colonial, salt box, Shaker, Amish furniture, neoclassical, early American, etc. Talk about staying power!
Personally I like to keep my furniture pieces classic and timeless and switch out rugs, pillows, window treatments, lamps, artwork, etc for a fresh look. It's not that hard to do and a lot less expensive than running after every trendy element and look. For instance, my grandmother's Art Deco chair - it's been reupholstered several times over the years but the shape itself is a classic. Our 1920s parquet French Provincial dining room table always looks timely - we updated that look with relatively inexpensive chairs at each end of the table which can be slip covered for various seasons for a quick updated look.
Our neighborhood is a mixture of most ages - from families in their thirties and forties with kids, to empty nesters like my husband and me (in our 50s) to elderly folks. Not many millennials because I think the price point is a bit out of most millennials range. But anyway, the homes tend to be very traditional. Ours is a classic "Low Country" style home. When we bought it and renovated it, we spent a lot of time working outside in the front yard for awhile. We have a lot of "walkers" in our neighborhood, including younger families with kids in strollers or on bikes or scooters. Many, many of them stopped and talked to us as they passed by and without exception they'd go on and on about how pretty the house was since we cut down some trees that were obscuring the view of the beautiful and classic front porch.
No, I don't think this look is going anywhere anytime soon.
It REALLY depends on what part of the country you are in as to what is traditional.
Mid Century Modern is traditional in Palm Springs.
Spanish is traditional in South Florida.
A Single House is traditional in Charleston.
Adobe is traditional in the Southwest.
Shotgun is traditional in New Orleans.
See where I'm going with this?
I agree. in the northeast, particularly New England, colonial or transitional designs are what sells, not modern. In fact in my community, a suburb of a major New England city, contemporary homes sell for less per square foot than traditional homes. I do agree that buyers want more open floor plans but they do not want them if it means sacrificing traditional details and character. Jay
If you are getting your intel from HGTV, you could see that all the yuppies are buying older houses, not many contemporary ones. If you are in CA, it might be different, since they seem to have more contemporary ranches there.
Regarding gray paint, there is gray and there is gray. There are a hundred different shades. I wouldn't paint my walls a standard dark gray, but a light gray close to an off white looks great IMO.
I am a millennial. This post is directed more towards millennial
I dabble in real estate - developer/investor, so have a large sample
I know traditional can mean a lot of different, so my definition of traditional = not contemporary modern.
To me, it seems like young adults these days when they buy their first house, everyone wants a new contemporary modern home. They want sleek/boxy designs. Everyone wants their color scheme to be grey/white. The days of brown are gone. In my sample, I don't know a single person aged 25-35 who has purchased/renovated a brand new home in 2016 that has chosen a brown finish with classical designs. Everything is light and shades of white. Does anyone see traditional making a comeback?
Not everyone wants ugly modern. I'm 30 and can't stand modern home design as it's so boring and sterile. Yuck. Homes should look welcoming and lived in. (My absolute biggest hate, though, is when someone takes an old home and renovates it in an extremely modern fashion.)
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