Don't renovators have any taste?

[goo**spew]

I am currently searching for a home - a traditional Victorian or Edwardian/Federation style that has been sensitively renovated and restored - an oxymoron if ever I heard one!

Why is it, there are so many beautiful old frontages for sale and then when you click through the photos, the first four are lovely, showing well maintained high ceilings and fireplaces, plaster cornices et al and then you click on the kitchen and there is this laminate open plan monstrocity with horrendous halogen lighting, faux granite worktops and units that look like they were put together by Ikea?

Why on earth don't these homeowners or developers consider the original property and simply build an extension that mirrors the front? Fake Victorian fireplaces and imitation antique lighting cost less than this modern nonsense and as for open plan... sheesh, I understand we no longer want cramped living rooms and lean-to kitchens but why don't the designers take the sensibly sized front rooms as a guide, instead of building an air-plane hanger sized living, eating area that in some cases completely gobbles into the garden leaving a strip of grass the size of a nature strip and a view of the back fence a meter from your patio doors? With all that room, you would think the developers could at least do away with those horrible stainless steel features and fridges and washing machines that should be hidden behind wooden doors. And as for the outer extension, at least clad it in wood or reclaimed bricks - enough with the grey render that makes it look like a public toilet block. (*waves to she_ele*) What on earth will future generations think of the designs of this early millenium?

The worst offenders are the bathrooms. For goodness sake, buy a copper bath and use imitation old tiling and butler sink basins, anything other than those horrid purple glass bowls that stick up from white plastic shelves. You don't have to be an expert in the era of your home. Five minutes of googling will give you exact ideas on what design road to take. 

Personally I love old blue stone/sand stone houses but I have yet to see someone take an old house and restore it to its former glory without adding plasma tv's attached to walls, ducted heating and generic carpeting over beautiful floorboards when a nice persian rug would do the job far more effectively. Don't people realise the 21st century is ugly? You bought an old house - Keep it that way!

In all my searching I have only found one place that has not been renovated as described above and that's because they have an original verandah scaling the entire perimeter of the property. And they obviously know what they have as it's priced at least half a million over what it is worth.

Surely someone out there shares my disdain for the current slap-it-up extensions?

[spotweldersfriend]

They stopped building good houses in this country when they invented gyprock.Tacky.

[goo**spew]

---

@spotweldersfriend wrote:
They stopped building good houses in this country when they invented gyprock.Tacky.

---

Yes, tacky, it's all tacky. And it's not about money. Reclaimed bricks don't cost much to buy - more in labour of course but all these open plan kitchens look like display kits - like those horrid little grey dwellings in communes around man-made lakes. They all have these wooden parallel screens in the front which display home designers imagine are the height of fashion - slums of the future, I say.

[goo**spew]

Did gyprock come in around the 1950's? That's when I believe the world started to get ugly - all formica and lino, although it worked in diners and advertising, it looked tacky in homes.

[kennedia_nigricans]

I have noticed that too.

People go "UUUHHH" and "AAAHHH" when they see really nice old houses, and THEN they bleep it up putting chrome and glass thingies in. I have seen it so many times on that TV show where they do up old houses (can't think of the name) that i refuse to watch it when hubby turns it on. It breaks my heart to see those beautiful old houses being abused so abhorrendly.

[goo**spew]

---

@kennedia_nigricans wrote:

I have noticed that too.

People go "UUUHHH" and "AAAHHH" when they see really nice old houses, and THEN they bleep it up putting chrome and glass thingies in. I have seen it so many times on that TV show where they do up old houses (can't think of the name) that i refuse to watch it when hubby turns it on. It breaks my heart to see those beautiful old houses being abused so abhorrendly.

---

Exactly. You probably can't think of the name of the renovation show - because they all do it! I also can't watch those shows - the contestants have taste up the wallapalooza. The real crime is, that when they destroy something it can't be replaced only copied. And this is where I'm going to be critical of gay designers. Yes, they're reponsible for Hollywood etc... and used to design nice clothes for the catwalk but when it comes to interior design - gay men think the height of fashion is a chrome chair in an empty loft apartment. I find female interior designers today are usually more sympathetic but they still don't have the exact taste needed for a restoration project. Both men and women designers seem incapable of really studying the era of a home and putting themselves in that position. Why must we inflict this horrible era on lovely old homes.

I'm happy kennedia, that I have found somebody with taste!

[kennedia_nigricans]

---

@goo**spew wrote:

---

@kennedia_nigricans wrote:

I have noticed that too.

People go "UUUHHH" and "AAAHHH" when they see really nice old houses, and THEN they bleep it up putting chrome and glass thingies in. I have seen it so many times on that TV show where they do up old houses (can't think of the name) that i refuse to watch it when hubby turns it on. It breaks my heart to see those beautiful old houses being abused so abhorrendly.

---

Exactly. You probably can't think of the name of the renovation show - because they all do it! I also can't watch those shows - the contestants have taste up the wallapalooza. The real crime is, that when they destroy something it can't be replaced only copied. And this is where I'm going to be critical of gay designers. Yes, they're reponsible for Hollywood etc... and used to design nice clothes for the catwalk but when it comes to interior design - gay men think the height of fashion is a chrome chair in an empty loft apartment. I find female interior designers today are usually more sympathetic but they still don't have the exact taste needed for a restoration project. Both men and women designers seem incapable of really studying the era of a home and putting themselves in that position. Why must we inflict this horrible era on lovely old homes.

I'm happy kennedia, that I have found somebody with taste!

---

me too. i thought it was just me alone.

[goo**spew]

Maybe you and I should join forces and set up an interior design business, like Romy and Michelle's high school reunion - we just need to find a billionaire investor to fund our project! 🙂

[kennedia_nigricans]

i don't think that would work cos most people seem to have no taste whatsoever.

you don't need to look at houses, just look at what people wear.

[goo**spew]

Oh Don't get me started on fashion today! Personally, the downward slope started in the early 90's when fashion models strutted the catwalk in rags and garbage bags. I think it was a direct affront to the glamour of the 80's which was over the top, although the shoulder pads and furs were no bigger than they were in the 40's. Unfortunately the 90's (such a bland decade) refused to take the best from prior eras and created one big mess we're still withdrawing from. My mother left me some beautiful old furs of hers - mink and white fox but I wouldn't dream of wearing them as someone might throw red paint on me! Personally, I'd rather wear the skin of a rodent than the skirts the width of a men's belt that young girls wear today.

I don't know how old you are kennedia but when I was a young girl in the 60's women also wore revealing outfits but they were slim and fit and the larger women dressed in a way that flattered their figures. Today many young girls look bloated because of the pill, they let their muffin tops fall over latex pants or wear track-suits that reveal every bulge. Too much eating in airplane-hangar sized kitchens I say!