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?

[siggie-reported-by-alarmists]

If you don't like what a renovator has done to a house...you can change it you know.....or just buy a renovators dream

Then you can stamp "your" taste all over it.  

[kennedia_nigricans]

i am 30+

[i-need-a-martini]

What I find REALLY tasteless (as an Interior Designer) is when I see a beautifully crafted original house that has a renovation that mirrors or attempts to match the original with 'imitation' tiles and 'olde worlde' bath tubs and fittings like atrocious modern-pretending-to-be-old lights or decorative (gag!) brass taps in a bathroom or ridiculous trendy butler sinks (which BTW were never used in original Australian bathrooms and kitchens).

Don't people realise it is the 21st century and trying to recreate the past is oh-so-tacky?

Unless you want to live in a museum and are prepared to curate your house to reflect the original with ORIGINAL fittings from the period, then don't even bother trying.

As someone from the future generation who has seen an awful lot of faux Federation and faux Edwardian renovations done in the last 20-30 years my only advice is this - you CANNOT recreate the original so don't bother trying. So ACCENTUATE the original with a 21st contrast. Now THAT makes for a stunning renovation.

[goo**spew]

LOL, I've really hit a nerve, martini, haven't I? *giggle* Obviously you are a culprit for the airplane-hangar open plan laminate monstrocity with ikea units.. *sigh* I should have guessed.

I'm not a fan of imitation olde-worlde, as my budget is large enough to accomodate original, however I used that as an example as it would be much more preferable to have fake antique than the monstrocity extension you paid for - or did you do it yourself?  *shudder*

[goo**spew]

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@kennedia_nigricans wrote:

i am 30+

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You look 30--  😉

[bright.ton42]

Tend to agree with you there Martini - a good mix can be very tasteful and appealing.  

As for the op's  earlier post slamming gay designers -     please.   You know for a fact that all these 'tasteless' renovations 

are done by gay people ?  And surely what you're talking about which is to seek out original fixtures and fittings and so on is more a question of money than anything else, as not everyone by far can afford to do that, it is so costly.  Lovely to have persian 

rugs on the floors but how many can afford those after taking out mortgages up to the eyeballs on the house alone. 

It's simple really -  if a house doesn't appeal do it up yourself.  

[cherry*135]

Don't people realise it is the 21st century and trying to recreate the past is oh-so-tacky?

Unless you want to live in a museum and are prepared to curate your house to reflect the original with ORIGINAL fittings from the period, then don't even bother trying.

Agree 100% with martini.

I disagree with the following by goo* spew

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!

How many old blue stone/sand stone houses have you ever been inside?

We have a precinct of them here (blue stone).. they were originally  houses for quarry employees Most are heritgage listed now, plans to include all of them are in place

I have been inside them and they have been restored to their former glory.. no plasma's, no carpet, no ducted heating (ducted heating isn't common in any houses here, don't need it). A lot of the current owners belong to the Historical  Society and  they have an open day sometimes where you can walk through the houses.

Some have modernised their roof but the current owners have changed them back to the original bull nosed ones.

One that is still in its complete original condition sold recently for $700 000.

[goo**spew]

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@bright.ton42 wrote:

Tend to agree with you there Martini - a good mix can be very tasteful and appealing.  

As for the op's  earlier post slamming gay designers -     please.   You know for a fact that all these 'tasteless' renovations 

are done by gay people ?  And surely what you're talking about which is to seek out original fixtures and fittings and so on is more a question of money than anything else, as not everyone by far can afford to do that, it is so costly.  Lovely to have persian 

rugs on the floors but how many can afford those after taking out mortgages up to the eyeballs on the house alone. 

It's simple really -  if a house doesn't appeal do it up yourself.  

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Really, bright.ton? Not everyone can afford to seek out original fixtures? Hmmm, I guess I'm richer than I thought - or somebody's poorer 😉  Never said all those martini-inspired renovations were done by gay people - but I did infer that gay male designers today have no taste and they don't. I also inferred that female designers have no taste either but that they do a more sensitive job which is true.

Persian rugs aren't expensive - you can find a good sized one for around $500.

And I disagree with you re if a house doesn't appeal do it up yourself - who needs the headache and the trauma and expense when things go wrong? If a house doesn't appeal you wait patiently until you find one that does - that's called taste. You can put lipstick on a pig and it's still a pig. 

[i-need-a-martini]

So you think that having a clawfooted bath in an old Victorian house is 'original'? Even though the vast majority of houses in Australia didn't have bathrooms at all until well into the 20th Century?

And I assume your ideal bathroom would not have a toilet because no matter how hard you try I doubt very much that you will find (no matter how large your budget is) an original toilet pre-1925. 

And in that lovely old and perfectly renovate Victorian house that you want, I also assume there will be no running water and you will install a pump from the nearby creek?

And I am assuming that all your wallpaper will be handblocked and that your kitchen will not have overhead cupboards and your icecream will be kept fresh in your meat cooler and your computer will be thrown away as soon as you move in...etc?

You haven't hit a nerve. You have simply hit a pet hate - people who 'think' they are restoring a humble Victorian/Edwardian house into something with the kinds of fittings and finishes that only some of the great houses of Europe had.

It's one thing to want to renovate in what YOU consider to be a 'sympathetic' style but quite another to believe that what you are doing is what they would have done during that time.

[cherry*135]

And I disagree with you re if a house doesn't appeal do it up yourself -

That is just silly. Of course if you find the house you like in a  good location, good structure, bad interior decorating, you would buy it and change it to your own preferences. Many people buy older houses that have been renovated cheaply and re do them in the original style.. not using faux old pieces either, using the real old things sourced from demoltion sales etc.

You obviously don't know the Sydney property market OP, where people will pay  $1m for three walls and a front terrace house facade.. nothing else except for the dirt in between.. which will be restored to its former glory.. not using faux stuff either.