45 Home Design Ideas That Do Not Spark Joy
Designing your home, the space where you can be you, is one of the most satisfying experiences there is. You just get to make it all your own, and you can let your creativity run free. You can get some plants, buy some Nordic style furniture, put some nice breezy drapes over the windows, and decorate with your hobbies. You can also add a washing machine in the living room, cover the stairs with hair, or put dolls all over the place. There is very little you can’t do. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should though. As documented and proven by the Instagram account “Please Hate These Things,” there are just some décor ideas that should be left to burn.
Does Rapunzel Live Here?
The stairs aren’t always the main feature of a house, but people have made an effort to give them some love. Some transform their stairs into extra storage, others make a mosaic. And well, some people chose to simply make jaws drop, and not in a good way.
It really makes us curious, though. Where did they get all that hair, and why is it so shiny and even-toned? Oh, and can those stairs get dandruff, lice, and all that? And do they brush it every morning like normal hair? We have so many questions.
Careful Of That First Step
Have you ever heard of the Murder Castle or the World’s Fair Hotel? It’s this hotel built by H. H. Holmes, an American serial killer filled with booby traps, hidden rooms, and whatnot for his unsuspecting victims. That is what this house kind of reminds us of.
We wonder what the original plan was and why they just opted to keep the door instead of simply boarding it up, or just making a window? If you’re a guest, you might mistake this door for the bathroom in the middle of the night, and oops, down you go – goodbye. That’s certainly a way to exit.
Flowery Bathroom
When we say we want our bathrooms to be flowery, we mean that we want them to smell fresh and to look clean. We don’t mean it literally. Unfortunately, someone did go ahead and take it literally, and plastered flowers everywhere.
This kind of makes us think that Grandma’s old wallpaper spilled into the bathroom. Our biggest problem, though, would be the number of things in that bathroom that can easily get soggy. We’re not really going for the black mold look as a replacement to this one, okay?
Dollhouse
We’re not sure if it was the horror movies like Annabelle or simply their lifeless stares, but since we’ve grew out of our kid stage, dolls have become a creepy thing to some of us. So being in this house would actually be a nightmare.
Just looking at it gives us the heebie-jeebies. We can already feel those dozens of eyes watching us as we go from room to room. And we don’t even want to imagine what they’d look like in the middle of the night. Sorry, but it’s a big nope from us.
Just Waiting For That Spark
There are plenty of astoundingly bad ideas on this list, but this might just be the worst of the lot. We can take hair stairs, creepy doll collections, and Pinterest décor fails, but this is just a big heck no.
We pray for whoever will be the first person to use that sink. We hope their souls don’t get electrocuted to the high heavens. Hopefully before anything bad happens, someone will knock some sense into this homeowner and fix that forsaken sink.
Can’t Resist That Great Rug Deal
When you’ve finally moved out of your parent’s house and you’re living on your own dime, you’ll know just how amazing the sales aisles are. They just want to make you grab everything. Just check out this woman right here.
All that space, and all she wanted to fill it with were rugs. We wonder if she’s just really cold all the time, if she just likes the soft feel of the rugs under her feet, or if she really just has a raging rug obsession.
Spring Aesthetic
If you’ve ever had a spring bed, you’d know just how fun it is to jump on that thing, and how mad your parents would get every time you did it. For this one, it seems that someone has abused their spring privileges and got their springs taken out and displayed as a reminder.
Seriously though, why would anyone do this? We’re pretty sure not even Pinterest has suggested anything this crazy. And though it does look like a pretty good place to hang up some Christmas lights, we’re not sure it serves any other purpose for function or beauty.
A Regal and Cozy Bath, You Say?
We’ve got to admit. We are a sucker for a warm, relaxing soak. There’s just something about chillin’ in that warm sudsy water, feeling like you’re some rich pampered lady without a care in the world. We’re not sure that’s what we’d be feeling in this bathroom, though.
Instead of the warm, relaxed feeling, we think we’ll be suffering from a boatload of anxiety and panic here. All we can see are the carpet stains and the mold and mildew that will inevitably be haunting our future days.
Pray For Your Soul
We have never seen anything so inconvenient, so stupid, and so frustrating as this one. Well, maybe that’s dramatic, but come on! Everyone knows the mechanics of a bathroom, and yet whoever designed this bathroom still managed to mess it up so bad that it hurts.
Every time you have to do your business, you have to prepare yourself to play a game of “who can remember to bring the toilet paper in there with you?” And what do you do in the middle of the night? Brilliant, right?
The Latest Report From the Kitchen Coming Right Up
When people design a room, people usually think of the best ways to maximize the space, making it functional and pretty at the same time. For this one, we think they were trying to set up a kitchen island/a place to deliver the 6 o’clock news.
We can just imagine a well-dressed someone: “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. It’s time for your 6 o’clock news and we are live – wait, I smell something burning. Oh no! My chicken!” And that kind of makes us hate this setup a little less.
Instructions Noted
We’re not sure if it’s just life or if it’s just us, but there have definitely been times when we woke up and felt like we needed a whole manual on how to operate life and ourselves. So we’re not totally hating this instructive décor.
Who knows? It might be a great guide for those days and nights when you just need to be guided through life after your life and soul have been sucked dry by the noise and clamor of usual human life.
Real-Life Rapunzel Tower
Have you ever wondered what the modern, real-life version of the house that Rapunzel was caged in would look like? Here’s something to give you an idea. It has the tower, the window, and everything. It even has an extra high dive platform.
Apparently, somebody really took a good look at their house that already looked beautiful and proper and said, “You know what? This needs a little something more. A tower! Yes! Oh, and a view deck/high dive platform to nowhere! Perfect!”
Not Gonna Miss My Soaps
One great thing about today’s washing machines is that you just have to shove your clothes in there, put in some soap, and turn the machine on. It will do the rest without you having to watch it. Somebody didn’t want to take chances, though.
With this, you’ll surely never forget to cycle the laundry ever. Plus, you’ll still never miss a second of your favorite tv show. Let’s just hope your washing machine has some kind of noise cancellation feature though if you want to enjoy those shows.
The Bed From Heaven
If you never wished that you could stay in your bed forever, are you even human? Now, just imagine if your bed was as big and as comfy as this one right here. If it were us, we’d probably live in that bed.
Movie night would be so epic on this bed. Plus, there’s still space for pillow fights, rolling around, and even room for the cats or dogs. Now, if we could only get a robot butler that can get us anything we want, it would be so perfect.
Portal To The Matrix
One of the best decorating ideas out there is repurposing old and unused things to become beautiful décor. From old bottles to unused boards, there are so many things you can do to make them useful and pretty again. Still, we’re not sure what’s the idea behind this one is.
Sure, you can turn old doors into decorations, but usually requires an eye for design, which this homeowner doesn’t have. That had better be a door to another dimension, or be a placeholder for something better to come. Otherwise, what in the world, and why?
After 1 Painting Class
Have you ever had that feeling when you finally get something that you’ve been trying to learn for a time, and you get addicted to it? And then you just keep on going and going at it? We think that’s what happened to whoever decorated this kitchen.
While we’re not against painting in general, this is overkill. What’s more is that the patterns don’t jive! They don’t make sense, and they’re not easy on the eyes. With this kitchen design, we’re set with pastel patterns for life.
That’s A Proper Peephole
No one ever really thinks to design peepholes, or the little flaps that cover them. And why would anyone anyway, right? They’re not something you really want to highlight on your door. Apparently though, that’s where we are wrong, according to this homeowner.
We don’t know about you but we actually think that that mini barn door on a regular door design is pretty cute and hilarious. It makes the door a lot more fun, and it makes something as mundane as looking through the peephole something to be excited about.
Totally Unassuming
Most of the time, homeowners limit the bulk of their decorations to inside the house. This homeowner said no to that, though. For them, hiding away their Greek pride is the real shame. Go big or go home, right? They definitely went big.
One of the best perks of living in a house like this is their visitors will never be lost. You would barely even have to give them directions. You could even get away with saying the phrase, “you’ll know it when you see it.”
Mirror, Mirror, I Can’t See
There are just some ideas that seem so fantastic at first that you feel like a genius coming up with them. But the good part ends there, because when the idea comes to life, you realize it’s actually a big fat failure.
We’re not sure if whoever did this is just really tall, or just got so caught up in their idea. For us, it’s missing something like say, the ability to see yourself in the mirror. Do you get us? That’s not to mention how aesthetically displeasing this is.
The Floor Is Lava
We love a mosaic look now and then. Once you find that right balance of shades, textures, and all that, you could actually create a pretty neat home design. This one, though, missed all the marks, and landed somewhere in tacky territory.
It’s not that we hate orange. It’s a great color. It’s bright, it’s cheery, and when used in the right places, it can make a room a little bit more fun. This orange monstrosity of a bathroom just hurts the eyes . Thankfully, they used white on the tub and toilet.
Fancy Cat House
Have you ever asked yourself what it feels like to be a cat clambering up and down, or napping in, their cathouses? We haven’t, but whoever designed this staircase and entryway does make us wonder how we’d enjoy our cats’ homes.
This would actually be a pretty amazing cat house that we’re sure the kitties would enjoy, if only it weren’t a tacky real-life house. We admit it looks soft, but no amount of softness would make us agree to that.
How To Show That We’re Fancy
We don’t even know where to start with this room. Is it going to be the questionable decals pasted on the windows? Or did they really get frosted glass designed like that? Is it going to be the mismatched chairs? Or is it just going to be everything?
There are so many ways to show off just how fancy you are, which is absolutely not one of the best ways to do it. Just the decals are enough to make someone cringe. All this setup says is tacky to the highest level.
House In Wonderland
Remember that scene in Alice In Wonderland where Alice is falling through the rabbit hole? She sort of ends up in this upside-down topsy-turvy world where things are falling with her and in the opposite direction? That is exactly where this setup seems to be from.
There are just so many things that are wrong here. For one, of all things to hang above a stove, why a piano? Why hang the piano at all? And then, why is there a vase on top of the stove? Our brains can’t process this as a whole.
Stairs That Will Make You Trip
We get it. People want to be creative with their stairs. They want something unique that will wow visitors and set their stairs apart from all the other boring steps occupying normal houses. We think all these stairs do, though, is make people trip.
The painting mural concept is forgivable to us. It’s the painting itself that’s making us cringe a bit. Of all things, why in the world, and how are they even all related to each other? The hair stairs were easier to figure out than this one.
Side Mirror
Mirrors and sinks. We all know how they should go together, right? The mirror doesn’t go below the sink, diagonally to the left, or even too many inches to the right. That’s just not how things go. The mirror goes above the sink.
As much as we love looking out the windows and seeing what the neighbor is up to while brushing our teeth, we don’t really appreciate having to step to the side every time we want to see our face. What is this, a new tactic to tone down narcissism?
Hot Pants
Have you ever wondered what would be the best thing to do to those old pants you just never use anymore? Well, here is an idea for you. Not only do you give your pants a second life, but you also get a pair of hot seats.
Seriously though, this would be a pretty neat seat in a bar. It would definitely give the bar a little something to keep them apart from the rest that customers would definitely be talking about. But we’re not sure it belongs in a home.
The Elephant In the Room
When people say, “let’s talk about the elephant in the room,” this is definitely not what you’d expect them to be referring to. But really, we have to talk about this elephant painting and why in the world they chose that angle.
We don’t think even the elephant would have been flattered with that painting. Also, what kind of bedroom would need to be fully tiled like this? We just thought it was just some weird pool design, but now we’re kind of confused.
Can’t Ever Have Too Much Outdoors
We love it when people incorporate the things they love doing into their home décor. It’s creative, it lets you get to know them a lot better without asking too much, and it’s often a great ice breaker for new guests. This is just not what we were expecting, though.
Somebody sure loves their ice fishing adventures, and it seems that they love getting more of it every time they go to the toilet. Also, we can’t miss the outdoorsy theme of their shower curtain. It kind of makes us feel that going to their bathroom must make you feel like you’re truly one with nature.
Saved So Much On Chair Legs
It would be so cool to have levitating chairs one day, wouldn’t it? Just imagine them swooping up or down without you having to adjust anything. That would be pretty convenient for everyone. When we imagine them, this isn’t what we picture.
First of all, how do you even sit on these things? Do you do a cartwheel to get into the spot? Do you perform some kind of body contortion? We do see the probably-moveable bars attaching the chairs to their places, but we still don’t like it.
The Nightmare Collection
This one is half-decent, okay? We love how they repurposed that old piano, and we also love some of those vintage elements like the books and the painting. As for the rest, though, we’d gladly burn them all away.
It was already pretty fantastic, but they still had to add those creepy dolls and masks, didn’t they? Now, it feels like if you touch even one knick-knack on that setup, you’ll be haunted by a terrible spirit that you accidentally woke up from a deep sleep.
How About No?
Usually, when we think of bathroom designs, especially if there’s a tub involved, we’d want a relaxing atmosphere, one that kind of makes us feel like we’re in a spa. This fuel for nightmares is the exact opposite of that.
We can get by with the lights, and we can even let the parrots in deep conversation slip by, but the statues are just a bit much. Can you just imagine walking in on those in the middle of the night? No, thank you.
Gonna Be Needing Some Toe Insurance With This
Our toes are so small, and yet they can cause some of the worst pain we experience as humans. Now, just imagine experiencing that pain almost every day of your life. That is what you’re certainly getting with this kitchen counter design.
It might look pretty, but when you’re rounding off the corner with a pot of delicious hot stew, and you forget that it’s there, you’ll definitely be cursing out all of humanity for it. It’ll become all the worse if you have kids in the house.
The 80s Threw Up
When we go into the bathroom, we usually depend on our phones or some reading material to keep us occupied while we do our thing. With this bathroom, though, you won’t need any of those at all to keep you occupied.
Ignoring all the funky designs, though, that toilet looks like it’s a portal to another planet. It’s kind of tempting to sort of dip a foot in and see if it will suck us up into another galaxy or another timeline.
Priorities
Usually, with three-word quotes like the classic “Live, Love, Laugh” thing, you think of three important things in your life, right? They’re not just random words you lump together, or they won’t really have that motivational-inspirational feel to them. So, why this?
It is just three words, three important things, three nice things may be, and yet ‘farts’ was still what they went with. We don’t want to judge, but it kind of makes us wonder what their real priorities in life are.
Sleeping Feeling Like Aquaman
This one belongs to the category of “kind of a great idea but not the best execution.” We see where they wanted to go with it and we admit, it can be pretty cool. However, all we feel when we look at this design is anxiety.
Sure, it can be pretty great to lie down and wait for sleep while watching the fish. It can be pretty calming. But just imagine an earthquake, hurricane, or tornado, though. Or just imagine a pillow fight gone wrong. Whoopsie.
Unapologetically Bad
Some bad home designs are created by accident or by miscalculations. Others are simply created by the human mind and are unapologetically bad. This one, for instance, just went for it. No other words can describe it, but gloriously awful.
Just looking at the carpet and imagining all the mildew is enough to make us cringe. But then, there’s also the completely useless drapes and the giant mirror – or a weirdly designed skylight – above the bed. Just how bad can it get?
When Yellow Explodes
Yellow is a fantastic color! If used right in your home décor, it can make your home look fun and bright. Plus, seeing the color can help lighten up your mood every day. Used too much, though, and it can pretty much hurt the eyes.
This one not only overdid the yellow, but they overused it in one of the worst places to do so – the bathroom. Combined with all that décor, it just looks messy. They at least tried by having different shades of yellow, but it’s still a no from us.
Is There A Skin Suit Somewhere?
This is actually somewhat cool at first glance, and then we just kind of remembered dead butterflies, and after that, we can’t look at this the same way ever again. There is just something unsettling about it after that thought.
Even if those aren’t real butterflies embedded in the plastic, it kind of gives us the creeps and makes us feel that there’s going to be a stuffed raccoon or even a skinsuit hiding somewhere in that bathroom. Those butterflies might not be as innocent as they look.
What In The World
We don’t completely understand what this thing is supposed to be or what it is supposed to do, but we hate it all the same. It doesn’t do anything aesthetically, and we don’t really want to wake up to see that in the middle of the night.
It could be a snake. It could be a giant worm. It was clearly designed to be this way, though. Anyhow, we hope they didn’t spend a fortune on that because that is seriously décor worth throwing away, or at least repurposing in, oh, maybe the garage?
Faux Fir
If you really wanted to bring nature into your home, then commit to it. At least then, you won’t get something like this disaster. Imagine trying to clean all that. Imagine the bugs that will call it home before it’s up for a year.
We can’t really appreciate it when all we see with that faux fir ceiling is dust, uninvited insects, kitchen fires, and a whole lot of sadness. Plus, with kitchen counters that look like a petri dish, we just have to pass on this one.
Moooooooooooo
Cows really aren’t your typical home design feature. Sure, they can be a character in a kid’s room or nursery, but you don’t really see them decorating living room walls, bathrooms, or kitchen walls so often. Up until this point, anyway.
Someone really loves their cows, and they really made sure nobody forgot that. That is one really long cow. Anyway, we’re not judging. If that’s what they love, then let them have it on their walls. It’s forgivable compared to some others on this list.
When One Door Closes, Another Opens
We don’t often realize it, but things like doors take planning before you can install one. After all, you don’t want your door to be banging into a cabinet or not opening enough, right? Apparently, that thought skipped whoever installed these doors.
We do love the idea of a barn door, but its positioning here is just unfortunate. First off, it’s too many inches too high and leaves a wide gap below. Second, once you open it, you render the door on the left useless. Overall, it’s just too much of a hassle.
Solution-Oriented
You’ve got to admire people who do whatever it takes to get what they want. They come up with creative and resourceful solutions to almost any problem, as is the case with this one. No window and no view? No problem.
We love how they tried to get that window view from their kitchen sink, and we love how detailed that painting is. It really proves that if you want something done, you just have to quit whining and do it.
Ariel Overdid It
Some people really need to learn that there is such a thing as too much. This entire design concept, for instance, could have worked so well, but they chose to go way over the top, which ruined the entire thing.
Take away some unnecessary fins and a couple of other unnecessary images, and this could actually work. Just look at the pretty blue spiral on the floor and the nice blue sink. Those alone could do to create a stunning bathroom.
Optical Illusion Gone Wrong
Now, we’re not sure if they’re just drying that shirt or if they’re repurposing it because it simply does not spark joy for them anymore. But at least it matches the drapes, right? More than that, though, this whole bathroom is quite a doozy.
If you haven’t noticed already, almost that entire wall on the right is actually a mirror. With that and all the colors and the design on the wall, we don’t really know how someone can shave, do their makeup, or whatnot. There’s just too much going on, and frankly, it’s not even the good kind of too much.