This week I was in the studio tidying up, packing up, and getting ready to paint the ceiling, walls, and floors. That room is big and full of things, so it’s a big job! But yesterday when I was cleaning my room, I stumbled across a stash of design magazines. I think there were at least 300 people. And they date back to around 2005.
I didn’t take the time to look at them because I just wanted to clean up my room. I decided to remove them all. That meant there was little chance of seeing those magazines again.
But one thing caught my eye. I think it’s a special issue of Better Homes & Gardens. At first I thought it was Eldeco, but it’s not. As you can see, the cover literally says, “The most amazing room ever.” Quite a claim!
I actually remember buying this. I was at Barnes and Noble, saw it, flipped through it, and was utterly enchanted. At the time, I thought the claims on the cover were 100% accurate.
So when I came across this again yesterday, I was intrigued. Will these rooms live up to that label today? Are these designs timeless? Or will these rooms look dated today? Is there such a thing as timeless design? We’d love to hear what you all think, so let’s take a look at a few.
First, let’s talk about background and perspective. This special issue is dated his Autumn/Winter 2006. That is, it is about 16.5 years old. The year before I started this blog. Facebook was about 2.5 years old. After Pinterest he didn’t exist for two years. I was still four years away from Instagram. So social media was still in its infancy. Myspace was the most popular social media website. Facebook was relatively new. And it was still about six months before the first iPhone was introduced to the world.
In a pre-social media, pre-iPhone world, when most of us still got all our design and decorating ideas from magazines and HGTV, here’s a taste of the most amazing rooms ever. To do.
I have to admit it starts strongly with me. There are definitely things that I would like to change in this room, but I can’t see them and I immediately think they’re ‘outdated’.
I think the wall colors are still very pretty and fresh, at least for me. The main thing I would like to change is window handling. Do you see the swag (I forgot the name) in the left window below?I remember he created one of them for a client.In 2006, my interior decorating business opened his celebrated its first anniversary.
You don’t see many (or none) of window treatments like today. Window treatments today seem much simpler with window shades and/or simple curtains and draped panels.
This next one is cute. If you walked into this room today, you wouldn’t necessarily think it was dated. It’s definitely not my personal style and the color seems too heavy and dark to me, but it doesn’t look dated.
Enlarged photo of the same room. What I have noticed about so many rooms in this magazine is that the rooms seem to me to fall into two different categories. First, many of them look dark and the furnishings look very heavy and overdone. And secondly, what doesn’t look overdone looks very simple. You’ll see what I mean later. So these two categories seem to prevail.
But with that being said, there are many elements in this room that will make you feel right at home in 2023 with just a few minor updates.
This next example is a perfect example of what I mean by dark, heavy and overdone. I remember this era well. I used to work in interior decorating. And this was when almost every new client I met had one of two requests, and the most popular request was Texas Tuscan. became. texas tuscanyThis doesn’t exactly look like Texas Tuscany, but it still has the same feel.
For those interested, the second most requested look at the time was the Pottery Barn. I’m not kidding you. About 90% of my clients wanted either (1) Texas he Tuscany or (2) Pottery Barn. And that’s exactly why the excitement about decorating for clients wore off so quickly, only doing it for seven years before throwing in the towel and focusing on blogging.Pottery Barn and Texas I was able to escape Tuscan, and that’s probably why I’ve never seen my house decorated with Pottery Barn stuff. 😀
Anyway, let’s move on. I remember this kitchen well. This one is etched in my mind because I remember seeing it in another publication where the colors were edited to look pink. I like it very much. And when I saw that it was actually red, I was very disappointed.
But it was probably one of the first colorful kitchens that really caught my eye, and I realized that I could never be satisfied with a white kitchen. And with a few small changes (such as changing the wall color to a nice soft white instead of taupe), I think that kitchen could look just as great today as it did in 2006.
Here is another kitchen. I don’t know if this is because it looks dated to me, or it’s the complete opposite of my personal style, but I personally have to redo everything in this kitchen.
This little living room is beautiful, but do people still do antique finishes to their woodwork? But you know what I mean by dark, heavy, and overdone? A room with light walls still feels heavy.
I think this dining room is very clean. This particular style never appealed to me personally, but if I walked into this room today, I’d say the room is very well done. We recommend refinishing at least one dark piece of furniture (probably a table) with a more natural color to brighten the look a bit.
This bathroom is very beautiful, but even with the seemingly bright walls, the room feels dark and heavy.
After reading this magazine, I can totally understand why they’ve moved to an all-white farmhouse design.
I’ve never been an all-white farmhouse kind of person, but I have to admit that I think a lot of these rooms could fit perfectly in 2023 with a can of white paint. Not that there are any, but some things could be made a little brighter and brighter.
Heavy curtains, animal prints, all browns everywhere. I feel like the whole white farmhouse look was a backlash against this kind of decor. did not.
The bedroom on the right below is an example of the second category mentioned above. There is nothing in this room. Nothing is “designed” for me. We don’t know if this will be the most amazing room in 2023.
This was probably the biggest shock for me. Not everyone in 2006 was building a dark, heavy, overdone room. Kelly Hoppen was one of my favorite designers of this era. I remember being blown away by her modern minimalist aesthetic. I sat at Barnes & Noble and read her book and studied all about her rooms and designs.
If someone showed me that picture without naming her and asked me to guess when and from what it was, I guessed it was the Vern Yip Trading Spaces room I guess.
And back to overdoing it. But again, I honestly don’t know if I should put this in the “outdated” category or just “this isn’t my style” category.
But this lower right bedroom seems dated to me. I can’t.
This dining room is definitely the 2006 dining room. I leave it
This small sitting area is one of the few photos that looks timeless. I might replace the lamps, but otherwise I think it’s very clean.
This bedroom is one of those rooms that falls into the plain category for me. The room is fine, but I think it’s too simplistic to be voted “best room ever” in 2023. I think you’d expect a lot more creativity from any room that gets that label these days.
I agree with this room. The rooms are clean, but today they are not impressive, let alone ‘the nicest’.
And also this bedroom. fine. If you walk into this bedroom house today, you’ll think it’s lovely. But it’s not the “nicest” room by today’s standards.
Since the advent of blogs and social media, we’ve seen so many people get too creative and think outside the box. You’ll think it’s “great”.
2006 didn’t have all of that, so the bar for “best” was relatively low. These days, it amazes me that an everyday homeowner DIYs her own home and comes up with the most creative ideas ever. The bar has been raised significantly simply because ideas have become so much easier to access.
But I’d love to go back and see what 200d6 Christie thought of this room below. But 2023 Christie thinks this room is best left in 2006.
Anyway, this was a fun little walk down memory lane. I remember reading this magazine over and over again and searching every nook and cranny of the room. I was really fascinated by them.
But are any really timeless? That is the question. Could any of these rooms look and be considered current as they are on Instagram today?
It seems like all of these rooms need to be tweaked or redone to make them impressive in 2023. Do you agree? Or do they look really timeless? No comment Leave a few more. Please let me know what you think. Is there really such a thing as timeless design?
Addicted 2 Decorating is where my husband Matt and I share our DIY and decorating journeys as we modify and decorate a 1948 Fixer upper that I bought in 2013. Do the housework yourself. You can find out more about me here.
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