12 Common Home Decor Items Everyone Will Get Rid Of In 2025 (And 7 That Should’ve Been Out Already)
Home design trends change faster than most of us can redecorate! What seemed stylish just a few years ago might now look painfully dated.
Having worked with countless styles and trends, I’m here to spill the tea on which decor pieces are heading for extinction in 2025. Time to say goodbye before your home becomes a time capsule!
Plus, those cringe-worthy items that should have been kicked to the curb ages ago. Ready for a reality check on your interior choices?
1. Word Art Signs
Remember when everyone rushed to plaster ‘Live, Laugh, Love’ across their living room walls? Those cutesy word signs have officially lost their charm!
Nothing screams ‘I let Pinterest design my home’ quite like a wall full of inspirational quotes.
Guests silently judge these mass-produced declarations while you’re pouring drinks. Instead, showcase actual artwork that sparks conversation or personal photographs that tell your story.
Trust me, nobody needs a wooden plaque to remind them to ‘Gather’ in the kitchen.
2. Accent Walls
That bold burgundy wall you painted during lockdown? Time to grab the primer! Accent walls scream 2010s design thinking and create visual choppiness rather than the flow modern spaces crave.
Designers now prefer cohesive color stories throughout rooms. Your space will instantly feel larger and more sophisticated with unified wall treatments.
Besides, those high-contrast accent walls often become the decorating equivalent of a regrettable tattoo. A fun idea at the time and so painful to remove later.
3. Farmhouse Everything
Unless you actually live on a farm, the shiplap-covered, barn-door-sliding, chicken-wire-adorned aesthetic has officially run its course. Joanna Gaines created a monster that took over suburban America!
Those distressed ‘Farmhouse Fresh’ signs and mason jar soap dispensers? They’re fooling nobody. Modern homes are embracing authenticity instead of rustic cosplay.
Focus on quality materials that make sense for your actual lifestyle and location rather than pretending your subdivision was once a working dairy.
4. Edison Bulb Fixtures
The exposed-filament Edison bulbs dangling from every restaurant ceiling circa 2015 quickly infiltrated home design. Now they’re as original as avocado toast.
Plus, they cast terrible light for actually seeing anything!
Beyond their played-out industrial aesthetic, these energy hogs provide more ambiance than function. Modern lighting embraces both form and efficiency.
Swap those amber-tinted bulbs for fixtures that make your space (and your face) look good. It’ll also keep your electricity bill reasonable.
5. Chevron Patterns
Zigzag overload! Chevron patterns stampeded through homes on everything from rugs to wallpaper to throw pillows. Now they’re the design equivalent of a one-hit wonder song you’ve heard too many times.
These busy patterns quickly overwhelm spaces and instantly date your decor to the mid-2010s. Subtler geometric patterns or organic shapes offer more staying power.
When future generations see how much we loved chevron, they’ll probably be baffled. Kind of like how we look back at shag carpeting from the ’70s and cringe.
6. Matching Furniture Sets
Perfectly matched sofa, loveseat, and chair sets are like the furniture world’s version of a cookie-cutter family portrait. They’re so predictable, boring, and crying out for some personality.
It’s like your living room took style advice from a robot on repeat.
Designers now champion thoughtfully curated spaces that look collected over time. Mix complementary pieces for a more sophisticated, lived-in look.
Make your home speak your unique story, don’t advertise that you purchased an entire room display during a holiday weekend sale.
7. Gray Everything
Gray had a spectacular decade-long reign as the neutral of choice. However, those gray-on-gray-on-gray interiors now look as soulless as a corporate office building.
Come on, where’s the personality?
Homes drenched in fifty shades of gray feel cold and uninspired. Warmer neutrals and actual colors are making a triumphant return!
Even white feels fresher than gray at this point. Your home should reflect your vibrant life, not match the sidewalk outside.
8. Fake Plants That Look Fake
Those dusty, plastic ferns fooling absolutely nobody are finally facing extinction! Low-quality artificial plants with unrealistic colors and textures make spaces feel cheap and neglected.
Today’s artificial botanicals have become remarkably lifelike. So, if you must go faux, invest in quality pieces. Better yet, embrace real plants!
Many varieties require minimal care while providing actual air-purifying benefits. Your home deserves better than sad, dusty imposters masquerading as living things.
9. All-White Kitchens
You know those clinical, all-white kitchens that dominated Pinterest boards? Well, they are finally losing their grip! While they photographed beautifully, living in these sterile spaces proved impractical for actual cooking.
Warmth is returning through wood tones, colored cabinetry, and mixed materials. Kitchens should feel welcoming rather than resembling medical laboratories.
Besides, constantly cleaning white cabinets, counters, and backsplashes to maintain that pristine look becomes a full-time job nobody needs.
10. Oversized Clocks
Those massive wall clocks with enormous roman numerals had their moment. Now they’re just taking up valuable wall space while reminding everyone how slowly staff meetings pass.
Subtler timepieces or none at all make for more sophisticated walls. Most of us check our phones for the time anyway!
Wall space is prime real estate for actual art that brings joy rather than industrial-sized timekeepers. Unless you’re operating a train station, normal-sized clocks (or none at all) will serve you better.
11. Sliding Barn Doors
If you’re not secretly running a farm from your guest bedroom, those interior barn doors are galloping toward extinction. They looked distinctive when they first appeared in homes, but quickly became as common as subway tile.
Beyond their ubiquity, they’re actually terrible at being doors! They don’t seal for sound privacy, take up wall space when open, and the exposed hardware collects dust.
Traditional hinged doors or pocket doors offer better functionality without the rural cosplay.
12. TV Above Fireplace
Neck pain isn’t a design statement! Mounting televisions above fireplaces creates awful viewing angles and damages electronics with rising heat.
Yet somehow this uncomfortable arrangement became standard practice.
Designers now prioritize comfortable viewing positions at eye level when seated. Your chiropractor might miss the business, but your body will thank you.
Besides, fireplaces should be focal points on their own merit, not TV stands. Let each element in your room serve its proper function.
13. Tuscan Kitchen Theme
The faux-Mediterranean kitchens with their terracotta colors, grape motifs, and “distressed” cabinets haven’t aged like fine wine. Instead, they scream early 2000s suburbia rather than actual Italian countryside.
The heavy, ornate look feels cluttered and dark compared to today’s cleaner styles.
Running an Olive Garden franchise from home? Then this might be for you. Otherwise, it’s time for an update. Authentic Mediterranean influences can still work beautifully. Just not when they come wrapped up in mass-produced, themed decor packages.
14. Shiplap Overload
Chip and Joanna Gaines have a lot to answer for! Shiplap exploded from occasional accent to covering every vertical surface in homes nowhere near bodies of water.
The nautical-inspired wood paneling makes little sense in suburban Phoenix.
Adding texture to walls is great, until everyone and their grandma starts slapping up horizontal white planks like it’s some kind of design virus. At this point, they’re less charming accent and more like that questionable haircut you paid way too much for and now can’t stop staring at.
Remember, your home’s details should shout your region, not scream “I binge-watched too many renovation shows!”
15. Pallet Furniture
I know that those Pinterest-inspired pallet coffee tables and bed frames looked appealingly rustic and eco-friendly in photos. In reality, they introduced splinters, questionable chemicals, and a distinct lack of craftsmanship into homes everywhere.
Upcycling is wonderful when done properly, but shipping pallets were never intended for interior use. They’re often treated with toxic chemicals and harbor bacteria from their previous lives.
Quality, purpose-built furniture (including legitimately sustainable options) serves both function and style without the health hazards.
16. Carpet In Bathrooms
Whoever decided that absorbent fabric belonged around toilets made a catastrophically wrong turn in design history. Yet somehow wall-to-wall carpet in bathrooms persisted for decades!
Beyond the obvious hygiene issues, carpet traps moisture, leading to mold and mildew. Hard surfaces like tile or vinyl provide waterproof practicality while looking infinitely better.
If you still have bathroom carpet, please, for the love of all things sanitary, rip it out immediately. Your houseguests are silently judging you.
17. Mirrored Furniture
The mirrored nightstands and dressers that promised to make spaces look larger actually just made them look like discount hotel rooms. The fingerprint-magnet surfaces require constant cleaning while reflecting every speck of dust.
While a statement mirrored piece can work in moderation, rooms filled with reflective furniture feel cold and impersonal. Quality materials with actual texture and warmth create more inviting spaces.
Plus, nobody needs to see themselves from seventeen different angles while simply walking across their bedroom.
18. Inspirational Bathroom Art
Motivation belongs in the boardroom, not on the throne. Those tired framed quotes about “soaking away your troubles” or “splish splash” have officially overstayed their welcome in the bathroom. The fact is, nobody needs life advice while doing their business.
Bathroom walls deserve better than cheesy slogans or hand-washing reminders that make guests roll their eyes harder than they’re washing their hands. Swap the clichés for real artwork, cool prints, or just embrace the silence!
19. Popcorn Ceilings
How these spray-on textured nightmares survived past the 1980s remains one of design’s greatest mysteries. Not only do they look dated, but they collect dust, are impossible to clean, and often contain asbestos in older homes.
Smooth ceilings instantly modernize spaces while making rooms feel taller and more spacious. Though removal can be messy, few updates deliver such dramatic results.
Your ceiling shouldn’t look like cottage cheese or trap decades of dust and spider webs in its craggy surface.
