Interesting article on current housing/architectural trends. To me, the modern farmhouse (white, black, beige) is at least better then than all flat-gray trend, but when it’s forced onto structures never intended to be that way (like the midcentury modern one-level ranch) it’s definitely overdone.

This is a gift link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/0...UwKCH&smid=url-share

Here’s the regular link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/0...rmhouse-suburbs.html

Joanna Gaines really started something when she introduced that style! I’m surprised it caught on like it did.

Or may be not. Unless taken to extremes (like the over the top examples in the article) there’s a lot to like:

* It’s easy to achieve. No fancy colors or patterns to match, no precious antiques, works with houses and rooms of nearly any size.

* It’s cheap to do. Nothing is particularly fine and used stuff might even be preferred. Nice things can co-exist with junk from Home Goods and it all works. All the required pieces are readily available on line at rock bottom prices.

* It’s comfortable. Seating tends to be overstuffed, dining tables large and sturdy, beds heaped with pillows and linens. Throws and foot stools are common and even recliners work with the look.

* It’s easy to change and easy to play with. With walls and furniture all in neutral colors it’s easy to rotate accessories in and out. You can shift things from room to room, and that includes the garage. Seasonal and holiday decorations fit, as do craft projects and kid’s artwork.

I only see a few downsides:

* The look has been around for a while and I suspect it it will date pretty badly.

* It’s a very demanding style to maintain. All that open shelving and those hard surface floors require nearly constant attention to look good. Butcher block counters won’t hold up no matter how many times you oil them. Layers of linens and throw rugs mean hours of washing.

* Open plan means everything has to be tidy all the time or it starts looking like a thrift store.

* Everyone is sick-to-death of white subway tile.

It hurt me physically to read about those people who redid a midccentury modern house in Miami into a modern farmhouse. At some point, you need to live where you are. I mean, I grew up in a midcentury modern house and I'd never replicate it, but there's a way to do an updated MCM that's pleasing to the modern eye and honors the home and the past.

I'm not a huge fan of white subway tile, either, Steve, but I could live with it. (I think there's a teeny bit of white subway tile in the house we're about to renovate in New York, in a newly redone half-bath that's probably the only room we're not going to touch. Everything else at least needs updated electrical outlets.)

What I really don't like (and apologies to those of you who have them, as I'm sure yours are lovely) are kitchens where all of the cabinets are painted white. I didn't know it was a Joanna Gaines thing, so now I know who to blame for the fact that kitchens all look alike and they look hard to clean. We may end up with painted cabinets in the new house, as the floors are wood and wood cabinets would be a)hard to match and b)a whole lotta wood. But cabinets can be some color other than white. Muffin's Sister's house came with white cabinets, so she hired a painter to paint some of them (Maybe the island and lower cabinets?) dark blue to go with the blue-flecked quartz countertops and it made all the difference.

I do like a porch swing, but maybe Joanna Gaines is to blame for the current trend to hang them facing the street with almost no room to swing back. Until recently, I had never seen one that wasn't hung perpendicular to the house at one end of the porch to give room for the thing to...you know...swing. There may be room for an adult to do a sedate to and fro on a Gaines-style swing, but a kid would scar up those white walls on Day One.

A true MCM house stands on its own in terms of style. Classic and beautiful. My dream house.

But there are millions of those one story early 60's brick ranches that were devoid of style or charm from the start. I grew up in one. Those houses are very well served by updating to the modern farmhouse style on the exterior.

I don't like modern farmhouse at all. But I love a real, original farmhouse. Comfy and unpretentious, with little nooks to curl up in with a good book.

We have a trend here with new builds to go for an industrial look. When there were just a few of these houses in established neighborhoods, it was a nice contrast. Now when there are hundreds of them it is just plain ugly.

And I love an all-white, bright white kitchen, especially if you add cobalt blue accents.

Please STOP with the following:
No more subway tile PLEASE!
No more gray floors and gray cabinets and black walls. UGH UGH UGH. I live in a climate with long dark winters, I need warm and light colors in my house.
No more open concept living. I do not want my kitchen in my living room, thank you very much.
Also what is with building houses where the bedrooms each only have one window? Has no one heard of cross-ventilation?

My favorite era for house building and design is right around 1910 and into the 1920s. I like 1930s bungalows, too. I do like MCM, but I can't abide ranch houses with three little bedrooms off a hallway and tiny windows that are high up with no view.

quote:

Originally posted by piqué:


My favorite era for house building and design is right around 1910 and into the 1920s.

Sears houses FTW.

We will be looking for a house in the next year or so.
There are many, many, very ugly houses that are barely functional.

quote:

Originally posted by CHAS:
We will be looking for a house in the next year or so.
There are many, many, very ugly houses that are barely functional.

So true. After three years of house hunting so we can retire back to Missoula, I give up. I do not want to live in an ugly tract house with appliances from Home Depot and crappy finish details and ugly floors and stupid unusable layouts. I don't know why this makes me so mad, but it does.

Confused on your Home Depot appliances comment.

Where do you like to shop for appliances?

quote:

No more open concept living. I do not want my kitchen in my living room, thank you very much.

+100.

Our new rental house is a sort of modified open concept, the 1990s version rather than the 2023 version. By which I mean, our current house the living space is sort of shaped like a U, you go in the front door and then walk around a corner to the dining space and then the kitchen is at the far end. Actually you could draw a straight line from the front door to the oven, but you can’t walk through straight, if you see what I mean.

This is not ideal, but we needed a place to live and trying to find housing in college towns past their preferred rent cycle is a freaking nightmare.

Oh btw the 2020s version of open concept is apparently just one long rectangle room, with living at one end and kitchen at the other.

This style is apparently for people who don’t cook, don’t work from home, don’t have any clutter, don’t use dishes….

Oh and I agree with MA, too much white in a kitchen isn’t great. Also, I hate to see a kitchen where someone has taken out all the cupboards and replaced them with open shelving.

This is also for people who have only two of every item…

I’m going to wait it out.

Soon everyone will want a kitchen with oak wood floors, shaker maple cabinets, a stainless double sink, a gunmetal blue backsplash, granite countertops, and stainless appliances (with a white dishwasher that refuses to break so we can justify replacing it with stainless).

We’re beyond making statements. We’re just trying to get by.


My new fave New Yorker cartoon (sorry, can’t copy) shows a couple greeting guests at the door saying: “Come on in. Sorry about the mess. We’re just in the middle of not caring anymore.”

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Miller:
Confused on your Home Depot appliances comment.

Where do you like to shop for appliances?

it's not easy, especially where we live. just this past week we decided we need a new toilet in the half bath. mr. pique went to home depot and bought one. i decided to check on the reviews of this toilet online before removing it from the car--most of the reviews complained about the poor quality and substandard parts.

a little more googling got me some online reviews and articles about how to choose a toilet, ending with me deciding to order one directly from American Standard. On sale, it was twice the price of the Home Depot one, but it had all the features I want, quality parts and design, and the reviews were raves.

As we live in a 1970s rambler in a remote area where box stores are about the only place you can buy anything (and their onsite inventory is very limited), we naturally own a home filled with crap fixtures and appliances from these box stores, installed by the previous owners. i don't want to live in a house with crap fixtures and fittings. I like and appreciate quality and feel that it is a false economy to buy cheap materials for your home.

Plus, having lived with this stuff for six years now and experiencing things like the front panel falling off the dishwasher, the windows being hard to close tightly enough to seal when it is 40-below out, the flooring in the bathroom warping, the shower door not keeping water where it belongs, etc. I don't want to perpetuate that level of construction.

Now that we are staying put for the forseeable future, we're going to do some remodeling, and probably the only thing I'll be getting from a box store is cellular shades (the ones we got from Lowe's a few years ago are terrific).

The toilets we are removing came from Home Depot (Glacier Bay, is their brand, I believe). I am so looking forward to having toilets that flush reliably, don't leak, and are easy to install (the video on the American Standard website showing how to install their toilets is filled with very helpful hacks and shows they were quite ingenious about it).

I definitely will not buy lumber at Home Depot or Lowe's. Luckily we have local sawmills.

Your experience may be very different Steve, since you live in a more populated area. I'm sure the selection at your local Home Depot is a lot better than at ours.

When we decide to replace the dishwasher, for example, no doubt I'll go online again, find out what is recommended, and then mail order it.

I’m curious to know if the American Standard toilet you bought is the same as an American standard toilet sold at Home Depot.

Does it have the same model name?