anything goes with emma chamberlain - the worst home decor trends, in my opinion

Episode Date: October 27, 2024

i love home decor and interior design. and i’m not alone in this. i feel like design-related content is really popular on the internet. people like seeing how other people live. but everybody has slightly different taste. today, in honor of my love of home decor, and in honor of our different tastes in home decor, i’m going to be sharing with you the worst home decor friends, in my opinion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Let me tell you something about me. Okay? I love home decor. I love interior design. Okay? I love it. And as proof of that, my home decor Pinterest board has over 2000 pins on it. I'm consistently adding to this Pinterest board as though I'm designing a house right now. I'm not. I've lived in my house for the last three years. It's done being decorated. I'm not in the market for new furniture or I don't know, like new wallpaper. My house is done and I don't plan on moving for a while. So there's kind of no reason for me to be adding to my home decor Pinterest board as often and as vigorously as I am. But that just proves how much I love the art of home decor. I really

do love it. And I'm not alone in this. I feel like interior design related content is really popular on the internet. Like the architectural digest, home tours do incredibly well on the internet. I remember there was a period of time on TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, whatever, where people were showing their DIY home projects and those videos were doing really well. Room tours have always done well on the internet. I don't know, I just think people like seeing

how other people live. It's interesting. But beyond that, there is an art to it, I think. And it's similar to like fashion or art. Everybody has slightly different tastes, which is also what makes it interesting, right? If we all have the same taste, boring, that would be boring. But today, in honor of my love for home decor, and in honor of our different tastes in home decor as human beings, today I'm going to be sharing with you the worst home decor trends in my opinion. Now let me be clear, okay? My taste is not right.

Your taste is not right. There's no such thing as the right taste. I might hate something that you absolutely love, and you might hate something that I absolutely love, and that's totally fine. If I name something today that you love or that you have in your home, don't take it personally. Okay? I love you still. You can love me still. If you like something, you should always stand firm by that. And honestly, by me saying that I don't like it, that should further strengthen your belief

that you do like the thing that you like. Does that make sense? So like, if I say, I hate this type of couch, and that's the type of couch that you have in your house and you love it, by hearing me say, I hate that couch, and you were responding in your brain like, I think she's wrong, I love this couch. That's further strengthening your beliefs

around what your taste is, and that's a beautiful thing. Or if I say, I hate this couch, and you feel kind of offended and you're like, wait, why did I buy this couch? I also hate this couch. Now you've learned something new about yourself, okay? So let's have fun. Let's not take things too personally.

It's home decor. It's opinions on home decor, okay? This has nothing to do with your character. This is just my opinion. So I'm not right or wrong. This is just how I feel, okay? So now that I have clarified my intentions, let's begin. I'm going to be sharing with you the worst home to court trends in my opinion.

This episode is brought to you by Uber One. I may not have gone to college, but I can just imagine that preparing for college can be really stressful. Even though I never went away to college, I did move away from a home at age 17. And it was really exciting, but it was also incredibly stressful. Suddenly I have to do my own laundry and cook and manage my money and I didn't know what to do.

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However, there are many people in my life who do care about gifts. Gifts is their love language. And so when it comes to gift giving, I love a one-stop shop. And that's why Amazon is so phenomenal because, I love a one-stop shop. And that's why Amazon is so phenomenal because it truly is a one-stop shop. I mean, you can really find everything all in one place. Whoever you're gifting for, there's something for them on Amazon.

Shop early holiday deals from toys and fashion to home kitchen, beauty and more at amazon.ca slash fall favorites. A major home decor pet peeve for me. Probably my biggest home decor pet peeve is shitty patterns. It's so incredibly common to see shitty patterns. Okay. I have it like, I have a few that come to mind.

Number one, probably the worst, palm tree pattern. Okay? Like palm fronds as like a pattern. You've seen it. You know what I'm talking about? It was really trendy like five years ago. In fact, I actually had a piece of furniture, I believe it was a credenza or some sort of shelf that had that sort of palm tree pattern on it. And listen, I bought that, okay? I have since sold it, but I did buy that in good faith. I really was like, I'm going to love this for years to come. Uh, no, it is now a pet peeve for me. When I see it, it makes me cringe. And you know, I think that that tends to happen with patterns easily. It sort of reminds me of clothing, fashion, right?

Like cheetah print, for example, it comes in and out of style every few years. And I think the reason why it's not always in, it's not always trendy is because it's so loud that when we see it over and over and over again, we get fatigued by it. It's the same thing with home decor. Like palm tree pattern kind of got old for us

because we saw it over and over and over and over again. We got fatigued. Now it's not as cool anymore. It doesn't evoke excitement in our brains when we see it. It's not like a satisfying pattern to see anymore because we see it all the time, we're bored of it. Right? Whereas like, you know, a plain wood or I don't know like a neutral color is Much more timeless. We're not gonna get sick of that now

That's an extreme though, right? Like most of us don't just want beige Wood homes. We want to add a bit of color a bit of texture but a pattern So it's really challenging to find patterns that add that dimension to the home that aren't super trendy and gonna be boring in a few months. It's hard, I get it. And in the moment, a lot of times you can't tell

what sort of pattern is gonna be cringe in like a few years. You don't know what patterns you're gonna hate in a few years. I mean, I think you can get better at figuring it out, but it's a challenge, right? Like when I bought that palm tree patterned piece of furniture, I really thought I would love that for years to come. And I didn't, right? I would say my greatest piece of advice when it comes to picking out patterns that will stand the test of time would be either number one, to pick a pattern that never goes out of style. Stripes is a great example. I think polka dots is a great example. Different types of polka dots or stripes.

I think for the most part, that's kind of always in a classic, classic floral pattern. You know, something with like a really unique design that's sort of personal to you. Like let's say you love owls. Your favorite animal is the owl. You love that bird. That is your favorite bird. That is your favorite animal.

Buying a pillow, a throw pillow that has an owl on it will always bring you joy. That's a pattern that you will always love. And overall, just avoid patterns that are super trendy and in the zeitgeist right now. Like if you're seeing a pattern on Pinterest over and over and over and over again, chances are you're gonna hate that pattern soon

because it's a trend, right? It's better to, I don't know, like find a pattern that's not necessarily in the zeitgeist is more something that maybe we overlook. It's less trendy, but it's still beautiful and cool. And to choose that instead, because I think the hyper trendy patterns are just, oh God, it's horrible. Like, I don't know. And if you're gonna experiment with patterns, I'd say experiment with objects that are easier to replace or yeah, like don't buy a couch that, you know,

has like a crazy pattern on it. Don't buy a bed frame that has a crazy pattern on it. You know, play around with some throw pillows or something. Don't play around with big pieces of furniture like me buying that credenza or book shelf or whatever it was that had palm tree pattern on it. That was stupid. That's an expensive piece of furniture and I wasted my money. I mean, listen, I sold it to somebody who was stoked about it. That's great. And I could have like say painted the parts that had the palm tree pattern on it and so it would have been fine and I recommend you do that as well.

If you find yourself with an ugly pattern at some point, you can upcycle the piece, right? But, yeah, it's a bummer. All right, moving on. Next we have neon signs, okay? I had my first share of neon signs. All right, I'm trying to think. I had like one neon sign in one of my apartments that said bar on it. It was like this little neon sign that said bar and it was sat next to my alcohol. And you know what? It's not that bad.

But I would say, for the most part, neon signs are not my favorite. And they're really trendy in LA too, like it was this thing. Okay. I don't know if anyone else sort of remembers this era, but I feel like there was this period of time where every single YouTuber, influencer, whatever, had some sort of neon sign in their house that had like their logo or their name or whatever.

And it was like up on their wall or like in their studio, in their, you know, filming studio or whatever. It was just like a trend. And it sort of bled into mainstream. And, you know, I started to see a lot more neon signs online or maybe it started in the mainstream and then the influencers copied it. But in my memory, I feel like it was just like an internet trend. Like neon signs were all the rage.

And then all of a sudden it was like, wait, I see them in urban outfitters. Wait, I see them on Pinterest. It's becoming a bigger thing. Anyway, do I think there's a way you can do a neon sign right? Ah, yes, maybe. Like I think it can be done, but I think for the most part, they just feel, I don't know how to explain it.

If it like, there's something about it to me that's sort of gimmicky. They just feel... I don't know how to explain it. There's something about it to me that's sort of gimmicky, and it rarely ages well. I don't know. For example, there's a few establishments that I can think of off the top of my head in LA that have neon signs on the wall that have a sort of quote or design, right? And every single one that I can think of feels a little bit outdated. None of them feel timeless to me. They just don't age well ever. I don't know. I think maybe if you had like a really subtle, unique one, I might enjoy it, but I just, I don't know. I think it's better to just avoid a

neon sign altogether. That is my cat. Wait, listen to her. Listen to her. She's making muffins on my lap. Like, you know when a cat will like knead their little paws and then like chew on your pants or whatever, or chew on your sweatshirt or whatever, or chew on a blanket and make muffins?

That's what my cat's doing right now. Listen. And make muffins. That's what my cat's doing right now. Listen. Anyway, I just don't like neon signs. Okay, next. Chairs, sofas, benches, chaise lounges that are cool looking, but are ultimately uncomfortable. I can't tell you how often I see seating arrangements online, on Pinterest even, that look really cool, but I can tell are completely uncomfortable.

Now, I think that there are some exceptions, right? I think there are times when, you know, a bench is made or a chair is made that is more of an art piece and like a sculpture than it actually is like a functional place to sit, right? And I think that there's something to that. I think, I don't know, like I'm not fully against that. In fact, I actually have a few little accent chairs

in my house that are not really chairs that I sit in, but they more just have a really cool design. And so they're kind of just an accessory in my house. And they're not even like, they don't even really look like full chairs. They, they look more, more sculptural, right? And that's fine. But I more mean like, I don't know, like some sort of super mid-century couch that's really cool looking and whatever, but like you can't even lay down on it. You can barely sit on it.

I don't know. I'm of the belief that our couches, our chairs, our benches should be comfortable. Everything in our home should be functional. With the exception of like a super sculptural chair, maybe? I just think things in our homes should be functional, right? We should be able to live in our homes. Couches are for sitting, they're for laying. They're not for pure aesthetics, right? This episode is brought to you by Uber One. I may not have gone to college, but I can just imagine that preparing for college can

be really stressful. Even though I never went away to college, I did move away from a home at age 17. It was really exciting, but it was also incredibly stressful. Suddenly I have to do my own laundry and cook and manage my money and I didn't know what to do. It's overwhelming. Well, with the Uber One student membership, college just got a little easier with amazing savings across Uber and Uber Eats.

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and get four weeks free. Eligibility and member terms apply. Okay, next. Mass produced prints. Okay, now I know what you're thinking. Emma, you pretentious asshole. Not everyone can go to an art gallery and buy a one of one piece of art from an artist. You bitch. That is not what I'm saying. Okay. When I say mass produced prints, I mean like a print that's being sold at urban outfitters that you see in every single apartment in New York City. You know what I'm saying? Like I'm talking about a print that's sold by a popular retailer that

is being bought by many different people. I'm not talking about like a random movie poster that you ordered on Etsy that like only 15 people in the world have. That's cool. I actually think that's great. I'm talking about mass produced prints. I'm talking about the art that you find at IKEA where it's like, again, it's like something

that just kind of has no character and it's just, and I know what you're thinking, Emma, again, not everybody wants to go out and buy art from an art gallery. You pretentious bitch. I'm not saying that. Okay. There's other options. Okay. You don't need to go to Urban Outfitters and buy the print that everyone else has, the trendy print. You don't need to go to IKEA and buy a big print of like a flower or something. There's other options. Okay? Number one, go on Etsy or eBay or something and find something that's reasonably priced but unique and weird and personalized to you.

Make something yourself. I think we underestimate our own artistic abilities. If there's a sort of style of art that you like, copy that shit and put it into your house. You know what I mean? Spend a weekend doing it. Invite your friends. My argument is with a little bit more effort, you can hang stuff on your walls that will

start conversation, spark a little bit more joy, and hopefully be in your home for a lifetime. If you find something that you really love or you make something that you really love, you might have that in your house for the rest of your life. You see what I mean? I think we can rush to put things on our walls. And you know, we're shopping on a home decor website and we're like, oh, this is kind of a cute print. It's sort of trendy, it's sort of cool.

I've seen something like it on Pinterest. I'm just gonna order this. Fast forward to a few years later, you're sick of it. It's not cool anymore. It was too trendy. It holds no personal value. You just end up throwing it out. It's just kind of a piece of trash to you ultimately.

Something that you make yourself, something that you dig around on eBay or Etsy to find, that is the type of thing that you love for years and years to come. And there's no difference in price necessarily. So it's not about how much you're spending on it. If anything, like you might save money by making your own art for the walls

or having your artist friend, paying your artist friend to do something for you. You know? And listen, you don't have to pay them $1,000. Let's say you have a friend who's in an art class, pay them 50 bucks, the same price as you'd pay for a print that you find at Ikea. You see what I mean?

And have them do it. a little bit of creativity, a little bit of thinking outside the box, and you'll have something that you'll care about and cherish for years to come. And again, this is something that I used to do. I used to buy mass produced prints, okay? And guess what I ended up doing? Just throwing them all out

because they were short-lived little trends. And I got sick of them very quickly. Okay. Next we have fake plants that look super fake. Okay. Now I know again what you're thinking, Emma, not everyone fucking has time to water plants, by the way, I don't. Okay.

I'm a horrible plant mom and I travel all the time. I get it. But here's my thing. Okay. Fake plants that look super fake. I don't really know what the purpose is. Like number one, I don't really think it looks good. Okay. Cause it looks fake. Number two, it's not actually like bringing life and oxygen and beauty to the space. Like technically, I think that you could replace a really fake looking plant with just about anything and it'll look better. Right? For example, let's say you have on your desk, you have a fake succulent plant.

Okay? And you're like, listen, I really, I know myself, I'm not going to water this thing, even though succulents barely need to be watered. But you're like, this plant will die. I want to have a fake one. All right. If you're really determined to have some sort of plant or something in the space, what I would recommend is dried flowers, dried flowers, dried leaves. You can order online like really beautiful dried flower arrangements that literally will last forever. Okay, I have these like really big like dried. I don't even know what kind of plant it is to be honest.

They almost look like dinosaur like it looks like flowers that grew when dinosaurs walked the earth. Okay. They're like these big succulent looking flowers. Like they're huge and sharp. I don't even know what they are or where they came from. Like they just ended up in my house during, I actually think it was the flower arrangement that architectural digest picked out for my

house for the video. They handled flower arrangements and stuff like that. And I ended up just letting them dry. And I've had them in my home ever since. They dried and they look great and they're structurally sound and everything's fine. I have a lot of dried flower arrangements around my house. Like I have little lavender bouquets around the house. I have some little dried daisies around the house. And it's great because I never have to water them again.

I never have to tend to them again. And they add that sort of feeling of nature to the house. And there's just nothing wrong with that. But also you could choose a plant too, that only needs to be watered like every once in a while, a cactus. I know I mentioned succulents earlier as the fake plant, but like real succulents,

they do not need to be watered very often. Do research about plants that barely need to be tended to. That's an option. Or just like pick out some sort of cool, like structural thing, like your little sculpture or something. You know, next time you're at a flea market, buy some sort of weird little wood carved sculpture or next time somebody's selling pottery, buy a little vase or something. You know, like there are so many other options. Or, you know, like there are so many other options or, you know, buy a realistic looking fake plant. But a lot of times those are a lot more expensive and, and they're

rare. See, even when they're expensive too, a lot of times they actually aren't convincing. So I'd almost recommend like, I don't know, fake plants. I used to have a lot of fake plants in my house because I was not gonna be watering anything myself. And every time I'd look at them, I was not satisfied. I was not pleased with them, but I was like, it's better than nothing, I guess. But in retrospect, there's other things I could have done. Okay, next we have bright colored walls, okay?

Bright colored walls, okay? Growing up, when I was a kid, my bedroom had yellow walls, like baby yellow walls, okay, like cream baby yellow walls, super cute. But I got older and I was like, I wanna paint my walls a crazy color. And so I painted my walls like teal blue, okay? Like bright teal blue. And in retrospect, it was not my best idea, right?

But my point of saying this is I understand the appeal, okay? There's something really fun and exciting about like having a bright colored wall, but I think it's almost always something that you're gonna regret, okay? And painting walls is not easy. If I wanna add like color and excitement

and dimension to a space, I'm gonna add art to the walls. Maybe I'll do like a little accent wall with some tasteful wallpaper that's hopefully timeless, you know what I mean? But really bright wall paint, like bright blue, you know, bright purple, bright pink, bright yellow, bright orange, bright green, whatever, bright colored wall.

I just, number one, it's anxiety inducing for me. Like when I'm home, I wanna feel tranquil. Pretty much all the walls in my house are white right now. And I have a few accent walls with wallpaper. I have quite a bit of art on the walls to add some color and dimension and stuff. But I really like the tranquil sort of feeling of the white walls. And I chose to keep the walls for the most part white because number one, I knew that I'm never going to want to change it. Like I'm always going to be happy

with that. But also that I could change the feeling of the room based on what type of art I hang on the walls. Right? So like, it's not like, oh, well, the walls are white. This is going to be boring, you know, whatever. It's like, no, if I want to change the feeling of the room, I can put a huge statement piece of art. So that's a choice that I made, right? Now I'm not saying that everybody should paint all their walls white, okay?

That is not everyone's taste. And honestly, it makes sense for the house that I'm living in now, but I don't know. Like, who knows? I might, you know, move at some point and make a different decision. So I'm not saying that like all walls should be completely neutral and white.

No, I've seen homes where the walls are painted like a very light baby blue, pastel gray, periwinkle color, beautiful. I've seen creamy, buttery, baby yellow pastel look really nice. You know, there's been moments where where there's been rooms that have like darker paint, like maybe like a, a dark navy blue maybe. And it's been really nice. I think the key is that it's easy to look at, right? Like there are certain colors that are easy to look at and certain colors that are fatiguing to look at. Bright blue, bright green, bright yellow, bright pink, that's fatiguing to look at. Like you get sick of that. You get tired of that. You

don't get tired of looking at a white fucking wall. You don't get tired at looking at a navy blue wall because it's soothing to the eye. It's easy to look at. I don't know. I just think like statement paint colors that are like bright in, you know, yeah, by statement, I mean, like bright. I don't know. I think it's something that you're almost always going to regret. And it just, it's like, it makes the room feel stressful. Like I feel stressed out when I'm in a brightly colored room. I don't feel good. It's actually funny, growing up, my dad told me,

he's like, you can do whatever you want. If you want to paint your room, we'll paint your room. We're just not doing pink or purple because those colors are anxiety inducing. And I was like, huh. And I don't know if that's true. That might've been an opinion from him. I'm Googling it.

Okay, according to verywellmind.com, certain colors emit specific feelings. Blue is sadness, red is anger, yellow is sunshine. The list goes on. Pink is generally paired with themes of love in seasons, rituals and holidays such as Valentine's Day. Some shades of pink feel relaxing, whereas bright pinks are stimulating or even aggravating.

So yeah, that's why my dad was like, no bright pink walls for you, okay? Although according to Wikipedia, there's a shade of pink called Baker Miller pink, okay? What is this? So Baker Miller pink, also known as P618, is a tone of pink which has been observed Baker Miller pink, also known as P six 18, is a tone of pink which has been observed to temporarily reduce hostile, violent,

or aggressive behavior. Okay, so I guess there's also some that say that it makes people calm down. So I don't know, but I actually do agree with him that for me personally as well, like a pink room, not super soothing to me. Anyway, I've been rambling on about this for too long. Next, we have random little decor items that have zero sentimental value at all.

Things that are just in your home to take up space. Now, listen, I have bought things before that maybe don't have like, I don't know, like extreme sentimental value to me that I absolutely love and have had in my home for years, right? I've moved and taken these things with me. They're things that I bought that aren't like so personal that they're like a fucking family heirloom or like I found them on the side of the road when I was on a road trip with my family and it'll always remind me of the road trip with my family.

Like I don't mean sentimental value like to that extent. Listen, as many things as you can put in your house that have extreme sentimental value like that, they're either a family heirloom or they have a strong memory associated, whatever, the better. But I more mean something that genuinely is of your taste, something that you absolutely love. Right? Now, I know what you're thinking. Emma, I love everything in my house. That's why I bought it. Really? Because there are so many

people, myself included, who just want to take up space in their home, right? They just wanna fill that bookshelf, that empty bookshelf. They just wanna make their kitchen counter look a little bit more aesthetic. And we buy stuff that we don't love just to take up space. And we do this more than we realize we do. And listen, some of you are out there and you're like, Emma, I don't do that.

Good for you, because it's better not to do that, okay? But I think a lot of times we'll buy like a mediocre at best little home accessory. Yeah, just to fill up space. Like, and it's obvious when there are objects like that. You know, if you were to go into someone's home, somebody who's, you know, particularly, who likes to decorate, right?

And you were to look around and you were to be asked like, which of these items are just kind of there to take up space? I think it'd be pretty easy for somebody to just point it out. It's kind of obvious. It's always like sort of similar types of objects, right? It's like, I don't know, like some sort of random vase that's not really very interesting. I don't know,

like a random little abstract sculpture that's just like randomly, I don't know, like stuff that just doesn't, like the person doesn't even care about it. If it like fucking fell off the countertop today and broke, they wouldn't care. You know what I mean? Cause it's not, I don't know. Do you get what I'm saying? And again, some of you are like, no, am I only buy stuff when I love it. That's great. But a lot of people, especially people like me who like, who love to shop and love home

decor and stuff will just be like, oh, I want to fill my house. You know what I mean? And then they end up buying shit that they don't even like just to sort of take up space. And honestly, there's a lot of stuff that I've already sort of listed today that sort of fall into that category. They're like easy things to just buy to take up space.

A fake plant is a great example. Mass produced prints. It's like, these are things that are buy to take up space. A fake plant is a great example. Mass produced prints. It's like, these are things that are easy to find when it comes to the plant, easy to take care of. And it's easy to just be like, oh, I'll just throw these things in a corner or on this countertop or on this bookshelf or on this wall. It's fine. But I really encourage people and I encourage myself to take your time when it comes to finding these types of things. If you're trying to fill your walls with art or decoration or whatever, take your time. Don't buy the mass-produced prints. Don't buy that trendy neon sign. Think

about who in your life makes art. Think about who you could invite over to have an art party where everybody makes art for their walls at home. Go down a fucking eBay deep dive and find some weird shit that, I don't know, like a fun activity could be like, okay, think about things that you like, right? Like for example, for me, I grew up going to Maine every summer from the time I was like five years old to

today. I love the state of Maine. It's a very special place to me, but I don't live there. So I'm going to go on eBay and look up oil paintings in Maine. And I'm just going to scroll around and see if I find anything cool that's like a reasonable price. Or I really love orange tabby cats. Okay.

I do love orange tabby cats. I have an orange tabby cat. You can go on Etsy and look up orange tabby cat print. You see what I'm saying? And yeah, it takes a bit more time and effort to find those things. But as I mentioned earlier, those are things that don't just take up space. They actually provide value. Or you know, if you really want to find like cute little objects to put around

your house for the next year, every weekend that you have free, go to a little flea market, go to a little vintage store, you know, go to a cool, I don't know, local boutique or something, find unique little objects that you can put around your house that actually mean something. Find something that really like sparks joy in you genuinely, not just stuff that you think is kind of trendy and it's like, oh, fine, it'll like fill up the bookshelf. You get what I mean?

Okay, next we have white shag stuff, okay? White shag rug, white shag couch, white shag stuff. Okay? White shag rug, white shag couch, white shag pillow. I get the appeal with the white shag, right? It's cozy, it's comfortable. That shit gets dirty and disgusting and matted within, I don't know, six months of having it. and then it just looks horrible. I get it, I've bought white shag stuff before. It is always regretted, okay? It is a material that you either need to take care of as though it's actually an alive pet. Like if you want your white shag stuff

to continue to look good, you have to take care of it as though it is a living creature. You need to take that thing to the groomers, okay? You need to get your carp, if it's a carpet, now you have to pay somebody to come clean that carpet. That's not fun. I wouldn't even know how to begin cleaning a white shag carpet myself.

I don't know, a white shag pillow, throw that pillowcase in the wash, you know what, every three months probably, no thanks. I just don't like white shag. I feel like most of the time when I see white shag, it's actually dirty already and it just looks disgusting and bad. Now listen, I've had white shag in the past.

That's why I'm so triggered by this because I know how tempting it is. I know how good and cozy it looks and feels in the beginning. You'll regret it. Okay. That's all I'm saying. And that's why I hate it. That's why I think it's a horrible sort of trend because it doesn't end well. And it usually is something that you regret. Okay. Next we have TikTok lighting. Okay. You know what I'm talking about, I hope. I'm talking about like those light strips that you can put around your room or whatever.

And then you can use a little remote control or sometimes you can use your phone to like change the colors of the lights in your room. You can change it to like red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, like change it to any color. It's like kind of like having neon lights in your room, honestly. I used to have those lights in my bedroom.

Honestly, I haven't had them for a while, but I had them in my first two apartments that I lived in. I traveled around with those Hue lights. And to be honest, I actually really loved them back then because I would pretty much always set my room to like an orangey sort of lighting. So it felt like I was in a sauna or something. It just like felt cozy and orangey and warm and cozy and nice. That was great. However, any other color was a catastrophe. Okay. Blue? Weird vibes. I feel like I'm at the nightclub, okay? Green, who would ever want their room

to have green lights, like no thanks. Purple, again, I feel like I'm fucking in Las Vegas right now at the casino. What are we doing with the purple lights? Red, kind of intense. It's like, why would I turn my room to red when I could just turn it to orange? Orange is better, it's more soothing, it's more relaxing, whatever. It's like, why would I turn my room to red when I could just turn it to orange?

Orange is better. It's more soothing. It's more relaxing. Whatever. Yellow, no thanks. That's uncomfortable to look at. Pink, no. Anxiety inducing, no thank you.

Okay, so my point is these lights for the most part just look like a fucking nightclub. I don't want my bedroom to look like a nightclub. I don't want my living room to look like a nightclub. That's why I don't like these lights, okay? Because unless they're set to the orange setting, it is just too much for the eyes, it's too much for the brain, it's too much. It's not nice.

It's not nice, it's not soothing. I feel like I'm in the nightclub. I feel like, it doesn't feel soothing. I don't feel like, I like to feel like I'm in a cocoon in my house. I like to feel cozy. I like cozy, cozy, cozy, cozy vibes.

And that's something that I think you're realizing, okay? Neon changeable TikTok lights, unless they're placed on the orange setting are not cozy vibes. Which actually leads us to another thing I don't like, which is like super bright white light bulbs, okay? I like a warmer toned light bulb. This is not really like a trend.

Like I don't think there's like light bulb trends. Maybe there is, but I just don't know about them. But I don't like white doctor doctor's office, sterile, fluorescent lighting. I like warm, cozy sort of lighting. Yeah. Like when I get a lamp or something and it comes with a light bulb and the light bulb is like just this like fluorescent white, I don't know, I don't like it. Which also kind of leads me to another doctor's office sterile vibe, which is sort of like the modern standard for interior design, okay?

When you think of like the modern standard for interior design, what is it? Okay, it's like very doctor's office coded. I don't know, there's something about sort of modern design that feels very doctor's office to me. It feels like, it feels corporate. Do you know what I'm saying? Like modern homes that are being built today

and being interior designed today, a lot of times feel really sterile. They do not feel cozy. They feel bright. They feel monochromatic. They're like lacking color. They feel sort of they feel monochromatic, they're like lacking color, you know, they feel sort of painfully neutral. It's like, it's almost, it's so lacking character

that it actually becomes in aesthetic in itself. I don't love that vibe. Now listen, when I was living in apartments, right, in LA, when I first moved to LA and I was like, all right, time to find an apartment. A lot of the apartments were of this sort of aesthetic, right, like very sterile. In fact, even my first house was very sterile

and like, because that was all I kind of knew. I was like, this is kind of all that's out there right now in LA, I can't really find, like, you know, the stuff that has character, it's all really old and, you know, these places maybe don't have updated appliances or updated security system or whatever it is. Like, if I wanted something that was new and sort of clean and fully functioning and, you know, wasn't going to cause me problems and stuff, it sort of had this bland, modern, blah, sort of design to it.

That was majority of what I found. And that was a bummer, but I was also like, this is, you know, it's totally fine. Like I'm just grateful to fucking be here. So all good, of course, but it was a bummer. And so I was like, all right, well, I guess I'll, you know, try to bring some life to it through furniture. And I did that, I think, for the most part,

but it's hard to do because what tends to match that sort of aesthetic is like, you know, like a gray couch and like a white plain coffee table, you know, it'll just, whatever, like it looks like a fucking doctor's office waiting room. Now I know again what you're saying, Emma, to get like something cool and eccentric, that's a lot of work and that's, you know,

a lot of times expensive, not necessarily. You can get so many cool, weird stuff for way cheaper buying things secondhand. I'm all about secondhand furniture. Not everything can be secondhand though. Listen, getting a secondhand couch can be rough. It's possible, but it can be a little rough. So there's certain things that you might have to go

and buy new, but like in general, going and buying stuff secondhand instead, going on, I don't know, again, like going on eBay and shit, Facebook marketplace, whatever. I'm just all about that. Cause I think the sort of modern sterile design, I just, I really don't like it. And it makes me sad cause it, it lacks character.

It lacks coziness and I don't know. I'm just not a fan of it. Okay, next we have too many throw pillows. Okay, I'm sorry. We don't need throw pillows extending all the way out till the end of the fucking bed. If you can't lay comfortably on your bed with throw pillows on your bed, you have too many.

In fact, I actually don't have any in my bedroom. I just have my two sleeping pillows, that's it. No other pillows. And then I have like a few little comfy ones on my couch that I actually use, cause I'll lay on them and stuff. Like I'll use them as like a comfy pillow, I'll actually lay on them, they're functional pillows. And then I have a few accent pillows around the house too, like on different chairs or whatever. But they're comfortable and I can sit on them and whatever.

And I don't even notice them. They're not getting in the way of everything. Throw pillows that get in the way? Uh-uh. No, we're not doing that anymore. I don't know why we're still doing that. I recently did like a little trip to Wyoming, which was delightful. My dad and I were on a road trip and it was so funny. We both were staying in this little cabin thing in Wyoming randomly. This was so random that we did this.

But again, we're on a road trip and we're just like, we'll just explore places in the United States that we've never been. So Wyoming was one of them. It was amazing. But anyway, we both go into our little rooms in this cabin that we rented. And we both at the same time were like,

oh my God, there's so many throw pillows. I kid you not, we were both like flabbergasted. We couldn't believe it. At the same time, we were like, what the, what the fuck? Literally throw pillows coming out till the end of the bed. Like if you couldn't lay on the bed, there was so many throw pillows. It was hilarious.

And I get it. It's a design preference thing. Like some people really like it. They think the bed looks boring or whatever without it. I'm more about function. So anything that's not functional, I'm just not down. Which leads me to my next one, which is super tiny nightstands.

No, I need a nightstand that can hold my computer and my iPad that also has a drawer for my journal in a pen and Advil, just in case I get a headache, melatonin just in case I can't fall asleep, matches if I wanna light the candle that's on my nightstand, like all this shit, right? I need space. I want a lot of surface area.

I want ample room for a lamp. I want space. A tiny nightstand to me, that is not a functional nightstand. Nightstands are for putting shit on. They're for using. What's the point of a nightstand to me, that is not a functional nightstand. Like nightstands are for putting shit on. They're for using. What's the point of a nightstand if all it does is hold a lamp?

You might as well just have a floor lamp next to your bed. If you have to put shit on the floor, that means your nightstand's not big enough. Like nightstands should be large. And then last but not least, hanging a painting above your bed. Unless that painting is fucking bolted to the wall, or it's like a tapestry, so it's not even like heavy, there is a risk. It might be low, but there is a risk that that thing could fall on you

while you sleep. And I'm sorry, but that is not fucking worth it. Don't hang shit above your bed, especially if you live in California. No, no, there's earthquakes. Come on, take care of yourself. Don't put shit above your bed. This is just like, honestly, this is just a PSA. I just like have like intrusive thoughts about people hanging stuff above their bed and then it falling down and like hurting them.

Oh my God, I can't. I like just don't do that, okay? I don't know. It can look really cute, but unless that thing is fucking bolted to the wall to a point where it's impossible for it to fall off, it's just not worth it. And that's it.

Those are my least favorite home decor trends. Some of them aren't even really trends, to be honest. They're just things that happen in the home when people decorate the home. They're not necessarily trendy, they're just common. But those are my opinions. Let me know if you agree with me. Let me know if you disagree with me. Let me know your home decor pet peeves.

Let me know what home decor trends you hate. Find the show on any platform you stream podcasts. Find the show on social media at anything goes. Find me on social media at Emma Chamberlain and find my coffee company at chamberlaincoffee.com or at Chamberlain Coffee on social media. That's all I have. I love you all. I appreciate you all.

Thank you for letting me ramble about home decor for like, I don't know, 45 minutes. All right, I'll talk to you all. Thank you for letting me ramble about home decor for like, I don't know, 45 minutes. All right. I'll talk to you later. Have an awesome day. I love and appreciate you. Okay. Talk to you soon. Bye.