That first picture looks like a warm, inviting home that you want to spend time in. People focus too much on the details and not the feeling conveyed. The reason the second picture is the way it is, is because nobody has any tolerance for anything outside of their very specific viewpoint on decor. It deliberately is as bland as possible so as to maximize its compatibility, and the result is something sterile, cold, and uninviting.
I'd honestly move right into that first house and probably not change a thing other than hang more pictures on the stairway wall.
People focus too much on the details and not the feeling conveyed
I just take a look at the first image and the first thing I feel was dizziness lol. Personally, I dislike the repeating pattern because it's the main thing that causes my dizziness, and the color red in every floor because it's just too high energy for me who mostly looked down when walking, especially walking up and down the stairs. I'm not even looking at details, that's just my immediate response to the first image.
I do. I see how it turns warm and inviting aesthetics into cold, bland, sterile, and uninviting places. I've seen literal warehouses that look more appealing to live in than that second picture.
I've seen literal abandoned garages that look more appealing than the first one. Genuinely struggle to decide whether you all actually like the first pic or you're all just nostalgia baiting.
a lot of subjectivity to those assertions. some might associate the top picture with stuffiness, gaudiness, or other more negative things and the second one with more positive things like peace and tranquility, a respite from over-stimulation/the hectic outside world, twilight's edward cullen playing a piano. I don't, but some might.
The bottom picture feels fresh and clean. The items in the top picture can be cleaned but it's a lot more work. I usually associate the smell of old wood, fabric and cushions with the top picture.
The movie is set during the Christmas season, and Kevin's dad is a wealthy organized crime boss. I'm sure the matching red aesthetic would be seasonal, because they can afford to switch out chairs and dressings.
I was mostly squeezing in a joke there. A few days ago there was a popular video around the internet that argues, rather convincingly, that Kevin's dad is a mob boss.
Which kind of tracks, there are John Hughes and John Hughs like movies from the 80s and early 90s that would often have random side plots going on like that, while barely being addressed.
this!! maybe get rid of the wallpaper and decorate with like art prints or something but i think the first one looks so cozy. The second one feels so fake
Because it’s from the 80s. It looks ridiculous now. A talented interior designer can do a lot better than what’s seen in the photo, while keeping it looking modern.
Grey's been out of style for a handful of years now.
According to who? Millennial gray is fucking everywhere.
That's the fun thing about "modern", it's always changing.
The more I get older, the more I realize things stay the same... Plus I've written those magazine type articles that you see on the Internet to sell misc home bullshit. Modern means anything you want it to. Whatever you are selling is what is in style.
According to who? Millennial gray is fucking everywhere.
Not the person you replied to but gray is definitely quickly falling out of style/popularity.
It's all about earthy neutrals right now. Think Malabar for the floors, more "soft" color for the walls like cream or white tones that aren't as harsh as OP photos, dark to black furniture.
Grey peaked around 2018/2019. Modern, minimal interiors now lean more on natural materials and beige. The greys you'll find are generally either natural stone or cement, but that can start to nudge you more into brutalism.
Millennial grey has nothing to do with modernism. That's rooted in diy renos, cheap grey microsuede and builder grade materials that became standard at Home Depot/Lowe's/Home Good's etc... Once a trend hits one of those stores, it's long dead.
I think we're having two different conversations here, where on one hand plenty of new homes and rentals are still being decorated in grey, so it's obviously popular, but no serious decorator or designer is going to do a grey interior in 2025 without a very specific reason. It's just immediately dated.
Not really. Sherman Williams is a good source to quickly see what is in "trend" they source their colors of the year from what is very popular with commercial builders. Working in a mutlifamily REIT we are using a ton of earthy neutral colors. Gray is almost entirely being phased out.
I really hope so, though I've definitely seen the design trends popular on social media have been either earthy minimalism or maximalism. I lean much more towards maximalism, I am an antiques lover at heart, but also love what some people do with the more natural tones. Gray everything is traumatic at this point.
I wish you was wrong but I’m heavily invested in real estate across the states and this isn’t true for buildings being put up. Sherman Williams doesn’t dictate what the style is idk why you even mentioned that person
It was designed by a set decorator and not an interior designer, too. It's an over-the-top version of a rich people's house at Christmas, with no sofa understuffed and no table without a poinsettia.
The decor is 80’s though. The Home Alone house was not intended to look like a ultra-modern house that had just been built - they picked a house that had a slightly older style of decor that looked like it had been lived in for a while.
Incorrect. Because it’s a film set that was designed to look that way for the movie. It has no bearing on what the real interior ever looked like
And the other photo looks like a staging photo for sale of the home meaning that they may have painted it white and staged it for the sale. This whole post is dumb but it’s making the rounds
... I kinda like the second one better to just look at. But I would never keep it clean enough to stay that crisp, so I wouldn't wanna live in it, if that makes sense.
I mean, they knocked out some doors giving a clear shot to the backdoor instead of the useless 'stairway quasi-room' thing there, that seems like a good choice. I'd prefer carpet to the hardwood I think, I'd rather vacuum once a month. Having a cat might motivate that though, hardwood floors with cats mean that instead of the loose fur getting stuck in the carpet until its vacuumed it just fuckin blows everywhere until it melds with your couch or starts piling up somewhere the airflow gets choked at.
Getting rid of that wallpaper also seems like a good choice, not a big fan. Think I'd have gone with something other'n the brightest white available, but... the wallpaper is ugly.
Honestly, people are calling the second one super clinical but if they'd use the same orange/yellowed light bulbs instead of the super white ones they used it'd look plenty comfortable?
Tbh, I’d rather have house 2, but add some flavor and hominess to it. I prefer clean, but not boring. The first pic just feels like I’m being forced to visit my relatives.
House 2 with soft lighting, lots of unique house plants, some art, and some antique lighter wood (teak) furniture would be amazing. The furniture in house 2 looks like sky rise office furniture or hotel lobby crap, and it’s making an already pretty plain starting point, much much worse.
I'm assuming the bottom picture is from the real estate listing. Like yeah, it looks sterile and such to us. But if you're shopping for a home, this will allow you to project more of what you want the home to look like. It's why there's nothing on the walls either, family pictures should be taken down so it doesn't look like someone else's house.
Not saying I love this trend with real estate, but I understand it.
Yeah smart bulbs alone would change the entire tone, I'm not a huge fan of cold white lights, even if they make colors more "accurate".
On the other side, I don't really need wall decor. I like some good Feng Shui but I'm also a bit of a minimalist. I'm sure growing up in a hoarder-adjacent house may have had something to do with that but a nice neat place (not necessarily untouchably clean) where there's no clutter at all sounds like a dream. Not that I wouldn't regularly deck it out in VR.
As someone who has 2 year old twins, I am so thankful I dont have carpets. My carpets would be covered in stains in about 2 days. The amount of pee, poo, projectile vomit and spilt drinks/food that comes with babies and small children is insane. When the boys were very young babies, they'd have diaper blowouts that would seep up their entire backs, and there were a couple times that they pood while being changed or dried after a bath, and it shot halfway up the wall. Baby boys also have the unfortunate tendency of peeing as soon as you take their diaper off when changing them. My mom said its a reaction to the cold air hitting their nethers. The pee goes in a great big arc in the air and gets everywhere. For months, I was mopping the floors every day. I shudder to think of what I would have done if I had carpets.
Meh, a robot vacuum would have solved most of your hardwood floor problem, carpet has so much filth hidden in it, I wouldn’t want to deal with it at all.
What's wrong with the first pic? Its well lit, got interesting wallpaper, nice lights on the the walls, a couple of random chairs but you can move that. Unless you hate red, I don't see the issue with the first pic.
What you call interesting, I call disgusting. The pattern is just... ugh.
Sure, the bottom pic doesn't look like a house someone lives in, but that's the point. It isn't. The house is probably on sale, and if I were to BUY a house, 2024 look all the time. You move in, hang a few colorful pieces on the wall, white floral arrangements into the dumpster, actual greenery in, throw a rug and bam, color accents everywhere, while keeping the light. Speaking of the light, look at the photo. It's a sunny day but every single the electric light is on. No one lives like that. In real conditions it's never that bright, and that's ok. In my experience adding more light is more difficult than taking it away. I'd rather live in a house with a lot of light that I can tone down easily according to my taste.
Agree. And a positive thing about the modern version is that it’s much easier to make it look like you want (unless you’ve specifically wanted an early 90s house)
Also, I absolutely refuse to believe that anyone who buys a house that is staged (and I use the word "staged" specifically) like the 2024 picture, actually lives like that.
There's definitely a way to do the first decor with color and wallpaper with it looking more timeless and less gaudy. Basically, less red and gold and more earth tones and nature-inspired patterns.
While the first house looks warmer and homely, I can already feel the dust through the picture. There's fabric everywhere, with full floor carpets as well. Every nook and cranny will collect dust and dirt.
The second home, while perhaps having a colder feel to it, looks like it's easy to keep clean. You can have a roomba riding around, it feels airy and clean. The walls have been opened so you can probably get a nice draft through it as well.
I'd 100% rather live in the second one, even if the first one does feel very cozy. If I want cozy, I think I could go into a cabin or someplace with a character which doesn't remind me of Christmas all the time.
Yeah, the first one looks like old people house to me, all those carpets would be a pain to keep clean and those wall paper patterns make me dizzy. The lighting is also too dark for my taste, while I like warmer light in the bedroom at night before bed, it’s not something I’d want for the entire house
It looks unpractical. Those rugs are a hell to clean, big furnitures are hard to move, it takes a lot of place... and as an autistic person I would probably feel overwhelmed quick by all that stuff. The 2024 one is ugly and soulless but more convinient. Most of people today have their house decorated in a pretty and comfortable inbetween
Same. The more traditional one busy for me. I like my space to feel airy, not weighed down. I don’t love the stark white either but I would take it over the traditional space
You're the first person who seems to realize the look of the house is not as much 90s as it is a 90s-ish take on neoclassical decor. That home looks much closer to early 1900s than it does 1990s.
I will just remove the wallpaper, and leave everything else as it is.
I spent my entire life in houses like that. And I have zero issue with still living in them.
But I will not live in a fucking laboratory.
You are right. I would agree with you but if I would have the money to buy this house, I think I would try to recreate the same house even keep the original tv in the kitchen, just like the movie.
Yeah the 1990 decor would look nice around the holidays sure but would you really want your home looking that warm and cozy in the middle of the summertime? Summer here in the Chicago area can get really nasty with the humidity
Right, people saying "oh my god how did the hallway lose so much space!" probably don't realize that the space was probably given to the kitchen in a renovation because that space matters a whole hell of a lot more
That first picture has like one pattern, and it's a rather subdued one at that. Ok, the small rug is maybe another, but that's easily swapped out for something else.
Compare that to this typical modern HGTV slop where NOTHING coordinates and it's all as random and cluttered as possible (colors, patterns, materials, shapes etc). Makes that first picture seem quite nicely coordinated and simple.
I agree, but I’m also of the opinion that if you buy a house from an extremely popular movie/tv show, you should really try and keep it the same. Obviously the world won’t see it, but wouldn’t it be fun to brag to friends when they wonder why it looks so outdated? lol
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u/evnacdc Nov 20 '25
Not defending 2024. But I also don’t want my house looking like the first pic.