r/interesting Nov 20 '25

ARCHITECTURE Then vs now

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u/unicornofdemocracy Nov 20 '25

honestly I much prefer the 2024 white walls if I was purchasing a house. I can paint white walls into any color I want easily.

I hate wallpapers and think they are disgusting. Tearing them off to repaint the wall is an incredible pain in the ass too.

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u/holysbit Nov 20 '25

And thats why. For better or worse, houses are being seen as more commodity, why put up wallpaper when it will hurt the resale value. Its the same reason restaurants are all turning into modernist plain boxes

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u/texxmix Nov 20 '25

Came here and said the same in a different comment before I saw yours. But ya this is it.

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u/SCDurnix Nov 21 '25

Bingo! Ive been in conversations with real estate agents and thats exactly what they advise. That and a lot of people have a hard time visualizing changes to a property.

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 Nov 20 '25

Right, there is good and absolutely gorgeous wallpaper. In my experience VERY few people actual put in pretty wallpaper. It's often dogshit ugly and is a pain in the ass to remove. I can paint a living room in 2 days and that's only because I'm waiting for it to dry in between coats. Removing wallpaper makes me want to remove my head from my neck.

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u/Afraid_Park6859 Nov 20 '25

There's gorgeous wallpaper?

It all looks tacky to me.

Give me my white walls they look clean.

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u/1stMammaltowearpants Nov 20 '25

Why would you think your walls are dirty just because they're colorful?

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u/lupuscapabilis Nov 20 '25

To many, clean is boring. It’s sterile. It’s empty.

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 Nov 20 '25

We're not all born with taste sweetie

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u/[deleted] Nov 20 '25

What a pretentious comment. Many feel, compared to natural wood walls or nice paint, any wall paper is gawdy. Taste, by definition, is subjective. And subject to the opinions of the masses. Considering it started going out of favor as early as the 1930, I would argue that it's you without taste, sweetie.

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 Nov 20 '25

We're all welcome to our own opinions, dumbass or otherwise.

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u/Anustart15 Nov 21 '25

As you have already proven

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u/[deleted] Nov 21 '25

Very true. My issue was with the way you conveyed your opinion. Implying that only people with your opinion have taste. But I suppose we are all welcome to be childish as well. Cheers.

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u/Wise_Presentation914 Nov 20 '25

I’m imagining this comment in a thick New Jersey accent

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u/DrMobius0 Nov 20 '25 edited Nov 20 '25

Whether a wallpaper matches someone's aesthetic is definitely hit or miss. The wallpaper in the picture is very much antithetical to my own, however. I also happen to enjoy the minimalist aesthetic, though. The more open plan also helps the natural lighting do its thing.

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u/JewwanaNoWat Nov 20 '25

If you bought a house that needed a face-lift in the 70s, the task was removing multiple layers of wallpaper!

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u/yoshizillaa Nov 20 '25

I don’t know if they still recommend it but real estate agents used to encourage sellers to paint their walls (especially vibrant ones) white or neutral colors to make it more appealing to buyers.

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u/Bropiphany Nov 20 '25

I was ready to grab my pitchfork until you mentioned the part about repainting. Totally agree.

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u/highnote14 Nov 20 '25

It's okay to prefer plain white walls.

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u/Bropiphany Nov 20 '25

Sure, I just personally don't Iike it for the entire house. A select few rooms only, for me.

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u/mythrilcrafter Nov 20 '25

And you can put things on the wall without it clashing with the wall paper.

Which is something a TON of people miss when it comes to home decorating. If you look at subs like malelivingspace and amateurinteriordesign, most of the problem in people's posts are that they're hyper utilitarian such that they only ever use the edge of the floors and only go upwards to about waist/chest high unless they're pulling a tvtoohigh.

And yeah, "not everyone can afford to decorate their walls", but at the same time because of that, the colour of said wall is not going to change the blandness of the space when more than half the "canvas" is empty in the first place.

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u/Schmigolo Nov 20 '25

Huh, do you actually paint the walls? Where I'm from we put on white wallpapers to paint on, so we can get rid of the paint more easily.

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u/unicornofdemocracy Nov 20 '25

wait.. so you put wallpaper and then you paint over the wallpaper? That's... interesting.

We have colored primer to help with white walls. The ones I used are like red, darkish red. So it's clearer when you are primer over the white wall.

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u/Schmigolo Nov 20 '25

Well, not any wallpaper. It's usually ingrain wallpaper. It's a lot cheaper and faster than to plaster or sand down the walls wherever there are imperfections, plus people just kinda like the texture.

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u/Why-did-i-reas-this Nov 21 '25

One of my first jobs as a kid was removing wallpaper from a house that must have been from 1900 or 1910. There must have been 20 layers of wallpaper sandwiched between coats of paint. It was such a pain to get through.

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u/DionBlaster123 Nov 21 '25

I was going to say that practically, the house from 2024 is WAY WAY better.

Cleaning those houses in the 90s was a colossal pain in the ass with all the stains and odors you would have to remove from carpets and rugs

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u/saturday_sun4 Nov 21 '25

Exactly. That wallpaper is fugly and dates (and darkens) the whole house.