Millennial Trend Slammed As 'Modern Equivalent Of Boomers Putting Linoleum Over Hardwood Floors'

Boomers are often the focus of attacks on bad home design trends, from having overly cluttered spaces to covering up beautiful hardwood floors with low-quality or ugly materials. However, that's not to say Boomers are the only generation making poor choices. Millennials have also been on the receiving end of the criticism, especially for their habit of painting everything "Millennial gray" and opting for more minimal design choices that seemingly lack personality.

There's one other trend that millennials are criticized for, which involves taking beautiful natural stone and covering it with paint, usually white. This is most often seen around fireplaces, but it can be applied to anywhere there is a lot of natural stone. This trend received a lot of hate, as can be seen in a video originally posted on TikTok by @crystelmontenegrohome. It shows a group of people applying tile mortar on and around the stones outside a home before painting them white.

I'll never understand this pic.twitter.com/Q8jWCHq0t8

— Washingtons ghost (@washghost1) April 11, 2026

This video even ended up reposted on X, formerly known as Twitter, by Washingtons ghost (@washghost1) with the caption "I'll never understand this." While some people thought it brightened up the space, many more believed it took away any personality. For example, Red Sicilian (@Sassafras_sv) responded with, "It's the modern equivalent of boomers putting linoleum over hardwood floors." So, if you were wondering if you should paint your natural stone fireplace, social media might not be the best place to ask.

This was not the only negative comment by far. On the original TikTok video, someone compared it to cottage cheese. Another TikTok commenter said, "Rip to having character in our homes." If you really like the idea of changing up your natural stone, but you don't want to do something to garner quite the same level of hate, Mike Holmes suggests that it's better to stain brick than paint it.

In a way, this Millennial trend could be considered almost worse than Boomers covering up natural wood floors. Though it's a shame, at least in most cases, people could uncover the flooring and, with a little bit of care, restore them. However, the processes of painting them make it so that it's almost impossible to remove down the line. Most unpolished stones are naturally porous, meaning they'll absorb the paint. While sometimes, you get lucky and you can reveal the original design, it's a laborious task. This is probably one of the reasons why it makes so many people angry to see that beautiful stone covered up.

Many people suggest learning to work with the material. Instead of forcing your home to fit a specific color scheme you have in your head, let the natural colors dictate it instead. Then, you can give your natural stone wall or brick fireplace a makeover without painting over the brick itself by refreshing things like the mantel and the surrounding decor.