Bad Home Advice Dished Out On Trading Spaces

The original "Trading Spaces" premiered in 2000 on TLC. It was one of the first home shows to catch the DIY-craze wave. The show invited two sets of neighbors to pair up and redecorate each other's homes over two days with a tiny budget of just $1,000. When the show ended its original run in 2008, one thing became evident: It's the show many online fans love to hate and hate to love. According to Apartment Therapy, fans went wild when "Trading Spaces" announced its 2018 return.

The immediate concerns were over the sometimes outright wild decorating choices made by the show's designers, particularly Hildi Santo-Tomas, known for final products that many might consider camp. Fans expressed that it's a show you watch not so much for design advice but to see how bad things can get. There have been many design bloopers over the years on "Trading Space," so just in case you were watching the show for inspiration, here is some bad home advice from the series to avoid.

On a now-famous episode of "Trading Spaces," a homeowner was in near tears when she saw the room her neighbors had spent the weekend transforming for her. And when you see it, it won't take you long to understand why: The walls were completely covered in straw. The designers glued loose bits of straw everywhere to give the room a fun, Western look. Of course, she hated it because the design team didn't understand a key design element: Don't go overboard with textures.

According to House Beautiful, it's a great idea to use different textures throughout a room to create more interesting visuals and a warmer feeling space. However, using textures is only a great idea if you use them correctly. To avoid a faux pas, take things slowly. Good texturing comes in layers, so as you live in the space, you will begin to sense where a little something else might be needed. This can come in the form of a textured rug, a funky lamp, or a fun blanket. But, if you'd like to have fun textures right from the start, remember that accent pieces aren't the only things with potential. You can use major furniture pieces and even wallpaper to add texture to the room. Just remember: Don't use straw.

When decorating your home, it's a great idea to be generous with floral elements, as they can make a space feel fresh and connected to nature. However, keep in mind that there is definitely such a thing as being too generous, and you should not go overboard. One episode of "Trading Spaces" showed a bathroom wall plastered in fake flowers, shocking and upsetting the homeowners. If you plan to use floral elements in your home, there is a better way to go about this.

According to Studio Wellington, the best way to incorporate blooms into formal spaces like a dining room is to stick with flowers of a similar color palette. You can still create visual interest in the arrangement by incorporating different heights and levels of fullness. In addition, a fun way to make flowers look fresh is by using unconventional vases instead of traditional ones. Third & Wall adds that floral imagery is also a great way to add interest to your room if you don't want to be tending to fresh flowers constantly. You can use it as a statement piece through wallpaper or furniture upholstery, and complement it with more solid accents.

When you were a child, you might have imagined having a room that looked like a castle or sleeping in a race car bed. While some adults might still prefer this type of decor, "Trading Spaces" definitely makes it seem like it's still the norm, which it isn't. Designer Hildi Santo-Tomas in particular is a big fan of putting together themed rooms, which is some of the worst home advice on the show. Instead, avoid them. According to MyDomaine, it's one of the easiest ways to make your home seem dated in a hurry.

While loving Disney, the beach, or traveling can make up a large part of our interests, it's better to incorporate our interests through our decor, rather than just installing a beach inside, as seen on one episode. According to We Three Shanes, the best way to decorate a themed room is to focus on subtle charm instead of garish camp. To do this, you should focus more on how you want a room to feel rather than look. Then, mix in plenty of items and accents that have nothing to do with the theme to balance things out.

While sheer curtains look great when paired with a more opaque option, you should avoid them as a standalone. This is because sheer curtains don't keep out light or noise, nor do they provide any privacy. So, if used without anything else, as they often are on "Trading Spaces," they won't really be functional. According to HomeQuestionsAnswered, another big advantage of sheer curtains is their lower price point. Because they are typically purely decorative, they won't cost as much as blackout curtains, for example. They also can provide a room with a great multilayered look when paired with fabrics of different materials.

Magazines Weekly also reports that while sheer curtains don't provide much insulation, they can be paired with window blinders, window films, or standard curtains. If you're looking to pair them with heavier curtains, it's best to choose a neutral color like white or gray for the sheer curtains, and then choose a color that ties in with the rest of the room for the opaque option.

Be wary of concrete flooring in the interior of your home. While exposed concrete was a popular design choice on "Trading Spaces," it's not always the best choice for everyday designers. According to HGTV, concrete is a durable flooring choice for high-traffic areas. After all, we use it outside for roads and patios, so it must be. But, while an interior room with concrete floors might gain all that durability, it still loses a few things, too.

Concrete is hard and unforgiving, so you might choose it to protect your flooring from rowdy kids, but then you have to consider how to protect your rowdy kids from the floors. While you can put down rugs, it still leaves more room for injuries to both children and older household members. Concrete is also porous and can be particularly susceptible to moisture damage, which is something to consider if you plan on painting it. The moisture can easily cause the paint to bubble up and tear.

If you decide to incorporate vintage or antique items into your remodel, make sure you thoroughly clean each piece as a part of your restoration work. In one episode of "Trading Spaces," viewers watched in horror as a designer did the exact opposite of this. He planned to make a coffee table with motorcycle tires as the base. While this might be a good idea, he didn't execute it well at all. When bringing the tires inside, it's clear he hadn't cleaned them off. And, as the episode progresses, no one else ever cleans them, either.

While some might say it adds to the overall grit of using a restored item, most people want their things clean. And there are plenty of ways to clean vintage pieces. According to HGTV, dried wood can be rehydrated with a special mixture, glass bottles should be scrubbed out, and white linens can be boiled to reverse discoloration. While old motorcycle tires don't show up on the list, we can also assume it's also a better idea to give them a good scrub before bringing them inside, rather than tracking in heaps of dirt and debris.

Whether you are redecorating one room in your house or completely renovating, the most important thing you can remember is always to follow your personal design interests, not the trite advice of online experts who have never seen your home. In a YouTube interview, Ty Pennington advises viewers to "let their rooms breathe" by not overdoing it with color, patterns, items, etc. However, rooms can be "over the top" and still tasteful.

According to Architectural Digest, many people in the design sphere love combining unconventional colors and textures, like architect and interior designer Sig Bergamin and his partner, architect Murilo Lomas. These professionals have nearly the opposite opinion as Pennington, as evidenced by their colorful homes. That is to say, no matter what design choices you make, there will always be plenty of professional voices both for and against the idea. In the end, you really have to go with your gut.