What makes a house look cheap? What makes it look fancy?

[puntloos]

Living in a few rentals over the last few years as well as visiting lots of properties to potentially purchase I've certainly "felt" some houses looked fancy and some looked cheap, but on reflection I still can't quite put my finger on what makes this happen. Of course a lot comes down to taste but I wonder if there's commonly accepted things here. For the record we certainly like simple lines, so e.g. "shaker doors" in the kitchen don't work for us.

 

So I ask you all- are there any design features that might actually be just-as-expensive that make a place look cheap, vs which design features make a place look so much more elegant yet don't cost a lot to do?

 

A few examples:

Fancy: Lighting at floor level - stairs, perhaps under kitchen cabinets 

Fancy: rounded corners of windows rather than just 'cut into the wall'

Fancy: built-in closets

Cheap: uniform white tiling

Cheap: white power sockets

 

But would love more examples? More generic principles?

 

[markc]

This is an interesting question, as yes many houses look cheap while others give a better “feel”.

my GF sees white tiles and hates them, calling them toilet tiles, but she also hates any sockets and switches that are not plain white.

been in too many homes that look like IKEA crash sites (but there is a lot of really good IKEA stuff that I love).

windows and doors make a big impact, amount of daylight in a property makes a big difference

[Mr Punter]

These things are fashion led.  For example with kitchens it used to be oak cathedral doors and tiled worktops, then limed oak, then hand painted and granite, then high gloss slab doors, then handleless and quartz.  We all know avocado or brown bathrooms with gold and onyx taps, now wall hung everything, frameless glass and concealed.  Windows were chintz curtains, pelmets, swags and tails now plantation shutters and automatic blinds.

 

It tends to be that these first get fitted in expensive houses, then they become ubiquitous, then they fall out of favour.

[SteamyTea]

Cheap

 

Posh

Hertfordshire's Finest.

Except for Vinnie Jones.

Edited February 25, 2022 by SteamyTea

[Big Jimbo]

I think i agree with Markc above. It's more about a feel. Good natural light, aspect etc. Glitter i hate, (but not on cars. Think 1970's metalflake.) My friend who was building a new, large expensive house, had a large internal toilet with no window. He had the whole room done in dark brown marble including the ceiling. It sounded mad but when done was stunning. On my daughters very average 3 bed semi, i did a rear extension for a new kitchen, and converted half the old kitchen into a utility. The other have into a good size downstairs loo. It has One small window for light. I painted it in a mid brown. white ceiling, and Walnut floor. I had no light in the ceiling but an illuminated mirror above the sink and brick lights in the walls about 300mm from the floor. I called it the nightclub toilet. I sounds very odd, but all of the friends aged 25 to 40 loved it and said it was the best room in the house.

[Big Jimbo]

Steamy Tea. Would you have a pair of the Lions. (i'd like to make an offer) The posh you can keep.

[Big Jimbo]

I do actually wonder that if i had a shite load of money, would i splash some of it on tacky, expensive crap. I think i would, and i think i would enjoy doing it.

[Big Jimbo]

Pocster sitting on a toilet picture framed and hung on the wall of the toilet. I'm not saying Fancy, or cheap.........

[puntloos]

13 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

Cheap

 

Posh

Hertfordshire's Finest.

Except for Vinnie Jones.

At some point everybody will have a Posh Spice in their livingroom.. 

[TonyT]

I think lighting along kitchen kick plate looks daft certainly not fancy.

[nod]

A site I’m working on at the moment 

The lady wants lights around the skirtings 

and on all the door handles 

I suppose when you are paying 1.3 x2 plus a new build cottage You can have what you want 

 

I worked on Phil Neville’s old house 

Which was like a tribute to bling 

Gary Neville had a sprawling wide staircase with a carved busk of his head on the newel and his wife’s on the other newel 

The guy who carved them placed his on the newel and went to get him and the joiner accidentally knocked it onto the floor 

Breaking the nose off 

[CotswoldDoItUpper]

4 minutes ago, nod said:

 

I worked on Phil Neville’s old house 

Which was like a tribute to bling 

Gary Neville had a sprawling wide staircase with a carved busk of his head on the newel and his wife’s on the other newel 

The guy who carved them placed his on the newel and went to get him and the joiner accidentally knocked it onto the floor 

Breaking the nose off 

Ooo bet that put his nose out of joint!

[puntloos]

Of course taste is hard to debate. A person from a worker family who came into money would probably "bling it up", Trump comes to mind - "A poor man's idea of what a rich man looks like" - gold and purple accent lighting and tvs up the wazoo - https://www.houseandgarden.co.uk/gallery/donald-trump-gold-apartment -  where a person from a landowner royalty would just staple a deer against every wall and call it a day. 

 

"who do you want to impress"

 

As for @markc's point - big difference between the white tiles you'd find in a government building toilet and e.g. this modern thing:

 

And of course as @Mr Punter says - "It tends to be that these first get fitted in expensive houses, then they become ubiquitous, then they fall out of favour." but I would add that is probably more true for "ultra fashionable" like the bathroom above. I think that one will fall out of style fairly quickly, so you'll have to commit to refreshing your entire house every 10 years.. or just be old and stuck..

 

I go for classics

 

 

 

[Pocster]

I think "kerb" appeal is the first thing. White upvc windows always look 'cheap' - or a budget front door.

 

I also find walk on glazing makes a house look expensive ( especially if you have to purchase it effectively twice )

[SteamyTea]

47 minutes ago, pocster said:

I think "kerb" appeal is the first thing

Yes, it is what I have a huge pampas grass out front.

Evan better than my neighbours bush.

[puntloos]

Ha, sadly the 'kerb appeal' is something I somewhat skimped on based on the Eifel tower principle - https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/09/20/priority-french-writer-ate-lunch-everyday-base-eiffel-tower-place-paris-not-see-2/?chrome=1

 

7 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

Yes, it is what I have a huge pampas grass out front.

Evan better than my neighbours bush.

 

I think a landing strip might impress people even more.

[Carrerahill]

4 hours ago, puntloos said:

Cheap: white power sockets

Irony here is that an MK Logic white socket is sometimes more expensive than some of the "decorative" sockets from cheap manufacturers.

 

But I see the point. 

[puntloos]

3 minutes ago, Carrerahill said:

Irony here is that an MK Logic white socket is sometimes more expensive than some of the "decorative" sockets from cheap manufacturers.

 

But I see the point. 

 

Good example actually, if I squint at the MK logic it looks like they're both slightly thinner than bog standard, and they have a bit of a curve at the top

 

I imagine it contributes to the feel of quality a little. And indeed decorative = brushed metal = few pennies extra once you have your supplylines set up.

FWIW this is why I wonder about people that go frameless windows, it is certainly harder to do this, but no frame means no accents means "feels cheap".. but I am sure it all comes down to what you "expect" and this whole cycle.

 

Fun anecdote: My parents have a flat roof bungalow, it is considered somewhat luxury in NL.  My wife associates flat roof with literally living in a shipping container and considers it cheap. Perspective and fashion outweigh actual quality sometimes.

[Mr Punter]

20 hours ago, TonyT said:

I think lighting along kitchen kick plate looks daft certainly not fancy.

 

But it does illuminate the crumbs on the floor rather artistically.

[ProDave]

To me it's all detail that makes a house good or bad.

 

I like to see good quality finishings, nice flat walls, nice crisp corners, good well finished joinery, everything fits just right ANY kitchen worktop apart from cheap laminate with those horrible corner joining strips etc.

 

Good doors and door furniture.  Nice stairs and balustrades.

 

Switches and sockets, anything can look good if well fitted, what always stands out to me as "tacky" is expensive flat plate ultra thin sockets fitted to a tatty old wall that is anything but flat, and with gaps in the plaster around the socket.

 

I guess most think of lots of glass, big sliding doors or bi folds, glass balustrades and "pointy gable end windows" as things that make it a "grand design"

[SteamyTea]

43 minutes ago, ProDave said:

like to see good quality finishings

How do you distinguish between good quality and good design?

They are not the same thing at all.

[Simplysimon]

20 hours ago, puntloos said:

"who do you want to impress"

and there is the answer, if no-one, see below. fads are fashion, quality is timeless

 

20 hours ago, puntloos said:

I go for classics

 

[puntloos]

3 hours ago, ProDave said:

To me it's all detail that makes a house good or bad.

 

I like to see good quality finishings, nice flat walls, nice crisp corners, good well finished joinery, everything fits just right ANY kitchen worktop apart from cheap laminate with those horrible corner joining strips etc.

 

Good doors and door furniture.  Nice stairs and balustrades.

 

Switches and sockets, anything can look good if well fitted, what always stands out to me as "tacky" is expensive flat plate ultra thin sockets fitted to a tatty old wall that is anything but flat, and with gaps in the plaster around the socket.

 

I guess most think of lots of glass, big sliding doors or bi folds, glass balustrades and "pointy gable end windows" as things that make it a "grand design"

 

Yes, this is a lot along the lines of what I am thinking. Most "devices" (power sockets, doors, anything you can buy at Home Depot) aren't deeply ugly by themselves, but in this rental when I just ook around I don't see a single power socket that doesn't have uneven, smeared, cracked paint around it. No Light fitting doesn't have some traces of unevenness . Pipes and cables everywhere. 

 

 

One thing my wife commented is that one house we recently viewed just seemed to 'fall apart' even though it was 10 years old. Doorframes with cracks around them, lots of gaps in plaster etc. I suppose it could all be subsidence but it was never fixed

[Bitpipe]

Less is always more, especially where colour and finishes are involved. Muted tones with a single accent colour used throughout etc.

 

Take a look at an Apple Store - plain white and wood - always looks high end provided the detail is spot on.

 

However, it's your pad so do what you like and what makes you happy, but if you want to appeal to the masses at sale time then neutral is always best.

 

Our most commented two finishes are 1) the resin floor which feels great underfoot and is a monolithic surface, no joints etc and 2) the stringless stairs which look just as good from underneath as they do from above. Rest of finish is pretty bog standard but we also used MK white sockets & switches everywhere (aside from brushed satin in kitchen on the glass splash back) as they are very well built but also are not that noticeable.

 

 

[puntloos]

2 hours ago, Bitpipe said:

Less is always more, especially where colour and finishes are involved. Muted tones with a single accent colour used throughout etc.

 

Take a look at an Apple Store - plain white and wood - always looks high end provided the detail is spot on.

 

However, it's your pad so do what you like and what makes you happy, but if you want to appeal to the masses at sale time then neutral is always best.

 

Our most commented two finishes are 1) the resin floor which feels great underfoot and is a monolithic surface, no joints etc

Do you have a bit more info on this? My impression from a quick google is it's a bit .. shiny.. 

My current default is a "wood-style" porcelain but frankly haven't given it too much thought yet.

 

2 hours ago, Bitpipe said:

and 2) the stringless stairs which look just as good from underneath as they do from above.

 

Something like this?

 

2 hours ago, Bitpipe said:

Rest of finish is pretty bog standard but we also used MK white sockets & switches everywhere (aside from brushed satin in kitchen on the glass splash back) as they are very well built but also are not that noticeable.

 

Doors? ?