Outdated Furniture Trends That Are Ruining Your Home's Aesthetic

Clothing trends may move faster, but home and furniture trends can cost a whole lot more than a new pair of jeans. Unfortunately, it is easy to fall into the trap of cycling through one trend after another. And ultimately, trends are ...trending, and while they all have their peak of popularity and style, they are also destined to drop.

Tired of perpetually refreshing your entire home aesthetic? The best way to avoid making your home feel outdated is to invest in your personal style, instead of a popular trend, and choose pieces that feel right and true to you. Even so, you'll want to take a long, hard look at some of your favorite furniture pieces and see if they're better left in the past. Here are some of the ones we'd recommend dropping, along with trend-proof alternatives we'd recommend you use to replace them.

Yes, yes, they are comfortable... but please for the love of interior design gods, keep your bulky furniture with cupholders in the basement. While they might seem like a great option for family movie nights, they are an instant style killer when it comes to your main living space, and they raise functionality issues regarding maintenance and cleaning. Not only do they look dated, but they also take up an immense amount of room and can effortlessly make a space feel much smaller than it is. 

If you still want something that puts comfort first, consider a modular sofa option. This will allow you to reconfigure the pieces however you like, which is not only a great benefit to the indecisive, but it also makes them multi-functional. Instead of cupholders, consider a small side table or coffee table ... or if you this is a convenience you are truly unwilling to give up, try the Bambootray Couch Cup Holder Tray, which allows for a sleeker look (and the ability to store it away if you have company to impress).

Besides the obvious fact that midcentury modern (MCM) furniture was obviously "on-trend" when it was first popularized in the 1940s into the 1970s, it also had a recent comeback in the past decade or so. Now, let's be clear, and admit that while MCM pieces — especially authentic ones — can be beautiful and timeless, having a monopolizing midcentury modern theme in your home can feel .... overdone. Although many MCM pieces are super functional, sticking too strictly to this style can make the joys of its simple, clean lines, beautiful wood, and brass hardware appear outdated and staged. 

Since this style of furniture is so simplistic, it allows you to play with the space around it. Just because you have a midcentury modern coffee table doesn't mean you can't have a more modern sofa — or vice versa. In fact, blending styles is an easy way to make a space feel much more personalized, and to help actively prevent it from looking and feeling dated. This applies to a lot of vintage items — mixing and matching modern and vintage pieces and styles makes a space more visually interesting, more unique, and less likely to feel outdated.

In a similar vein to oversized, room-crowded sofas with cup holders, we find the oft-debated recliner. Yes they are comfortable ... but also, yes, that level of comfort is never going to look pretty in a living room. That said, while the bulk and heft of an old-school recliner is sure to raise eyebrows, it's easy enough to get comfortable with more stylish accessories like an accent chair and ottoman (added benefit: much easier to move around) or the even better alternative of a chaise lounge, which will be a bit dressier while still allowing for enough space to spread out. 

Now if you are dead set on keeping a recliner but want your space to feel relatively updated, there are still a couple things you can do, starting with arranging your furniture to work with your recliner (instead of, you know, just shoving it in the middle of the room in front of the TV). Though most will land on the pricier side, there are some recliners out there with a modern look that keep the comfort of their ancestors while having a less obtrusive appearance, more like armchair.

If you walk into just about any big-box furniture store, you will run into a sea of matching sets. That said, unless you want your home to look like a showroom, it's best to steer clear, especially with the biggest culprit, the bedroom. While it was pretty popular for a while to have the cookie cutter home, furniture, and white picket fence, that mundane vibe can now feel dated and void of personality — and many people are now prizing individuality over abject cohesiveness in their interior design. 

If you do already have a matching furniture set (or more than one) the best thing to do to prevent having to buy more furniture is to spread it out around your home instead of keeping it all in the same room. When in your space, don't be afraid to mix and match vintage and modern items as well as experiment with different styles in the same room. You could have an MCM coffee table, a boho rug, and a modular couch all in the same room, and it could work beautifully if the right pieces are chosen.

Though it's not really anyone's job to yuck your yum, there are some trends that were once so popular and "innovative" that they are now tired. One such trend is the velvet couch — particularly when in a jewel tone. That said, it's not the material nor the color that is particularly outdated here, but rather the combination of the two. 

If you still happen to like your couch but want to make it feel a bit more current, the trick is in the accessories. If your velvet sofa is colored in neutrals, brighten it up with bold and colorful accents. If you accent with the right patterns (but tastefully), ideally with the pillows, you could even bring back the quirkiness you were after in the first place. Try some chintzy cottage core patterns for a cozy vibe, or some blocked complementary colors for a more minimalist modern look. If green is your favorite color, make the couch the center point of your room surrounded by light neutrals, maybe even with the addition of some plants to enhance green's natural feel.

There are now more options than ever when it comes to sleep arrangements, with everything from a Japanese Tatami mat to high-tech mattresses that can adjust for temperature, firmness, and position. But even the most top of the line mattresses can be cheapened with the wrong accessories. While the main goal of your bed is to figure out the situation that helps you get the most sleep, one could argue that tossing and turning over dissatisfaction with your current bedding setup is reason enough to renovate. There are quite a few things that make a bedroom look outdated, but one of the worst offenders is a tufted headboard. 

That said, there are still upholstered headboards that are much more modern and can still give you that comfy, cozy feel without the dated tufted look that is so very 2010. If you are looking just for a headboard or a soft whole bed frame, look for shapes, stitch patterns, and colors that are less common, or try something less expected like linen materials. This way, you can achieve a unique (and thus more timeless) look.