2 min readHow do you know when you’ve taken the “clean” aesthetic too far? We’re talking all-white everything and restrained minimalist accents. When does that blank slate look go from trendy to tacky? According to our experts, it happens the moment you start embracing it without considering the alternatives.
House Beautiful’s editorial director, Joanna Saltz, recently sat down with Patrick O’Donnell, brand ambassador at Farrow & Ball; Oliver Furth, principal of his eponymous Los Angeles–based design studio; and brand culture theorist Sean Yashar of The Culture Creative to discuss where the “bare basics” design trend went wrong.
During the panel, Saltz asked each expert to share their hot takes on what makes a room feel “sad.” While there are plenty of design faux pas to choose from, the group ultimately landed on a common culprit: beige-washed tedium. To be clear, we’re not criticizing the color itself—we love a good neutral!—but rather the conformity it has come to represent.
“I think a room that doesn't say anything about the person that lives within it,” O’Donnell says. “I think the best interior decoration or the best rooms would almost look like they haven't been touched by a secondary hand of a professional.”
That’s not to say O’Donnell and his co-panelists are opposed to professionally designed homes. It’s just important that they reject cookie-cutter, trend-driven decor—the kind that prioritizes aesthetics over the way people actually live within a space.
So, how do you design the perfect room? Start by making it feel authentic. According to Furth, authenticity often begins with color choice. Think of your rooms as having their own aura—an energy shaped by the objects within them, their composition, and the palette surrounding them.
“I think this idea of beige-ness. Not cream and ivory colors, but beige in terms of banality and this sort of copy-paste, factory-made, disposable room that could belong to anyone.”
As for the objects themselves, Yashar believes what’s inside a room matters most. Our homes inevitably become symbols of status, but the design pro warns against confusing cost with character. In other words, bigger isn’t always better. Often, the saddest rooms are the most overcrowded.
“[With a] lack of scale, you can tell it’s really about a facade. You just know that this is all an illusion, and it actually gets sadder the more expensive those things are, because it's like, oh, you think you've done it, but you actually are diametrically in the opposite direction of actually living,” Yashar says.
So the next time you get the urge to redecorate, keep your own personal style top of mind. Channeling your energy, routines, and interests into a room is what makes the best spaces feel truly special—they should reflect you.
“They will be speaking of the inherent path of the people that live within the unit, the path that's been traveled by the people in this space. Those are the most joyful rooms, they say so much because they're personal,” O’Donnell says.
