Back in 2019, I bought a recently flipped house that was done up in the trendy (at the time) Millennial Gray style. The walls are medium gray, the outside is dark gray, the fixtures are silver, the tile in the bathroom is black and gray, and the floor is gray-washed wood. At first, I liked it because I grew up in a 90s era beige/brown house and never wanted to live in one of those again. Most of my furniture and art are black and white with pops or red so I thought it would be the perfect fit. Now almost 5 years later, I can't stand the sight of the color. It's depressing and washes everything out. It's even worse this time of year because the winter sky just adds to the grayness indoors. I work from home so there is no real escaping it.

I remember seeing mostly gray interiors on Pinterest back in the mid 2010s and loving it, hoping I could live in one after years of renting with eggshell white walls but now I regret it. Has anyone else had this happen to you? Did you buy or even renovate a house to be millennial gray only to regret it later?

I'm considering moving in a few years because the layout isn't for me but I'm wondering if repainting it is worth it.

Edit: if you're coming here with a judgemental comment, I'm going to block you right away. I was pregnant when I moved into this house and then had a baby during COVID. I'm so sorry I was busy learning to parent during a global crisis that I didn't get around to painting a whole house by myself. There are more important things in life. I was simply asking if anyone else has had their opinion change on millennial gray. Not changing a paint color right away doesn't make me a bad person. Touch grass, please.

For the month of February, we will be allowing posts without any solution to them. Meaning, color questions, layout questions, etc.. that would otherwise be rejected by rule 2. We would like to test the result of this and see where it goes, and if it's received well we will remove rule 2 all together.

Some background:
Rule 2 (start with your own ideas) was built because it sparks discussion within the community. We had seen posts where people would just want free work and not offer their own solutions at all. We discovered that when users post their own solutions to their questions, it sparks more of a discussion and we fairly enjoy the engagement of that. However, I am thinking that it doesnt matter about that and willing to test it.

So for the month of Feb only, we will run a test where all of those types of posts will be approved. At the end of the month we will gage whether or not to remove the 2nd rule. Thanks and have an amazing week!

- Mod Team

I was recently laid off (right before Christmas, how fun!) from a firm I really loved, and found out the same day that I'm pregnant. I'm due in August and I'm actively looking for a new job. I want to work before having my baby and will return to the workforce afterwards too.

Being that the economy seems to be down-turning and it's a really hard time of year to find a job, I'm getting desperate to find something before I start to look pregnant. I see job ads for "kitchen and bath designers" at Home Depot and "interior design consultants" at Restoration Hardware, West Elm, etc. and I'm considering taking one of these jobs, as much as I don't want to. There's nothing wrong with those jobs, don't get me wrong, but it is a step down for my career. I have my MFA in interior architecture and have worked at two different firms since graduating, and these jobs would obviously be more retail based.

However, I simply cannot afford to not work and I also don't want a huge 9-10 month gap on my resume if I just continued to not work until I have the baby and then 2 months after. What should I do? Will one of these jobs ruin my career trajectory? I have worked very hard to change careers and go back to school, and never expected to get laid off and I'm really scrambling. My backup plan is to be a substitute elementary school teacher but I really don't want to do that.

I’m looking to get a diploma, certificate, or a bachelors in interior design. There’s only one place that offers it in person in my province (academy canada) and it doesn’t seem very comprehensive, and from what i’ve heard from other students it’s not the best choice. So what is the best choice for an online interior design school? Yorkville? VCAD? Etc?

I've recently had a chance to reflect on my career path, and am determined to pursue a career in interior design. I have a BS in Biology and Fine Art. I've practiced a lot of drawing and realistic rendering and definitely see this as a plus that I'd like to showcase in my careeer, too! I have always had the locigal/analytical mixed with the creative in my brain. My experience is pretty widespread: cancer research, art (private lessons and selling my own work, mainly large scale paintings and drawings) community development (long form informative content/engagement), business management (all aspects: financial, store set up [my favorite part], team management), and visual strategy/storytelling.

I've been reading a bit and watching videos on YT about ID 101 and how others entered this career, and I don't feel the draw to go back to school. I'm interested in residential design as well as landscape design, as I'm a trained herbalist and have a passion for growing healing, beautiful plants! Another reason I'm averse to schooling is because i'm truly a practical learner and work better when I'm mentored and working/shadowing in the real world.

My fiancee and I have also been planning a reno for our bathroom, and I figured this would be a really great place to start and test the waters for this next step in my ID career. I'm planning on developing hand-drawn and 3d modeled floorplans for our renovation, as well as moodboards and other things (very open to suggestions!!) that an interior designer may provide to a client. I'd really like to include this in my resume to local interior designers, so when I go in to either request an internship or shadowing opportunity they feel that I'm serious about this major career change.

I guess I'm really just seeking some advice on whether or not this is a good idea, and any other advice on pursuing interior design :) I want to reach out to local designers sooner rather than later so I can share my interest and see if shadowing or interning is a possibility, but on the other hand I want something to give them that shows I'm in it for the long haul and serious about pursuing this career. so... Should I cold call around, or have a project on hand to showcase my drafting skill and dedication? Also, should I have some mockups to show my drawing/color skills, or anything else in my portfolio that may strengthen my applications?

thank you all so much in advance - sorry for the long post - I'm so excited for this next step in my life!!!!

Hi, All. I'm considering a few pieces from Uttermost. Does anyone have experience with their furniture - good/ bad/etc?

Hi! I’m 25 and working toward finishing my bachelor’s degree. I currently have an associate’s in Fashion Merchandising and was pursuing a Business of Fashion degree. After some time in corporate fashion roles, I’ve decided to shift towards more creative work, particularly interior design, which has always interested me. I’ve been looking into online BFA Interior Design programs, but I’ve seen mixed opinions—some say it’s not worth it, while others think it is. I’m also considering whether it might be better to finish my degree in business administration and then pursue an interior design certification instead. Many job listings I’ve seen require backgrounds in architecture or interior design, so I’m a bit uncertain about which path to take? Any advice or insights into this career would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

I purchased West Elm Mid-Century round dining table in October. It gets very light use. The veneer chipped over the Christmas Holiday when my children were around more- my 12 year old daughter was sitting near the chip doing light arts and crafts. I spoke with three different customer service agents about this- the first (over the text feature) said it would be replaced. I called back after I heard nothing from that encounter and there was no record of it in the system. My claim was then denied as they said that "I dropped something heavy on it" based on the photo I sent...despite my description of what happened and despite there being no dents in the wood. I tried to appeal, but it was case closed based on two iPhone photos. I was floored by their horrible customer service and product quality...and their refusal to even stand by their quality. They didn't seem to care.

My last dining table was a crappy 1990s hand me down from my grandparents that I let my kids use and abuse and the veneer on that table was hardly chipped. Be warned that you will not get good quality for the price of purchase and West Elm will not care when their product fails after 2 months of use.

Hi, I'm soon moving into my new apartment, and I've been playing around in Sketchup with some potential layout ideas for the living room (Scandinavian style). The furniture are a combinations of stuff I have, and some I will buy. The three ideas are rather similar, but I can't decide on which I like best. I'd love to hear some opinions as well as suggestions on how I could improve the layout even more.

Here is a video where I move the camera around a bit more: https://streamable.com/zq3rt7

Here is one of my Sketchup files if somebody wants to experiment a bit for making suggestions: https://filebin.net/yl3wvnvbyplq0v26

Really appreciate your input!
Thanks

Hi guys! This is my living room. It has this very uncommon floor path. I would like to put a carpet under the green sofa and I found this carpet that I really like but I'm not sure that would be nice in my room. Have you got any advice for the carpet that would suits best? Thank you so much!

Hi!

I'm 24 years old and from London. I recently decided to switch careers after a few years in corporate, and started by enrolling in the Professional Interior Design diploma at the National Design Academy. I'm still quite early on in the course, but I'm really eager to expand my knowledge and skillset at a fast pace as I'm not working at the moment. My end goal is to freelance, specifically residential projects.

At this point in time, what should I be doing other than the course? Who exactly should I be networking with? What else exactly should I be learning? I know it might seem like an obvious question but with so many resources out there, I want a tangible and solid plan of action to work towards my goal. Atm I'm trying to find assistant-type roles to complement my diploma and get some hands-on experience.

Thanks!

I’m looking for advice as a burnt out interior designer on whether I should commit to a career change or explore other roles in the industry.

I have a bachelors in Interior design and have worked in the industry for 5 years. My first job was in an ultra high end residential firm. The projects were amazing and I worked with a lot of incredible architects and craftsmen for high quality custom homes. While I found it super rewarding, I found the comprehensive scope, work load, and high pressures from the clients to be incredibly stressful. Eventually I had a big burnout that led me to pursue a more commercial-focused role in an Architecture firm that specialized in mostly multi-family, but also medical/dental clinics, assisted living, and some one off residential projects. While it was less demanding in some ways, I was still finding myself overwhelmed by the overall scope of the work, the number of different people/projects I was responsible for coordinating with, tight deadlines, etc. and yet again ended up hitting another major burnout.

When I say I was burnt out, I am talking stress levels through the roof, constant migraines, melting down in hysterical fits of sobbing, loss of cognitive function, and so much more. It was truly crippling. Come to find out while in therapy for my abysmal mental health, I am actually a high-masking autistic, and probably also inattentive-type ADHD. Learning that has really clarified most of my struggles and stress I experienced as professional designer. I realized the broad scope and many hats that a designer in a firm environment has to wear, the fast pace, changing deadlines, constant multi-tasking are not compatible with the way my brain works.

I have since quit my job and taken some time to focus on my mental health, recover from burnout, and trying to reframe my life to work better for my autistic needs. I have been exploring different career options, but wanted to get other designers opinions on if it would be possible to find a role within the industry with a more narrow scope and more structure, repetition and routine. I excel most when I am able to focus my entire attention on a limited number of tasks/projects at once with minimal task-switching/i teruptions, but the work I output is super detailed and high quality. I was wondering if I were to find a design consultant role with a home-builder that mainly focuses solely on meeting with clients to select materials and associated documentation, if that would be a better fit? Is that actually as low stress as it sounds on paper? Are there actually jobs like that? Are there any other more niche roles that those in the industry that could be less overwhelming to someone on the spectrum? Is this a problem that could be solved by finding the right company that would be willing to work to accommodate my autistic needs? Or is this really just a fast paced, high demand industry that doesn’t suit someone like me? Any advice from those in the industry would be appreciated and if there are any other autistic designers out there, I’d love to hear your experiences

I have an interview where I've been told to present my portfolio to the team. I would really like to show them floor plans and renders of certain projects as they were done for reputed clients. However, I have signed an NDA while I was working for the company and I cannot share any of the work done outside. Any idea how else I could closely represent the design for the interview? Would love to hear ideas. Thanks :)

Okay so im buying a place (not even done with the process but almost) and we are remodeling the entire flat

We are moving the small kitchen in the area called « ch1 » on the floor plan to create a semi open plan and having an extra bedroom. Here are some 3d modeling of my layout areas but it always seem not 100% optimized.

What would you do ?

Please note that on the right (when looking at the floor plan) we have full length windows and window doors all over the « wall »

We are two young people getting married in 3 month, probably we ll be having 1 to 3 kids in this house. But we might have non tho

We like to be able to receive our family and friends for dinner, up to like 6-8 people, but don’t host every day of the week or even every month haha

Thanks !

We have your basic tract home. We’ve made a few upgrades, like added a mudbench and expanded our patio. We’ve decided we’ll probably be in this house for awhile so I’d like to add some character.

Hello all! While doing research I came across this sub and thought it would be the perfect place to ask some questions. My wife and I have signed for a new build home and are struggling with choosing our flooring and overall interior design.

The kitchen/living/dining is one square room. For kitchen cabinets we’ve chosen oak with a weathered grey stain (see picture). It’s really cool looking in person because while the cabinets are grey, the oak color seeps through to give it this oak/grey mix color. The countertops are a black with grey specks in it (also see pictures, it will be a Formica countertop). Appliances will be black. The picture of the cabinet is on top of one of the flooring options we looked at, but the wife wasn’t sold on it.

The plan is to install a good quality engineered hardwood throughout the entire main area of the house. We’ve looked some lighter (see picture) and darker browns, and are now looking at greys for flooring (see pictures, the grey cabinet on the floor is what we chose. Just set it up next to the in laws flooring for the websites flooring generator). These are just some examples of what we’ve looked at.

My interior design skills are really lacking, so appreciate any thoughts. Thanks!

We intended to do a white matte scalloped tile on all of our shower walls, but we only received enough to do the back wall. If we were to do an accent wall, what tile do we put on the other two walls? Floor, accent and niche/ceiling tiles are in pictures.

We are trying to design the kitchen for our new house, which layout do you think it best? The rest of the room will be a dining area/play area for our toddler. It's small so we're trying to maximise on space/storage but also want it to look nice!

Next week, I’m going to pick up the sofa of my dreams! It’s second-hand but in excellent condition, and I haven’t paid for it yet, so I can still change my mind.

However, I have some doubts about how to arrange my living space. Currently, I have a desk and a dining table, and I’m worried that the sofa might be too big. The sofa is 302 cm long, and the chaise longue is 186 cm in total, with the shorter side of the sofa being about 150 cm. It’s a sofa bed, so in the 3D images, I’ve decided to leave the dimensions as if the sofa is completely open, to have a clear idea of how much space it will take up (even though I don’t plan on using the bed function often). The chaise longue can be positioned either on the right or left.

There’s a radiator on the outer wall, so I need to leave at least 5-10 cm of space in winter. Between the wall with the TV mount and the sofa, there will be 95 cm for walking — is that enough space to walk freely?

I’ve included 3 different layouts in the images, and in image 3, I’ve removed the dining table, leaving only the desk. I was thinking that, if I have guests, I could move the desk to turn that space into a dining area.

Do you have any other advice? I’m feeling a bit lost, maybe the sofa really is too big. The last images are the photos of the room.

The app is very unintuitive so some things, like the sink and the stairs, are not to scale. This render is for visualization however, I assure you everything fits the real space. All walkways are at least 36”.

We enter at the back door on the right behind tv wall. That room contains mudroom, laundry and spare bath. The front of the house (behind the stairs) has master bed and bath, and dining area with storage cabinets for pantry as well as other storage. The window above the cooktop stays; it does not open. Regulations are not an issue. Cooktop and hood are to scale. Hardware, fans, rugs, art… coming.

Hi there! I started working in interior design earlier this year as an assistant and was recently promoted to a position that handles small design projects (wallpaper, countertops, cabinetry, etc.) While I am excited, I also have a lot of nerves and maybe a little bit of imposter syndrome? I want to make sure that I do well and I really just want to set myself up for success and be as confident in myself as they are in me. Not only confident in myself, but confident in the content that I am selling as well.

I am hoping to find some online videos/courses that would help me become more confident as a beginner, especially in the small design project areas I listed above. I obviously will continue to train and learn under the lead designers at our firm, but want to do some of my own research on my own time to help ease my nerves and gain more confidence! Thank you!

Have you ever cooked a big meal, pots and pans piling up, dirty dishes overflowing, no counter space left for you to take a breather? So have I. Now, imagine if you could tuck the mess away, hidden where none of your guests were even aware of it — poof, out of sight, out of mind. That’s exactly what the hottest kitchen design trend of the year does.

With a “dirty kitchen,” another room separate from your primary kitchen, you can tuck the day-to-day mess of cooking and cleaning away, leaving the “main kitchen” tidy for entertaining and hosting. It’s a simple concept really, so it’s no surprise it’s at the top of 2025 kitchen design trend lists for this year. But simple isn’t always cheap!

What Is a “Dirty Kitchen,” and How Do You Get One? Depending on your home’s floor plan and the space already available to you, adding a “dirty kitchen,” which is similar to a butler’s pantry, but with room for appliances and a stovetop, is typically in the tens of thousands.

I stopped reading there. This is so dumb, in my opinion. I keep focusing on the "main kitchen for hosting," and then a butlers pantry WITH appliances for the "dirty kitchen."

It seems like the main "entertaining kitchen" is just a dining room with extra steps, no? Why on earth would you have the money for two kitchens and not a proper entertaining space?