7 "Stylish" Decor Trends That Are Secretly Hurting Your Home’s Value

While some design choices can boost your home’s value and charm, others—despite their popularity—may quietly work against you. From TikTok-famous paint techniques to ultra-modern tech upgrades, certain aesthetic decisions may not resonate with potential buyers or stand the test of time.

While we’re all for making your home your own, understanding which decor trends may be lowering your home’s value can be helpful to know if you plan on selling in the near future. In general, interior design and real estate pros agree: leaning too hard into fleeting home trends can easily date a home and lower its value on the market. 

Color Drenching

The internet’s hottest paint trend may not be the best choice if you’re planning on selling your home anytime soon.

We’ve heard this one before: neutrals are best when it comes to selling your home. Overly bold paint choices scream over personalization, alienating potential buyers who are uninterested in repainting the space after closing the sale. 

“Even the most exciting trends like color drenching may turn off your buyer as all they see is money adding up to repaint the home,” says Missy Derr, a Real Estate Advisor with Engel & Völkers in Atlanta, Georgia. 

Luckily, repainting your walls is a relatively simple and affordable project that can easily be done as you prepare your home for the market, so unless you’re about to list your home, don’t be afraid to express yourself with fun paint colors. We’re not ready to let go of color-drenching just yet. 

Fluted panelling and reeded finishes are another popular home trend that design pros caution against. What once felt stylish and cutting-edge has begun to feel generic and overdone, and buyers aren’t loving it anymore, says Olga Doykhen, an interior designer based in Orange County, California.

“I've been seeing [it] a lot in builder-grade renovations," she says. "When overused, the details lose sculptural impact and start to feel mass-produced. It’s especially problematic when applied without consideration of the home’s architectural language."

Instead, go for timeless, not trendy. Take your home’s architecture and style into consideration, and wherever possible, opt for quality natural materials for a look that will feel truly timeless.

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