How Do You Know if You Have an Old-Fashioned Home?

Although the homes of our parents or grandparents followed a line of their times, our homes may require a new look. Assess if you have an old-fashioned home and discover what to do about it.
How Do You Know if You Have an Old-Fashioned Home?

Last update: 07 October, 2021

Customs and traditionalisms can manifest themselves in our homes in different ways. Sometimes these offer and contribute little to a modern appearance. Therefore, it’s important that we assess if you have an old-fashioned home.

Today, contemporary decoration is increasingly popular. This shows updated content that includes technology, new trends, original color combinations, and the most sophisticated innovations.

Instead of resorting to the conventionalisms of earlier times, it tends towards a renewed perspective that tries to change the inner image. In this sense, we invite you to do a detailed analysis of your home and check if you really do have resources that are out of fashion.

Do you have an old-fashioned home? Observations and evaluations

How to know if we have the old-fashioned home?

The first thing you must carry out is a specific observation of the resources you have at home. Maybe you’ve inherited some items from your ancestors or, perhaps, you acquired them many years ago.

This is reflected not only in the designs or formats but also in the state of the materials. These lose their original appearance over time, without forgetting about possible scratches, wear and tear, and aesthetic deterioration. This is a dead giveaway that you have an old-fashioned home.

In this way, your evaluation process will determine the situation of your home, what you can improve and what you can change. This formula allows you to know if you really do have outdated decoration.

What’s the style of your home?

If you don’t know how to answer this question then you have a problem. The “old-fashioned” concept is associated with styles such as eclectic, classical, or Baroque. Resources with common patterns are typical in each of these styles–this simply isn’t necessary for the modern-day design.

As mentioned in the previous section, it’s important to observe and know what we have at home. If you feel that your furniture doesn’t match or if you don’t quite like something, then you must act.

If you don’t correctly determine your style, your furniture won’t define your aesthetics. In other words, the whole must be in harmony. For example:

  • Overdoing the use of retro furniture will mean that the atmosphere is saturated.
  • If your furniture and objects remind you of the past, (both for their shapes and designs), it’s because there’s no intention for change. This is considered a conservative attitude.
  • A classic concept, (such as the use of chandeliers or old curtains), will create a setting that takes us back a century.
  • Electrical appliances: if these are very old and you don’t renew them, then there’s no turning of the page. Currently, you have the opportunity to achieve the modernization of your home.

Do you have an old-fashioned home? Look at your walls

Old-fashioned home: painting the walls

Another aspect to assess is your walls (the plaster and paint) and their condition. Disintegrating plaster means the aesthetic essence is lost. This is something very typical of old houses.

You also have to be aware of your wallpaper. If you don’t complement it with modern furniture, the space can fall into an old-fashioned style. Instead, it should offer a vintage-style aesthetic, subtly used to show a sparing reminder of the past.

A completely outdated home

Although the homes of our parents or grandparents followed a line of their times, our homes may require a new look.

There’s nothing worse than receiving guests and not feeling proud of your home or being ashamed of the decoration. It’s so important to feel comfortable under your personal aesthetic.

In short, no matter how you envisage your home, what matters is that it’s fashionable, that new trends are applied in context, and, above all, that it’s functional and fulfilling.


All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.


  • Emma, Callery: Enciclopedia práctica de la decoración, Everest, 2001.
  • Wilson, Judith: La casa vintage: tesoros con estilo para un hogar muy chic y actual, Océano Ámbar, 2009.