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[Foxxee]

You are on the right track. 

Updating and repairing, replacing, are different things.

Replacing worn out bathrooms, floors, kitchen cabinets, appliances, repainting, repairing are not what I call updating.  Updating for me is changing the decor to current trends. A colorful room, for example, to all neutral tones as the trend has been for several years.

Some women are obsessed with staying on trend doing total makeovers every few years.  Are they doing it for themselves or to impress their friends?  Why is there a need to update whenever the trends change?

Maybe, it's fun, they like to do it.  Maybe, they aren't secure in what they do like unless others like it too.  

Although, the following is a bit off subject, I think it's a good example of women feeling they must impress others to be accepted.  In some cases, that's true.  Business decisions are one thing, but if they are personal, find new friends. 

This occurred when I lived in S. California.  A neighbor of mine who was an interior decorator was moving back to Albuquerque with her contractor husband during a recession saying there was no work in S. California. 

When she was saying her final goodbyes, she said, "At least I won't be judged by the handbag I carry anymore."

[Desertdi]

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@Mary Bailey wrote:

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@Desertdi wrote:

I have retro hippie, industrial, and a touch of Jessica Fletcher

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sounds like me.  I have wood, glass, metal.

I buy what I like, change out if I find something I like better.

My SIL still had those (80's?) geese last time I saw her house. So I do think sometimes some trends HAVE to be updated.

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@Mary Bailey   Uh oh....I didn't know geese were once a "thing".    In fact, last year, I found a life-size painted pottery goose in a thrift store.   I decorated "her" for Christmas!   (And she's still sitting in the living room.)

[Twins Mom]

I am definitely not one to follow trends just because.  I need new flooring after 30 years and conflicted.  Carpet or hardwood?  Which rooms?  That's why I feel I need decorator advice but don't know how to select - internet, newspaper ads?  I don't know anyone who has used decorator.  I might go to furniture store and use their decorator and work down to floor.

[sceniccoast]

Maybe if someone has an endless bank account .. possibly.

For me, if I like my style, I stick with it.  Doesn't matter to me what others think.  DH & I are the ones that live here & that's all that counts.

We're in desperate need of new furniture as I've mentioned before.  Between large dogs & 2 cats, the living room esp. have seen their days.  We're so indecisive though, because we can predict the same thing happening.  Maybe the compromise would be instead of getting what we'd really like, is to get something nice, but a lower budget .. we'll see how it plays out.  

[FiddleDeeDee]

No.

That said, maybe I should....

Our townhome back in MD was beautifully decorated (we thought) when we bought it. Ceramic in the foyer, kitchen, eat in dining area (huge area), powder room and 2 bathrooms (3rd had original vinyl from 1983), the home was painted in 12 different shades of paint but you would never know as they flowed perfectly (she used a decorator). We called the house "Tuscany" because the shades were neutral but warm like you would see in home and the land in the wine country.

We had the 3rd bathroom floor done due to flooding and chose a neutral tile that matched the ones in the foyer, kitchen and powder room.  Tubs, sinks and showers were classic white tile.

When we had to move, we chose to keep the house as a rental property. Had GREAT contractors. In the end, the bathrooms ALL had to be gutted and redone. Our contractor for this job (and many others in the home) was a young guy from Russia. A licenced architect, he found his degree and licence wasn't accepted here so he went into home remodeling/design. 2 other people I knew had used him and the work was fantastic. I told him what we wanted and he looked at me and said "if you allow me to draw up some designs, I think you will like what I choose to do better. It will be fresher and appeal to a wider group of people". "Ok", I said. 

He told me, showed me the work he had done in other bathrooms and I gave him the green light. By now we're all in FLorida. He also added a laundry room, did some trim work (which wasn't there before) and some design work with inlaid flooring under our deck (which he fixed and stained). The pictures of the bathrooms, to us, were not really our taste but the quality of the work was fantastic. My husband and I though that we would not want a place with that kind of tile work or design (we would want simple white tiles) but it was done, and that was that.

Close friends toured the now complete and clean house. Feed back? "OMG! It looks like a new house! It's so updated and NOW and gorgeous and you can tell it isn't an old house and......" on and on it went. Feedback from showing were the same: "You'd NEVER know this house was built in the '80s! It has all the updated stuff that new houses have now!" and so on.  We had numerous contracts for rentals and wound up getting more rent than we initially asked for.

Husband and I said to each other "maybe we need to update our tastes in home decor".  Hmm....

[Y2Worry]

I don't follow trends in decorating or fashion.  I'm old, but even when I was in school I didn't ape every new style that came along.  I'm sure people consider me to be a weird old bird, but I'm happy that way!   Be yourself and enjoy life!

[FastDogWalker2]

Yes and no.  We have some antique pieces that we use and our other furniture adds some "currentness."  We did spurge and get new bedroom furniture recently.  We gave our daughter our old cherry, formal, bedroom furniture and we purchased a lighter wood set.  I would probably call it coastal.  Not full on beach though.  We live 5 minutes from the beach but we don't decorate in a beach theme.  I think a house looks great when it reflects your taste - not any one trend.

[CANDLEQUEEN]

I think simple changes can change your room dramatically, so as far as updating goes, my husband and I will change out small things in a room to update or just to change, rugs, curtains, pictures, mirror,etc...

I don't follow trends, some I like and some I don't, our home is more traditional with warm tones....To me outdated means more like flooring, window treatments, maybe appliances,etc....

I think on HGTV they use that word way too much! It is usually couples on House Hunter, or Love it or List it. It is an overused term in my opinion!

It would be crazy and super expensive to update your home everytime a trend came along, so you make small changes when you see fit to do so! I am a firm believer in as long as you like it and are comfortable with it-that's all that matters! 

[stevieb]

From my perspective the best way to avoid a dated looking room is NOT to follow trends, but to follow your instincts, pursue the look that you favor and do so by obtaining the best classic pieces you can afford that support your preferred style... It's also easy and relatively inexpensive to update the look of a room by occasionally changing out accessories and small decorative objects... There's no need to change out the big things in order to freshen up a look... All that said, yes, over time, the big things need to be replaced too, but certainly not based on trends or whims...

[wagirl]

usually not, however after having a huge tree fall on my house and re- construction to fix the top floor, 3 bedrooms and a full bath, I did paint and carpet and remodel with the current colors and textures. got the downstairs re painted but my furniture is old and out of date---I would love to replace all that stuff. Maybe when my money tree blooms in the spring!!!!