The Please Hate These Things Instagram account is dedicated to “absurd, ugly & just plain stupid things in home design.” We can’t all be Nate Berkus, so many of us need a bit of help in the interior design department. And while Please Hate These Things might not provide any practical tips or actual help for those of us out there who are struggling with our homes, at least it allows us a place to sit back, relax and laugh at other people’s design choices. The account has amassed an impressive 571k followers and has shared over 900 photos of questionable decor and designs. 

From rooms that look like they were built without an architect to light fixtures that would make interior designers shudder, this page has it all. If you live for watching HGTV or silently judging your friends’ homes when you visit them, we hope that you love Please Hate These Things. And perhaps you’ll find some inspiration for what not to do in your own home! Channel your inner Joanna Gaines, and enjoy!

Clearly, it’s quite easy to end up with a home that features questionable design choices, so to learn more about interior design, we reached out to Kel Harmer of Oh So Kel, who was kind enough to have a chat with Bored Panda. Kel is an interiors stylist and the owner of Oh So Kel, the source of Inspiration for Beautiful Living, ‘Best Home Blog’ and ‘Amara IBA Shortlist for Best Design Inspiration'. She’s been described as the ‘queen of accessible style & unique chic decor’, so we wanted to know what she loves most about interior design.

“I love interior design because it’s a way of expressing yourself, reflecting your personality and using creativity in a way that is unique and individual to the homeowner,” Kel says. But when it comes to whether or not there is such a thing as bad design, she’s open minded. “I think there are certain design principles, color pairings and room layouts that work better than others, but I do also think that design is an art form which is subjective too,” Kel told Bored Panda. “We don’t all have the same tastes or opinions on what makes good design so there will always be varying ideas and debates on it.”

We also asked Kel if she has any big “don’ts” that she tries to avoid or recommends that others avoid in their designs. “Personally I try not to follow through on bold ’trends’ when making more permanent, expensive decisions such as kitchens, flooring, or large pieces of furniture,” she shared. “These I try to keep fairly neutral and classic which creates a foundation from which you can build on, bringing in personality and more bold statements through pieces that can be easily changed if you change your mind over time. Items such as cushion covers, art prints and wallpaper are examples of that.”

Kel also shared one of her own articles on 5 Steps to Define Your Home Style to help others know where to start when it comes to designing their own homes. Her tips include saving everything that you love on Pinterest, noticing trends that appeal to you, defining your style, referring back to your Pinterest boards whenever you lose sight of your vision and keeping your home cohesive. “Even if you’re not completely redecorating or buying everything in one go, it’s worth ensuring you have the entire space planned out in order to stay cohesive,” Kel writes. “It may mean you have a mix of styles while you’re in the transitional period of old and new, but stay true to the board and it’ll be worth it when you get to the end result!”

Finally, we asked Kel what the most important thing to keep in mind is when designing a space. “It’s function,” she revealed. “How will you use the space and how can you design it to meet those needs? Think about how you want it to look and feel too, then combine those ideas together to create a functional yet beautiful space that reflects your personality and fulfills your needs.”

If you’d like to gain more tips from the expert, be sure to check out Kel’s website Oh So Kel right here!

We also reached out to writer and blogger Stacey Sheppard, creator of The Design Sheppard, to hear her thoughts on the topic, and she was kind enough to answer our burning questions. When it comes to what Stacey loves most about interior design, she shared, "Interior design, when done well, allows you to create an environment that is good for your mental health and wellbeing. In today's very fast-paced, tumultuous and unpredictable world, our homes and work environments need to be designed in a way that nourishes us and helps us to regulate our emotions."

"Creating environments that are easy to use and make us feel good has never been more important," she continued. "Interior design offers us a way to pull together schemes that bring joy and happiness into our lives by activating our senses in a way that replenishes us and allows us to find sanctuary, whilst expressing our own individual identity."

Stacey also does believe there is such a thing as "bad design," but perhaps not in the way you're imagining. "When it comes to aesthetics, design is, of course, very subjective and relies heavily on our own personal tastes and emotional response," she told Bored Panda. "What may be a dream interior for one person, could be a nightmare for another. However, design is more than just aesthetics. A good interior should work well for its intended use. So if we're referring to functionality, then absolutely there is such a thing as bad design."

Stacey was also kind enough to share her biggest design "don'ts" with us. "Don't simply copy what you see in magazines and online without first giving it some serious thought," she noted. "Just because a certain color or material happens to be trendy right now, it doesn't mean you need it in your own home. First, work out how you want to feel in your home and then see if the trends correspond to that. You need to inject your own personality and style into an interior and adapt trends so that they work for you and your home. Don't just blindly accept what you're being told by the media and jump on the trend bandwagon. Have the confidence to follow your own intuition."

If you're interested in getting more into design but aren't sure where to start, Stacey recommends first taking a minute to assess each and every room. "Think about the activities that will take place in that room and decide how you want to feel in it. Should it feel calming and relaxing or vibrant and energising? Once you have ascertained this, you will be able to get much more clarity on the colors to use, and the materials and finishes you might want," she shared.

"A great way to get clarity is to go to Pinterest and start pinning images that provoke the emotions that you are looking for," Stacey added. "Don't put too much thought into it at this point. Just pay attention to the reaction in your body. Once you have pinned a good few images, you can look back at the board as a whole and you should be able to spot the patterns that keep showing up. Maybe you've pinned lots of wooden kitchens or quite a few green bathrooms for example."

And when it comes to what the most important factor to consider when designing a space is, Stacey says, it's you! "You are the person who will live or work in this space. So it has to work and feel good for you," she told Bored Panda. "Don't waste time on what other people will think of your home, they don't have to live in it. Fill it with pieces that speak to you on an emotional level and that make you feel good. Then you really can't go wrong. We spend far too much time worrying about whether things go together or fit into a certain style or trend, but as long as you appreciate everything that you have chosen and it reflects your personal style, that is all that matters."

If you'd like to gain more design inspiration and tips from Stacey, be sure to check out her blog The Design Sheppard right here!

We hope we haven’t scarred you by introducing you to all of these painfully bad design photos. If you are designing a home of your own, pandas, remember that you are free to do whatever you like with it. But if you make questionable choices, you can’t be surprised when they end up online! Keep upvoting the photos you can’t believe actually exist in people’s homes, and let us know in the comments below what you think the worst design faux pas is. Then, if you’re interested in checking out Bored Panda’s previous articles featuring Please Hate These Things, you can find them right here and here!