Bad Details 3 - Model Home Edition

I’m back with more bad details, this time from some model homes I toured recently. :-)

Here are the bad details I’m going to cover today.

1. Odd kitchen lighting placement and cheap looking LED down lights

2. Bad paint color choice for tile in bathroom

3. Cheap tile ending style for shower tile

4. Speckled granite?

5. Another kitchen backsplash ending gone too far.

6. Big clear glass windows above primary bath tub

1) Odd Placement of Kitchen Lighting And Bulbous Down LIghts

Bad Details 3 - Model Home Edition

This kitchen above was in one of the homes I liked the most on this tour, however, the one detail that stood out to me was the lighting.

It looks like they intended to light the face of the cabinetry with some downlights with the positioning in front of each upper cabinet, but it was a design fail in my book.

First of all they are too close to the cabinets, the light makes a cone shape and it just looks shoved up against there, right?

Secondly, most of them are off-center of each cabinet, so if they were trying to light each cabinet, they missed…..big time.

They even missed centering the one over the hood. Like if you’re going to do one per cabinet like that, at least center them.

I don’t like this style of LED down light anyway, with the little bulbous look. Give me a flat, mostly inconspicuous LED downlight, please.

2) Bad Paint Color Choice For Bathroom Tile

Bad Details 3 - Model Home Edition

There is a lot wrong here, especially the unfinished look of the tile edges and stopping the tile short of the ceiling. I much prefer just going to the ceiling with tile surrounds at tubs unless the ceiling is over 10’ high.

This was a small bathroom and the ceiling height wasn’t really an advantage. They probably would have been best to just drop the ceiling to 9’ and take the tile all the way up. That would eliminate having to see so much of those unfinished edges!

Oh, and there is no shampoo niche, just a little angled shelf. :-(

However, what bugs me most here and what calls attention to all the above is the bad paint color selection paired with the tile. They really should have had the paint match the tile to disguise the short tiled area. It would have made the bathroom feel bigger, more sophisticated and the shower curtain would have looked better coordinated.

3) Cheap tile ending for shower tile

Bad Details 3 - Model Home Edition

Basically, what they’ve done here is put grout on the edge of the tile to finish off the cut edges of the tile and painted over it.

As much as I dislike Schluter strips to end tile in residential settings, as I think they are just too abrupt, I dislike this even more. :-(

And the deco strip just highlights that, doesn’t it?

Here’s my blogpost with some suggestions on how to end tile at a shower >> 5 Ways to Finish Shower Tile Edges for a Professional Look

4) Speckled granite?

Bad Details 3 - Model Home Edition

2010 called and they want their gray speckled granite back.

Does this look dated or what? I mean, we weren’t born yesterday. Granites are not all equal. You don’t fool us putting this in, even in a secondary bathroom.

(#yougotadealonsomeleftovergranite) (#tombstonegranite)

If you want to use a lower end granite, at least go for a matte or honed finish and just do some kind of basic black for goodness sakes.

I would prefer a honed Ubatuba over this.

And if you’re going to do any kind of undermount sink, please do a spread set faucet. Otherwise, just do laminate and call it a day.

5) Another kitchen backsplash ending gone too far.

I KNEW I’d see something like this somewhere and sure enough…..this builder has not read my ever-popular blogposts on this topic. :-)

Bad Details 3 - Model Home Edition

Please align the splash with the upper cabinet for a more finished look! It doesn’t cost any extra money!

At least they have the outlets mounted low on the splash and horizontally, I’m quite proud of them for that!

6) Big clear glass windows above primary bath tub

Hello neighbor! I’m stripped naked and I’m getting in the shower now.

Bad Details 3 - Model Home Edition

Can we please just normalize doing some kind of textured glass in these big bathroom windows? Rain glass is nice.

I mean, if you closed the window treatment here it would darken the room and hurt the vibe, especially in the morning. Right?

Most of my clients like an additional sheer shade on top of a textured glass, that’s what I have in my bathroom. It works great to let all that light in while giving privacy too.

I know the details have to trimmed back somewhere to be able to build houses at a price point people want to pay, but the house this bathroom above was in, was priced over 600K. Oh, and that’s in Texas, BTW, not Boston or California.

Did you miss Bad Details 1 & 2? They’re linked here below. :-)

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This blogpost was thoughtfully written by me, Carla Aston, and not by AI, ghostwriters, or guest posters.