These unbelievable design fails will have you doing a double-take. Whether down to bad planning or terrible execution, these unfortunate houses have been struck down by shoddy fittings, poor choices and inexplicable additions to rooms. So brace yourself and take a deep breath before you look at our roundup of the world’s worst home design fails. Click or scroll on for more…
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Falling asleep or just falling?
Bedtime is supposed to be the ideal opportunity to relax, unwind and leave the stresses of the day behind you – not so with this precariously balanced mattress. Hovering over a stairwell, one wrong turn in the night could send you tumbling down into the void, truly the stuff of nightmares.
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Elevated throne
Some renovations require working around difficult dimensions and this residence is a rather extreme example. Designed around what looks like a staircase, the oddly shaped space has led to a rather unusual design choice – the toilet is regally positioned at the top of a flight of stairs. Now that’s what we call a throne!
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Multi-level living
When it comes to making a small space stretch, this studio apartment in London takes tiny living to a whole new level, quite literally. In a valiant attempt to turn a single room into a self-contained home, an elevated loft bed has been added over the top of the washer, because why not?
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Tight squeeze
Sometimes you just have to accept you got the dimensions wrong. Not so with this compact box room – rather than admitting defeat, the homeowner has seemingly persisted and squeezed in a single bed. We have a feeling it won’t be budging anytime soon…
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A toilet that doesn’t fit
Perhaps the person that built this small bathroom thought that privacy didn’t matter or maybe they forgot the golden rule of always measure twice. Featured on Terrible Real Estate Agent Photographs, it’s hard to know what came first, the door or the toilet? The solution? A simple cut around the toilet bowl to allow it to open and close.
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Mismatched mirrors
As well as being tiny, this sink unit makes us shudder; not least because it has no symmetry and doesn’t match up. The real question is, where are the other halves of these mutilated mirrors? We can’t imagine what the owner was thinking!
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An unusual kitchen addition
And the award for the weirdest kitchen goes to whoever decided to put a toilet in their food prep area. A huge design mistake, we aren’t sure who thought installing a toilet in a kitchen was a good idea? The very same room where you prepare and eat food isn’t the best place to locate your porcelain throne.
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An off-center chandelier
Geometry clearly wasn’t a strong point for the person that fitted this chandelier. There’s probably a practical reason why it’s not sitting in the center of the recessed ceiling – perhaps they had to find a reinforced beam – but really there is no justification for this absolute shambles.
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A mismatched duo
‘His and hers’ loos, anyone? Perfect for the couple that can’t stand to be apart for any length of time. Notice how one of the toilets is slightly bigger than the other – and definitely closer to the toilet paper. This could be divorce territory!
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A steep approach
It goes to show that designing the outside of a property can be just as hard as getting the interior right. This 45-degree driveway makes steep work of getting home and we imagine it ruins the underside of your car too!
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A grand entrance
If you’re going to put a toilet in your entrance hall the very least you can do is put a stained glass modesty screen in front of it, like this considerate design maverick has.
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A dead-end driveway
This image confused the internet went it first went viral so let’s play spot the mistake. Imagine arriving home and steering your car carefully up the driveway and to your garage… oh, wait!
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A multipurpose bathroom
One for music-lovers, the location of this kit is something of a mystery. Can you imagine taking a relaxing bath while someone casually practices the drums? It’s definitely a bathroom design mistake!
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Half measures
Lots of people like to knock down walls and open up their living space – and here’s a lesson in how NOT to do it. We’re impressed with the neatness of the job, even if we can’t understand why someone would cut a door in half. What were they thinking? Trying to keep dogs in, perhaps?
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A balancing act
A balcony can be a little patch of paradise and is often a selling point for a house, but this outdoor space, which appears to be propped up by a fridge, would put the fear into even the bravest of prospective buyers.
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Putting down roots
Another less than brilliant example of logical thinking is seen in this picture. The question is, did someone plant a tree in front of the garage door or did some genius build a house behind a giant tree?
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Imperfect patterns
Posted on Reddit, these floor tiles will have the perfectionists amongst us reeling. There are no missing pieces and the design of the floor is perfectly symmetrical, until you spot the design fail right in the center. We wonder if it was deliberate and, if not, what happened to the tiler to make them lose control like this?
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Is it a bathroom or a kitchen?
A bathtub in a kitchen is wrong for so many reasons, hygiene being one of them. At least the occupant can save on water by washing dishes while they bathe. Right?
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Infuriating cooktop design
We love symmetry, so this wonky cooktop design posted on Reddit is bound to drive us crazy. Highly infuriating, we can’t help but wonder if the glass top is on back to front by mistake?
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A problematic door
As the saying goes, as one door closes, another opens. However, in this time warp home it’s a fault rather than a feature. Looking closely at the one-way doors blocking each other’s access in this vivid purple room we have to ask, what happened here?
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Too much for anyone
There’s so much wrong with this ceiling that was shared on Reddit that it’s hard to process. From the relatively inoffensive but outdated popcorn finish to the randomly positioned lights, we’re baffled. Why is there an outrageous number of fittings?
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An attic design disaster
There’s a lot of standout features in this oddly designed attic room – not many of them good. From the sawn-off door that looks like it wouldn’t fit, to the oddly angled walls and the staircase that sits over the door frame, it’s full of design mistakes.
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Wonky garage
This straight garage door has been left looking rather strange due to the wonky building it’s attached to. Shared on Reddit, we can’t help but wonder if Dr Seuss lives there?
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A very public toilet
Some might say the location of this toilet is convenient, others would call it bizarre. Located in the middle of a landing between floors, it’s hardly a private spot for what should be a private undertaking!
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A stand-out tile
When this Reddit user took a closer look at the beautiful bathroom tiles in their shower tray, they spotted a mistake that can never be unseen. Can you spot the wonky tile?
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Make a wish
What would otherwise be a perfectly normal kitchen has the unusual addition of a wishing well frame above the cooktop. We’d throw a penny at it to wish it away!
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Crooked bricklaying
From a distance, the exterior of this home looks like any standard red-bricked façade. But look more closely and it’s clear to see the bricklayer struggled to keep the design uniform. We wonder if it was more difficult to lay the bricks like this than to do them properly…
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A precariously placed bath
Getting out of a bath can be treacherous at the best of times but you could be taking your life in your hands disembarking from this crazy tub. We’re all for space-saving solutions but perching this on the edge of the stairs seems borderline murderous!
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A difficult pipe design
We can’t think of a plausible reason why these bent pipes were installed this way. Surely it would have been best to run the pipes along the wall where they can be hidden by a piece of furniture?
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Askew angles
This cupboard and sink completely fail to line up. Posted on Reddit, it looks like the kitchen fitter got the measurements wrong for the middle cupboard, creating this design eyesore.
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Misplaced wall socket
The placement of this wall socket is so infuriating. Ruining the clean lines of the wall paneling, we’d love to be able to move it two inches over to the right.
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An extra bathroom addition
This isn’t the usual bathroom setup, but we guess it could come in handy in an emergency. At least the color of the phone matches the décor.
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The doors to nowhere
It appears to be a normal house from the front, but this property has an epic design fail hidden around the side. Either some balconies need to be added or the doors that lead to nowhere need to be removed (preferably from our memories too).