Most of that furniture feels cold and impersonal. I visit people's houses that are decorated like magazines, and I get no sense of their personality. In fact, their homes make it feel like they have no personality!

I'd much prefer to visit a home with an old mis-matched chair in the corner, sit in the chair, and be told "That was Aunt Norma's chair. She was..." and hear a story about Aunt Norma's life. I'd much prefer to have in my own home an old dresser that a friend was going to throw out, but I mended and painted, because I put my mark upon that dresser and gave that dresser my own story. Designer furniture has no personal story beyond "I went to King Street and swiped my VISA card".