Top 10 Most Complained About Home Features

These are the most complained about home features from over 300 homeowners who’ve had a brand new house built!

10. Double Vanity 

Homeowners often regret double vanities in the bathroom. They prefer a single, continuous countertop with two sinks, arguing it’s more practical than a split vanity. The split vanity can awkwardly divide the space and leave you with less usable counter area. I personally prefer the split because we have our own designated spaces. 

Primary Bathroom via Becki Owens

9. Open Floor Plans

Homeowners are wanting dedicated rooms for specific areas of their home instead of an open planned concept. While they create an airy feel, they also bring a lack of privacy, noise disturbances, and difficulty in defining separate spaces.

Closed Plan Living Room via My Domaine

8. Extremely High Ceilings

Ceilings soaring over 20 feet give that luxurious feel but can be impractical. They make heating and cooling more expensive, create unused vertical space, and require specialized cleaning tools just to dust those hard-to-reach areas. If you’re a homeowner on a budget or trying to be practical in any way, having high ceilings doesn’t make sense.

Dramatic High Ceilings via Living Letter Home

7. Barn Doors

It’s official—barn doors are on their way out. The biggest complaints? They don’t seal properly, making them terrible for privacy (especially in bathrooms), and their once-trendy aesthetic is starting to feel outdated. If you’re looking for sliding door options, pocket doors or modern panel sliders might be a better fit.

Arched Bathroom Pocket Door via Corey Lohmann Design

6. Hollow Core Doors

These lightweight, inexpensive doors are common in new builds, but they feel cheap and provide minimal soundproofing. Even if you upgrade to insulated interior walls, hollow core doors won’t block noise well. Investing in solid core doors for main living spaces makes a huge difference in quality and durability. Keep the hollow core doors for closets or low-use areas.

Painted Interior Doors via Melanie Jade Design

5. TV Above the Fireplace

Homeowners often complain about the high viewing angle and worry about heat damaging the TV when mounting it above a fireplace. Workarounds include installing a solid mantel to deflect heat, lowering the hearth, using a linear fireplace, or opting for a pull-down TV mount to improve the viewing angle.

4. Microwave Over the Stove

Built-in microwaves above the stove might save space, but they often have weak exhaust fans. Microwaves placed above the stove also disrupt the flow and don’t look great. Some better placement options for a microwave in the kitchen include in-drawer microwaves, or hidden in the lower cabinets or pantry. 

Microwave Drawer via Arched Manor

3. Jack and Jill Bathrooms

The most talked about complaint regarding Jack and Jill bathrooms is that kids argue over the shared area! While an easy fix for this would be to give each kid their own bathroom, this doesn’t work if you’re on a limited budget and can’t make this happen practically. If you’re able to swing separate bathrooms of course it will help with the resale of your home in the future so it is definitely something to consider if you have the budget for it.

Floral Shared Bathroom via Nesting with Grace

2. Freestanding Tubs

At first I was shocked to see this complained about so much because it’s in all of the new home building projects I visit, a freestanding tub! It definitely has an aesthetic appeal, it looks stylish and Pinterest-worthy. However, practically you rarely actually use the bathtub and spend more time trying to clean around it than anything else. 

Pinterest-Worthy Bathroom via Houzz

1. Pot Fillers

The whole reason for a pot filler is not having to carry a full pot of water from the sink to the stove, but when you’re done boiling the water or cooking your pasta, the pot still needs to be carried back to the sink to empty. So having a pot filler doesn’t really make that much sense and is virtually redundant. These could also pose potential plumbing issues in the future! 

That said, there are two spots that pot fillers could potentially work. Placing one near your coffee machine, especially if you have a separate coffee station away from the kitchen, means you won’t have to do refilling by the sink. Another useful option would be with built-in pet bowl water stations that also have a drain so you can easily refill your furry friend’s bowl. Otherwise, they may not be worth the hassle.

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