Home DIY fails that will make you laugh, or cry

When home design goes seriously wrong...

Architecture and interior décor are always subjective, but sometimes there's no denying the flaws. This unique Missouri home in the US has sparked internet ridicule for its somewhat unconventional design choices, both inside and out. To begin with, what would be a relatively standard white picket fence around the porch of the ground floor is bizarrely replicated on the second storey. The fenced-in area isn’t even a balcony, just a window set in an odd indentation in the house’s façade!

Read on to see more, and some other incredible DIY fails...

An oven-width kitchen

Moving inside the house, which was previously listed for $180,000 (£141k), we find another particularly strange layout decision – a kitchen wedged in an extremely narrow nook, like a galley kitchen on a ship. At least you’d never have to worry about there being too many cooks in the kitchen – there’s definitely only room for one.

Multi-texture walls

Other bizarre features throughout the home include sloping, multi-textured walls, a cut-out above the fireplace in the living room revealing the main staircase, and a collection of sockets and light switches peppered throughout the property in unexpected places. Oh, and the sloping driveway features a staircase built into its middle. Your guess is as good as ours on that one!

Whether down to bad planning or terrible execution, these unfortunate houses have been stuck with shoddy fittings, poor choices, and inexplicable additions to rooms. Brace yourself before you look at our roundup of the world's worst home design fails. Click or scroll on for more...

Who needs a front door?

No need for a doorbell at this address – just tap on the window and take the set of steps straight into the carpeted kitchen. And don’t worry about wiping your feet on a welcome mat, there’s a conveniently placed stretch of cardboard to protect the charming maroon flooring.

Your life in your hands

We all know how important – and tedious – it is to wash your hands, especially in this post-pandemic world. But if you’re missing the element of danger in your life, why not risk tragedy with this exciting electrical hazard in your own sink?

'Room' with a view

This carefully decorated area is just waiting for someone very brave to come and hang out and watch TV. Who needs walls, or a door, or access of any description when you have a dining chair, rug, roof views, and a mounted dinosaur head?

Epic fail or epic time saver?

This intriguingly-designed shower room is either irritating or genius, whichever way you look at it. Save time by showering while using the lavatory, then clean the loo seat while rinsing off. What’s more disturbing is the hideous glass door cabinet.

Random indoor balcony

Well, we don’t know about you, but we love taking a sharp right after walking upstairs and surveying our hallway before getting on with the day. It’s also ideal for greeting guests from above and making everyone feel perfectly at ease and welcome.

Corner (of the bedroom) bath

Open-plan living is all the rage, and en-suite bathrooms are still a covetable feature in any home. So why not combine the two, and remove any scrap of privacy left with this charming corner bedroom bathtub?

A challenging front door

If you’re not a fan of ‘drop-in’ style guests and neighbours, have you tried re-positioning your front door? Try placing it approximately six foot higher than usual and watch as unwelcome visitors attempt reaching you now.

A very tight squeeze

Face your fears of tight spaces with this space-saving lavatory. A claustrophobic’s nightmare, this hellishly narrow toilet ‘room’ doesn’t leave much space for breathing never mind anything else.

Watching soaps

Don't have space for a utility zone or a laundry room? No problem – simply make your living room multi-functional. Put on a load of washing while you catch up on your favourite shows and just turn the volume up when the spin cycle kicks in.

Intruders can't climb

Many homeowners are concerned about safety, so having securing measures in place can never be a mistake – unless, that is, you completely misunderstand how to implement them. The owner of this property installed the world's most redundant security gate. Despite its coded entry system, the gate comes with its very own built-in ladder, giving passersby the chance to climb over without the slightest bit of hassle. There's a chance this person's home insurance might be void...

A kitchen with a natural twist

Bringing a new meaning to the phrase 'kitchen island', this home comes complete with a tree planted right in the middle. We assume the house was built around the tree, but we can't quite figure out why. Plus, if this is what's going on downstairs, we can only imagine the mess in the bedroom!

Curtains are redundant

When real estate agent Venessa Van Winkle decided to share some of the strangest things she's seen during her career, the internet went crazy. One of the images she shared with her followers was of this unusual living room. At first glance, everything appears normal, but take a look at the curtains and you suddenly can't quite figure out what the homeowners were thinking.

Fireplace woes

There's a lot to unpack with this one. Described as 'America’s worst fireplace' by @yeoldedad on Twitter, this unique home addition caused quite a stir when this image went viral in October 2021. Yet the weird mantel is only one area of concern with the design of this room – there's a TV above the desk and a random hole below the cabinets on the other side of the chimney breast. So much confusion!

Making the most of every inch?

Who doesn't love a spacious bathroom? Well, we can't help but think that the owner of this property didn't quite make the most of the area they had to hand. Instead of spreading their bathroom suite out, creating a relaxed and contemporary room, they instead choose to compact everything into a single corner – or as Dina of @pleasehatethesethings put it, "God bless these 4 square feet!" At least they saved themselves space for a giant statue.

We're going to need a longer duster...

Another epic find by Dina is this incredible hallway. Described by her as "the perfect place to store 15 years' worth of dust," this unusual design choice must make cleaning a real chore for the homeowners. Plus, you'd need a stepladder to turn that lamp on and off.

Falling for this room

Is it a living room, a bathroom, or a bedroom? Well, this room has it all, including a raised tub. Aside from the weird interior design layout, using slippery surfaces in a wash space is never a good idea. Don't say we didn't warn you...

Let there be light (sort of!)

For most, creating a light-filled interior is top of the priority list, but the owner of this home didn't quite understand the brief. The window is almost entirely covered by a roof terrace, which not only stops sunshine from entering the house, but also creates a rather nice water feature every time it rains.

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.

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.

Multi-level living

When it comes to making a small space stretch, this studio flat 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 washing machine, because... why not?

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.

A toilet that doesn't fit

Perhaps the person who built this small bathroom thought that privacy didn't matter or maybe they forgot the golden rule of always measuring 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.

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.

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 WC 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.

An off-centre 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 centre of the recessed ceiling – perhaps they had to find a reinforced beam – but really there is no justification for this absolute shambles.

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.

An open-plan space

We are all for spacious open-plan living, however, this design from Terrible Real Estate Agent Photographs takes the award for the world's worst studio apartment. A kitchen sink located behind the headboard of a bed is a bit too close for comfort.

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.

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. Even an opaque panel would have been just about preferable to this.

A dead-end driveway

This image confused the internet when 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!

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.

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?

A balancing act

A well-designed 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 fear into even the bravest of prospective buyers.

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?

Imperfect patterns

Posted by @Blake262626 on Reddit, these floor tiles will have the perfectionists among us reeling. There are no missing pieces and the design is perfectly symmetrical until you spot the epic fail right in the centre. We wonder if it was deliberate and, if not, what happened to the tiler to make them lose control?

Is it a bathroom or a kitchen?

A bathtub in a kitchen is wrong for so many reasons, hygiene being just one of them. At least the occupant can save on water by washing dishes while they bathe, right?

Infuriating hob design

We love symmetry, so this wonky hob design posted on Reddit by @_A_Pancake 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.

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?

Too much for anyone

There's so much wrong with this ceiling that was shared on Reddit by @D3TROIT40oz248 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?

An attic design disaster

There are a lot of standout features in this oddly designed attic room – not many of them are 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 baffling design mistakes.

Wonky garage

This straight garage door has been left looking rather strange due to the wonky building it's attached to. Shared on Reddit by @pet_sauce, we can't help but wonder if Dr Seuss lives there.

A very public toilet

Some might say the location of this toilet is convenient, but others would call it bizarre. Located in the middle of a landing between floors, it's hardly a private spot for what many would consider a solitary undertaking.

A stand-out tile

When this Reddit user, @kingramses51 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?

Make a wish

What would otherwise be a perfectly normal kitchen has the unusual addition of a wishing well frame above the hob. We'd throw a penny at it to wish it away!

Crooked bricklaying

From a distance, the exterior of this home, spotted by @TheRealClyde1 on Reddit, 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 can't help but wonder if it was more difficult to lay the bricks like this than to do them properly.

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.

A difficult pipe design

Posted on Reddit by @Palifaith, 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?

Askew angles

This cupboard and sink completely fail to line up. Posted on Reddit by @sugardoggy, it looks like the kitchen fitter got the measurements wrong for the middle cupboard, creating this design eyesore.

Misplaced wall socket

Posted by @NastyNate675 on Reddit, the placement of this wall socket is so infuriating. Ruining the clean lines of the wall panelling, we'd love to be able to move it two inches over to the right.

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 colour of the phone matches the décor.

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).

Balcony access?

Who doesn't love a balcony or terrace for unwinding and soaking up the surrounding scenery? Well, whoever designed this property really loved outdoor space and created two balconies above the home's dual garages. The only thing they forgot about was how the owner of the house might access the rooftop spaces...

Soak yourself and the dishes

Now we’re all for multitasking, but taking a bath while the dishes are soaking seems a little excessive. Yes, working in the kitchen can be tiring, we’re not sure we’d need to draw a bubble bath in the same room.

The covetable sunken bath

Be the envy of all your guests with a luxurious ‘sunken bath’! Fortunately, there’s a – very low-slung –  handrail to help ease you into this particular floor-level tub, taking bathing to a new low.

Overlapping views

We’ve been looking at this particular home design fail for a while and still can’t come up with the logic behind these overlapping windows. Perhaps it’s the result of a domestic spat between the homeowner and a disgruntled/petty architect?

Let that sink in

Here’s one for those with extra long arms, or people who like a challenge. Who doesn’t love making the dishes extra difficult to clean, with a sink placement right in the middle of the kitchen island?

Working up a sweat?

While the working day can get a little stressful, and sometimes we have to work longer hours than we’d like, we’re not sure hosting a shower in the corner of the office is entirely necessary. Particularly one with this extraordinary lack of privacy. But hey, each to their own…

A sobering staircase

A challenge at best, this ‘staircase’ would become a life-threatening trek should you need to find the bathroom in the middle of the night. Hopefully, the owners have excellent balance, nerves of steel, and don’t own a dog.

M. C. Escher style stairway

Like looking at an optical illusion, we’re half expecting to find a hidden image if we stare at this design choice any longer. Ascending this stairway would require some acrobatics and mental gymnastics just to reach the second floor.

Incredible invisible sink

Who needs a sink anyway? Perhaps the designer of this tap area took inspiration from Kim Kardashian’s incredible disappearing sink – but just forgot to actually install one to begin with.

Challenging balconies

No amount of zooming in can help explain the positioning of these balconies. Even if the windows open wide enough to allow awkward access – still a health and safety hazard – you’d have to be in the mood to share your balcony with your neighbour.

Stairway to hell

Taking the warning ‘watch your step' to a whole new level, these stairs are extraordinarily placed. Both entering and exiting this bathroom would certainly be an adventure at least.

Just a heated indoor pool

Many questions spring to mind looking at this set-up. What came first – the glass block window wall or the fireplace? And what happens if you decide to jump into the pool? Wouldn’t the inevitable splash cause the fire to go out? Design choices were made.

The mysterious disappearing window

Perhaps this interesting curtain placement has a reason we just don’t know about yet. Maybe there once hung a prized artwork that needed to be unveiled and it has since been stolen. Or maybe someone very slim liked to perform from behind these perfectly normally positioned red curtains.

Convenient kitchen feature

Taking convenience to new heights, this efficient kitchen cabinet hosts a very desirable integrated ‘feature’. Who doesn’t want to use the lavatory in stunningly close proximity to the coffee machine and oven? When nature calls while you're cooking your chips, you’ll be happy with this hidden design.

Slim-line indoor balcony

This would be an excellent hallway for the Von Trapps, with space to line up a whole host of singing siblings who’ve just spent the last forty minutes harmonising their way up the stairs to bed. It might just take a while for them to file back out again and actually go to bed.

A toilet in the porch

One for the exhibitionists, this perfectly normal English end-of-terrace home has gone viral thanks to its unusual bathroom set-up. While the listing described it as "a downstairs external W.C." there's no mention of the fact that the loo is, in fact, in the porch. Despite being located in the back garden – thank goodness – the toilet is surrounded by wrap-around, unobscured windows with no blinds or curtains. Perfect for a quick dash while gardening?

Tree house or house tree?

It's hard to wrap your head around what came first – the tree or the house. While it appears a giant oak has burst through the foundations of this property, on further inspection, everything from the walls to the staircase have been built around these gargantuan trunks. The plot offers five dwellings including this "one-bath tree house." Trip hazard comes to mind!