What happens on Pinterest rarely stays on Pinterest. And as we all know, the gap between expectations and reality can be very wide indeed. In cooking, this might mean that an attempt at tomato soup results in sour gruel and dinner from a can instead. But with home design, you can't just throw away your newly renovated kitchen and reach in the pantry for a new one.

The (relative) danger is real: Peruse Pinterest—where certain design trends seem to bubble up to the surface so aggressively that you really can't see anything else—in the midst of a renovation or decoration and you're very likely to come away with at least a handful of ideas from the following list of inescapables. Our advice is to pare back on the trends: Nobody would argue against the glow of a white marble counter if you've always dreamed of one, but once you slap floating open shelves, dark gray cabinets, and brass hardware alongside it you're going to be having deja vu. Whose house is this? Where have I seen it before? Oh right, the set of The Intern. It's not the individual parts that are a problem; it's the Frankensteining of them into a trend beast.

Our humble opinion? Avoid the Pinterest House like you do your creepily perfect neighbor who claims to like the taste of green juice, and embrace your inner oddities instead. You'll know it when you see it: The Pinterest House has an accent color on the front door (pop!) and shutters—definitely shutters—no matter what the architectural style. It is either white or matte black or pale pink or shingled without exception. Inside, the foyer boasts a few Shaker-style pegs for coats and little else, or maybe it's just that you can't see because the walls are blindingly, disturbingly white. A kitchen dominates the main living room no matter the size of the place, god forbid a wall stand between the two, and those white marble-ish counters and a subway tile backsplash are pretty much a guarantee.

Cabinets might be an edgy blue-black but the hardware will absolutely be brass—and There Shalt Be None But Floating Shelves on one wall. Speaking of brass it will be splattered around like a disease, on lamps and side tables and faucets and no less than one 'quirky' objet (animal figurine? star ornament?) in the bookshelves. Somewhere, a succulent is dying. Perhaps there is also a golden leather, loosely Moroccan pouf, too squishy to sit on and too blingy to feel comfortable putting your feet atop? Yes, this—this is the place. Vaguely mid-century sofa: check. Desperately unhappy fiddle leaf fig: You're a fool without one. Pendant lamp that might as well have been copped from the Industrial Revolution: no surprise meeting you here.

The Pinterest House is astyled, neither traditional nor modern nor distinguishable from the next. Should you go looking long enough, you'll find a wallpapered bathroom—science says that there's a 90 percent chance it is covered in a palm-leaf pattern, a 10 percent chance it is also subway tile. Firewood will reside, oddly tidy, in a rectilinear wall nook—whether or not there is a fireplace to burn it in. An accent ladder (that is, a ladder that comes with a warning not to climb on it) will lean against some wall or another, laden with towels that don't get used, and if there isn't a sliding barnwood door or a sheepskin throw atop an acrylic or aluminum chair I'm sorry but you have come to the wrong place.

The scheme has been wrung free of color (save maybe blue), void of attitude and the element of surprise, washed down in soulless shapes, containing nothing that means anything to the person who lives there. Framed: a map of Austin, Paris, or Brooklyn. Underfoot: Some version of this rug. It's all very tempting and nobody is safe (note: I have one of those rugs and the start of a brass accent problem), a case of too much of a good thing. Wake up, self! There are other paint colors in the rainbow, weird design inklings to embrace. And, well, if The Pinterest House sounds like a description of your happy place, you won't have to look far to find it.