Celebrate Spring With Some Amazing Art Nouveau Decor Tips

10 Ways To Bring This Style Into Your Home

Art Nouveau looks at the natural world and makes it something magical. It's the sweeping curves of a river or a branch bending in the breeze. It's the way light shines through the wings of a dragonfly or softly diffuses through flower petals.

This is all well and good, but the question comes in how do you bring that concept into your home? Fortunately, we're looking to do just that.

If you're looking to start by learning about art nouveau and you're still trying to decide if you're interested, look to the classics. These four artists worked in several fields and are prominent names in art nouveau. So they're a good starting point to learn more about what you like and what you don't.

Louis Majorelle 

Emile Galle

Hector Guimard 

Alphonse Mucha 

Use Asymmetrical Shapes

Although symmetry is often found in the natural world, asymmetry is also. Asymmetrical shapes reflect the motion in the natural world.

When we say asymmetrical shapes, we're talking about things that aren't balanced perfectly. That might be a couch that's higher on one side than the other, that might be having something that follows the shape of a leaf or a river. 

Arches and Curves

If you want a more delicate touch when bringing art nouveau into your home, consider where you can bring in curves and arches. Unlike some of the other options on this list, they don't have to be the central focus of your home. You can bring them in as quietly as you want. Whether that is having arches in your furniture or having them in the architectural details of a room, they are very subtle. 

You can bring in curves in the shapes of your rugs, headboards, mirrors, chairs, and even couches. Or you can get in touch with the DIY side and fake and arched doorway or ceiling.

Japanese Motifs

Japanese motifs were very much in style when art nouveau was being created. As the trade partnership with Japan first began to prosper in the early 1900s, people in Europe and America were fascinated. So art nouveau draws heavily on Japanese motifs. Whether you look at their fabrics, architecture, or art, Japan has historically been moved by details in the natural world. You should consider bringing in anything from artwork to fabrics to furniture to include as part of your home.

Stained Glass

Courtesy ofPatrice Soudier

Stained glass can be incorporated almost anywhere in the home today. You're no longer restricted by having to pay for giant pieces or even having them be just for windows. You can use them as decor around your home; you can use them as panels, they're even different ways that you can create faux stained glass yourself. Look to artists like Ernesto Basile and Alphonse Mucha for ideas and color palettes.

Ornamentation

Courtesy of Steve R

In many ways, art nouveau is a style devoted to excess. Art nouveau is not an austere style, unlike some of the others we've covered in the past. Furniture, decor and even just the walls within your home were all up for ornamentation. They can all be detailed with exotic woods, semi-precious stones, silver, and iridescent glass. When it comes to adding flair and your personality, there is no limit.

Parquet 

Parquet has long been seen as a mark of wealth and luxury. It's a type of wooden flooring that was made by arranging small slots of wood into distinct and repeated patterns. You used to have to lay down one piece at a time, very carefully fitting one to another. Modern parquet can come in tile form, where the wood slots are bonded to a backing. While some patterns were drawn from nature and done as repeating patterns similar to what you might find in textiles or tiles, others were more focused on shape and the natural flow of movement.

Wallpapers

Coming out of the Victorian age, wallpaper was still very popular in art nouveau design. Fortunately, modern wallpaper is much easier to create and apply and far less poisonous to your health. As we've mentioned in other posts late last year and early this year, peel-and-stick wallpaper is available in a wide variety of options, including the highly stylized flowers that are so prevalent in art nouveau. You can get them in a wide range of colors, from bold purples to soft sages. You don't even have to do the wall-to-wall look. Instead, you could make a feature wall or use wallpaper as the matting behind artwork in a gallery. You could even get creative and use it as a chair rail.

Carved Wood

Courtesy of Wolfgang Eckert

Using real wood in the home was seen differently than it is today. Instead, it was a way of bringing in the natural world as surely as using stone or clay. It was something to be carved and sculpted, and it blurred the line between what was a necessary part of the architecture of a home and what was decoration. Everything was fit to be carved, shaped, ornamented, or detailed, and very often, pieces would flow between the two distinctions of decor and architecture. You might find the mantle for a fireplace that would sweep down and be shaped into an alcove or nook for seating.

Metalwork

Courtesy of Alexandria

The undulating and organic forms of nature found love as part of the home and as decor ornamentation or furniture within the garden. You can bring the same to your home by looking for pieces that mimic your favorite aspects of nature or by finding an artist willing to create them for you. 

Tiles

Courtesy of Mabel Amber

Much like every other aspect of art nouveau, using tiles in the home was not seen as purely an architectural choice. Pieces would blend into decor and ornamentation and back again. You can achieve this look by using tiles as panels or ornamenting different furniture pieces.

You can also mix molded tiles, iridescent pieces, and metal tiles to create unique pieces around your home. 

Art Nouveau can be summed up by saying take the natural world and have your home reflect it without bringing the natural world into your home. 

What do you think? Is art nouveau for you? Whether you're looking to redo the whole of your home or bring in one or two pieces, let us know over on our Facebook.

If you wound up here not because you're looking to represent the elements in your home but instead because you want the elements of your stove to function, that's where our technicians come in. And Appliance rescue service, we're here for you. When you call us, we will work with you to find a time and date that works within your schedule to send out one of our technicians. Our dedication is to get your home running smoothly again. You can reach out to us via our contact page or by giving us a call at ((214) 599-0055). 

Which of These Four Styles is Best For Your Bathroom Renovation?

Which Plan Fits Your Home Needs?

So you're looking at updating your bathroom, or perhaps, you are gutting it completely. Either way, there are design choices that you want to consider before you bring in contractors or designers.

Let's get the basics out of the way. No matter what type of bathroom it is or how you envision it looking, some things will stay the same. You want to know what your budget is. You want to know how much of a safety net you have when those costs inevitably go over. Whether it's due to unforeseen issues, running out of a particular material, or having the project stretch longer than intended. It's always better to have a secondary amount of money you're willing to spend. You will need to research who you want to work with. Who in your area has the skills you're looking for? Who has the necessary licenses and permits? Which brings us to the next point, what licenses and permits do you need in your area? In your blocker's neck of the woods, it has recently been deemed that no one who is not a professional is allowed to do plumbing or electrical work, even to fix a faucet. Knowing what you can get away with on your own or what permits will be needed in order to make changes to your house is vital. Without that, the project delays for even longer, and you want to get down to business. It would be best if you also had a plan for what you want.

Fortunately for you, coming up with that plan is what this article is all about. We're going to look at four different cases that might cause a person or family to redo their bathroom and various features you might look at to fit that particular ideal. 

The Spa Bathroom

First up, we have the spa. This is for the person who loves spending time in their bathroom. This is for the person who enjoys being able to relax and wants their bathroom to reflect that finally. Whether every night, once a week or just once a month. If your ideal place to retreat to, to give yourself some much-needed self-care, is a spa, then this is for you.

Courtesy of PIRO

• Starting with the floor, look at doing underfloor heating and even cooling since this is Texas.

• Putting dimmer switches in or purchasing special light bulbs so that you can adjust your lighting

• Add an oversized tub to soak your worries away. And also be able to use all sorts of bath salts and bath bombs.

• Put in a walk-in shower with a built-in bench to soak under the water after a long day.

• While you're at it, either a waterfall shower head or having multiple shower heads from different directions is a treat that should not be missed. You can even ensure that the shower heads have Bluetooth capabilities so you can put on relaxing music.

• A towel warmer is a luxury, especially in the middle of a cold snap. 

The Family Bathroom

Next, let's take a 180° turn to a family bathroom. If you have a large family of children, it's not always possible to give everybody their own bathroom. Sometimes it makes the most sense to put all of the kids to sharing one bathroom. With that in mind, there are several features that take this from a Gordian knot to merely a Herculean effort.

Courtesy of Michal Jarmoluk

• Design a family bathroom from the ground up for cleaning. It will save you a headache later.

• Make sure to install an exhaust fan to prevent mold buildup when you have showers one right after another.

• Ensure the grouting is tight and your floor is sealed correctly. Not only does this prevent anything from breaking or pieces from getting ripped up, but it also makes cleaning much easier.

• Consider baseboard lighting so that it's easier for everyone to find their way at night without having to turn on super bright lights. Baseboard lighting is fantastic, in our opinion, and it means you don't wake up half the house. 

• Prioritize the storage that you have, and be bold and creative with creating new areas that work for your needs. 

• Putting a shower stand in one corner of the shower means that you don't have different products over every edge of the tub and falling onto the floor if they get bumped.

• Inside the cabinets, you have to make sure to maximize your vertical space. This can mean everything from having different baskets for different purposes to utilizing stacking boxes and shelves.

• And since you're redesigning, the spaces between studs can be turned into narrow nooks for storage. We've seen this put to Great use for giving every child their own cubby for their towels, robes, and grooming products.

The Host Or Hostess’s Bathroom

You may not have a house full of children at this point, but you may have family and friends that visit often. For the host or hostess, a proper bathroom would look different. Instead of being a catch-all for keeping your family healthy and clean, it becomes a place to ensure your guests have all that they need during their stay.

Courtesy of La Belle Galerie

• You'll want an all-in-one shower as well as a deep tub. You can add on mood lighting to the shower head or get one with a Bluetooth speaker to make the experience relaxing for your guests.

• A smart mirror that allows for increasing or decreasing light by voice command is fantastic for giving your guests a private area to get dressed for whatever the day might hold. They are also able to tell the weather!

• Having a fully equipped first aid cabinet. While we never want our guests to need it, having a stocked cabinet on hand ensures that whatever your guests might need, you're prepared. 

• Putting in storage for plenty of oversized towels, wash clothes, bed linens, and robes. Having a cabinet like this ensures that not only can your guest make themselves comfortable, but they don't have to feel that they're bothering you if they need something in the middle of the night.

The Utilitarian Bathroom

If the other three haven't looked like you, you might be looking for something more utilitarian. For when you're done working on your latest project, be it metal, wood, paint, or any other messy endeavor. You may like to work on old cars and need a bathroom that isn't the same as the main house one. A utility bathroom would be more your speed. 

Courtesy of Amie Foster & Apartment Therapy

• For that, we start off by recommending a curbless shower. This is a shower that has a linear drain at the back edge to make it easier to drain. It also means that there is no separation between you and the rest of the bathroom, be it curtain or door. Not only does this maximize the size of your shower, but in this case, it means you aren't tripping over something if you need to rinse something off immediately.

• Having a solid counter with a deep stainless steel sink and a high faucet is another consideration if you regularly work with messy, staining, or caustic materials. Ensuring that you also have plenty of counter space around that sink means that you can put any specialized soaps in easy reach without having to hunt for them when you're in need.

• It's also handy to have a separate and dedicated washer and dryer in the same room. This way, as you get clean, the clothes you were wearing can as well.

• Putting a secondary sink next to your washer and dryer is an easy way to leave clothes to soak if you get anything on them that you'd rather not keep. 

• Installing an exhaust fan in this bathroom is another necessity, not only for keeping mold out but also for airing out the room.

• Installing either a solid floor, such as polished concrete that is then sealed, or installing large tiles that need very little grout, makes it much easier to clean a bathroom like this. With that, you could run a hose from either sink and wash everything towards the drain that you already have in the shower.

These are only some of the possibilities for what you might want in your bathroom. You might focus more on bringing in a sauna or mixing together two of the ideas. There's nothing that says you can't have a utility-oriented bathroom with a bit of spa thrown in there. Whatever you decide, let us know over on our Facebook page. As always, we love to hear from you.

If your washer and dryer that you have are giving you trouble and are perhaps smoking or flooding the space that they're in currently, give us a call. We service everywhere from Addison to McKinney, from Dallas to The Colony. You can give us a call at ((214) 599-0055) or by heading over to our contact page. We'll work with you to set up a time and date that fits your schedule for when our technicians can come and help. Appliance Rescue Service is always focused on getting your home running smoothly again.

Kickstarter in the Kitchen

 Bringing Innovation To The Kitchen 

• Why use Coal when You can Grill with the Sun?

  GoSun Grill

  Company Name: GoSun

  The GoSun Grill is very much what the name suggests, a solar grill. Think about the little charcoal grills that people take while traveling during the summers. Now replace it with a grill that doesn’t need any fuel. It doesn’t need chips, tanks, or fluid. All it needs is a mostly clear sky, and you can grill without having to worry about accidentally lighting your eyebrows on fire. (We haven’t done that, no, why do you ask?) You don’t even have to watch over it. Set the timer and go do hang out with your family while it cooks. We love this idea not only for the innovation but also because it is a very clean product with little mess or risk. They even solved the issue of being able to cook at night with a ‘thermal battery!’

  Min pledge & what you got: $1 or more would get you the Creation Book for the GoSun Grill. The ebook was not only a behind-the-scenes look at the story of the grill, from ideation to creation, but also how the company builds products that others haven’t thought of.

  Max pledge and what you got: At $3200, one person would be given the chance to meet and work with the team of designers for GoSun. They’d head to the company retreat in Mendocino County, CA to learn about the next project for GoSun, test out the latest tech and stay for three nights.

• Sail the Seven Seas with Pirate Pans!

  Blackbeard Cookware Set

  Crowd Cookware

  The Blackbeard pan was the first item that Crowd Cookware brought to market, and people wanted more, which brought this amazing set of pans to Kickstarter. They’re stainless steel and work for any heat source on the market today, including induction stoves. They’re even supported by Michelin chefs around the world.

  We love this one because it’s entirely made up of products that the company’s fans requested. Even the minimum pledge is made for people who wanted something very specific. Rather than offering a large number of items, or increasingly… spectacular pledge levels, you could get individual pieces that they were testing out or get the entire set at a greatly discounted price.

  Min pledge & what you got: For roughly $20, you’d get a lid that fit both their frying pan and wok.

  Max pledge and what you got: For roughly $306 you got the entire set of Crowd Cookware’s pans and dishes. A versatile pan set that every chef could use, without having to purchase multiples of anything you didn’t need.

  Queen Anne Saucepan ø16cm/6.3” - 1.7L

  Queen Anne Saucepan ø20cm/7.9” - 2.8L

  Concord deep casserole ø20cm/7.9” - 3.6L

  Concord deep casserole ø24 cm/9.5” - 7.5L

  The Blackbeard frying pan ø24 cm/9.5”

  The Blackbeard frying pan ø28 cm/11”

  The Blackbeard ø28 cm/11” wok

  Blackbeard’s Tricorne, lid for ø28 cm/11” Blackbeard frying pan and wok

• Delicious Cheese for All!

  DIY Dairy-Free, Vegan, Paleo Cheese Kits

  Urban Cheesecraft

  Imagine a world in which you cannot have cheese. It’s a sad and horrible thing to think about, we know. Many people, due to dietary restrictions or personal beliefs, are unable to enjoy the wonders of brie, gouda, mozzarella or even provolone! Urban Cheesecraft said, “Why, though?” The owner Claudia came up with the idea of DIY kits and recipes that would allow anyone, anywhere, to create their own delicious cheeses without access to or need for a dairy cow. She had already made kits and a book for you to make it at home, and decided the next goal was to do the same for Dairy-free cheese! (and from what we can tell, the reviewers love both varieties!)

  Min pledge & what you got: $5 supported the product and got you a BIG CHEESY Smile!

  Max pledge and what you got: For $5,000 you got a travelling DIY cheese teacher! At this rate Claudia would travel anywhere in the United States to teach 20 students to make dairy-free cheddar, mozzarella, and to enjoy it along with a delicious spread of food at the same time. (As cheese lovers, we have to say this caught our interest immediately.)

• 2020 is Over, but Our Love of Bread Isn’t!

  Fourneau Bread Oven 2.0

  Strand Design

  Ahead of the curve by 3 years, Strand Design created the Fourneau Bread Oven 2.0, an upgrade on an earlier design of theirs. This oven works inside your regular oven, with a special base to generate steam and provide an even heating surface. The pan slots in easily over that, to give you an easy way to move the dough around, without having to assemble the bread oven around the dough. Then there’s the cloche that sits on the base to trap all the heat and air, and give you a perfect crust. All of this fits together to give you a wonderful loaf of bread every time, as if you were working with an old fashioned baker’s oven. It’s also safer than other options on the market, as the entire assembly stays inside the oven the entire time. Instead, the tray comes out, which is just as easy to remove as any normal cookie sheet. What’s not to love about being able to take your standard oven and get a perfect loaf of bread?

  Min pledge & what you got: For $5 you would get a digital cookbook for all sorts of bread recipes. Sure you might not be able to get the same quality as if you had the Bread Oven, but you could still experiment with making your own bread!

  Max pledge and what you got: For $280 you would get the Forneau 2.0, as well as an upgrade kit for your original Forneau Bread Oven. So, for that price (only $65 more than buying just the 2.0) you would upgrade the bread oven you had so you could work with two of them at the same time. That is a fantastic deal in our opinion. Think of all the bread you could make!

  (and it might even pair well with the Dairy-Free cheese kits, or even just DIY cheesekits.)

• Keep Your Microbrew Fresh, Not Funky!

  UKeg Pressurized Growler

  Growler Werks

  Last but not least we’ve got one that a lot of people in the Dallas area are going to love, a way to keep your microbrew fresh! Beer brewing is undergoing a renaissance right now, with people of all ages learning about one of the oldest crafts in the world. The downside to that is that once your microbrew is open, it goes flat. Really fast. GrowlerWerks wanted to solve that so they came up with the idea of the UKeg pressurized growler. “One that doesn’t let air into your beer, maintains perfect carbonation from the first pour to the last, and keeps beer cold for hours – all in a product you'll love showing off at your friend's next BBQ or party. GrowlerWerks was created by local Portlanders who love craft beer. We've drawn on a combined 47 years of engineering and product-design experience to make a better way to store beer, so it always taste exactly how the brewmaster intended.”

  Min pledge & what you got: $5 got you two GrowlerWerks coasters to show off and get people talking about beer.

  Max pledge and what you got: For $800 you got a brewery tour with the GrowlerWerks team in Portland, OR, as well as getting to pick your own uKeg from the design shop.

Decluttering In the New Year

 5 Tactics To Get the Clutter Under Control

It's the end of January, and that means the buzz of the holidays is wearing off and now we're well into the "need for getting things done." Your resolutions for the year may or may not have fallen by the wayside, but the gifts you were given are still scattered around your home. Some have found places where they belong, some might not have. So what are you supposed to do? The 'easy' answer is to do what many busy people do, ignore it. The more realistic answer might be to stare at it until you get annoyed and chuck it out. For some, though, there is a third option. 'Organizing' or 'decluttering' depends on your search term of choice. Many of us struggle with it, so we're tackling 5 different ways you can declutter your home as we go through the new year. 

Courtesy: Andrea Picacquadio

A quick note. Some or all of these methods might not work for you. They might work for specific types of items and not for others. The point of this article isn't to force you to stick to one method for the rest of the time. The point is to help you to find a method that works for you and your home. To find organization and peace with what you have in a way that is uniquely yours. 

The Ski Slope

Let's start off looking not at individual items but at the mess as a whole. For many of us, that's overwhelming and can lead to putting off cleaning for longer than you meant to. One way to tackle that is the Ski Slope method. This method was developed by therapist-turned-interior decorator Anita Yokota. Instead of focusing on one type of item, Anita suggests working your way across a room from one side to the other the way you might tackle a mountain. You let your brain focus on tidying up and decluttering one area before you cross the room and work on a different area. As you go from area to area, you'd be sorting things into one of three categories, keep, give or dump. You can have boxes, or you might label different items with sticky notes. Whatever works for you.  As you work your way through, you not only declutter your space, but you also end up decluttering your brain as well. 

The Flow Method

Courtesy: Tatiana Syrikova

The Flow Method is our next concept. This one focuses on organizing what you have instead of decluttering. Here, we're working under the idea that you already have your room decluttered, and now you're trying to put everything into a specific place. The flow method works from the concept that every room has a certain 'flow' to it, the way a river would. You flow around a room, moving from place to place working in different areas at different times. You might go back and forth between areas, but you'll still keep the relevant items near to where an area is. So if you're working in your kitchen for example, you might keep your dishes near your dishwasher, all of your pots and pans near your stove, and all of your spices in the same area you do your food prep. This keeps everything together for when you're working on specific projects. 

One In One Out 

Courtesy Emre

This one is an interesting take compared to the others as it's a much slower way of looking at things. For every new item you bring in your home, you need to remove something else. Now, this doesn't apply to things like food, or repairing something. But books? Clothes? Shoes? Blankets and pillows? All of those can have this rule applied to them and it helps you to question "do I need this, or do I just want to splurge on something?"  

Quarantine Method

Although the term might not appeal to many of us, the concept is one we're all familiar with at this point. Take a selection of things you can't quite get rid of and pack them up. Write a date on the outside of the box and set a reminder in your calendar of choice, say six months. If after that time has passed and you can't remember what's in the box, and you haven't needed what's in it? Then feel free to donate it or gift it to someone else who can make better use of it. 

KonMari Method

Courtesy Andrea Piacquadioa

This might be the most popular method currently. Between her books and her tv show with Netflix, and the various magazine articles, many people know Marie Kondo's philosophy of "does it spark joy?" Now, the question is, what does that mean for those of us that haven't deeply interacted with Ms. Kondo's world? The idea is, "does this thing make you happy?" For every item in your home, you should ask this, and if the answer is "no," then you donate it. Now, for the items that you say "yes" to, you find a place for them. The idea is to go through every 'category' of item over time and remove anything that doesn't make you happy. From there, you will find a place for each of these items. In theory, you will end up with far fewer items to find space for. The flip side, though, and the one that many people miss, is that you're not getting rid of everything. You're just getting rid of things that you don't love. If you love your entire library? Then keep it. If you love all of the tiny ceramic frogs that you own? Keep them. It's not a matter of "keep only the best" or "keep only X number of things." That is why this method seems to have gained so much attention, at least from where we're sitting. 

Do you think any of these will work for you? Which one are you interested in trying? Let us know in the comments below or over on our Facebook page. As always, we love to hear from you! 

If your appliances are driving you insane and not the items scattered around your house, we can help with that. You can reach out to us via our contact page or by giving us a call at ((214) 599-0055). We'll work with you to find a date and time that works with your schedule to ensure we get your appliances running again. A stove smoking when you're just preheating the oven? Is your refrigerator not getting cold enough? Is your dryer sounding like it's trying to shake the house apart? It doesn't matter. At Appliance Rescue Service, we aim to get your home running smoothly again. 

Christmas Gifts We Won't Be Giving

This year or next, these gifts just don’t work.

Have you ever read a list of gifts that no one wanted? No? Neither had we. We’ve seen all sorts of “Best of XXXX Gifts For Everyone On Your List”, “X Gifts Everyone Will Love” etc.” But who thinks about the gifts you shouldn’t give? This year, we did. We hope you find them as amusing to consider as we did. 

Weird Food-Based Sodas

 Weird Food-Based Sodas

Sometimes people love getting a sampler pack to try something new. Sometimes people enjoy weird flavors. BUT drinking sodas of questionable food based flavors? Ranch soda? Bacon soda? No, we’re good.

Blooming Tea Sampler Sets 

If someone likes tea, they aren't going to want just a few cups and for this price, you can get them tea that tastes much better. 

Christmas Tree Dress

We've seen a LOT of questionable outfits. Many of them that are supposed to be attractive. Elf on the Shelf. The Grinch, Santa's Hairy Chest. The list goes on far longer than we want to admit. However, this one is entirely modest but somehow even more horrifying. Not only does it have present 'shoes' but it also has tinsel that you're going to be finding everywhere for the next year. We just... we cannot condone that this one even exists let alone that someone would give it as a gift. 

One Pound of Powdered Cheese

 While we do agree that prepackaged pasta hardly ever gives you enough cheese, this isn't a gift, unless you're giving it to a college student. 

A Jerky Bouquet 

We actually llve this idea, but who sends a bouquet for Christmas? Wait till Valentine's Day when you can tell them you love them as much as they love jerky. 

Basic Socks 

We're not talking about the cool ones that show off or support their interests. We're talking about basic, plain, bought them in packs of 10-20 low thread count socks.

Beard Ornaments

Beard ornaments. Beardments? Last we checked the majority of men don't like having things tug on their beards. Doors, zippers, sweaters, children, it is generally a painful feeling. So adding things intentionally to your beard, that is also going to get caught on things and tug at your face, just seems like asking for trouble to us? 

A Food Storage Set 

Unless they've been drooling over it for months, it just isn't worth it as a gift. They're awesome and practical, but as a 'Christmas gift' instead of a 'just thinking of you gift' we wouldn't suggest it. 

Any Type Of Cleaning Products 

Just, avoid this one, at all costs. Unless it's tied to something specific like "hey I found this miracle product to save your favorite leather coat!" This is just asking for trouble. 

Mini Food Makers

Let's be clear here. We're not talking about 'small' waffle makers and the like. We're talking about the ones that only make a waffle the size of a small coffee cup and inevitably burn out. Even more frustrating, how often do you want just one thin waffle or one tiny donut? And shrinking down a recipe that small means it never tastes quite right either. 

A Toaster

Who…. Who thought one of the single most utilitarian kitchen tools would make a good gift? Really? In general we discourage gifting of cooking appliances. Tools? Spices? Yes and yes! But appliances? Not so much. 

A Pasta Timer

On one hand if they're a big fan of puns or the Godfather franchise, this could go over well. On the other hand. Have /you/ ever tried telling someone their pasta is overdone? No? We don't advise it.

Cat Butt Tissue Holder

Unless they’re really into gag gifts or cats, this one isn’t likely to go over well. Not everyone is into toilet humor.

Dip and Fry Holders for Their Car 

We’re just not following on this one. They’re useful, sure. But do you want to tell someone that they don’t matter?  We can't even pretend this is great for an office White Elephant, it just.. it doesn't seem like a gift. 

Mouse

Wine Bottle Stopper That Looks Like A

Some people love wine. Some people also love cats. There are also people who love wine AND cats. (We hope that's not a shocking revelation.) However, we can't imagine that having your cat trying to get the stopper out of your wine bottle and either smashing the bottle or dumping it all over the floor is going to be a gift many people want. 

What did you think? Would you want any of these gifts? Do you have more horrible ones that you wouldn’t want, or wish you hadn’t gotten? Let us know over on our Facebook page or in the comments below. As always we love to hear from you! 

Disclaimer, this post is meant in good fun, and we admit that for every item on here there is almost certainly going to be at least one person who will purchase it. 

If you’re here not to gift appliances but because you need help with yours, we’re here for you! At Appliance Rescue Service our goal is to get your home running smoothly again. Whether you’re fighting with your oven or you need help with your dishwasher, we’ve got you covered. You can reach out to us via our contact page or by giving us a call at ((214) 599-0055). We’ll work with you to find a time and date that works for you and send one of our technicians to work with you until you’re satisfied.