Time’s Up : Some looks overstay their welcome. Now it’s out with the old.

Wouldn’t it be great if some interior design trends died with 1997?

Imagine a world without dozens of pillows on a couch making it impossible to sit without rearranging the whole look.

Or unloading those beds overdecorated with flounces, swags, duvets--all in white or pseudo-English style with lots of patterns and colors.

And speaking of overdone, what about rooms so heavily perfumed with sachets and lighted candles that a sneezing attack starts immediately upon entering?

Here’s a list of design ideas that won’t be missed:

* Shabby chic. Lisa Genesta, owner, with her husband, John, of Ruins in Laguna Beach, gives a thumbs-down to chipped, painted furniture and accessories.

“What we’d love to see more of in 1998 is more Tucson and Spanish-revival themes,” she says. “This more subtle, sophisticated look blends nicely with California’s rich existing architectural heritage. We’d also like to see more of bringing the garden indoors, which has a romantic and warming effect on any home.”

* Faux florals. San Clemente resident Electa Anderson, community liaison for Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar, dislikes masses of fake flowers.

“One real rose is often better than masses of artificial ones,” she says. “Sometimes people spend hundreds of dollars on silk flowers for their dining room table, and five years later that arrangement is still the focus of the house.

“I dislike contrived, overworked table settings, often with flowers so tall you can’t see the person on the other side. People have gotten so carried away with decorations for the table that they forget you are there to eat. You can’t see the food or the people.”

* Faux painting. Lynda Hughes of Hughes Design in Newport Beach says that when you can buy the kits at discount stores, it’s time to resign a trend.

She also says no to anything wrought-iron, particularly beds, and cluttered rooms. “I’ve seen too much of patterns on patterns on patterns surrounded by lots of stuff. We’ll see a simplified, cleaner look in the future.”

* Museum stuffiness. John Cottrell, a Newport Beach interior designer whose work is often photographed in the magazine Architectural Digest, squawks that sometimes people forget that comfort is key. You live there, after all.

Cottrell also cites pretentious entrances with marble and crystal chandeliers that lead to rooms that look as if no one ever lived there. Those ceramic geese with red kerchiefs. And faux country furniture that looks as if it had been left out in the barn for centuries but costs as much as the whole farm.

“The right scale and proportion for things is necessary,” he says. “You can’t have large couches with large, square coffee tables in small rooms.”

* Corporate stuffiness. Jackie Jefferies, owner of design firm Jefferies, Ltd. in Newport Beach, hates it when all the sofa pillows are dented so the room looks like a hotel lobby.

* Faux fruit. Cheryl Markham, a Newport Beach interior designer, says, “I never thought I’d be in the interior design business long enough to see fake grapes come back in style. I hope they go away soon.”

* Stripes and spots. John Garcia, an interior designer in Santa Ana, pleads, “Lose the leopard. We’re tired of looking at faux animal prints anywhere. They were important once, but now their day has come and gone.”

* Draped table legs. Holli Thomas, owner of Costa Mesa’s Decor Deluxe, a design store, would like to banish round tables covered in fabric to the floor. “What’s wrong with table legs?” she asks.

Southwestern furniture has also become a cliche because nobody uses just one piece, she says. “Instead they have houses full of it, and that is really boring.”

* Moldy color schemes. Mona Clark, a designer based in Laguna Niguel, wants to get rid of the hues that manufacturers were pushing in ‘97: moss green and orange. “They’re hard colors to live with, and moss green looks like mold, so get rid of it,” she says.

* Fairy-tale accents. Marilyn Wilson, a fashion consultant in Corona del Mar, has a list of items she’d like to bury with the old year: twig decor and stuffed animals throughout the house.

“I’m also tired of paper napkins, tabletop books and pine everything,” she says.

* Mirrors, mirrors everywhere. Gary Sandlin, an interior designer and owner of Gary’s Gifts in Laguna Beach, was driven crazy by the renaissance in shelter magazines of walls covered in beveled mirrors.

He also objects to knotty-pine front doors with tongue-and-groove insets, anything from Martha Stewart’s “Helping Hands at Home Ideas” and plaster-of-Paris replicas as table bases and wall brackets.

* Faded fabrics. Betty Hyde, a designer based in Laguna Niguel and president of the local chapter of the American Society of Interior Design, says new upholstery made to look old raises her blood pressure.

“Why buy it worn out when it will wear out on its own?” she asks. “That isn’t good design. Let’s get back to fabrics that look new.”

Clark also dislikes overly lighted rooms. “Lighting should be appropriate. I don’t like it when I walk into a home that is lit up like Rockefeller Plaza. Softer, gentler lighting is inviting.”

* Surrey adornments. Sue White, an interior designer in Corona del Mar, is sick of fringes and tassels done in excess.

* Cheap reproductions. Laura Ridley, a designer in Laguna Hills, wants consumers to better understand what they’re buying.

“There are lots of knockoffs,” she warns. “One client bought what she thought was a cherrywood writing desk, and when a guest leaned against it, it fell apart.”

* Busyness. Thomas Simms, founder of the Mimi’s Cafe chain, says thumbs down to busy floral themes and pastels, those designs that were previously featured in restaurants and adopted for homes. He likes more intense use of color and texture, checked tile walls and heavy-beamed ceilings.

* Garden-free zones. Irini Vallera Rickerson, a Laguna Niguel architect, would like to see an end to houses that take up the entire lot, leaving no space for a garden. “In this climate there should be more indoor/outdoor spaces,” she says.

She also dislikes how some architects have used classical elements, such as Greek columns, in the wrong scale.

* Pest signage. Audrey Heredia, owner of the McCharles House in Tustin, dislikes signs in the garden that say “duck crossing” or “snail crossing.”

“They’re too corny.”

She also could do without flags in front of houses. “I like the idea of celebrating the seasons and the concept of ribbons and banners blowing in the wind, but I would just like to see them more artistic and not cookie-cutterish.”

* Plasic gardens. Kevin Cartwright, rosarian and assistant director for the Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, says nix the plastic, pots, flowers and garden ornaments. Replace them with natural materials, such as stone, cement, terra cotta. “It always amazes me to see a beauty home with plastic flowers in the window box or entrance,” he says.

He also says roses without fragrance are out. “All the breeders recognize that the first thing people do is lean over and smell a rose,” he says.

Also, color has returned to gardens. “Those muted, pastel washed-out gardens are out.”

* Cutesy architecture. Newport Beach architect Stewart Woodard dislikes most of the homes built in the Pelican Hill area of Newport Coast.

“They all have an imposed theme architecture that has a cutesiness to it. The density of the projects is also bad, and most of the houses are built so that they don’t take advantage of the beautiful views.”

* Facade-ism. Tim Nicol, an architect in Laguna Beach, says thumbs down to “when an architect decides to stick some incongruous element onto a structure, like one wall leaning outward for no apparent reason or a skylight shaped like a pointy pyramid. They may think it creates tension or interest, but I think it usually ruins what may have been a good design.”

* Pink stucco. Ken McMurray, a general contractor in Laguna Beach, says the postmodernism look is dated. “Bold colors and smooth stucco are out. Also, it would be nice to see more eclectic neighborhoods, instead of the one-note Mediterranean look that tract developments have become. Pink stucco is our shame here in Orange County. Certainly there are other ways to be more creative and tasteful.”

It’s a nice fantasy to think that all design excesses could be carted away with the new year like empty bottles of bubbly, but we know that will never happen. As contemporary writer Herburt Muschamp once wrote, “Good taste is timeless. Bad taste is eternal. Attics and garage sales are forever.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Trends we’d like to see die with ‘97:

1. Overworked table settings with flowers so tall you can’t see the food or the people. Or oversized coffee tables with sharp corners at the right height for knee-banging.

2. Massive kitchens with professional ranges, stainless-steel gadgets and granite counter tops owned by people who never cook.

3. Cutesy Victorian that’s not Victorian--little figurines of bunnies, frogs, simpering boys and girls.

4. Expensive reproduction furniture ith chipped paint that is supposed to look like inexpensive authentic country furniture.

5. Old, dusty dried flowers and plants that look as if they’re part of Dickens’ jilted Miss Haversham’s wedding decor.

6. Hard-and-fast design rules about anything. If you have style, you can carry it off.