Interior designers always have opinions. That's what they're paid for. When they're working for you, they'll generally be tactful about expressing those opinions and take your feelings about your home and your ideas into consideration. But we're not working for you, so.....at the risk of sounding too opinionated, here are our reactions to some interior design styles:

Mid-Century: Love it, very now, very classic in its lines. But as in anything else, you shouldn't go too far, and don't redo that ugly 1950's stuff that looked terrible then and still does. This style when done right mixes well with many others, such as contemporary and simply classic traditional. Antiques of the right style can also coordinate with Mid-Century.

Traditional: Can be done so tastefully and beautifully that you can clearly see the reason it's been around so long, but can also be done in such a boring, predictable (and dare I say, cheap?) way that it should be banished from current thought - the same old colors and the same old styles have got to go. Pick the best things about an era and use that, and don't be afraid to mix the beauty of the traditional with the beauty of now. And update the color scheme!

Shabby Chic: Sick of it, it got far too ubiquitous for a while. The original inspiration - English Country - is an interesting style but seems to work best in the English countryside. If used elsewhere it should be modified and updated, and definitely used sparingly, unless you have a country house and just love that certain casual messy look.

Arts and Crafts: At its best, it's very good looking, with simple and elegant designs, originally eclectic in that it borrowed from Japanese styles. But too much can be heavy and clunky and overwhelm any space. You should be careful when not dealing with original pieces of this style - there are some extremely bad reproductions out there, badly designed and/or executed. This style looks great mixed in with modern classics.

Victorian: Too awful for words. The original furniture of this style was particularly uncomfortable and should be avoided unless there are literally no other choices for you. Think about those nasty horse-hair sofas with no depth or cushiness. Too much Victorian can be a bad thing, very fussy and cutesy and too anachronistic for the 21st century. Maybe if used in tiny amounts, it could be tolerated, but we doubt it.

Now, having had our say, we're going to backtrack a little. Every style can be done well, and every style can be mutilated and made horrible. It's all in the hands of the person making it all happen.