What do you love the look of despite it being impractical, uncomfortable, or high maintenance?

Living

Fountain pens. I very rarely write anything, but goddamn do I appreciate the artisanship of the pen itself, the myriad of inks to choose from, along with the physical sensation of writing on nice paper.

Dragons. How do people feed this thing !?

Slightly lowered cars, I love the look, but they are almost always less comfortable, harder to drive in certain places (steep driveways, potholes, etc).

It’s a total waste of money, but I love how it looks when a wheel properly fills an arch and the air dam is that bit closer to the road.

SUITS! I LOVE SUITS! They also are comfortable to me

Had to read this twice.
- Did you also see "SLUTS"?

Gothic architecture. So much extra work to sculpt all the spires, gables, grotesques and archways, for zero added functionality. But they look dope as fuck.

Incidentally I hate brutalist architecture.

That’s a good one! The level of detail in gothic architecture is insane and gorgeous. I love seeing curves and rounded shapes in architecture in general. As for brutalism, I’ve seen some creative things done with this style too, although of course its advantages are durability and affordability rather than aesthetics. The modern minimalist trend in architecture where everything is beige/white/grey is what I dislike most.
Fully agree! It’s so much work and so incredible to look at and admire. Art deco too for the same reasons.

Steam locomotives!!! Maybe not the full intent of this thread, but they’re terrible for the environment, inefficient, complicated as hell, and SO COOL!

I'm guessing that in 50 years people will feel this way about internal combustion engines as well. A lot of the time the more efficient technologies get, the more boring, as all the energy is going into their actual purpose, and not chugga-chugga sounds.
- Indeed, you’re surely right. Pour one out for the big boys.

Please don't kill me. I actually like the way cybertrucks look.

I would never own one for innumerable reasons, though.

I remember when I first saw them, the cyberpunk aesthetic was interesting.
Having seen them in real life though, the fog machines and laser light show were definitely doing a lot of heavy lifting.
In real life they look out of place and instead of looking cyberpunk they end up looking more retro-futurism.
To me, at least, as someone that likes the cyberpunk aesthetic, I was kinda excited for the cybertruck too. If not for it specifically, than for it opening the door for other people to adopt more sci-fi designs.
Sadly every time I see one in person I think it may have set things back instead of moving them forward.

An antique Victorian or Queen Anne house. I love the towers, the gingerbread charm, the corbels and fascias and all the little crinkly bits. The rich old wood interiors with tin ceilings and plaster medallions, hand carved staircases and crown mouldings.

However I am never going to be able to afford the absurd cost of retrofitting one to be energy efficient, and I know the quirks of odd room sizes, antiquated floor plans and non-standard sized things like weird door heights and window widths would drive me absolutely insane. So I'll admire them from afar

However I am never going to be able to afford the absurd cost of retrofitting one to be energy efficient,
Is that even an option? In my experience they leak so much it's more like a pile of sticks than a modern envelope. You'd have to, like, add a whole other layer to the inside or outside, or take it all apart and rebuild it to actual geometric standards.
- You'd have to, like, add a whole other layer to the inside or outside
  That is, actually what they do, by my understanding. If the house isn't brick, then when you need to replace the siding they will actually put an entirely new layer of sheathing on over the outside, something like Zip R that has poly-iso foam insulation and acts as an air barrier. They then can put siding back on that fits the original look of the house, hopefully using architectural elements and details that were saved from teardown.
  Another way is to go from the inside, and rip out the walls to the studs while saving trim pieces and put in new insulation and replace the horsehair plaster with drywall. Then you'll be dealing with special ordering non-standard modern double glazed windows in weird sizes, because if you wanted to use the standard window sizes you can't use your beautiful old growth mahogany trim pieces lovingly carved for your whacky leaky windows.
  The attic is often not that bad to insulate because there should be relatively few cut-ins and blown in cellulose can go everywhere, but then you miss out on your perfect gothic "Wednesday's room" unless you want to spend even more money trying to figure out how to get all of those turret towers and vaulting and weird rooflines into your envelope.
  So, it's possible, just prohibitively expensive

White pants. I am not qualified to wear them, not careful enough, not neat enough, I always mess them up. But I love them!

Agree with old cars. I had a gorgeous mustang from 1967, a three speed manual, the clutch not hydraulic, no power steering. Hard to drive (I didn't trust many people with it) , broke down All The Fucking Time, was a wildly impractical car but oh what a looker. My car now I bought new in 2014, Honda Accord Sport 6 speed manual and I hope it's my last, it's beautiful too and better made, just enough tech to be good not bad, one day it will be vintage, I don't drive much anymore.

You mean apart from myself right?

This guy lording over us that they don't hate their appearance. /s

Orange. Shag. Carpet.

Yes, it's a bitch to clean. Yes, it traps every particle of dirt that wafts into the room. Yes, to almost everyone other than me and some equally damaged enthusiasts, it looks god awful.

But if I could carpet my whole house with it without that being grounds for divorce, I'd be doing it right now. It's the feeling between the toes, top-tier. I can't explain it - it's not like I grew up with it - but there's something about orange shag specifically that screams "comfy" to me.

- If not friend, why friend shaped?
You talking that weird orange with the bits of brown in it they used in the 70s?
You talking that high maintenance, orange brown shag?
You talking that deranged, I'll never-have-to-clean-it-myself carpeting?
Best shit ever.
My best friend bought a house that was last redecorated in the 70s, and had been unoccupied (but maintained and cleaned regularly) since the early 80s. I loved that carpet so much. Eventually we pulled it up and redid her hardwood floors, but my God did I miss that carpet when it was gone
- Awwww yeaahh...that's the good shit.
  In my very last move with my parents, I almost got to have my dream room - wood paneling, old 70s orange-brown shag with pilling like a lawn in need of mowing, the works. I was staying behind in the old city a month longer than them, but I begged them to keep it exactly as is.
  I moved in to find it was replaced with beige, boring carpet, with almost no pill to speak of. I was devastated.
My kind of people 🤝
Love a good shag.
- "Lookin' for a good shag with the missus, gov'ner?"
  Me, with my wife in the carpet store "Please leave us alone, it was hard enough getting her to come".
  "But didja manage?"
  "Hell yeah!"
  And then we high five, I buy my carpet, and turn around only to notice both my wife and car are gone and never coming back. And I'm left to hump that shag down the road myself.
  [This was fun]

Shaved legs, there's literally no practical benefit and it's so much effort but even if I wear long pants just having the knowledge I haven't shaved makes me so uncomfortable.

Shaved legs, there's literally no practical benefit
Pro cyclists would argue with you on that point. Probably swimmers and runners, too.
Hairless bodies have less wind/water resistance. 💁‍♂️
Laser hair removal is a good long term solution for this.
- Yeah that's very high on my list of things to do once I have more money. Hopefully my hair is dark enough for it to work
If you can spare a spa day once every couple of months, you can try sugar waxing at home. The smoothness lasts way longer than shaving and it's more gentle on the skin (and easier to clean) than normal waxing. After a few years of that my hair stopped growing back on my calves, and I haven't had to shave there in a long time.
- I might try that. I've not heard about sugar waxing before

The Cybertruck. It's dangerous, wasteful, impractical, and sold by a Nazi, but I actually like the appearance.

Interesting how many upvotes this got. Mostly you just hear about how ugly they are.
It's legitimately an out-of-the-box, eye-catching design. Probably because it's so terrible for the actual purpose of the thing, that nobody else would have bothered.
I agree for the front and side profiles, but from the back it is identical to a dumpster.
- Not just you...
  https://www.kayofm.com/on-air/matt-case1/raccoons-are-mistaking-tesla-cyber-trucks-for-dumpsters/
From the very first one I saw in person, the wildly variable steps and gaps between panels was a big "nope". The very long single wiper blade on the windshield also tickled my engineer brain as "nightmare to maintain".
- You're right, on top of the other problems I mentioned, it also has poor quality control.
I think it looks like shit and I LIKE that it looks like shit. I'll never have one, but maybe there is a parallel reality where we have woke Musk, and I can also afford one.
- There are plenty of ugly cars that dont cost nearly as much and are still offensive.
  Nissan Juke seems to make people unhappy, as does a Pontiac Aztek. Older and weirder, a GM u-body van like a Chevy Lumina APV, Buick's last Riveria was shaped like a nicely tapered turd, Acura had the original ZDX that looked like a dog scrunched up to take a crap and the ugly beaky nose. People really hate the BMW 7 series that came out in 2001 for being ugly too. I'm guessing that they're all broken by now since they were horrific junk, but if you do find one, they're cheap.

The PowerMac G4 Cube. Absolutely gorgeous design, arguably the best looking computer ever. Horribly impractical even for the time and especially nowadays.

Even just looking at them is a problem. The main computer is held in place with two screws? Posts? and the weight of the machine can make the acrylic crack. I have two of them, but I store them upside down. I 3d printer some support braces, but my printer at the time sucked so they weren't a perfect fit and it took a ton of work to file them down to the right size to fit, but not fall out immediately.
This is the exact kind of answer I was hoping to find. I had to look it up; it’s definitely a sleek and innovative design, especially for its time.

Tile or stone roof

Tile roof is durable as heck! https://roofsnap.com/blog/how-long-do-tile-roofs-last-what-roofers-need-to-know/

Lots of dog breeds with anything but the lowest of maintenance needs. I would love to have one but know the fur in my house would drive me up the wall.

OP's description of bright carpeted floors reminded me of my childhood bedroom. I grew up in the '80s, but my home was built in the mid-'70s and every room was a different color. My bedroom happened to have bright orange-painted walls and thick shag carpet that was orange and yellow. When the sun shone through the window over the carpet, it almost looked like the floor was on fire at first glance.

I loved that carpet, but my parents made me replace it with a thin, ugly, dark brown carpet when I was a teenager. As an adult, I understand why. That old carpet must've been impossible to vacuum, as thick as it was.

Regarding the color scheme of the house, my parents' bedroom was light blue with a patchy blue carpet (varying patches of blue between borderline white and vibrant blue). My sister's bedroom was pale green with green carpet. The bathroom was half yellow, half light green, with yellow flower wallpaper on one wall and pale green carpet. It had a matching green toilet and green plastic shower/tub insert.

The living room was pale yellow, the dining room was a vibrant red, and the kitchen was just white walls (with some wallpaper designs in places) with dark brown wood cabinetry and white laminate countertops. The hallways and living room/dining room had a reddish-brown carpet that bleached in the sunlight and looked pale and awful by the time I was a teenager.

The kitchen and entryway had tan laminate flooring with designs; the only non-carpeted space in the whole house. Oh! And the entryway had white walls, but the bottom 4 feet of the wall had that brown wood paneling that was everywhere in the '70s and '80s.

The first floor of my house, which was built as a separate apartment, was almost exclusively wood paneling for the walls, except the bedrooms, bathroom, and kitchen, which were just white. The carpet was an ugly tan and the kitchen and bathroom had white laminate tile floors.

My sister and her husband, who lived in our childhood home for a while, remodeled and repainted/recarpeted the whole house, but she kept the different color scheme for each room. Now my bedroom walls are tan, master bedroom is light green, her old bedroom is a bright peach color, the bathroom is a light green, the living room is light blue, and the dining room is still red.

She put tiles on the kitchen walls to bring some color to that room, laminate wood paneling on the floor for the entryway, kitchen, and dining room, white laminate tiles on the bathroom floor, and the rest of the house got an off-white/tan carpet with brownish speckles throughout it.

The first-floor apartment had all the wood paneling on the walls removed and the walls were just painted white. One wall of the living room down there was painted a dark bluish-gray by a tenant we had, and I just re-did all the carpets down there with a light blush-gray color. I added a large gray laminate square by their front door so people aren't stepping immediately onto carpet when they enter into that apartment, and my sister did an awful job with black ceramic tiles in the kitchen. I need to tear those up and replace them sometime; they're a bit uneven. The bathroom is still white laminate tiles.

I love, love, love this comment! So interesting to see and read how styles have changed over time and I appreciate the detail you put into your descriptions.
This was the exact picture I was looking at as an example of how I would want one of the rooms in my dream house to look and what led to the creation of this post, haha. I would also want each room to be a different color, and I desperately want a conversation pit in my living room.
- Add a Ligne Roset Togo orange sofa cluster and it's perfect.
- That kind of looks like my childhood bedroom, except the carpet needs a lot more bright yellow mixed into the orange. And I didn't have furniture like that. My walls were definitely that vibrant orange color though.

A proper race car. They are all of these things, but damn are they good looking.

Ford GT40 looks amazing. If I was gifted one I'd probably drive it once, take loads of pictures, then sell it. Otherwise it'd get stuck on the roads in my region, there are few places where I can free the horses, the maintenance cost would be a nightmare, and my experience with Ford tells me it'll have a revolving cast of issues.

White wheels on some cars or bikes. But hell no to keeping them clean.

White soles on shoes as well.

Bimbos. Like proper, over the top plastic ones.

Honestly, I don't even like the look
- Yeah, I'm not even sure if most women-liking people do. Blond and busty is a style that actually does have a significant but non-universal following, but when it's overdone to the point of looking unnatural I would expect it becomes niche again.
- It's like watching a train wreck. You know it's bad, but you can't look away.
Hah, I get it. I would never be able to (nor want) to fully commit to the look, but I include elements of it in my own style from time to time.

Human civilization.

Sydney Sweeney