Learn Important Words for the Home! English Listening Practice B2-C1

Learn Important Words for the Home! English Listening Practice B2-C1

– Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening! – Welcome to Smashing English. – Today, we are going to be looking at Pinterest. Have you ever been on Pinterest? – I’ve never been on it. – Well, there’s a first time for everything! – Absolutely.

– And we are going to be looking at inspirational pictures for our dream house. We’re going to be talking about our opinions, what we like, what we don’t like. Hopefully, this video will give you some new vocabulary about houses, interior design, all of that fun stuff—really useful vocabulary.

– And it’s also going to be really good listening practice because me and Laura will just be having a chat. – A very normal chat with a camera and mics, but other than that, pretty normal. – Yeah, let’s get into it. – What room should we start with?

Should we start with, like, the living room? – I think we should start with the kitchen. – Kitchen, yeah. – The… what do people say, the heart of the home? – Yeah, the kitchen is the heart of the home. The hub of the home. – Do you agree with that?

– Yeah, I do, especially if you’ve got a kitchen diner, an open plan space. – Yeah, that’s true. – Because I think in this house, the living room is the heart. – Yes. – Because our kitchen gets very cold. – Very cold. So we tuck away in here a lot.

– Because we don’t want to spend a lot of time in there. But for most people, this is the heart of the home. So let’s start straight off with something like… – Kitchen diners are very popular in flats and apartments, aren’t they, because of the saving of the space?

– Yeah, let’s start off strong. What do you think about that one? It’s like a… it’s got a breakfast bar. -Yes. – Do you like a breakfast bar? – I do. We don’t have one. – No. – Do you think you would use it?

– That’s a really good question because I actually love eating my breakfast right here on the sofa, watching the morning TV. So I don’t actually think I would. I think it’d be a bit of a waste just sat there. – Or if… yeah, is it just for breakfast as well, do you suppose?

If you’re having a dinner. – I think it’s just like a table, really. But I hate stools. I fundamentally hate stools. So if I was going to have a breakfast bar, I would need a tall chair with a back. Do you hate stools? – No, no, I don’t hate stools.

– I hate not having anywhere because I end up just sitting like this. – Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, your posture, yeah. – ‘Cause my posture is so bad, I need the support. – I like the colour of this kitchen, the cream. – It’s timeless, it’s simple, it… that won’t date very easily.

– Probably not, no. Good location for an oven. – Whereas some… it’s a good location for an oven. – This one. Again, a breakfast bar. It’s got that dark navy cabinets. What do you think about that? I love that, I really like that. – Yeah, why? ‘Cause I don’t…

– Yeah, I don’t think you like these handles, that shape of handle. And what do you mean, the ones where they go under? – Yeah. – I don’t mind it. I don’t mind it. – You just don’t like the colour? – I don’t… I don’t really like the colour.

You can’t tell where the cupboards begin and end, do you know what I mean? – I know, but I think it… yeah, I think because they’ve got the light top half of the kitchen, it works. If the whole thing was that dark navy, it would be too much.

– I think initially it looks glamorous, but then actually it’s not. – Oh. – You’ve just got a blue kitchen. If that was red, you’d think, ‘Why am I in red?’ – You’re not into the navy kitchen, no, I’m not. – That’s fair enough. – I’m not. – That’s really nice.

– How practical is that low-hanging lampshade over the sink? – Well, are you ever going to put your head there? – Yeah. If you’re washing something, you might like lean forward… – Why would you lean forward? When do you ever wash up and go…?

– What do you think about these, like, this foliage up here? – No. – No. – No, I don’t like plants indoors very much. I don’t mind a fake plant, one or two. – Yeah, we’re fake plant people, which a lot of people would disagree with. – Yeah. And maybe if you…

I’m sure people say, “Oh, well, having a live plant in your house is good for your emotions or something.” – It’s a hassle. – And it… it is a bit of a faff. It is a bit of a faff. – They die, and you’ve got to water them all the time.

I think people go too far with them. People, you can’t just have one house plant. People have like seven house plants. – I was just going to say. I really like… – What? – The… – Skylight… – Skylights… skylight, is that what it’s called? – Yeah. – Yeah, I think that’s really nice.

I think that… – How do you clean them? – I don’t know, actually. Using a big stick, I suppose. But I think it adds… I think it makes the whole room seem so airy. – Yeah. -And nice. It’s really…

– I love the idea of a skylight, but I do like the idea of being able to close all of my blinds all the time. – What, so if it was dark…? – Well, yeah, and… yeah, imagine if it’s like a horribly sunny day, and you’ve just

Got sun streaming down through that skylight and it’s boiling hot. – Yeah. Maybe you could get it, in a dream home, you would get maybe something like a blind. – Oh, you press a button and it goes. If it had that, I would have it, I think.

But otherwise, it just feels like it’s out of my control, and I don’t like things out of my control. – I think that’s a nice kitchen. – What do you think about that? That’s… oh, that’s a very different kind of vibe, isn’t it? – Oh, I don’t mind it. I don’t mind.

I really like beams, and beams are just very nice in general. – Beams are gorgeous. Beams are so nice. – Can you get just the fake beams? – Yeah, but I think it depends on the kind of house.

It would look a bit silly if you just live in like a sort of terrace new build house, and you put those in. It would look a bit… who are you kidding? – Like, you’re trying to pretend. – Yeha. But if you live in an old house, yeah, definitely.

But I love the floor. – Yes. – I’m a big fan of that flooring. – Is that real wood floor? It doesn’t look like laminate, does it? – It looks real wood, it looks kind of just very… like oak wood. – ‘Cause it looks like… what’s the word? Not perfect.

Like, the wood doesn’t… it’s not always the same. – It’s got imperfections. – I love that. I’m not a fan of the kind of the grey and the brown. Like, I don’t like those chairs. – As in the grey kitchen? – Yeah, I don’t like those chairs.

– I don’t mind those chairs, but maybe not in that kitchen… – The colours are just a bit dark. If I had that kitchen, I would paint the cabinets kind of a cream and just lift it a bit. – Well, yeah, maybe, yeah. Go, yeah, go ahead. – That’s what I would do.

Let’s look at… Shall we look at corridors and hallways? – Yeah. – Okay. This hallway comes with a cat. What do we think of that? – I… I like that. I like that. – The candelabras on the wall, do you like that? – What does that mean?

– A candelabra is like a lumiere, ‘Be our guest, be our guest!’ – Oh, candles. – Um, yeah, but a cand… When it sticks out and it’s a bit more grand. – No, I don’t like that. But I really like the colour of that with the white of the skirting boards.

– Yeah, when you can see the contrast of a skirting board. I do like that. What’s this little cubby? – Yeah, Is that a cupboard, or is that like a mirror? – Have they like, have they cut something out to put a little plant pot in there? Like a mini little balcony?

– Maybe? Maybe? – ‘Cause I love when houses do that. When houses have something weird and quirky about them, I love it. Like, what is that? – I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. – What do you think about this? It’s a… this is not my vibe so much.

– Why not? – Don’t like wallpaper? So instantly I’m doubting it. – Can you tell why you don’t like wallpaper? – Yes, I don’t like wallpaper because my style, my vibe is I really like my house to look good but effortlessly good.

So people walk in, and they’re like, “Oh, this is a nice house,” but they can’t really tell why it’s good. It just… the synergy of it is really good. When you put wallpaper on, it’s like, “Oh, you’ve made a real effort here. You’ve really tried.”

And I don’t want it to look like I’ve really tried, whereas when you put wallpaper on, it’s like, “Oh, I can see the effort. I can see…” – And like when people walk in, they instantly, they go, “Oh, this is nice. Yeah, nice wallpaper.” And… – They’re missing everything else.

– It just goes, “Yeah, nice wallpaper,” and the focus is on the wallpaper rather than on everything else. – But I know that’s a me problem. Wallpaper is very popular, in the world. – Of course, of course. And it’s… is it easier than painting? – Depends if you’re good at wallpapering.

– I can imagine those kind of floors are cold to walk on. – Yes. And I don’t like grey, and it’s a bit too grey. This little sideboard is always useful as well ’cause if that opens, if that’s a cupboard… – Yeah, I’m guessing it does. You can open that bit.

– It’s very useful storage just to have tucked away in your hallway. What would you put in there? Shoes? If that’s on the first floor, shoes. – If that’s on the first floor, shoes. – Second floor? Second floor… Books? Files? Important files? – I don’t even know, to be honest.

We don’t really have much stuff. – Board games? – Board games… Drinks? – Maybe. It’s useful to have storage. Storage is always useful to have in a home. Oh, what about this? Too dark. – A little bit dark for me. – What I don’t like about this is the spotlight lighting.

Can you see? It almost feels like an evil villain’s lair when they’re walking down and they go… – Yeah, or like in a video game. Like, you’ve got to… – And it’s like if I’m walking along it and I’m going to get killed. I don’t like that spotlight lighting at all.

It’s too dark, doesn’t feel welcoming. – I do like the carpet, the rug. I don’t mind that. – That kind of runner. – Yeah, I don’t mind that. I think that’s quite nice. – Okay, do you want to look at living rooms next? – Living rooms, yes. I really like this.

– What do you like? I, well, not really like it. I really like this light. – That is an interesting light, isn’t it? – Is that sofa £3,700? Oh my gosh. – Yikes! – Right. – So my issue with this one is it doesn’t feel like I can relax in there.

I’m not seeing myself sitting there and watching a film. There’s nowhere to put my feet up. It doesn’t look very… It looks like it’s too much… – Like a show home? – It’s, well, I don’t mind things that look like a show home as long as you can imagine

Yourself relaxing in there, like the velvet of the sofa and the lamp that feels very sort of… over the top. It just feels like it’s not designed for me to be comfortable. – But then do you not think that you would feel like, what do people say, like a main character in there?

Like you’d feel kind of fancy? – Yeah but in what kind of film? Like a 70s cop drama? – Maybe, maybe, I don’t mind it. I don’t mind that light. I just don’t mind that light. I think that’s okay. – What do you think about this one? – I really, really like.

What am I going to say that I really like? – You really really like the fluffy rug. – Yes. – He loves a fluffy rug. – I do. – Why do you like that fluffy rug? – I think there’s something quite homely about having like soft things under your feet. I think so.

– Yes, I know what you mean. – But I would never want super fluffy carpet because it will, over time, it will show where people have walked on it, whereas with a rug, it’s fine because you can change it if it gets worn down more easily. – You could, yeah.

– I do, I like this little… this little ottoman with the fur thing draped over it. – Oh, is that what that is? – Yeah, it’s like a little ottoman, like a little seat or footrest. I love like textures, I love fluff and things that are a different texture.

I hate this lamp, I mean, the ceiling light, not a lamp. – Like a solar system. – Yeah, I hate that light, I think that looks very… um, child’s bedroom almost, don’t like that. What do you… how do you feel about that kind of pointless coffee table?

It’s too small to be useful for anything, really, isn’t it? – Yeah, you’ve just said it there, you’ve hit the nail on the head. – I think I want it a bit bigger. If I’m going to have a coffee table, I want a coffee table.

– We don’t… yeah, we’re strange with coffee tables, aren’t we? – Well, yeah, I just think like, well, look at this coffee table here. So like, you’re sat back and on a sofa, you really relax, you really sit back like this.

You got your drink, and then you go, “All right, I’ll just go put it down,” and then, “Oh, I’ll sit down here. Oh, want me drink again? Oh, I’ll go get it,” whereas if you have a coffee table or something like some sofas are flat here, and you can get little…

Sort of wooden mats, and you can just put your drink there, I think that’s so much more convenient ’cause then you can just grab, I’m just lazy essentially, and I don’t want to go. – But then also, yeah, but then also, I feel like everybody who has a coffee table that

I’ve seen, people end up just putting their feet on it as well. – Yeah. And it becomes a foot stool. – It becomes a glorified foot stool. – I love this living room. – Like, they’ve clearly they’ve got a little coffee table there.

– Yeah, that is a good placement for a coffee table. I like it there ’cause you can just go… I really like this living room. I like that it’s kind of Scandi. It’s… – What does Scandi mean? – Scandinavian, so it’s that kind of simplistic but earthy, wooden, handmade kind of vibe,

But quite simple. So I really like that. This is the kind of living room that will be outdated in 15 years. This is the kind of living room that people are going to go, “Ugh!” – Really? – Yeah, you watch. – How do you know? – I don’t know, I don’t know.

I like this artwork because it’s abstract. I don’t like literal artwork where you can see like a woman or a dog, but I like abstract art. – We’ve literally got a picture of a moose. – Yeah, but that’s different because… – Right. -… Our friend did it. – Yeah.

– So it’s got meaning, and it fits the vibe of the room ’cause we’ve got like, kind of a hunting lodge lamps. So we thought we’d go for a moose, yeah. This rug, big fan of that rug. I like that rug, do you like that rug? – Yeah. I think it’s textured again.

I’d rather it be a fluffy mug, “fluffy mug?!” I’d rather it be a fluffy rug, I think. I’d rather it be a fluffy rug. – I think that’s quite nice. – Oh yeah, that’s nice. Yes. I love mismatched furniture. I really like when it doesn’t match. – Yeah. Well, we’ve got…

– So ours doesn’t match, so we’ve got a blue sofa… – And this sofa is fabric, is that the right word? – Yeah. It’s fabric sofa. And then we’ve got two brown armchairs, so it’s different. – Leather. – And I love the mixing up ’cause that’s what I mean.

I want my house to look effortless, like, “Oh, they look nice together, that’s good,” rather than, “you just went to a shop and bought things that match. That’s easy.” I don’t want it to look easy. I don’t know why…

– Is it like… like… like… for example, like with cooking, you can have something that you just put in the oven or you can make something and you… what you want is you want to almost like create your own dish, you want to go, “Well, I’m going to try this broccoli with carrots.”

Like nobody’s ever done that before. – Yeah! I think it’s ’cause I’ve got a creative brain, so I’d rather use my creativity when designing, “designing!” When choosing what to put in my house. So I love that it doesn’t match. – And I really like that rug again. I really like that rug.

– Big fan of that rug? – Yeah. – What do you feel about that one? – I like an armchair. I really like… I don’t like the… the yellow armchair, but I like the armchair. – You know what I can respect about this one?

They’ve done what I like, they’ve put things together rather than just… – Mix and matching. – Like, they really mix and match. I don’t like that dining table. – Is it a glass dining table, do you think? – Oh it might be. I hate glass dining tables. – Why?

– Because you’d be so worried about breaking it all the time. It doesn’t feel warm, it doesn’t feel cozy, it doesn’t feel welcoming. It feels like evil villains’ lair where they’re going to do their evil plans. – Yeah, maybe people have these in their homes, Laura. – You know what?

I don’t care what you’ve got in your house, the only thing I will judge you for is a glass coffee table, is a glass dining table. – When you’ve got like a glass and then you put down… – Yeah, cause you put it down it goes dink.

It makes a horrible sound when you put glasses down. – Yeah, that’s true. – No matter what you’ve got in your house, I’m sure it’s lovely unless it’s a glass dining table. I just don’t like it. Okay, what should we look at next? Bathrooms? Bedrooms? – Bedrooms. Look, let’s look at bedrooms.

– What do we feel about that? – I really like that, but I really like it. – The bench at the end of the bed feels a little pointless ’cause there’s no storage there. So it feels a bit like a waste of…

– If they said, “Oh, we want somewhere to sit,” you’ve got two chairs there. – You’ve got your chairs there. – Make that storage box, ’cause at least you can put stuff in it. I think you’re very successful if you’ve got enough room in your bedroom to have a little table and chairs.

– What would you do there? What would you do there? – Sit and read? – Sit and read, yeah. – It’s very hotel-like, this one feels like a hotel room because of that feature. – Yeah, that’s true. Tell you what, tell you what, most of these beds do… – What do they do?

They have the bedding, is big. – Yeah, and the bedding is often messy, have you noticed that? It’s the current trend now for the bedding not to be perfect, to feel a little bit more thrown together, like look at that, like it’s just a bit more like…

– Something you… you can imagine lying on. – Yeah, like these are staged photos, but they’re doing it with this kind of… the throw pillows and the blankets just tossed on, and I think it’s that kind of like effortless, earthy, not too grand, not too showy aesthetic that people want.

– So what would people have done in the… in the past? Like a perfectly made bed? Yeah, well, like a hotel. If you get a picture going into a hotel room. Look at this. I don’t mind that. Although bedside tables, a bit of a waste of space because you can’t put anything under

There without it looking messy, so I’d rather have drawers. – Yeah but some people, so what do you put in your bedside tables? – I would put my socks, my pants, and my pyjamas. I want three drawers, – Okay, some people just don’t.

Some people don’t, some people put their socks and pants and pyjamas in a different place. – In a different place? Thats true. – So then what do you put there? A book? – It’s… Yeah, a book, your glasses, and probably lots of rubbish ’cause you probably end up throwing stuff in there.

I love that bed, do you love that bed? – The wooden with the post? – Yeah, I love a wooden post, but they’re not comfy, the headboard is not comfy. If you sit up in bed, it’s not comfy.

– If you’re one of those people who like, when you wake up in the morning, you like kind of sitting up in your bed. – Have your breakfast in bed, it’s not comfy ’cause it’s wooden on your back. So you need a good padded headboard. – Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I don’t mind those lamps, you know. – I like those lamps. – I like those lamps, and I like actually, I like that the kind of the panelling on the wall… – I love panelling. – And then it actually goes up there at the top. – Yeah, I love paneling.

– Just normal, that’s quite nice. – I think that’s really sweet. – I think I like the painting as well. – Okay, let’s look at bathrooms. – Let’s look at bathrooms. – It’s a bit floral, it’s a bit floral. – It looks like it looks like a hotel. – Yeah.

– Or like a restaurant. – I love the sink and the taps. I like the gold taps. And I like the mirror. – I do really like a big sink, and actually, if you think about it, like some people’s

Problems is where do you put your toothbrush or your things like this, the soaps. – Well they’ve got a little under sink, under sink cabinet, under sink storage. – Well, there you go, there you go, that’s true.

Or you could get, but then that kind of sink, there’s enough space around it to put your things… – But then it gets cluttered, then things start to look cluttered! If you’ve got all your stuff… no, no, no, no! If you’ve got that perfect sink space, you leave it clear.

– Would you want shelves like this? – No, too cluttered. You’ve got all this under sink storage, pop them all in there. – Yeah. That’s true. – I think that’s partly what’s making it look a bit assaulting to the eyes. Um, I love that. That is one of my dream showers.

– Like a gold shower? – I love gold. I’m such a gold person. I love gold. I think it looks warm. Oh, love it. – That’s quite cool. – Yeah, look at that quirky shaped mirror. – That is quite cool. – Look at that sink. – Yeah, I don’t mind that sink.

It’s quite cool. But again, if you… So, but imagine you’re washing your hands there and then you… You kind of shake, shake your hands. – It goes everywhere. – And then it goes on the wood. – Use a towel, man. – Yeah, but then the towel is there.

So, okay, so you’re reaching over for the towel and it’s just going to drip everywhere. – I love.. – Do you not think? – … Yeah, I do love the fact that the taps are like built into the wall. – And I like the lights. – I even like the tissue dispenser.

– I love that bathroom. – Yeah, nice, nice tiles. – That’s sexy, isn’t it? I really like that. How do you feel about a roll top bath? – I… – A roll top. – I like it. I really like a roll top bath. You have to have a lot of space.

0 Yeah, because you either want to have a bath– A shower bath where you’ve got your shower on top over your bath or you’ve got to have enough space for your bath and a separate shower. – I mean, yeah, but I… I really like that.

I really like that as in I like the bath. I don’t really care about the… – The wallpaper. – The wallpaper or there’s like an open cabinet. – Where you can see stuff inside. No. – Clean it away, clean it away. – Because the stuff, stuff in bathroom cabinets is not attractive.

– Otherwise, you might as well just have a shelf. – Yeah, because the things in bathroom cabinets are like toothpaste, an old toothbrush, vitamins. They’re not stuff you want to show. I think I would… If I had enough space to have a roll top bath and a shower, I would happily do it.

Definitely. – Oh yeah, yeah. Well, but you… You don’t have baths very often. – No, I don’t. I would have a bath… – How often would you have a bath? You wash, obviously. – I do wash. – But like how… How often do you have a bath rather than a shower?

– Oh look at that! Um, I probably only have a bath about once every two months. – Yeah. – I stink. Um, that’s such an interesting one. Look, they’ve got a roll top bath and then they’ve got shower over the center of it and then this circular towel rail over the top.

Um, shower curtain rail over the top. – Do you like that? – No. No, you don’t? Um, I think it’s… I think it’s all right. It’s a bit hodgepodge, a little bit… – I don’t like a shower curtain. – A little bit…

I feel like that’s a bit more like when you’re in there, you’re like, “Oh, I’m having a shower.” I don’t know. I just imagine it a bit more like that. – I don’t like a shower curtain. They never work for me. The water always trickles out.

– Yeah, but where do you put the shower curtain? – I put it in the bath, but then you end up with all the wetness on the bottom of the shower curtain and everything. I don’t like a shower curtain. I love that door handle. Love a brass knob.

We hope this was useful for you. Hopefully everything we said just came out naturally in conversation so they must be pretty useful. Um, so I hope that vocabulary was useful for you. If you have any questions, let us know in the comments down below.

– If you like this video, show us, tell us, give it a like, press the like button. It really helps. It helps everything that we do. – And if you’d like to follow us on Instagram, we’re going to put it there.

And if you would like an online English lesson with either of us, the link for that is down below. Thank you so much for watching and we will see you next time, tata!

Here is a real English conversation! Myself and Bez are looking at various pictures of houses and talking about what we like and dislike. Important words and their definitions will be highlighted so you will hopefully expand your vocabulary along the way!

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