Here we are, face to face with the beginning of a whole new decade. You might look around your home and think that it needs a lift, or that you need the lift of an entirely new home!
For years now many have striven toward the minimalist ideal. White walls, nearly empty shelves, bare floors, the painfully curated single plant. And for a while it felt bright and freeing. But too much blinding white emptiness can get a bit cold and echoing for real life. Do we really need one more stark white box, for example, that calls itself a coffee shop? If you’ve felt this way, you can look to several up-and-coming trends to make your home and the life you live there a source of rejuvenation, vision, and vitality.
- A slightly-less-minimal minimalism is coming to the fore in the new decade. While acknowledging what we loved about airy openness, it includes extra cozy and personal touches to make your home not a stark gallery, but a cozy sanctuary. Think of adding texture and warmth with carpets and throws. If you love caring for that jade plant, get yourself an indoor garden or plant wall. Indulge your passion for mid-century pottery with not one vase, but a gorgeous collection of them. Frame and hang those eye-catching jazz album covers beside a brightly stocked home cocktail bar This trend recognizes especially the home as a social space, a place to commune with those you love: the dining room, the lounge, the living room, the hearth.
- Imagine a completely new relationship to colour: Pantone’s Colour of the Year for 2020 is Classic Blue, a dark, almost navy shade, and it’s finding its way into homes on walls and as strikingly vivid kitchen cabinets. Seem too drastic a change? Consider a neutral kitchen with pops of bright colours on cabinet doors, light fixtures or islands. Or warm up the whole kitchen with two-tone cabinets, light ones on top and contrasting or complimentary dark ones below. Or let a great swathe of thrilling floor or ceiling colour wake you up and inspire you.
- The new decade gives us all an opportunity to contribute to the earth’s good health by employing sustainable materials in our homes. Acacia wood, bamboo, recycled steel, or even a plumbing system that makes use of reclaimed rainwater (we certainly have enough of that around here!) are features of the sustainability trend. The most sustainable option of course is the re-used: reclaimed wood or stone. How fortunate that they can be made beautiful and stylish as well as help our warming planet. Think of doors, shelves and furniture of mellow, glowing reclaimed wood. Think of your fireplace surrounded by reclaimed stone, or using it to surface a sleek outdoor lounge.
- Your reclaimed wood can be used to build on the design world’s non-stop love of all things geometric. This trend takes its cues from art deco or abstract paintings: think parallel lines, repeated circles and eye-catching triangles. Without much effort you could get yourself some patterned linens or pillows, but you could also work it into your house’s very structure with arched doorways or built-in reading nooks and shelves. There’s even a new take on wood panelling: narrow boards on focal walls or even ceilings, sometimes installed diagonally or in those fantastic geometric patterns. You bring in the warmth of wood while adding totally modern visual interest.
- If you’re keeping track, you might see that many of these individual trends add up to 1970’s home style experiencing a fantastic modern resurgence. Warm colours, natural and eco-friendly materials, a proliferation of cozy textures and greenery, all features of those cool 1970’s homes that deserve another go round.Two particular materials beloved in the seventies are hot right now. Terrazzo, a colour-flecked concrete composite material long used on floors, walls and patios, is popping up again, and as planters and desk accessories too, because people love its marble-like Italian beauty and colour versatility. It would be stunning around a modern fireplace. And rattan is back in new takes on cane furniture and shelving. This natural material can also be used in cupboard doors and room dividers. It brings the a woody warmth while letting in a little light and providing a bohemian or tropical atmosphere.
So look to the new decade cheerfully. It’s a new start, an opportunity to open yourself up to new ideas, new light, new warmth and space. As you reach for revitalizing new visions, let Reid help make those visions a reality. Contact us!