Home decorating trends can be a great help for your home decor. Some of the trends could be very helpful for your inspiration, while your reaction to others could tell you a great deal about your personal preferences.
So the first thing to note about trends is not to blindly follow them without thinking about their implications.
Current Trends
So what is today’s home decorating trends?
Color
The colors currently in use are far more adventurous than have been used in the past. Dark backgrounds are overlaid with strong, bright designs. Heavy purples and blues are used for fabrics and wallcoverings.
These colors can take some getting used to, especially if you’re used to more classic colorings. But don’t dismiss them instantly – give them a chance. It has to be said that not everyone has taken to the modern palette, but if you can’t bring yourself to like them there are still plenty of more traditional colors available.
Style
There has been a definite change towards more simple furnishings. Softness from the use of lots of fabrics has given way to harder effects – shades and shutters on windows, and wood flooring instead of carpets.
Rooms are sparsely furnished, with just the minimum amount of furniture installed. Items are arranged so there is plenty of space left for occupants to move around.
Contrasts are used extensively, such as plain creams for walls, ceiling, and even floors, broken up by black fitments and ornaments.
Fabrics
The section above on color applies here, but there are some other features that come into play. Embroidery is very popular, and this has become more open and flamboyant. Floral patterns are used extensively for printed fabric, especially more stylistic designs.
Fabric is embellished by attaching buttons, trims, beads, and all sorts of other bits and pieces.
How to Apply Home Decorating Trends
It’s a good idea to look at trends because it helps to discover your likes and dislikes. When you find a trend you don’t like, it eliminates a whole section of furnishing and allows you to concentrate on other possibilities.
Once you find a trend you like, adapt it for your own needs. Use it as inspiration, rather than copying it in every detail.
Don’t Force a Trend If It Doesn’t Fit
If you live in a modern apartment, it wouldn’t make much send trying to use a traditional cottage style. Similarly, if your home suggests a classic style, it would be foolish to try and force one of the latest trends on it. This doesn’t mean you can’t use home decorating trends – their influence can still evident in your home furnishings. Just be sympathetic to the trend, what it’s trying to achieve, and see if it will fit in with your own circumstances.
When to Ignore Trends
You may have your own favorite color schemes, styles, and furnishing techniques. Perhaps you’ve tried different ideas over the years, but keep coming back to what for you are tried and tested schemes.
Then why change? There’s no point in adopting other ideas if you have proved to yourself that you’re happy with your own preferred decorating solutions. So stick with what you know and love. You don’t have to follow the latest home decorating trends.
Beware The dated Look!
One of the ironies of being at the cutting edge of any fashion is that it will become dated very quickly. The further away from the mainstream, you find yourself, the easier it will be in the future to point to it and say, ‘Look, that was the trend three years ago.’
If a trend is very pronounced, it is more likely to show its age in a very short space of time.
‘Know Yourself’
This was a favorite saying of the ancient Greeks, carved into stone at their famous sanctuary at Delphi. It’s also very good advice when dealing with trends.
If you’re the sort of person who knows their own mind, you may decide you like blue colors. So one day you go ahead and paint one of your rooms a blue shade, and take it from there. You do what you like; you know your own mind, and go with it.
On the other hand, you may be slightly hesitant when it comes to making decisions. You work better with some outside help and inspiration. So take a look at home decorating trends. See what the world of interiors is contemplating. Take a peek at what the gurus of the fashion world are coming up with. Use them as inspiration for your own home decor.