Whether you’ve just moved into a new property, you’re preparing to sell or just looking for inspiration, it’s always fun to explore the design trends that can make your home modern and contemporary.
Fresh furnishings and additional functionality, especially in the kitchen, can add thousands of dollars to the value of your home with relatively little effort and expense.
The trends I see for 2021 feel as if they have more permanency than usual. The fickle nature of interior design, in which colors and fabrics come and go, are taking a back seat to the “new normal” – our world in a time of a pandemic.
Designers are talking about additional emphasis on the functionality of a home – the embrace of a home-office, dual-purpose furniture and enticing outdoor areas.
These trends make sense to me. Many buyers are now qualifying homes they wish to see with questions about office set-ups. With folks working from home more frequently and even home- schooling the kids during this Covid-19 crisis, the need for a home-office and good connectivity have become mandatory for professional couples and young families alike.
Below are a handful of design trends for 2021 that have caught my eye.
- Dedicate an area for a home-office. You don’t need to sacrifice a bedroom, but find a space with internet connectivity for a workstation in a corner of your home. Screen it to give it some privacy if necessary.
- Fixate on storage. Emphasis is being placed on keeping the home tidy, especially as we are spending little or no time in the office. Innovative storage solutions have a real wow-factor with buyers.
- Cabinets and built-in shelves are returning, along with wall shelving for books, files and work papers. These additions will be of a slender design to minimize lost space.
- Designs are demanding more functionality and incorporate dual-purpose furniture, such as an extendable dining table that can be used at homework time.
- Furniture that folds away and can be stored easily will also be on-trend through 2021. An example of this might be an impromptu desk and chair.
- Designers say we’ve got germ-phobia, of course. So, non-porous surfaces, especially in the kitchen, are essential. Slate and laminates for benchtops, and smoked-glass back-splashes are on-trend. Polished cement is on trend for both benchtops and floors.
- Carpets are out. They hold dust and germs, so that’s a “no, no” in Covid times.
- Porous tiles are out for the same reason.
- Take the indoors outdoors. Because our travel is restricted we need to ensure we don’t feel like we’re locked up. Appealing outdoor areas give us the feeling of additional freedom to move about and get into the fresh air.
- Colors emphasize warmth. That means lots of shades of green. The blues that have been popular since 2019 are out.
- Mix textures and patterns. This is an extension of the artisanal emphasis that was so popular last year to add character to a home and ensure it’s not sterile. Find inspiration on Instagram or Pinterest.