Modern Home Style Perma-trends
Without realising many people with have several modern home style perma-trends. The 1950s were known for their low-slung furniture and graphic textiles, the 70s for a preponderance of orange and brown. But how will the early 21st century’s home style trends be remembered? Here are a few home permatrends right now. How many do you have in your home? Be honest!
The Union Jack cushion
From the Queen’s head outlined in sequins to cushions inspired by the first class stamp, our homes are nothing if they’re not proud to be British. The most iconic? The Union Jack cushion. Whether embroidered, distressed or recoloured it sure makes a dull sofa pop.
Exposed brick walls
To our parents’ generation, they look a bit unfinished – like the builders have walked out. But modern style mavens love to take the rough with the smooth and a bit of exposed brick about the house says we’re honest, we’re no-nonsense and we’ll be having no truck with plasterboard.
Typography
We blame the digital revolution for forcing ailing printworks to throw out all their wooden letterpress. However, what goes around comes around and the print industry’s junk has been the design world’s saviour. Pick a letter, any letter…
Mismatched chairs round a farmhouse table
Matching chairs are so 20th century! Mixing a design classic with an old café chair found on a skip and placing it alongside something rescued from your Nan’s house, is the height of high-low, eclectic style. Rumour has it the whole trend grew out of interior stylists improvising after not being able to borrow enough matching sets for their photoshoots. We couldn’t possibly comment… But they’re a thing.
Antlers
You don’t have to live in a baronial hall, or even be handy with a shotgun to embrace this trend. In ceramic, plaster or even in corrugated cardboard, an animal head above the fireplace (or in the hall) is simply de rigeuer. They make handy coat racks too, when hosting a crowd.
A trio of pendants
Two can’t cut it, four seems overkill. For true style nirvana, three pendants are where it’s at. Purists say the rule of three is just more pleasing on the eye. Whatever. Hung over a kitchen island, or slung low over a dining room table and, lighting wise, you’re on it.
Supersized things
No, you don’t live in the land of the giants, and unless you’re one of The Borrowers, you’re simply bang on trend. Big clocks, ginormous desk lamps, outsize tea-cup planters… they’re enough to make a 21st century homeowner feel a bit, er, small.
Metro tile splashback
The second decade of the 21st century has called for style that’s practical, timeless and chic. No pressure, but no surprise that the ultimate in urban wall coverings has made its way out of the tube station and onto our kitchen walls.
Slogan artwork
Are your walls covered in bon mots and witty aphorisms? Then Keep Calm and Carry On, because they’re perfectly aligned with the zeitgeist.
Family photo galleries
Selfie-snappers may be taking over the streets but in our homes, a good old fashioned 10 x 8 will never go out of style. From Great Granny’s sepia wedding snaps to those studio shots of your newborn, family galleries are the thing to adorn hall walls.
Bus blinds
If it’s better to travel in hope than it is to arrive, then it’s no wonder upcycled bus blinds with their exotic sounding destinations, have tapped into our sense of nostalgia. Even if you’ve never taken the 38 to Clapton Pond (or Bondi Beach for that matter) you can still relive those heady days of scrambling for a seat on the top deck.
Kitscharama
Once upon a time, a plastic pineapple ice bucket was considered the height of naff. Today, it has an ironic charm, especially when worked in chic ceramic or cool crystal. Parrots and flamingos have more recently joined the menagerie of tropical memes and exotic fauna taking up residence on our shelves.
Copper
In these post-austerity days, gold seems to too flashy. No surprise then that formerly workaday copper, once confined to saucepans and insulated wiring, has stepped into the foreground as the accent metallic of choice, everywhere… Can copper fridges must lurking on the style horizon? Stainless steel must be quaking…
Filament lightbulbs
The new wave independent coffee shop has a lot to answer for. There’s our addiction to extra shot lattes for starters, swiftly followed by our penchant for rough-luxe industrial style. The exposed filament doesn’t just speak of no-nonsense honesty but a certain appreciation of the environment, given they can last up to 25 years – about the time of your average permatrend as it happens.
Feature walls
Ask anyone in wallpaper world what the biggest story of the decade has been and they’ll talk to you about the impact digital printing has had, opening up a world of pattern and colour opportunities beyond floral sprigs in faded pastels. Why commit to four walls when you can experiment on one, and update it constantly? (P.S. if wallpaper isn’t your thing, opt for tiles)
Grey
While paint companies are constantly hailing colours of the year, based on intensive global research, we’re using less scientific evidence to call the colour of the decade. And it’s… grey! Once seen as a drab compromise, not as chic as black, or as fresh than white, it’s come into its own as the neutral of choice, the ideal 21st century backdrop to striking colour pops of fuchsia pink or neon orange.
