2020 Interior Design Trends We Love (and none of the ones we don’t)

We always say around here to have what you love in your home and not necessarily what is trending, but like it or not, current trends are going to affect our decision making one way or another. I do recommend being careful when diving headfirst into the hot new trends in retail stores like Target, Pier One or Hobby Lobby since these are typically more flavor-of-the-week type trends and will likely die a hard death in the near future.

For this same reason, be leery of color palettes that combine colors that are showing up everywhere. These will also inevitably box you into a look that will become dated, and while paint is easier to change than counter or tile, it’s also much harder to change than a pillow or a rug. Instead, stick with color palettes you have always loved regardless of the trends. If certain shapes, colors or textures make you happy, then by all means create your own look and trend around it!

Okay, enough said. On with the trends we love for 2020:

VELVET

Velvet furniture - specifically sofas, and more specifically this green sofa that I want in my living room - is still trending upward and has been since I noticed them becoming more popular a couple of years ago. They will likely be around for the long haul with the revival we are also seeing of Art Deco style.

WARNING! If you do use velvet on a sofa or chair just be sure to check the nap of the fabric. There is nothing worse than getting up from a sofa and leaving your butt print behind. Okay… so maybe there are some worse things… but in the interior design world, a rogue butt print is certainly up there.

NEUTRALS

This year we are seeing the oh-so-popular-grays going warmer toward greige and taupe tones, and I’m predicting they will eventually move over completely in favor of warmer neutral tones. Now, like I said before, if you have gray and love it, don’t worry. The most important thing is what makes your home feel like home to you. Plus, gray will always be a good neutral to pair with blues, reds, blacks and pinks.

As far as trends go, what I am seeing now is a stark contrast to a couple of years back when no one would touch ivory or yellow based neutrals with a 10-foot pole. Now that gold and brass fixtures and accessories are coming in full force it has made it much easier for the warmer colors to follow suit.

Here is the warm white neutral collection from Sherwin Williams:

EMERALD GREEN

Further emphasizing the re-emergence of the Art Deco style, emerald green is showing up everywhere from fashion to interior tile. Green has always been one of my favorite colors anyway and so I am digging this shade of green (see my previous velvet sofa comment). I have always had everything from lime green to dark olive in my own home, and emerald has a very regal feel to it.

PLANTS

Continuing our warm neutral and green talk, plants are back! I am especially excited to see them hung from macramé hangers, or really any sort of neutral or textured container. I have also always been in love with any material that reminds me of a tropical island, like Cane Back, Rattan and other natural elements. These look great with plants and emerald green.

I like to do live plants when I can but I realize that not everyone has a green thumb and for that, our fake plants are better than anything you will find on the retail market. They also work well for spaces that don’t get a lot of sunlight, are too high up to regularly water, or in the case of this space, in a second home that isn’t occupied every day. We only deal with the best in this arena, so much so that one of my clients told me she found out that her housekeeper had been watering one of the fake trees she purchased from us.

WALLPAPER & MURALS

Before you say anything, I’m not talking about your grandmother’s bathroom floral wallpaper. Today, wallpapers range from metallic, to textural, to large contemporary patterns, and everything in between. Even as just an accent wall (or accent ceiling!) they add such drama to a room. The only other way to get that level of drama is to go to with a custom mural, which is exactly what one of my long-time clients is doing right now in her new home. I am so excited about this mural; it will be on her dining room wall, which is the first thing you see when you walk into the house. The final design and implementation will be done by our muralist Leigh Watson Acord of Watson Murals. Here is the rendering of the design that she put together for our client.

NATURAL WOOD

Similar to the shift in color palettes, I’ve also noticed that wood species and stains are moving toward warmer tones as well, specifically very natural and whitewashed. We recently had a completely custom dining table made for one of our clients made from solid Oak with a distressed warm whitewash to give it a natural raw wood look. This photo is the inspiration that we used, but we will be sharing final photos of the whole house a little later in the year, so be on the lookout!

ART DECO

I briefly mentioned the Art Deco revival already, but it is really coming in full force, in everything from tile to fabrics and wallpaper. Admittedly, a lot of it is a little too busy for my taste but some of it is striking and elegant (like this wallpaper that I can just picture in my house with that green velvet sofa). I tend to design with moderation in mind, and so if I were working in a tile or paper with an Art Deco design, I would make sure it was the star of the show with the other elements in the room sitting there to watch.