Some choices just won’t feel homely, no matter how much you spent on your extension. Here’s what the experts advise before you start that reno project
In today’s influencing age, resisting the temptation to colour-drench, limewash or panel our walls is a laudable feat. Whether it’s social media or our peers, we’re constantly confronted with fleeting home decor trends that often leave us with nothing but regret and a lower bank balance.
Interior designer Julia Kendell has a feeling it’s down to a “novelty bias”.
“We’re always thinking about what’s new. With technology and everything moving at speed, we’re really hardwired to want the next thing,” she explains. “It’s also a way for people to feel like they belong, or send out signals that they’re in the know.”
It happens to many of us. But, before you rush to spend a fortune on paint, MDF and pin-stripe lampshades, there are a few things you can do to work out whether you’re about to commit to a design decision you’re going to regret later.
Audrey Whelan, designer for interiors and furniture brand, Oriana B Interiors, believes she has the key to assessing whether or not you’re about to make a mistake purchase.
“I try to ask not just what they like about it, but how it fits in with their interior as a whole,” she says. “It means you have to justify why something should or shouldn’t work for your space.”
“By exploring the wider context and considering what the right item or material is for a given space, you’re making a more confident decision, which means it’s thought through, justified and, whether or not it’s a trend item, you’ll be able to live with that decision.”
Don’t colour-drench a room without plans for lighting
Painting the walls and ceilings (and sometimes even the floor) in the same colour has only grown in popularity recently. And though it looks appealing in someone else’s living room, it might not have the same effect on yours.
“Unless you’re very bold with it and comfortable with the consequences, colour-drenching is going to make the ceiling feel much lower and quite cave-like — even if it’s quite a broad room,” Kendell explains. “I wouldn’t say ‘no don’t do it’, but if you are thinking about something like that, you’ve got to mitigate against the outcome, which is ensuring that your lighting is really well done.”
“Most people tend to put a load of downlights in the ceiling and then wonder why everything falls a bit flat. You can spend a fortune on beautiful furnishings, flooring and the rest of it. But if you’ve got rubbish lighting, it can feel very two-dimensional. A good quality layered lighting scheme where you can set different moods and dim different areas can even make less expensive elements shine.”
Fancy panelling isn’t easy to reverse
Let’s say you were impulsive and opted for a design that you very quickly fell out of love with. Taking a sledgehammer to it won’t necessarily fix the issue either.
“There’s so much you can do in terms of furnishing, but people are being brainwashed by all the imagery of panelling, so it’s definitely a trend that seems to be quite strong. But if you’ve got panelling and you regret it, it’s obviously going to be very expensive and disruptive to remove it,” says Whelan.
If this sounds like you, don’t panic. Audrey says: “I’d be looking at trying to paint it all in the same color and reducing the contrast between the panelling and the wall so it pulls the focal point away from the panelling itself.”
Think twice before buying everything in navy
Millennial grey — a seemingly inoffensive trend when it arrived en masse in the 2010s — has become the butt of decor jokes, but don’t be surprised if it makes a return in the next decade or so.
Navy blue has taken it’s place as the go-to shade. However, a word of warning before you commit to the hue.
“Navy has seemed to become a neutral option for a lot of people. We were moving away from a time when a lot more people had a wood finish on their kitchen (which is coming back in now). But I think it allowed a lot of people to feel they could just have neutral walls, pale floors and a navy kitchen and nothing in between”, says Audrey.
She explains that simply opting for an inoffensive colour-scheme isn’t enough on its own. If you truly want to make a space feel welcoming, it’s a good idea to try some transitional shades too.
“I talk to people a lot about the spectrum from black to white. If you don’t have any color range [in between], you end up with this really stark contrast. It won’t feel homely, no matter how much you’ve spent on your extension.”
Forget expensive cement floors. Trust in Linoleum
Linoleum, surprisingly, is one of the latest examples of how to incorporate a previously scoffed-at interior choice into your home without instantly making it feel more dated.
“We’ve been threatening the return of Lino for a long time,” says Kendell. “It’s a fabulous surface and a lot less expensive than having, say, a poured resin floor which has been a big deal for contemporary interiors over the years, or micro cement, which is also very expensive.
“Lino is available in such amazing colours and ticks the sustainability box as it’s made of natural materials, so it’s a great choice. Again, it doesn’t necessarily suit every home but companies have reimagined the colourways and designs that work for today. It’s also a great way to introduce colour.
“It goes back to where you want your eye to be drawn to in your colour-scheme and how to balance that out in the rest of the space, rather than overwhelming the space with textures and patterns.”
Only rotate a few soft furnishings throughout the year
The problem isn’t necessarily liking a trend, but making swift and significant changes and expecting to feel the same way about them in perpetuity. If we must scratch our shopping itch, Julia instead recommends focusing on soft furnishings and making sure more permanent fixtures — say, dining tables and sofas — are well made and admired enough that we can keep them for years.
“The way we want to feel in our homes changes hugely through the seasons — and for practical reasons too,” Julia says.
“Victorians used to have summer curtains and winter curtains because the windows are very drafty. We don’t tend to have that issue anymore. But actually, that feeling of swapping out light things for nice scrunchy velvet and big, chunky curtains to embrace the autumn and winter helps you to feel differently about your house. Not all of us can afford or have the room to store lots of different seasonal items, but starting smaller with throws, cushions and curtains can create a completely different vibe.”
Lighting, colour-schemes and impressive design may help our homes to look more on trend, but the key to loving them and future-proofing our interirors, appears to be much simpler: taking more time to think about what we like, why we like it and how to trust our own judgment.