Every year at this time Designers and Tastemakers make their predictions on what the new design trends will be, which of the old ones will get the boot and which are here to stay. I always find it interesting to see how they actually pan out and unfold throughout the year. Let’s take a look at the 2020 Design Trends-Why a Collected Look is Here to Stay
You might want to check out these links before you throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Forbes 12 Design Trends for 2020
Wall Street Journal the Top Six Interior Design Trends for 2020
Architectural Digest 2020 Design Trends
Good Housekeeping 2020 Decorating Trends
2020 Design Trends-Why a Collected Look is Here to Stay
Panetone’s color of the year is Classic Blue. It’s not quite as dark as navy or as bright as royal blue, but more like a classic true blue that Pantone describes as “a timeless and enduring hue elegant in its simplicity.”
We used Benjamin Moore Hale Navy in our tasting room update for Morgan Winery. So glad it is on-trend.
Traditional Style with a Twist
Apparently traditional style (with a twist) will enjoy a resurgence. House Beautiful calls it Grand Millenial Style. That certainly pleases me. We can thank designers like Mark Sikes, for keeping tradition fresh but fun. His layered designs never look dated.
Texture continues to have a moment.
If you have been reading my blog long you know I am definitely on board with this one. This Tom Scheerer designed great room is awash with layers of texture.
Color and pattern reign.
Who does it better than Anna Spiro?
One thing of note that I am excited about is the return of interesting lampshades. We have an upcoming Project Design living room refresh post and you will see some new lampshades in my living room
The End of Throwaway Furniture
I am reading everywhere that we are going to see an end to throw away furniture. I think we are all trying to lessen our carbon footprint so it is about time. I don’t know how many times I will go to a young client’s home and their furniture pieces look like they are ready for the dump. There is nothing wrong with a few affordable pieces thrown in but scour the flea markets and second-hand stores for quality pieces you can keep for a lifetime. If you are lucky enough to have local shops like Perch Decor. You can find treasures weekly.
Vintage Art and Antique Furniture will replace the throwaway culture.
Yippee, I am all for this as well. My house is filled with antiques that we have collected for over 40 years. I don’t mind a modern piece here and there. I don’t want my house to look like a museum. In this living room from Lauren Liess’s latest book Down to Earth you can see how she is a master at combining, vintage art, antiques and modern. Love her style. I purchased this book for my daughter for Christmas.
Organic and Sustainable elements are here to stay
People will be buying fewer, but more high-quality pieces. This entry from Whitney Parkinson combines loads of organic goodness, a vintage mirror, a modern light fixture, and contemporary art. The Collected look at it’s best.
Warmer earth tones will enjoy a resurgence
Monochromatic color schemes are supposedly out particularly all gray. I don’t see this one happening overnight we have all gotten pretty wedded to the cooler tones. When we repainted “Summer’s Room” we chose a warm neutral because I wanted to use the existing dust ruffle and bedding and connect it to the other colors in the room. You can read more about that here in my post Five Ways to make a Guestroom Baby Friendly
You might also enjoy Better Housekeepings Best Paint Colors of 2020.
I read several articles in preparation for this post. As you can imagine there is always a lot of controversies. For instance, one article said terrazzo is in and another is listed as out. The key is to take a look at the end of the year and revisit these trends that are supposedly in and out.
Here are a few of the design trends that most experts believe will disappear in 2020 or soon after.
The Spruce Decorating Trends on the Way Out
Minimalism
People still want to combine modern elements with old and vintage but pure minimalism is out
All Gray
Perfection
Anything with patina, age, or imperfection will be favored.
Open Shelving
Not sure I am ready to say goodbye to this one but I get it. They aren’t very practical.
Accent Walls
Can I be totally honest? I abhor accent walls a rule. Occasionally I have found a beneficial use but rarely. Whenever a client asks if we should paint one wall a different color I cringe.
Macrame
I am 65, I had this in my freshman college dorm room. I wasn’t thrilled to see it come back and I won’t be sorry to see it go.
Modern Farmhouse
We all love Chip and Jo but maybe it is time to say goodbye to Farmhouse everything.
Cool Tones
This doesn’t mean we are all going to paint our walls yellow again, but warmer undertones and earthy colors will reign.
Mid Century Modern Everything
This one won’t break my heart either. I am all for incorporating some elements into the design scheme, but mid-century everything is too museum-like.
What does this mean for all of us? We all want our homes to reflect our personalities and our spaces to tell our story. We want to learn how to best incorporate elements from our past with elements of our future. We want to creatively display our collections from our travels. If we combine all of these things cohesively we will achieve a timeless collected look that will never go out of style. Those of you who have been reading a long time know that this is my mantra. You might enjoy my post on the Collected Look and How to Get It or Ten Tips for Achieving Timeless Interiors.
What do you think about the new design trends we will supposedly embrace and ditch? You might want to check out my shop page for some of my design favorites that I have used in projects in the past year. I will be adding NEW elements this week.
Linked below are my favorite design books that best reflect a timeless collected look. I am going to treat myself to a couple that I have purchased for friends and family.
You read 2020 Design Trends-Why a Collected Look is Here to Stay first here on Rough Luxe Lifestyle. I will be back on Friday with the results of my survey. Thank you so much for all of your fabulous suggestions!
Design books for a Collected Timeless Look
What a great post! Tickled that patterned lampshades are making a comeback including the Oh-So-Brit gathered block print fabrics that are popping up everywhere. In fact, I am loving all the warmth and charm of UK decor and turn to House & Garden UK for dreaming. I am glad these are sunsetting: farmhouse, macrame (bought a book to try my hand at it and it sat on the coffee table), and grey (boring for decor but beautiful for hair color).
Looking forward to your upcoming posts and inspiration.
Yes!!! That is exactly what I am doing for my living room refresh next month if the fabric ever gets here!!
Cindy agree with a lot of this. I think that vintage and antique furniture is so smart. Much better than Ikea and all the quick crud you can buy at places like Living Spaces, etc. My vintage pieces are my favorites. Also I agree there is too much grey, especially the cool hues. I do love neutrals though and white couches and walls still, so I can change them up. I think natural elements, like you use make all the difference. Lauren Leiss is one of my favorites and she mixes it all up so well.
I so far love my open shelves a ton. Much easier to get the everyday dishes and cups, but they are not for everyone. It will be interesting to see what holds up, but I definitely think the Chip and Joanne look with the big board walls is looking overdone.. So are those interiors and Instagrams where everyone’s home has macrame, plants, gold accents and white everything.. I see so much of that and it all looks alike!!
I loved bayboxwood’s comments. I am not an “On Trend” type of person. For example, I’ve managed to take a five bedroom house and turn it into a one bedroom house. When we moved in over 35 years ago, I painted every room white…now I am painting almost every room black. I don’t care if it’s in or out. Three rooms (about to be four) are upholstered. Where there aren’t hardwood floors, the carpet is leopard. I put sheet mirror on several walls in my kitchen and then used chrome metro shelves filled with my kitchen tools. I have a “valence” of all clad pans that hangs above a large kitchen window. I “dust”, or put through the dishwasher things I don’t use on a weekly basis. is sanitary, easy to clean and sparkles. Works for me. I have had some form of open shelving in every kitchen I have had since I graduated college. It’s not a trend for me, it’s a preference. I can find what I need at a glance and don’t have to get down on hands and knees to get something from the back of a dark cabinet. Bookshelves are filled to the brim with books in three rooms—spines proudly facing out and not arranged by color, thank you. No styling of bookcases, please! An afghan rug covers my library table. A tapestry is on a desk in the living room. Sprinkled throughout my home are things we have inherited. We intend to stay (more accurately, perhaps, die) in place. Then there will be time for the giant roll-off bin on the drive and and gallons of white primer for every surface. Until then: my home, my choice, my story.
Patricia!!
Let’s not haul in the roll-out bin just yet. Your comments always make my day. I have never been a fan of tearing off the titles of books so that they are all white or…never got that one. I have been known to group by color (guilty!!). Aren’t you so glad that we still do change up our homes? We don’t want it them to look like Granny lives there!
So happy to see your comments align with my design choices!!! I am so ready to see the reproduction farm house go away…as someone who is an antiques dealer and small shop owner. Let’s return to better quality items that are not cheap knockoffs. We deserve better..in Europe they keep pieces for years and thus always have a collected look. Just came back from Portugal and found this to be very true🌿
Hi Jennifer
I had an antique shop back in the day. I love your comment we deserve better…that says it all….
Cindy,
What a wonderful, informative post. Truth is, I only update the rooms in our home, I rarely get rid of furniture or even follow most trends. I confess, when the gray rooms and furniture arrived, I was intrigued. After painting one very small bathroom gray I determined I couldn’t live with it. Still, I was pleased with most of the list of “outs”.
I think we all have to use common sense and be mindful of the design style that makes us happy in our homes.
xo,
Karen
I agree Karen. I rarely if ever replace a piece of furniture. I love the things we have. I prefer simple updates like pillows and flowers. I rarely purchase an accessory either! At our age we have love most of what we have we just need to freshen up with paint or pillows!
I’ve always been tickled about what is in and what is out when it comes to color – I suppose it’s a matter of taste, but neutrals only really become dated when they’re painted on the wall (early 2000’s Chocolate Milk kitchen, anyone?) – easy enough to change. My mom and her (designer of note) best friend trained me well, from an early age, that if neutrals are dedicated to natural elements, it’s pretty easy to go from there – brown: wood, leather – gray: wool, stone, shells. Those can be mixed with impunity, everything else falls into place after that, according to personal preference. I think the “trends” are the problem, but everyone wants them to be a solution? More power to anyone who can live a catalogue life, I’m not mad about it and its none of my business, but it makes me sad that terrific people think their real lives are less interesting than a mass marketing advertisement. Not true!
Hi Rachel
Such an insightful comment. It is simply all about taste. As a designer I like to keep abreast of trends, but most of the people I work for (as with myself) have things they treasure. They just need help with updates!
Thank goodness the ugly shelves that collect dust are on the out. I grew up in the 60’s and hated the colors then and still do. Also throw away furniture has hit the dust. As a newly wed we bought one piece of good furniture at a time and did without or used whatever we had until be could afford another piece. We hated matching pieces then and still do. We loved going antiquing and we still have all those good pieces and the antiques and they are even valuable money wise now. Recover when needed, paint when needed, move pieces around to get a new look and add to collectibles. Your home will reflect you and it will be beautiful.
Hi Alice
My husband and I started collecting antiques when we were still in college. We never replaced unless we traded up. We still succumb to an interesting accessory now and then but only if we pass something on to our children, who by the way do not have throw away furniture either!
I want millennials here in seattle to keep buying mid century modern stuff.
Otherwise the cool second hand furniture/ antique shops will be instantly depleted and super expensive!
Hi Chris
Your comment is hilarious!!
Yay! I’m so glad that grey is making an exit. It seems that 80% of the comforters or sofas that I look at are gray, and so many people now have grey walls, cabinets, and tile floors. So many people were trying to imitate the industrial or minimalist look that seemed to be everywhere so I will be happy to see a nice mix of antiques and originality. Thanks for a great article!
Hi Sharon
I so agree. I have white sofas in performance fabrics so I can change out my pillows and not have to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I don’t have wallpaper, and my walls and curtains are neutral. I love color but I don’t want a pattern that I have to live with for 20 years!
Yay for everything! Especially a resurgence in “used” furniture. I’m not sure about losing open shelving as it’s practical in restaurants and for items that you use and wash frequently. Just a few shelves…not all. Great post.
Mary Ann
Hi Mary Ann
It will be interesting to see if the open shelving thing really pans out. Let’s regroup at the end of the year. We should do a post on which trends actually trended!!
I love this post Cindy! I hope that we do indeed see the end to “throw away furniture” and a resurgence of vintage/brown/antique furniture. Although I read an article in the NYTimes recently that said otherwise. I find it hypocritical that the same people who are calling for climate change and a green new world are the very same people who are purchasing copious amounts of not only throw away furniture but clothing as well.
I love the collected look because it represents the people who live in the house, their adventures, history etc.
Have a great day and thank you for sharing!
P.S. Do you do remote design consulting? We may downsizing and the house has a few quirks that I need some help with. I love your style and philosophy and frankly you might find this place a real challenge.
Hi Elizabeth
Email me and we can chat!!