Thinking about rethinking the design of your home? It’s not always easy to know how to go about giving your living room, kitchen, bathroom or bedroom a refresher.
Fortunately, there are plenty of decorating ideas available online to inspire you. Here are four current trends identified by the US specialist platform Houzz.
Organic modern style
This style, which started making waves in interior design a few years ago, is for those who want to get back to basics. It draws inspiration from Scandinavian minimalism but combines it with warmer touches.
Choose raw materials such as wood, wicker, clay and concrete, as well as materials that stimulate the senses, such as velvet, linen and cotton. Go for furniture and decorative objects with rounded shapes to make your interior cozy and warm.
When it comes to colour, don’t hesitate to mix white, beige, brown and light grey. Touches of green are also welcome to evoke nature.
With this in mind, feel free to decorate your living space with plants and dried flower arrangements. But be careful not to go overboard: accumulated pots and vases give an impression of general disorder, which doesn’t work with organic modern style.
Paint it black
Interior designers often advise homeowners not to use dark colours to avoid making their living space feel small or stuffy. But dark shades can give any room a refined, cinematic touch – provided, of course, they are used correctly.
Black, dark blue, forest green and warm brown can bring elegance to an interior when contrasted with lighter hues. If you choose to darken your walls, opt for furniture in brighter, soothing tones. Going for a total dark look is more risky, especially in a home with little natural light.
If going to the dark side scares you, use it in small strokes, as accents. Start, for example, by painting a single wall or ceiling in a dark colour to define a space.
You can also use dark hues to give character to a corridor. This will visually create a transition between the different spaces in your home.
Be book smart
It’s hard to ignore the craze for “dark academia”, an aesthetic inspired by architecture and outfits associated with old-fashioned universities.
At first glance, this trend may appear to apply more to the fashion world than to the home. Nevertheless, many decoration fans seem to want to give their interiors an ivy league touch: searches for “dark academia” have increased by 219% on Houzz since last year.
But in practical terms, how can you bring a little of this style into your home? First of all, by creating a reading corner.
It’s easy enough to set up a bookcase in one of your living spaces. Once you’ve built your shelves, all you have to do is choose the classification system of your choice. Those who love order will prefer to classify their books and magazines meticulously, while others may choose for a more haphazard arrangement of their works.
If you really want to embrace the trend, paint your bookshelves in a dark colour. Make sure you choose the right lighting, too, to create a soft atmosphere that will make you want to plunge into a good book.
Made in Japan
Out with the flashy, in with the essentials. When it comes to decorating, Japanese aesthetics advocate a return to simplicity. So get rid of the useless knick knacks gathering dust on your shelves and keep only the essentials.
With this in mind, natural materials are given pride of place, whether polished or left raw. Wood, linen and marble are welcome, as are wool, tweed, velvet, and highly textured fabrics.
In terms of colour, white and neutral shades of beige or light grey are preferred. However, a few brighter touches can be used notably on cushions.
Japanese aesthetics are warmer and softer than Swedish ones, which is why you can use a broader palette of colours. But be careful not to go overboard: the key word is osmosis – the various decorative elements of your interior must create a harmonious, Zen atmosphere and not clash with one another.