It’s a big year. We have the election, Artificial Intelligence, Gen Alpha is coming for Gen Z, and TikTok is dominating whatever dumb thing is hot or not. I find that predictions are hard to separate from what we WANT to happen, but I put on my objectivity hat and we’ll only know in 2025 if I’m right. Here we go.
Neutrals are less exciting to look at, and “modern farmhouse” (yes, including mine) is just not terribly visually desired anymore. The designers and spaces that are grabbing our attention are doing super unpredictable things, with way more of an artistic approach (think Reath Design and Beata Heuman). Bold color choices, and so much rule-breaking but almost in a way that dismisses rules in the first place. It reminds me a little bit of the early 2000s (yes, 20 years ago), when “styling” became a thing and we just did whatever the hell we wanted to and called it cool. Now, this doesn’t make me rethink anything major in our house (nor should you in yours), but as we start thinking about the other house on the property I want to use it much more as a creative laboratory and do some really fun stuff. I’m not sure that this will become mainstream as it is hard to execute well and if not done well it won’t have as much longevity and livability (The Studio McGee style home will still remain popular) but the attraction towards the “wild” is certainly pervading social media and it’s exciting to watch.
Again, people are *visually* sick of the practical and the boring (and I’m not one to talk, I have far too many “only look at” chairs, one being shaped like a literal wooden hand) and are making some impractical choices. Think tiled countertops, furniture with hard bases that definitely bruise shins, and hard office-style modular sofas (think the chiclet sofa). Am I into this? Of course not, but I understand the rejection of everything being so practical during the “peak comfort” years of 2020-2022. I’m seeing the younger generation (and other design renegades) opting for cool and throwing out practicality (or perhaps honestly just not fully knowing that they are opting out of practicality). Everyone wants a statement EVERYTHING and there is this rejection against timelessness (which goes along with the “doomsday opulence”). Warning: Be careful with impractical hard finishes in more classic style homes, it will date the house – but also, screw it, GO FOR IT!!!! But I also def want to be careful with timelessness and how long you ACTUALLY want to sit on that chiclet sofa.
All of us who designed “safer” homes in the “California casual” style that ruled the last 10 years might be tempted to slap a coat of dark red on their kitchen cabinets. I’m so here for all of the colors. If you are wondering how much color to incorporate and are scared to do it wrong, I have a whole blog post planned on this (because I’m with you). I will say that I think we’ve reached peak “color drenching” – I know and think that there will always be the right room for it, but something to consider because when done wrong it looks like you didn’t want to take the time to mask off. I think that bold colors with another accent trim bold color will be everywhere.
It’s here and not going anywhere so we need to figure out how to use it as a tool to help our lives, careers, and homes (hoping policies and regulators will keep us safe, obviously). The AI abilities are growing daily so to try to predict how it will affect us all in 2024 is hilarious. But here’s what I think – stand-out creativity can’t be AI’d, but generic “creative” work can be (and will) more and more (think AI blog posts for companies versus hiring a writer – not condoning, just predicting). Photos of homes will be AI’d to the point that we don’t know what is real or fake (thus increasing our dependence on truth and honesty from creators). My hope and prediction is that someone will develop an AI-driven app that will allow us all to plug in a photo of our room and try out new paint colors, new wallpapers, a new sofa, etc, in a way that looks really realistic, thus helping us make confident decisions. Of course, there are programs you can do that with but they are hard to learn and cumbersome (or so bad they don’t help). But boy am I excited for the day when I can see whether or not taking the paneling up to the ceiling in the living room (a hefty cost and decent construction) would solve my living room woes.
My other hope is that this “threat” makes us challenge our creativity and imagination and simply put produce non-AI-able designs. AI will be able to design a decent room by mining the internet for rules, finding products that “work together” and then putting them on a board, and honestly maybe that’s ok – I’m a big fan of accepting what we can’t stop and many people who can’t afford the luxury of design will have more AI design help. But it’s our job as creatives and design enthusiasts to do what they can’t, grow our imagination, push our creativity, and to me that is exciting. Maybe “simple but special” will no longer be my mantra. WHO AM I EVEN IN 2024?!
The trends grow, explode and die so fast, so everything is kinda “in” and “out” at the same time. GOOD LUCK!! Sometimes they are ridiculous but they are all a thread in the cultural fabric that is fun to analyze and does say something about us and the times. Again, I think what does well on social media, what the algorithm feeds us, might not be where people actually want to live (think runway to ready-to-wear clothes). Just because celebrities aren’t wearing pants anymore, literally donning underwear and tights to events, doesn’t mean that normal people will. I love the good versions of it all, honestly, and love that we don’t have a mono-culture in the design world. But boy is it increasingly hard for brands and designers to track what to do next – what to make, who to try to sell it to, and what will “hit”. You can’t do it all and yet the sense I’m getting from the larger retailers is that they sure are trying. Still, most of the home goods buying power remains in the 35-50-year range (for obvious reasons), and yet what we want is so different than what Gen Z wants which is what dominates the headlines. So who do you sell to? I’m seeing some brands going after the Gen Z/alpha world assuming they are banking on future brand loyalty, but I’m so curious if that is working or if it’s just a desperate grab. A mature 50-thousand-foot view of it all tells us that it all doesn’t matter, that what we buy shouldn’t be based on marketing or trends, but it’s impossible to escape and yet still fun to think about. I just find the whole thing fascinating and I’m sure glad I’m not in marketing for a large company right now and instead will continue to have a flexible point of view that embraces all the good everywhere, without pressure to submit to it (hopefully).
This also solidifies the importance of personal style and having a distinct creative voice – something that often doesn’t really happen til you are in your mid-30s (IMHO). So what we are seeing is a lot of creativity and playing by a younger creative generation, but I think my generation – Older millennials/Gen X will do more of the watching and less of the consuming of these trends.
Again, due to the ubiquity of the internet (which also provides design democratization that we love), we are all kinda sick of seeing the same thing and crave newness. This has been true since we came out of lockdown (2021) but I think it will continue to grow with most of us wanting something unique, something that represents our personalities that others don’t have (thus really disrupting the market). But historically “unique” isn’t scalable so how are entrepreneurs and design brands going to meet this need? Maybe this will be another AI innovation – where it’s easier to find or create the perfect broken stripe fabric that I haven’t seen before, or maybe it’s more on-the-ground flea market shopping (and live social media around it) because thrifting and vintage is so big right now. But I bet/hope that more Minted or Spoonflower brands will pop up. I don’t think this is necessarily going to be for the masses, but for design enthusiasts and people with more money and time, I see customization taking off this year even more.
I will always love and prefer the simplicity of Scandinavian design, but right now we are seeing color/pattern and maximalism grabbing our attention. I say “grabbing attention” more than dominating because I’m unsure if it’s going to be mainstream, or if it’s just something we like to look at. I’m here for it and excited to add some eccentricities where it makes sense and still looks like “me”. While I will stand by the argument that the good of every decade and style is ALWAYS in, I do think that high-quality mid-century will be back soon (in contrast to all the feminine shapes of the last six years). So if you are just about to sell that Rosewood armoire from the 1960s maybe hang tight a bit.
Pierre Yovanovitch painted the beams of this hotel’s ceiling in 2018 (which didn’t break the internet but I bookmarked it as something to try) and then Marco Zamora recently did his (but only after I bought a ton of washi tape to create a pattern on mine, which of course I didn’t post about but I swear it!!!). The point is we are taking surfaces that we typically would do something safe with and then doing something creative with them. Think unexpectedly shaped carpentry details, murals on ceilings, and painted patterns on doorways. I love this because paint is so reversible (well, can be unless you are like me and have a lot of paneling which makes it so much harder to repaint because you have to mask off and spray). Therefore I think our favorite paint brands with the best colors are going to boom this year. White is done, folks! Color EVERYWHERE is in!!
Vintage and thrifting are so huge right now because again, people want unique. So how do retailers compete?? One thing that has always endeared me to Rejuvenation is that they still sell vintage on their site, despite being owned by Williams-Sonoma. I know NOTHING about their business but I know that when I had the online vintage flea market the overhead to shoot, post, list, and ship was far greater than we made (thus the shutdown). It’s unscalable and the profit margin is slim to none. HOWEVER, when brands do this (including Urban Outfitters) it’s just cool and it endears us to them. It’s like this year’s “maker collaboration” (which I hope brands continue to do). It makes me want to do more in-person vintage markets or have a booth, just to explore that fun (without just hoarding it). I also hope that vintage dealers like my friend Annie of Shop Wilma get hired by these companies to consult, curate, or simply pick her brain/eye.
So to be clear – what is on social media is not necessarily what the masses want in their homes – is what the younger more social media generation of creators is publishing (because your job as a creative in your 20s is to GO FOR IT, experiment and do wacky shit!!). But the move to boldness and quirk is real and I’m VERY excited.
AI: could someone *finally* create a pop-out TO-SCALE hologram of that side table I’m thinking about buying, and looking at online? And then, make it so I can swivel and point so the hologram image lands right next to my sofa – again, in real scale, so I can SEE if it will really work?! Same with the suction-cupped metal shower caddies I just ordered – they are so much smaller than I thought!! Tricked A-G-A-I-N, I feel…..YES, we all know we need to schlep out the tape measure when buying things online, but c’mon AI – you’re here to make us/keep us lazy!!!!
I’ve actually seen something similar, on 1st Dibs I think, where you can “try it in your space” and it’s pretty realistic, though not quite a hologram!
Karen, YES!!! This is BRILLIANT!!
I think the Apple Vision Pro and others like it will make this possible for us to “see,” especially as creators add more apps to it.
I think one of the best way to combat fake AI images is to add/watermark the image source on the corner of actual photographs. That way, people are used to seeing that and the ones that not are more likely to be AI-generated. Right now I found so many images that have ‘almost close to perfection’ feeling that actually AI generated, but can only differentiated because it is too smooth on some surfaces and have a weird quirk somewhere. It is a shame that an interior design images that takes a lot more resources to generated can’t be given more accolade. (PS sorry about my English)
I love this method which “poisons” AI results. Hilarious!
Yes, THIS. Protect designers.
It scares me AND excites me. I think the excitement part comes from having been an avid sci-fi reader as a YA.
Colour saturation seems most often, but not always, like you said: “it looks like you didn’t want to take the time to mask off” to me.
It’s a duplicitous world now, with AI. Yikes & yipee!?
So this was an interesting read about things off my radar. I don’t care about tiktok, weird color and pushing the envelope, not really… being tired of the all neutral and safe/tasteful things, yes, so I am looking forward to your post on that. After much consideration I’m finding that I like a neutral envelope and a handful of repeated colors adding the happy in things like cabinets, art, soft goods etc including quirky objects. Is that just basically OG eclectic Emily??
I’ve been thinking about my style a lot recently, Julie, and I’m with you, too. What I find myself drawn to over and over again is a neutral space but with color brought in through art and textiles. I’ve also stopped denying that I like oooold furniture and light fixtures. They’re just much more interesting (and soulful) to me than contemporary (and even MCM) pieces. But I like to modernize things with fresh and bold upholstery, rugs, and curtains. That way it keeps my house from looking like great-grandma’s place. ? I’ve really been loving it and find that I’m excited by my rooms now! I’m almost 39, by the way. It took me a long, long time to find my style.
I think that is where I land, too – neutral (including blue for me) and then pops. I do think its likely the most timeless, but also that is a dangerous word to feel confidant about. LOL
Just a book recommendation: I collect decorating and interior design books and, while the pictures are inspirational, a lot of the actual advice in most of these books is generic, repetitive, and obvious. It’s like the authors are saving the real tips for their paying clients. The exception: Beata Heuman’s book, “Every Room Should Sing.” It’s not just a beautiful interiors book. It’s got so many useful tips — specific advice for us plebes who just want to play around with our modestly sized homes, and on a modest budget. I love everything about her design style.
Fun! Thanks for the rec! Going to check it out.
I get more mileage out of the oldest home/life book I own than all the others combined (sorry Emily, I do still love your book!): _Dorothy Rodgers: My Favorite Things_. “Rodgers” as in Rodgers & Hammerstein, she was Mr. R’s wife. It’s not just about decor but also clothes (shopping, repair, preservation), appliance repair/restoration, construction, reupholstery, cooking, dinner parties, party parties, and budgeting for all those different things. Also, so many tips on how to talk to tradespeople, maintain a relationship with them that benefits you both, how to poke your nose around a city to find the hidden businesses and people you need. Like, it’s completely fab and I will turn to her before I get out my Martha Stewart book that covers those same things. Mrs. Dorothy often has better advice that is actionable – it’s practical and specific enough that I can just go do it, rather than parsing the slightly vaguer statements from Martha Stewart to figure out how it applies to where I live. She wasn’t a full time professional decorator or stylist, though I think she did sometimes do work for friends & acquaintances. She was a homemaker and that practical experience of accomplishing… Read more »
Thank you for the rec! I just ordered as well.
Thank you for the rec, LouAnn!! Ordering now!
Oh interesting, I felt the opposite about her book! She literally just said everything in every house was “bespoke” – designed just for that home. It was eye candy, for sure, but it felt like nothing a plebe like me could ever attain, haha.
Lol, now I’m worried I over sold it! Just fyi, I mentioned Beata Heuman’s book because Emily linked to her work in the essay above. Clearly, Beata Heuman is a high-end designer that most of us could not afford to hire. I just think her book is beautifully put together with ideas that people of normal income could adapt, and specific explanations for why/how things work designwise. Hope others enjoy it.
I read her book cover to cover over the holidays last year. its SO GOOD because yes it feels extremely useful with really good ideas beyond basic design platitudes. She’s a genius.
Please, please tell me that tiled countertops won’t be a thing again! I think they are disgusting, especially in a rental. When searching for apartments, I automatically rule out a kitchen or bathroom with tiled countertops.
As far as AI, my husband creates beautiful art using AI. It has its place. It will get to a point where it will be user-friendly to the masses.
Agreed! Times countertops are so gross!
This was such an interesting read! I’m so glad you wrote this up. I’ll be interested to see if Kelly Wearstler starts trending again, and what she drops on us if that happens. She’s never really gone out of style, but folks have been rather quiet about her since Scandi and then farmhouse took over. I may like it or just be overwhelmed by it, but it will definitely be something with solid design bones that also breaks rules like nobody’s business. I’d love to see Wearstler work with the younger, more diverse people who are in the same design/decor stream as her doing their own individual takes of mature whimsy and maximalism. Imagine what would come out of that, you’d be amazed even if you didn’t want a carbon copy in your own home.
I like how Weastler encourages one to find their own style in their home, rather than go with what’s trendy. (I watched her MasterClass).
Gosh this post was fantastic, thanks Emily! You’ve put into words so many things I’ve been wondering about recently, especially the issue of rooms we like to watch on social media and the question of how many of us will actually change our living spaces the same way (I absolutely love watching maximalist English designers who’ve gone nuts with colour but my mid century inspired new build is pretty darn white haha). Also finding myself more than ever drawn back to vintage furniture and you’ve explained why perfectly when I didn’t even know it myself. Thanks, and happy 2024 to you!
Everything dates! Nothing is really timeless. And IMHO the things that date most are the things that are most ubiquitous, not the most outrageous. Hence black hex tiles might be very 2016, even though they are ‘timeless’ But who cares? What’s wrong with having a room or house of your time? That’s why we should go for what we love, whether it’s a trend or something ‘timeless’. I’m starting renovations soon and looking at a pink bathroom because I adored that whole millennial pink trend but wasn’t in a position to have it when it was hot. I still love it even though it’s passé now. So in it goes. Still loving the cane rattan trend. Don’t want it to ever finish. I love colour and lots of pattern and beautiful textiles and wallpaper but white walls will always be featured in my house too. Ham Interiors and a1000timesbetter are my two fave inspos right now. I look back at our childhood home and it was such a quintessential 70s house but it was great and it was also really beautiful! It’s one of the inspos for the house I’m about to renovate which will be 70s Australian suburbia meets… Read more »
The only trend that really needs to happen is recycling – trying not to buy new, but old quality pieces whenever possible, things that you can keep around and won’t chuck to the curb in a few years. My goal for this year is to have more time for thrifting and consignment shops and to peruse marketplace for the oldies and goodies. Those chiclet, shin-bruising sofas will get thrown out in a couple years – timelessness should always win. And when it is time to pass things on for the sake or practicality or whatever, find a new home for pieces that still have life in them.