With a new year comes new design trends to give your home a fresh look. Bold colors, curvy, inviting shapes, and matte-black kitchen appliances are some of the new trends design experts are saying will be popular in 2018. Here’s what you can expect to see this year:
The Kitchen
As controversial as it may sound, design experts are saying we’ve grown tired of white kitchens. Weren’t they supposed to be timeless and classic, easy on the eye, clean-looking? Well, yes. But, design gurus are seeing a definite shift away from the sterile, lab-like appearance of the traditional all-white kitchen with stainless steel appliances. New trends in kitchen design are moving towards color, in everything from cabinetry to sink materials. With a nod to kitchens you might see in Provence, Tuscany or Cotswold, several appliances are now being offered in brilliant cobalt blue, candy apple red, or a warm and rich Bordeaux hue. Consumers are opting for kitchens that feel more like living or dining rooms, with warm-colored patterned runners over wide-planked floors and rough-hewn beamed ceilings with unique vintage pendant lighting.
Look for matte black finishes on kitchen fixtures. In addition, “living metals” such as copper and unlacquered brass – which patinate over time and with use – develop character and suggest a lived-in, nostalgic look and feel. Stainless steel finishes, long the go-to for kitchen fixtures, feel too expected and customary. Likewise, high gloss finishes on brass or copper, can appear cheap looking.
In the sink department, there will be a move away from the white or stainless-steel sink. Instead, designers expect to see more unique materials for sink basins, including concrete, stone, copper and granite composite sinks in darker shades of gray, bronze and even black.
Patterns, Textiles
Expected to be popular in 2018 are patterns on wallpaper and fabric that feature abstractions of nature, rather than predictable floral prints and repeats. A fluid, random pattern where there is no discernable beginning or end replaces rigid patterns where the stop and start are obvious to the eye. Textile artists are seeking inspiration from striations that occur in rocks and cliff sides, ripples on water, veins in leaves, shifting desert sands, puffy clouds – anything that is continuous, flowing, and naturally occurring. Quite cleverly, these concepts are being replicated in upholstery and window fabrics, wallpapers and even the kitchen backsplash where undulating fish-scale patterned tiles are replacing the linear and definite look of rectangular subway tiles.
Color
With color, the earthy tone of jade, mint and sage green is the new gray. In another nod to nature, look for mustard hues to also take the spotlight from the uninspiring, and often drab, gray. In paint colors, designers are seeing more pastels that have been muddied with an earthy feel. Think soft watercolor paintings with gentle palettes.
Shape
Hard, linear edges and lines on sofas and cased goods are out. Not surprisingly, and again with a nod to nature, curvy and soft-lined fluidity, is now in. Shapes that feel more casual and inviting are being incorporated into desks, chairs and sofas, and more.
Inspired?
At Traditions of America, all of our homes are fully customizable to fit your style. Our Designers can help you achieve the look you want in what is sure to become your DreamHome!
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