Twin Cities based interior designers Kim Wahl and Gail Jacobson love the challenge of bringing design trends to their clients. Trends can enliven spaces, keep projects fresh and current, and add “seasoning” to the design mix. Gail and Kim recognize the importance of educating their clients on how to translate trends to their own spaces. Listed below are some ways of filtering trending influences in social media and ad campaigns through time-tested design principles.
Curated Design
This trend pulls together collected objects. A display could include a salon style gallery wall with original art or prints, vintage store or flea market treasures. Style the collection in a bohemian look with a variety of frames, or unify the look with all the same frame. A collection is always stronger than individual pieces. Create the maximum impact by organizing objects around a theme like color, subject, cultural origin, stylistic periods, or variations on a theme. Work with an odd number of items for best results.
Distinct Design
This trend encourages you express who you are, where you live, or where you’ve traveled with what surrounds you. Accessorize with one-of-a-kind pieces with textural detail, patina, and global chic. Base your room’s design on a unique object that you fall in love with, then build the room around it. The focal piece could be a flea market item, an antique, family heirloom or a vintage find. Price is not the issue. Season the mix with whimsy or quirky items.
High-low Design
This trend combines flea market with high end pieces—and everything in between. For example: utilize one yard of expensive fabric to make a custom pillow, and then build around it with store bought pillows. Or, wallpaper one wall of a room with expensive wallpaper, or use it to “pop” the back of a built-in bookcase. If you see a desired high end piece in a magazine, find a piece in a similar shape, style and/or size in a thrift store or flea market and do a DIY treatment on it, embellish it, adapt it to fit your space, or use as is.
Bold Pattern Design
This trend incorporates large-scaled graphic patterns in fabrics, rugs, tiles, wallpaper and table top elements. The motif itself can be traditional or contemporary, e.g., a paisley print or an abstract pattern, but when produced in a large scale the result is fresh and new.
Entertainment-Focused Design
This trend focuses on displaying chic entertaining accessories. Bar serving carts are making a comeback in vintage finds, reproductions and new offerings. Beautiful and unique trays, cocktail servers, decanters, and crystal pieces appear front and center in a room rather than enclosed in a cabinet.
Gail and Kim are both members of IFDA (International Furnishings and Design Association). Make sure to check out Design Matchmaker at the Midwest Home Show where IFDA designers will be providing FREE design consultations and professional advice on any home project. IFDA members offer expertise in a variety of disciplines related to interior design and furnishings. Limited reservations are available, reservations for your complimentary 15-30 consultations today at MidwestHomeShow.com
By Gail Jacobson, Remodeling Consultant and Interior Designer, Fresh Space Design and Mackmiller Design + Build and Kim Wahl, Eye Candy Designs
Top photo by fotolia/bonninturina
