Whether we're curating our personal spaces or prepping homes for sale, we've learned that keeping the trendy stuff in check is key. Styling our homes is a bit like cooking a meal. It's all in the seasoning – a pinch of trendy adds that charming, tantalizing kick, but if you pour the whole spice rack into the pot, you might end up overloading your palette.
Here are 6 trends that I'm ready to send off with love! Thank you, next.
1. Backwards books. As a bibliophile, this trend just ruffles my… pages? I get that the idea behind backwards books is to create a more visually appealing, uniform, dreamy look to your shelves, but unfortunately this trend just comes off as contrived to me. As a stager, we tend to use books as props, but I try to organize them a bit more realistically, by size, color, and type to avoid looking pretentious!
Don’t: Backwards books
Do: Organize by size & type
2. Often I’ll see stagers using props like shoes and personal items in homes, but it just looks messy to me. If you were to clean up your house and get it ready for company, you wouldn’t leave your hat and camera on the bed, would you? When we stage, we try to decorate the home to feel like a real home, and not a set design of what a house might look like. While we’re at it, let’s nix the fake food too. With the exceptions of faux lemons, fake food starts to look more cheap than trendy…which is ironic because those fake food items can be pretty pricey!
Don’t: Stage with Props
Do: Use art, pillows, décor pieces to show more whimsical side instead
3. All white monochromatic rooms. All white rooms can sometimes look really chic and modern, but often times they fall flat, especially in photos. Incorporating some textures, patterns and color really helps to bring dimension into a room. Even neutral rooms need depth, so we always incorporate pops of color, shine, and greenery into every room. There should be a nice balance of warmth and sleekness. Textured and layered designs help breathe life into a room, which is important to how it shows up in photos online to potential buyers.
Don’t : All white everything
Do: Some contrast, texture, and pops of color/shine.
4. Baskets and wicker trays on the wall. This trend showed up a few years ago, and I must say I always scratched my head at it. I love natural fiber décor like jute rugs, trays, and wicker baskets, but hanging a bunch of round woven trays on the wall just doesn’t translate for me. If you like the look that the baskets-on-the-wall trend is striving for, you might be better off cultivating a unique and personal gallery wall, or investing in some cool macramé framed art.
Don’t: Baskets on the wall
Do: Gallery wall, or art created with natural fiber
5. Another trend I see a lot in staging is stacking your dining table with dishes/setting the table. I’m ready to let both of these trends go with love! Setting a formal table can be beautiful and sometimes the right home calls for it, but in reality, a set table always ends up collecting dust, so the whole thing tends to feel a bit performative to me. We don’t want to “set design” a home, we want to style a home naturally, realistically, and beautifully so that potential buyers can easily visualize themselves there, and that means creating spaces that feel relatable and inspiring at the same time. Stacking up dishes is a slightly more modern approach than setting the table, but still it tends to look messy. Again, if you were cleaning up your home, would you set out a stack dishes on the dining table just because? Probably not. Instead, opt for a fresh bouquet of flowers, or a tray with some knick-knacks on it, like cloth napkins, salt and pepper shakers, etc.
Don’t: Stacked dishes/set tables
Do: Nice centerpiece, or a tray with practical items
6. This last one pretty much goes without saying…but please, let’s all agree to say goodbye to the trend of “things that say things on them”. I don’t need to see a pillow that says “Gather” to know this is where people can congregate, or a sign in the kitchen that says “EAT” to know that this is where we eat. Now, If you are someone that loves things that say things on them, by all means go all out, but I will offer one piece of advice. Be mindful of what words you choose to surround yourself with – Make sure you are choosing words that you really connect with. Words are powerful!
Don’t: Things that say things on them
Do: Colors, patterns, pieces that spark joy
Let me know if you agree that these 6 trends have run their course. I’m ready to let them go with love, but that being said, I am a big supporter of leaning into whatever design trend you love – and if it's hanging baskets on the wall, next to your backwards book library, in an all white room, with a stack of plates on a table under a sign that says FAMILY, then you do you, boo! As much as I am ready to let these trends go, if you love any of them and connect with it, then I say that's worth having in your home.
So, whether you're a trend-setter or a trend-vetter, the world of home decor is an ever-evolving simmering stew of innovation and transformation. Let's don our aprons and savor the art of cooking!
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