Following Trends

If I had to make a list of good points about ageing, I would put Hindsight on mine.

You reach a certain age where the trends and fashions you see appearing have already been a personal life experience and you have strong feelings about those. Quite often in the negative, I might add!

I made a comment to a client the other day that rose gold was on its way out. And that if you want to use if just be careful where you use it. My advice is to choose it for things that are more decorative rather than permanent, so that when it does go you can easily remove that item.

One of my earliest experiences of interior trends gone rotten was within my first year out of uni. I was working for a designer who did a lot of domestic work. An item that kept popping up was the heritage tap set that one of the major plumbing brands made. This set was available in heritage red, green and cream. And it was gross. But SO MANY people had it in their homes back then, which indicates that originally it hadn’t been gross!

Interior trends are a type of click bait for our emotions. I have no problem following trends but I am careful to analyse the situation before specifying. Here’s the break down of the assessment I use for each situation.

Retail

I design lots of retail outlets. They range from foodies, hair and beauty and fashion and so many different types in between. Stores in large shopping centres usually have a 5 year lease. It is expected that your store design will reflect the latest trends that are complimentary to selling your product or service. That’s great and customers love seeing new design direction and 5 years is a perfect time for a trend, because at the end of 5 years that retailer will be expected to do a new fitout featuring the upcoming looks.

This is the consideration that I use when I begin a residential job with a client, and we need to decide how much trend factor we allow for in the design. I use 3 main categories, and this is where emotion starts to factor in.

Residential- general housing

Home is where you spend most of your time besides work. Most people want to appear “with it” and trendy with their homes. That’s fine. But if you want to do trendy perhaps think of how and where to use it so that you’re not stuck with it 10 years after the trend has gone. Tiles, plumbing and joinery are expensive items to replace. They are the items I would err on the side of caution with. The industry rule of thumb is that kitchens have a 10-year life span, bathrooms about 15. But the reality is that due to the high costs most people are only redoing their kitchen every 20-30 years. You can still have beautiful and amazing as well as longevity. If the owners are thinking they’ll stay long term but also aware that down the track things may change, then I would discuss a more considered approach to following trends.

Residential- reno/build for sale

If you are doing up a house with the view to sell reasonably soon- go for it. Get on trend and enjoy. Think of all the home shows where the end game is to sell the house. The fitouts are all totally on trend. That’s where the emotional click bait comes in. Potential buyers walk in the door and are hit with the WOW factor. They usually aren’t thinking about how long the trends will last, just how great it all looks. Chances are they haven’t even fully identified all the trends, only some. The trends are all working as an overall amazing package.

Residential- you and your personality.

If you are about to do a house reno and you really love rose gold, black taps and leopard print wallpaper- do it. If that’s your personality and it just happens to be on trend, why not show it. This is tempered with the advice that if you plan to stay in your house long term and not sell within the foreseeable future, then have fun and reflect your personality. It’s your home and you have to be able to smile every time you walk in the door. This is my category and the way most designers handle their own houses. I have not designed my house for resale, but for my life- long term. I have features in my house that people who know me just totally understand why I’ve chosen them.

Clothing trends are easy. You can throw it out if you get sick of it. However if something is chem-set to your wall, it becomes a bit trickier and also expensive.

Food for thought from Albert Einstein……

What is right is not always popular and what is popular is not always right.