Hot or Not

Jennifer McNamara
Oct 21, 2020
6 min read

An exploration of which trends are worth the trouble

Extremely Heidi Klum voice “One day you’re in and the next day you’re out”

So obviously interior design has its fair share of trends. They are like crushes. Sometimes they show up, get flirty, make us fall hard and fast and then we get real and get over it. But Ms. Klum isn’t always correct. Other crushes stand the test of time. They appear on the scene, sweep you off your feet, and you find yourself loving them forever. And then there are questionable crushes. The ones where you know that you need to ask a friend about them but you are also scared to ask said friend because you don’t want them to think you have bad taste.

The task of any interior designer or home decor lover is to determine which trends can go the distance and which ones just can’t. Now, I’ve got my opinions and I know you do too. So let’s get judgey.

Trend #1: Faux Tile Mats

The very first time I saw one of these I was immediately intrigued. I followed the Instagram link to see how much it would cost to buy one and then panicked because it was way too much money. And I’m glad I hesitated because the more I see them, the less sure I am that I like them. On the one hand, they have that classic black and white intricate tile look that almost always reads as chic. But there is a small part of me that also thinks they look cheap because they aren’t the real deal. They aren’t intricate tiles embedded into your floor, they’re a floor mat. Another thing that gives me pause is that they are very ~now~. Will we still be able to find them next year or will they have run their course? Or will they only get better and better to the point where they are definitively chic and definitely not cheap?

Trend #2: Backwards or Rainbow Books

Styling bookshelves is not a new concept by any means, and neither is organization. Enter in the perfect lovechild of the two: purely decorative books. Everyone remembers the first time they saw Joanna Gaines put books in the bookshelf backwards. “The absurdity!” we all thought. But then as neutrals took over, we started to see it everywhere. Rainbow books are a bit newer and seem to be the exact opposite of a neutral bookshelf. However, both design styles have a similar problem: A non user friendly experience.

This is the part where I come out and admit that I am not much of a reader and so I am the last person to judge someone who has a bunch of books but doesn’t use them. It’s just that these two design styles only work for people like us. Backwards books are literally unusable and while rainbow books still have the spines facing outward and can therefore be read, sorting books by color is not very intuitive. Rather than go looking for a book based on its title, you have to know what color that book is. Do these styles look pretty? Absolutely! Can they stand the test of time (and people’s desire to actually read them)? I’m not so sure.

Trend #3: Painted Cabinets

Lately it has become very trendy to paint kitchen cabinets in shades of green or blue. I have seen tons of sage green, deep forest green, light blue, dark navy blue, etc. These shades are being touted as the new neutrals, which mostly means that just because you painted your kitchen cabinets green, it doesn’t mean that you’ve committed yourself to a green color scheme everywhere. A large part of me loves this trend. I agree that these colors seem to go with anything while switching up the classic all white kitchen. It seems modern and classy with lots of personality.

But there is a small fear simmering beneath the surface. A question that must be asked of any trendy paint color. Is this the Avocado of our generation? For anyone who doesn’t know, Avocado was a color that was super popular in the 60s and 70s. It was everywhere. And now, it’s horrible. People hate it. Avocado is DONE. Will these lovely sage green or baby blue kitchens of today someday look cringeworthy? I hope not, but time will tell.

Trend #4: Wallpaper

Wallpaper is a trend I never saw coming. We took a long break from wallpaper, and for pretty good reasons. Ugly, dated, floral, busy, impossible to remove without seriously damaging your walls. For the most part, modern wallpapers seem to have solved most of these issues. There are thousands upon thousands of wallpapers that are not hideous or dated. And removable wallpaper completely changed the game. The question is, just how long will this new wallpaper trend last? It strikes me as the kind of thing that we could all really get over in 5 years or less. Good thing it’s removable now because my prediction is that a lot of today’s wallpaper will be coming down real quick.

Trend #5: Pattern Tile Floors

We’ve been seeing variations on pattern tile flooring for a little while now. The patterns are typically sort of Spanish or Mediterranean in nature and can range from fairly neutral to pretty busy. I tend to believe that the more neutral or muted the tile, the more staying power it has. The Spanish villa kitchen or farmhouse kitchen, while beautiful, might not last. Think back to the mid 2000s when everyone wanted an Italian winery kitchen. We certainly got over that, didn't we. For the most part, when it comes to pattern tile floors, I think that they can be really lovely and I currently like them a lot, but I have a sneaking suspicion that we might come to regret them someday and it makes me sad.

Trend #6: Velvet Furniture

The current velvet furniture craze probably won’t last. Let’s just be realistic. Velvet clothing hasn’t lasted forever. It has come and gone and come back and gone away again. In this case, it’s a question of how long do we think we can get away with these gorgeous velvet pink couches before this cycle is over? Velvet still seems to have a solid footing in interior design for the moment. Especially with jewel tones continuing to rise in popularity. I’m still seeing velvet pillows and duvet covers everywhere. Velvet seems to be a trend that comes back as easily as it goes away. It’s easy luxury makes it a trend that lasts only because I don’t think we will ever truly move on from it. We may just take short breaks here and there.

Trend #7: Jute Rugs

Personally, I feel like jute rugs are the epitome of the “neutral movement” favoring style over substance. That might be a hot take but hear me out. They do not feel good to walk on. Why would you ever put something in your house that doesn’t feel good to walk on. Have pets? Say goodbye to that jute rug, unless for some reason you have a pet that is totally uninterested in clawing at those scratchy fraying fibers. Do they look great? Yes. They really can be the perfect neutral, natural textured thing to tie a room together. While I might not like them, whether or not jute rugs will last is a tough one for me. Natural fibers tend to be staples that never really go out of style. It’s why wicker baskets and trunks have been holding blankets for decades. So will jute rugs go out of style to the point where they look wrong in a house? No, I don’t think so. But I do think that their lack of comfort might lead many people to eventually abandon them.

Trend #8: Faux plants

Listen up all you green thumbers, it’s not lame to have faux plants. There was once a time when fake plants and silk flowers did look pretty tacky. But that’s only because they weren’t very high quality products. Nowadays, you can easily find fake plants that look real enough that lots of people wouldn’t know the difference until they touched it. For reference, see designer Jasmine Roth’s husband who watered her fake plants on accident. And sure, the good stuff costs a lot of money. High quality faux plants are not cheap. But neither are real plants and they might not even make it! Lots of people, myself included, just suck at gardening and keeping plants alive. Buying a real plant for my house means that at any given time, my plant will probably not be looking its best and that’s just not something I want from my houseplants. I want them to be green and beautiful and perfect all the time.

Another popular designer and builder Mina Starsiak from HGTV’s Good Bones installed turf in her front yard so that she would 1. Never have to mow and 2. Never worry about having a brown lawn. Low effort, beautiful result? What’s not to love! All this to say, faux plants are probably pretty polarizing. But if you are a fake plant person, embrace it.