Don’t age yourself, or your home, with your design style.
Design trends often drive homeowners to decorate their spaces in line with current fashion. While this approach can give your home a contemporary touch in that moment, it’s crucial to remember that trends evolve and shift over time.
Overcommitting to a singular trend in your decorating or renovating endeavors may, in the long run, cause the once sought-after style to date your home.
Here’s a closer look at five home design choices that might be aging your space, and why you may want to consider updating them for a fresher look.
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1. All White and Gray Everything
The all-white kitchens and gray shades that dominated the home design space for the last few decades are done. If you look at most newly remodeled homes from investors, they still very much emulate this trend of gray and white everything. But homebuyers today want more neutral tones, with beige taking the stage as this decade’s top color.
“Beige is the new black,” says Julee Ireland, an interior design architect and founder of Home Renovation School in Santa Monica, California. “It’s timeless and very chic. All-white kitchens with white Shaker doors are dated.”
She adds that she’s glad to see wood is back, but not the dark maple or bleached oaks of the past. “Rather, we’re seeing exotic woods like tigerwoods, walnuts and oak in kitchens today,” Ireland says.
Everything is moving more toward warm, earthy tones, she says: terracotta, pink hues, deep greens and dark blues. Rather than using bright colors as a dominant color on kitchen cabinets or an accent wall, homeowners are adding color through tile, wallpaper, paint, furniture and wall hangings, while anchoring the space with neutral beige tones and warm wood colors.
2. Tuscan Kitchens
If you still have a Tuscan kitchen, a popular style in the early 2000s, it’s time for an update. The style’s black granite countertops, large vent hoods, maple cabinets and brushed chrome are dating your home.
Michael Sauri, president of TriVistaUSA in Arlington, Virginia, recently remodeled a kitchen for a client who bought a home with a Tuscan kitchen.
“I had to give kudos to the homeowner who was able to see past the ‘Beauty and the Beast’-style kitchen,” Sauri says, describing multiple decorative corbels and a wooden medallion around the vent hood. He updated the design with a modern feel without a major kitchen renovation.
[READ: 8 Countertop Trends for 2023-2024]
3. Jacuzzi Tubs and Square Bathroom Tiles
Two trends that will seriously date your home are small 12×12 tiles lining your bathroom floor, walls and shower, along with space-gobbling jacuzzi tubs.
“People are now putting in beautiful soaking tubs, which are almost like an architectural design that you can soak in,” Sauri says. “We’re also seeing a lot more large-format tile in the bathroom with neutral tones and natural stone marbling.”
Longer subway tiles in warm earth tones add a modern but still classic look, he says.
4. Farmhouse Everything
The farmhouse trend was all the rage in the 2010s. However, when the home is too rustic or shabby-chic — with sliding farm doors, shiplap walls, lots of wood elements, matching furniture and apron sinks — it really dates the space. “The modern farmhouse look is still in, but it’s shifted more to bespoke pieces. It’s warmer, earthier and more organic,” says Ireland.
“Matchy-matchy furniture, which was popular in the farmhouse era, is dated. Furniture and finishes are more about sustainability now. It’s more about well-crafted pieces you mix and match for a more curated look,” she says.
5. Wide Open Floor Plans
For the last few decades, buyers wanted open floor plans. But people are starting to realize the benefits that come from having defined spaces in a home.
“I think the pandemic really shifted preferences toward more well-defined spaces,” says Ireland. “Homes that offer separate areas for work and relaxation, for example. I’m still designing homes with an open floor plan when it comes to a kitchen and family space, but we’re definitely moving into more defined spaces outside of that, even with the dining area.”
[How to Create an Open Floor Plan Feel Without Tearing Down Any Walls]
How to Avoid Aging Your Home with Design Trends
The key to avoiding aging your home is striking a balance between current trends and timeless elements. “Just because something has an age on it doesn’t mean you have to throw it out or replace it,” Sauri says. “Great design from any era is never out. It’s typically the things that people do because it’s very budget conscious or it doesn’t fit in any historical period are where the failure points are.”
You can have too much of a good thing. Avoid overdoing any design elements. Since brutalism is trendy right now, consider adding brutalist furniture or accent pieces to your space rather than redesigning your entire home to match that movement.
The goal should be to find a balance in your design style by pulling in colors, furniture and finishes that will feel contemporary and stand the test of time.
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5 Outdated Home Design Trends That Are Aging Your Home originally appeared on usnews.com
