Beauty in their eyes
When it comes to picking up on home décor trends, interior designers do not have a crystal ball. They don’t consult a psychic or spend hours perusing industry publications trying to figure out what will be the next hot thing on the horizon.
In fact, as a rule, designers are more trend setters than trend followers, said Anthony Baratta of the noted New York design firm Diamond Baratta Design.
“As a designer, I am a trend setter not a trend follower,” he said. “While we can identify trends, that is not our role or what we work on or what’s used in our everyday dictionary.”
Baratta said instead of looking for trends when selecting products for his clients, he looks for things that are beautiful and in taste. “We are taste makers,” he said offering an alternative to trendsetters.
“I just gravitate to what I love,” agreed Los Angeles designer Jeffrey Alan Marks, one of the stars of Bravo’s “Million Dollar Decorators.”
Designers have an innate ability to “turn the volume down and spot something at 50 paces,” Baratta said of finding unique items among the thousands on display in a design center or furniture market.
“It’s all very random,” added Marks.
“The worse thing you can do is come in looking for something specific,” said Nathan Turner, a noted Los Angeles-based designer who also stars on “Million Dollar Decorators.”
Turner said he looks for items that he loves and that appeal to him. Though they may not fall into his personal aesthetics, the pieces still have to appeal to his sense of design and taste. Many of them end up on the floor of his store in Los Angeles.
“How can I sell something to a client that I don’t like?” he asked.
Baratta, Marks and Turner, who spoke during the Ahead of the Curve seminar at the recently completed summer show, said they enjoyed visiting the many showrooms in World Market Center Las Vegas and were especially pleased to see such variety in styles.
“It’s always nice to see new designs. It’s what we live for,” Baratta said.
“Otherwise we would be the worst designers on the planet,” added Turner in jest.
Among the big stories they noticed for the coming months was the use of color, particularly in graphic prints.
“Thank God I like color,” Turner said.
Baratta said that it seemed that for quite some time there was this “whole world of beige” and that now consumers are demanding big, bold patterns and a lot of color, which make interiors much more interesting.
Marks said it was as if people “were afraid for so long to use bold color.”
They also noted how multifunctional pieces are gaining in popularity for both their style and added value. Purchasing a piece that can be used in more than one place in the home or in more than one way just makes sense, Marks said.
Other “trends” they spotted were red hots, au natural, basket weave, small scale, swivel, pop of color, retro redefined, black and white, and chrome in the home.
Also keeping a lookout at the market for trends on the horizon was designer Monica Pedersen, star of HGTV’s “Designed to Sell” and host of the Dream Home specials. She joined Julie Smith Vincenti of Nine Muses Media, a media and marketing firm that specializes in the home-furnishings industry, to present the First Look seminar.
“As a designer it’s always exciting to come to market; I’m eager to see what’s happening,” she said.
Despite the fact that there are hundreds of showrooms and thousands of products for all aspects of home decorating, Pedersen said it doesn’t take too long to begin seeing common themes.
She, too, noticed lots of bold, graphic patterns and bright colors, which should be making their way to retailers’ floors in early fall.
“Big patterns and prints give life to neutral spaces and give life to pieces,” she said.
An accent piece, such as a lamp, chair or chest, that has a colorful pattern on it will complement longer-lasting neutral elements of a room including a sofa and carpeting.
“There is a time and place for neutrals, but they are hard to live with for a long time.”
Without some color to enliven or warm the space, it becomes too sterile, she said. And with today’s homeowners tending to stay put rather than move, they are working to create that sense of coziness in their homes through accessories and accents.
Among the colors she saw emerging on the scene were eggplant, navy/indigo and warm reds.
Pedersen also said this falls in line with how people are decorating their homes. Instead of completely remodeling, they are changing the look by adding accents or pieces that blend with their existing furnishings. And if the piece can be used in more than one space, that’s all the better, she added.