Trends vs. Practicality
Choose practicality instead of short-lived interior design trends…or be even smarter and make peace between the two.
(4 min read) I recently wrote an article about the way the current trends tend to influence young future home-owners. Basically, most of them have to revisit both their architect and their financial advisor, as their budget is often too small for what they have in mind. However, that is also sort of contradictory as the counseling with a professional is also pretty expensive, so they end up damaging their budget either way. Most of them end up abandoning some completely unnecessary ideas, that seemed like awesome when they first started planning. They forget they ever wanted some trendy geometric ornament on their exterior walls or the fountain with koi fish in it. Needless to say, the budget wins over the current trend, and that is the way it should be.
While I was writing the article, one thing occurred to me: Are we like that when it comes to interior design as well? Do most of us just buy things out of a whim, or are we aware of the practical side of things? Furthermore, which is more important when it comes to interior design?
The proper answer to all of those questions would probably be the famous Abraham Hicks quote: “Nothing is more important than that you feel good.” It is of utmost significance that you feel comfortable and at ease in your living space. Yet many of us just want to be trendy regardless of how a certain trend makes them feel.
Last year, monochromatic interior design seemed to be all the rage, and many of us decided to throw out their old colorful furniture and replace it with something ink-blue or gray. That’s all fun and dandy if you have the means to support changing your furniture and wall-designs every season. However, should you blindly follow trends and decorate everything relying just on textures if you in your heart love looking at vibrant colors? No. If the absence of color isn’t something you like, you shouldn’t go for it, regardless of how trendy it is.
Black is reentering the doors of the interior design with fanfares this year. It is expected to become present even in kitchens again. Before you go putting black tiles on your kitchen wall, beware that every single drop of water and speck of dust will be highly visible on it. If you want to have a classy but practical cooking space, check out some custom mosaic designs for kitchen backsplash ideas, as they are both effective and practical.
2019 is expected to be all about maximalism and mixed materials when it comes to interior design. However, if you have small children or suffer from allergies, both maximalism and textures can be tricky. The more things you have, the more dust they collect. As for the maximalism in textures and materials, if you don’t intend to clean your house every two days – stay away from them.
Organic, earthy tones and Global Nomadic style are currently pretty much ruling the interior design scene. If you are adamant on following these trends, but you don’t want your budget to suffer go for singular items that you can later replace without much grief. Buy a pastel kilim and change your rug, or add a log-like club table, instead of an ordinary one. Go small with trends, so you don’t regret it once they pass.
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102 Comments
I love this so much. Just like fashion, interior design goes through different trends regularly. ALSO just like fashion, some of those trends should never be a part of your life. LOL
omg YES to all of this ha- trends come and go but when we designed our home we did all of natural colors so we could add pops of texture and color when we needed it!
I’m really into furniture that can last a lifetime but then adding in pops of trends that aren’t so expensive. Best of both worlds!
I don’t follow trends. I follow what my husband and I find to be classy, that’s it. Trends do nothing for me, so I am glad I was already following your advice before even reading your blog! 🙂
oh all of these look great, but i think i would go for a minimalist look at home and maybe some colorful details in the cushions or flowers around the house!
xx
lau
I so agree with this. I love interiors but tend to go for neutural colours so we can add accessories rather than changing the decor too often.
I rarely follow trends. If I like something, I’ll buy it, but not because it’s currently popular.
The truth is that, as in fashion, the trends are beautiful and fascinating to follow, but then you have to deal with practicality. In my opinion, a compromise between the two is the key.
All of these living spaces are so beautiful! I would love to recreate several of these within my own home.
There is some gorgeous inspiration going on in this post! I love practical yet minimal design, some really top advice here.
we are about to repaint out living room into a boho style kind of like the first picture and now I am just really excited about it after this post!
I would always choose practical over trendy. I remember a hotel that had glass sinks. Everything was visible on them, you couldn’t even brush your teeth without making a proper mess.
These interiors are just breathtaking! That’s great when trends can be combined with practicality. I’d love to live in such places!
I am much more of a practical type of decorator. I would love a Pinterest perfect home but the reality is… when you have little kids, it just doesn’t work too well. ha!
I’m not about following trends, its all about practicality and durability. We have 2 kids under the age of 3 so things needs to last a while haha
with 2 kids under the age of 3, GO MINIMAL LOL…
That blue and white living room! Ah! I die. I am not a trend chaser but I admit, when grey came back in, a few years back I was celebrating, as grey is one of my favorite colours for interior design.
I love the Mosaic kitchen so so much. I guess having the beautiful mosaic wall will motivate me to stay in the kitchen for hours to make a delicious meal for my family.
Well as much as we love a beautiful mosaic kitchen we don’t want you to be stuck in the kitchen for hours lol…
Loving this! Such great information! Amazing how trends come and go!
Thank you so much for sharing!
this is so true! somehow i find it easier to abide on this when it comes to decor as against to fashion, yay!
love these photos dear! Trendy and practicality? i think a little bit of both worlds would be a win-win situation for me!
Going small with trends is excellent advice. Too often, people get caught up in the now and not the practicality. The black tile is a statement, but one that people may regret later (or any trend, really).
I love the collection you have got here. For me, a combination of trendy and practicality works out well.
Love these designs that you featured. The purple living room is my favorite design. 🙂
Trends come and go, some of them being pretty extreme. But our house should be designed in a way that we can enjoy it for a long period of time without have to redo everything in a few years. I believe choosing simple and evergreen interiors is the way to go. You can always jazz it up with different accessories and paintings.
yes i agree, it is not practical to keep on following trends, as you said, trends come and go.
I always choose practicality because they look so much alike and looks so elegant. Thanks for sharing.
I love mimimalism but I always keep up with a little dose of trends here and there. Colors I prefer are white, grey and black…they always look so calm.
to be honest, I rarely follow any trends! Maybe someday I will get the chance to recreate one or a few of the examples from the post above!
Lovely post and love the pictures, Thanks for sharing!
I love these color schemes! My favorite is the monochrome gray bedroom. So elegant!
I agree! You can’t go wrong with monochrome gray, gorgeous.
As gorgeous as it is to follow trends, I don’t think I have the time or money to do so! I would go for a minimalistic approach with classic colors, so if I need to change it up, I can do so with slight changes. Like you said, change it with a rug or something. Great post!
Wow, after looking at all of these beautiful spaces, my home suddenly feels very inadequate, lol. I’m more of a practicality designer over a trendy one.
lol Well it is never too late to start thinking about some of these awesome and practical designs
I just loved your colorful decor ideas. They all look chic and gorgeous.
If I was able to have my way with our interior design, our walls would be splashed with color. My husband likes the icky cream of our walls, so I have to add a splash of color with our accessories. At least he let us paint the kids’ bedroom.
The previous owner of our how redid the black splash in our kitchen a white tile and used that same tile for our bathroom. It shows EVERYTHING. If we could afford to change it, I would.
Finally someone breaks it down where the average person can understand. THANK YOU!. Especially putting example pictures to what you described. It made it much easier for me to understand and easily say yup like that, Oh no, don’t like that. This really helps, since we are thinking about decorating our house.
Great illustration. Trendy as well as comfortable to you is the best thing. A beautiful home makes you mentally peaceful. Would try to follow few suggestions.
You said what I was thinking at the very end. My opinion is to go with classic designs for the large, hard-to-change areas, then add trendy pieces (pillows, tapestries, backsplashes) that can be more easily changed as trends come and go. Personally, I thought the maximalism examples were gorgeous!
I fell prey to the monochromatic trend and my bedroom was a combination of greys. I quickly realized it made me very unhappy and brought my mood down. Needless to say I was back at the store not long after and now my room is flooded with bright yellows. It looks great with the grey and I’m so much happier with it.
That purple designed living room and that gray bedroom are beautiful. I’d love to have both of those in my home.
design is hard because styles are always changing. for me, it’s hard to tell the difference between trends and classics. I am always a fan of muted colors though.
all of these are beautiful. but i do try to stay away from some trends as they dont last
I love the black subway tile in the kitchen. It looks so good!
Love all the designs you have mentioned, but the Maximalism and texture is the one I like most.
I have to admit I just buy things I like. Which isn’t always the best idea. I can understand how sometimes trends can be practical and something they aren’t though.
So thankful for this post. This really explained things for me. I really liked the Mosaic kitchen backsplash.
I personally don’t follow trends. But watching your social media I have been able to basically plan my future home! So thank you!
Thank you for this informative post! I try to choose colors and themes that I know I can live with for a few years as I don’t the budget the change things too often.
Thank you for the tips! We don’t really follow trends, our house has less furniture but so many clutter. ha!
These interior design ideas are absolutely stunning! Now I want to redo every room in my house! The back splashes and kitchen tile designs are remarkable. Someone has a very good eye for beauty.
These are all beautiful spaces but I prefer simplicity, so all white with clean lines is perfect for me 😉
I am not one for following any type of trends in life. It isn’t practical for my lifestyle to do so. I like watching others and what trends they choose though.
I’m definitely not the norm, I tend to go for on trend fun colors. Sometimes though, it makes it tough to have to continually change what aesthetic I keep going in my house.
I am a minimalist person and don’t usually follow trends. I am more on buying things that are actually needed.
I love buying things but not those i trend. Being practical is buying what we need and not just what we want.
I love this post so much! There’s so many unique designs and colors schemes these days. I do like the black backsplash
very interesting, my house is now covered in light furniture and lots of greys
I tend to follow trend as well but being practical is the best. Finding a way to balance trend and pratical together is the key.
Following trend is always lovely and it makes you be in the limelight but being pratical is the best.
I don’t have a lot of knowledge about interior designs and stuff like this so thanks for making this easier to understand. Oh I do love the grey theme for the room.
Loved this article. I am in between minimalist and maximalist. And a sucker for warm colors.
Following trends can be great for inspiration but I think we all need to keep the things we love! I like following trends but I feel like that takes away the originality of things. Great read!!!
These are so very pretty and add so much character to a space. I would love to do something like this in my home.
I love this so much! I have never cared about trends! If I like it, I get it. I am in love with those yellow curtains though. I may have to get some!
I have too many kids to follow furniture and design trends, we go with what works for our family. I suppose then they are all grown I’ll have nice things again and enjoy some color.
Some trends I will never understand, but I love most of these. I am all about bright colors in my home.
I have a special love for interior design! I am always doing diy projects around the house and have been looking for a kitchen backsplash design. Great post!
Wow, those are some beautiful interior design themes! That purple one is amazing and rich in appearance. My youngest daughter, mommy of three ( and soon four) of my granddaughters, really enjoys interior design. She and my son-in-law have recently repainted the entire interior with a more neutral palette, similar to your gray picture.
The mosaic kitchen with the backsplash was my favorite to look at. I have no talent when it comes to interior decorating, but don’t wan’t to go into debt hiring a decorator. Thank you for these practical tips.
Wow all of these designs were beautiful. I buy what I love and know will use. We are renting right now but i cant wait to buy our home and design it.
Wow, I’m completely mesmerised by the array of colours here!
Minimalist kitchen is probably what I would go for! Others look so awesome with interior designs but I’m a simple person. I totally agree with you on people following trends over practical uses. Trends are fun and cool but you need to think about your financials and be realistic haha
yes 100%. It pays to be practical I guess. Thanks a lot for your comment.
Love this post. I’m more practical but some of these are just too fun.
We love good furniture, but don’t follow decorating trends. I think a really good piece of furniture is timeless. It does make our setup a little eclectic though and a unified room color would be a bold statement when someone entered our home.
I love the room with the rich colors of the green sofas and purple accents! I can’t wait until I have a house of my own!
I feel like interior design is a lot like fashion in clothing. While there are some pieces that are trendy which are ok to purchase, it’s best to stick to classic and timeless pieces that will never go out of style!!
Thanks for sharing!
My husband and I don’t follow trends we make our own designs and we make sure that we are comfortable from it.
what a great interior designs! im planning to renovate our house, I think I will consider one of these
I’m not following any of these trends, but these are definitely some interesting things to look at! I love purple, but don’t think I would go to that extreme. Thanks for sharing.
I personally don’t follow trends as I can never keep up – I get to grips with one and then it changes! Love these setups, especially the ones with all the colours!
It can be so tempting to follow trends when it comes to interior design but sometimes it pays to be practical. I’d love to follow the maximalism trend but with two young children, it perhaps isn’t all that possible.
Yep, cant agree more. With two young children, your safest bet is to go minimal lol. Thanks a lot for your feedback, really appreciate it.
I like the quote about feeling good in your space. I’d much rather love my space than have it just because it’s trendy.
I am basically into simple interior designs but you are right all these interior design goes through different trends.
I admit I like a lot of the different looks you have here. But I can understand in the long run they might not be practical. I agree practical works out a lot better in the long run.
This was such a great article! You made really good use of images to back your case. Thanks for the information!
I like to keep my living space and kitchen depending upon what I need and love. Love those Amara decor of living space. Others looks too much for me. Also black splash of kitchen I like simple ones.
My favourite trends are always the minimal ones. I love adding quirky stand-out pieces to minimal rooms though.
I definitely can’t afford changin my interior every season (or every year!) but I can dream! LOL I keep a simple monochrome style (furniture is mostly all white with some Oak here and there, and I play a little with small details like curtains, blinds, pillows, blankets etc.
wow!! Really reading your story here, learnt a lot from your post here, thanks for this informative sharing
Cheers, siennylovesdrawing
I love all the designs which you mentioned above but one of my favourite is Monochromatic gray design bedroom.
Ahhh these designs are great and really sustainable!
I love light colours personally
Debs
So many different styles. My favorite is the minimalist, even if I will transform it in a crowded place just by living there. Great post, as usual.
Yes!!! I’m actually in the process of transforming my own bedroom grey!! Such a classic color!
I tend to steer clear of trends, only because I know that I’ll have to redecorate as soon as that one is considered old news.
I tend to prefer the rustic minimalist look, but that blue living room with the mosaics does look fascinating…brings back certain memories. 🙂
Great designs, loved all of them. I like light colors like white and light pink. Thanks for sharing these unique design ideas.
I love the black tiles! Looks so modern and sophisticated. I also love the white cabinet look