When it came to past fads we would like to see exhumed, many design pros decisively say Art Deco. Some singled out 1970s sunken living rooms and Tuscan-style kitchens. Here, what’s due for a comeback and what’s considered done and better left forgotten. Read more, ‘The Predictions Are In: These Are The Biggest Design Trends of 2019 So Far.’
DUE: “Most people walk guests right into the kitchen,” said Chicago designer Frank Ponterio, who would like to see the forgotten concept of a salon revived. “It’s a space for guests to have a drink and smell that something fantastic is coming their way for dinner, to slow them down. And that way you don’t unveil the whole house in one swoop.”
DONE: Fuzzy, overly patterned wallpaper. The walls of the dining rooms in the ‘fancy’ restaurant in the town where most of us grew up were blue and red flocked paper haunt most of us to this day.
DUE: “I’m obsessed with the rooms in which curtains, bedheads, bedding, furniture and wallpaper—ceiling included—are all the same pattern,” says San Francisco designer Jay Jeffers. “I’d love to bring it back in a modern way.”
DONE: “I hope overstuffed sofas with huge cushions and a karate chop in the middle are gone forever,” says Jeffers.
“Relaxed is fine, but keep it neat.”
DUE: “We love the way the sunken living rooms of the ’60s and ’70s felt cosy and encouraged conversation,” says Alicia Cheung Lichtenstein, of San Francisco’s Studio Heimat.
DONE: “Up until the ’90s, it was acceptable to create benchtops out of square tiles, either ceramic or stone,” she says. “Now we can’t stand the grout lines and thoughts of the germs they can hold.”
DUE: “I’d love to see carved plaster furniture and lighting return full force,” says Scott Sloat, partner at New York’s David Kleinberg Design Associates. ”In plaster, swirling scrolls and palm fronds take on new life, an interesting play of a humble, hard material and organic forms.” Read more, ‘5 Quick Design Tweaks Design Pros Use to Transform Rooms.’
DONE: “Platform seating covered in industrial carpet never needs to be seen again,” says Sloat. “In fact, industrial chic is an oxymoron never to be repeated.”
DUE: “The sleeping porch, typically a second-story screened room adjacent to the master bedroom, has always been one of my favorite spaces,” said New York architect Peter Pennoyer. “It connects us to nature and a time when summer life wasn’t hermetically sealed by air-conditioning.” Read more, ‘Outside In: Easy Ways to Bring a Fresh Outdoor Feel Inside.’
DONE: “The conversation pit of the ’70s was meant to be forward thinking but wasn’t at all attuned to the way people live and move within a space, and it was nearly always an eyesore,” say Pennoyer. “It was the elephant-ear-lapelled, polyester leisure suit of interior design.”
DUE: “Rugs have been around since the 5th century B.C. [but] it wasn’t until 500 years ago people started to use them as decorative elements for floors,” says Menlo Park, Calif., designer Isolina Mallon.
“I love how it feels when a rug is showcased on a wall with good light—like a painting.”
DONE: ”I hope we never see the return of Tuscan-style kitchens, which were everywhere in the 2000s. They’re distinguished by dark wood cabinets featuring complicated panels, mouldings and flourishings that cover most of the walls. Kitchens should feel airy, luminous, durable and easy to clean.”
DUE: “With many people challenged for storage, it would be great to see more attention paid to the cubic and linear square footage a wall can provide” says New York designer Keita Turner, who hankers for architectural built-ins and furniture wall systems.
DONE: Turner begged millennials, whom she says love to borrow from the past, to forgo shag rug on stairs. “They were impossible to vacuum, and the long fibers got flattened down the center. The worst was shag that covered not only the treads, risers, cove, and nose but also the moulding and stringer. I mean, how do you clean it?”
