They say every trend comes back around and we think, surely not all of them? Surely we will never again see a desire for glass blocks as dividing walls? Well, look what happened to that theory. We humans are fickle types and we change our minds, so chances are, every interior aesthetic, colour, shape and material that we once disregarded as being dated and terribly uncool to own, will bide its time and spring back into style as if it never left. It doesn’t mean we have to partake – once was more than enough for some trends – but if we do decide to give a once-mocked piece another chance, the key is to adapt it slightly, so it feels like a fresh take.
Read on for five design details that once seemed like they were gone for good, and yet lo and behold…
Separated living spaces
For decades, we’ve been moving in the direction of open-plan living. Sledgehammers have smashed into dividing walls across the country, eradicating awkward hallways and dismantling boxy rooms to create brighter, more sociable spaces. After all, it’s no fun to cook dinner while the rest of the household flops around in a separate room. So walls came down, kitchen-diner extensions were built and new homes – especially apartments – were designed to prioritise open-plan living. Who needs bricks when you can zone the ground floor of a house with carefully placed rugs?
Then 2020 happened and we changed our minds again. Homes became offices, classrooms, bakeries and play areas, and oh, to have the luxury of closing a door on it all. We yearned for privacy, peace and internal walls – heaven was a Zoom call without someone eating cereal in the background. That doesn’t mean an archaic return to formal dining rooms and no space for a deep sofa, but it does mean our home renovations and self-builds are more likely to allow for separate playrooms, home offices and TV snugs. If you’re committed to open-plan living but need the option to block-out your darling children occasionally; compromise with pocket doors, double doors and internal glazing.
Patterned bathroom towels
Not that long ago, the obvious towel choice for a bathroom would have been plain white. White and fluffy equals timeless and luxurious, just as all the smart hotels taught us. They could even be a discreet charcoal grey but that was about as wild as things got. Bath towels were no place for experimentation – heaven forbid – anything verging on a pattern or a rainbow hue seemed like a dated throwback to childhood memories of unbridled bathroom colour schemes.
Like pastel blue and green bathroom suites, which definitely seemed like they were gone for good until they weren’t (we’re all powerless to resist The Water Monopoly tubs), bathroom towels are a desirable decorative item once more. In the last couple of years, the towel timeline has progressed from tentative pops of bold colour through to prints that would usually be reserved for upholstery fabric. Look to brands such as Tekla for stripes, Baina for stripes and chequerboard (they also do a surprisingly flattering matching bathrobe) and this writer’s favourite; Autumn Sonata for the chicest prints and muted colourways.
Feature walls
The wallpapered/painted feature wall fell from grace after keeping our homes in a chokehold during the early noughties. Since then, the feature wall has been replaced by eclectic floor-to-ceiling gallery hangs and the oversized verdure tapestry has taken centre stage more recently. Walls crammed with framed art and textiles will never date, but we could argue that the much-mocked feature wall is back again and this time, it has a purpose. Before you reach for the smelling salts, we don’t mean tree-print wallpaper on the fire breast wall or funky purple paint behind the bed. Though, if you did want to experiment with paint on a single wall, the renewed interest in decorative painting techniques continues to grow and artist Tess Newall has just released her online course on Create Academy.
Some of the best feature walls we’ve seen recently have been mirrored and there are a few ways to do this well. The hodgepodge of many individual vintage mirrors on a wall feels a little tired (especially when sunburst or rattan frames are involved) as the effect can be cluttered and you don’t benefit from the same eye trickery that a large-scale mirror achieves. Instead, mirror a whole wall from floor to ceiling in a dark corner of a room, mirror your door fronts in a cloakroom or walk-in wardrobe, or hang large custom-sized or antique mirrors in the alcoves either side of a fireplace. It’s still a feature wall but a more contemporary alternative to wallpaper and your room will feel larger and lighter for it. If you need a visual, this edit is dedicated to decorating with mirrors. As a couple of the samples show, you can even hang art over the mirror.
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Faux plants and flowers
Until a new generation of makers and brands changed the game, faux flowers and plants were the last word in naff. Visualise a bouquet of ‘90s fabric roses in sickly pastel colours, gathering dust on a hall table – it’s the classic calling card of a wayward relative whose heart was in the right place but their sense of taste has left the building.
The problem (before now) was the execution, rather than the concept of fake flowers. When arranging a shelf or table, we do rely on the height of flowers or foliage for impact and balance – it’s the most effective styling trick in the book. Though, they can cost a fortune if you’re not able to grow your own, so it’s tempting to make a one-time purchase that will ‘live’ forever. Thankfully, modern-day options are much better quality than the plastic trailing plants of yore. Fake flowers are cool again.
Firstly, if you want your foliage to look realistic, specialist brands such as Ett Hem London could pass as real until you inspect them up-close and they sell by the stem. Neptune and OKA also offer coulda-fooled-me bouquets and individual stems to keep your vases occupied and your vignettes looking polished. If you’re open to a less realistic look that acts as a sculpture or piece of art, invest in a handmade paper potted plant. US-based The Green Vase are well-known for their colourful paper geraniums and newer London-based brand Plants For Shade make the most beautifully detailed paper plants with hand-marbled leaves.
Design hallmarks of the ‘80s and ‘90s
This writer has a tendency to scour eBay, Oxfam bookshops, boot sales and Amazon looking for old coffee table design books and magazines that pre-date Instagram and Pinterest. For a start, you can pick them up for a couple of pounds each, but they’re also treasure troves for image and styling references that you haven’t seen a thousand times before. It’s interesting to see so many photos taken in the late ‘80s and ‘90s (especially of city apartments), looking so relevant to the current interiors mood – they could comfortably pass as recent. Just a couple of years ago in the height of our brass heyday, it seemed improbable that cool-toned, industrial-leaning stainless steel – once ubiquitous in a classic ‘90s warehouse conversion – would be so sought-after for everything from full kitchens to lighting and shelving and now here we are.
Before we became obsessed with open-plan living, glass bricks were the ultimate room dividers of the ‘80s. They allowed light into windowless rooms and carved out separate areas in the home without making them feel entirely closed off. We couldn’t get enough! As we left the noughties, they became the laughing stock of the home and we couldn’t rip them out of London flats fast enough, but what’s this? Glass blocks are cool again? Whether you love them or hate them, there’s no denying they’re having another moment. To see them in a contemporary setting, colourful glass bricks were used in abundance in a recent project by Buchanan Studios.
Another ‘80s favourite, the shallow, extra-wide tapered lampshade, was near impossible to find without going down the custom-made route not so long ago. Now, they’re being offered in high street shops once again. Similarly, matchy-matchy florals on every surface once seemed like a horrifyingly dated concept that we’d left in the past. Now we’re back to swaddling our rooms in busy prints – taking wallpaper up and over the ceiling in cosy attic bedrooms and matching lampshades to curtains to wallpaper. The trick to making this look work in 2024 is to choose a more contemporary colour palette (rather than washed-out pastels) and although box pleats can work well on lampshades and bed skirts; fussy curtain swags are a step too far. It also helps to juxtapose all of the maximalist pattern and frills with a pared-back, modern piece of furniture, just to avoid the timewarp effect.
