Local interior designers and home furnishing stores are seeing commonalities in what home owners are looking for, particularly as they hit the off-decorating season that lasts through winter, and what trends might be ahead in 2016.
At the Tippy Canoe, an interior design shop at 925 Main Avenue, pieces that exemplify winter and cold, mountain weather are moving right now, owner Sharon Taylor said.
That includes all types of fur blankets and rugs, Southwestern-inspired Pendleton blankets and, particularly with the tourists and second-home buyers, snowsports-related wall decor.
People are also warming up their homes with darker-hued furniture.
“Darker wood for furniture is in more than lighter wood,” Taylor said. “And people are going for an eclectic look by mixing furniture with different shades of wood in their homes.”
David Kolb, owner of Casa Decor at 525 Main Ave., is also noticing an uptick in interest in dark furniture, though his business primarily sells lighter-colored pieces made from fallen Aspen wood.
Local antique and furnishing stores are just now hitting the post-holiday lag in sales, which most say lasts from about January through March.
“In the summer, it’s a whole different ball game because people are buying outside planters, yard art and outside furniture,” said Laura Rickard, who owns ReRuns home furnishing store on East Sixth Avenue. “This time of year, people go for stuff that is much more tucked in, in terms of warming up the inside of their homes with decor rather than go for the big stuff for patios. Spring drives that interest, when I can put things outside and attract people in with what’s on display.”
Reflecting on the past year’s trends, Marianne Forker of Front Door Designs said color palettes have shifted, and hues that trended in the early 2000s are seeing a resurgence 15 years later.
“Grays, blues, turquoise and peacock colors, those were big back in the early 2000s,” Forker said. “It repeats.”
Trending colors for interior design debut in European cities, typically Paris, and shades of blue are making a comeback, Forker said. She uses those colors on rooms throughout the house, from bedrooms to kitchens.
Girls’ bedrooms are diverting from standard pink and purple, and more are being painted lime green and shades of yellow. People are also abandoning carpets except in bedrooms in favor of wood-lookalike flooring, using rugs to bring in color.
In the kitchen, backsplashes and traditional white cabinets are making a comeback, she said. “It used to be everything was painted beige or brown, but white and black are coming back.”
Some decorators reported seeing less oil-rubbed bronze and more rose-gold and black metal for faucets and fixtures. And honey and caramel-toned cabinets are out, while dark or blonde woods are in, according to Erin White Sinberg, a decorator specializing in cabinets at Aspen Design Studio.
Other recurring requests are for high-gloss cabinetry, large tiles for fireplaces, kitchen island bars built at counter-height and retro, over-the-top bathrooms.
“People are getting fancy with their powder rooms with really funky wall covers, high-gloss black, gold fixtures and wallpaper,” White Sinberg said. “They remind you of the 1970s, and I think people are really going all-out because they’re small areas.”
But one evergreen home design trend custom home builders, interior decorators and home furnishing suppliers agree across the board is trending year-round: the “Rocky Mountain contemporary” aesthetic.
Designers achieve the look by going modern with large furniture, and Western with accent decoration.
“They’re not buying old leather sofas anymore,” Forker observed. “You see things with urban flair, like chunky wood with iron, but then they might decorate with paintings of horses or trees, or Western-looking rugs. Traditional is going away in favor of transitional.”
jpace@durangoherald.com
