Kitchens have become so serious. All that granite, dark wood and stainless steel. The heart of the home these days is more like a sleek and severe shrine to haute cuisine. But kitchens don’t have to be as stressful as an episode of Top Chef. Designers are increasingly turning to retro, whimsical touches like coffee cup wallpaper, bright vintage dishware patterns, and colorful appliances and electronics to bring the fun [...]
Builder Magazine’s annual roundup of the top design trends usually doesn’t have much to say to TreeHugger types, but his year is very different, as the ideas we have discussed for years make their way into the mainstream. Trends include Make Mine Mini (malist), the shrinking of apartments and houses. People don’t need as much; one architect notes that “These kids use the city as their living room and [...]
Multi-award winning designer, Kelly Hoppen MBE, releases interior trends report for 2012 and shares with you all the knowledge you need to for this year. “This past year has been an exceptionally busy year, an endless whirl of designing interiors, launching products, writing a book and filming the first series of my Channel 5 show Superior Interiors. (more…)
Whether you enjoy trend-spotting or wrinkle your nose at the very thought, recurring trends are worth paying attention to, if for no other reason than what they say about the public taste vis-a-vis the times we’re living in. We’re talking about the return of the white kitchen, and if you’ve been in the business long enough, you’ve seen the trend before. So, why now? Depending on your point of [...]
Photo: Courtesy of The Paint Quality Institute Whether it’s the soothing effect of blues and greens or the uplifting nature of yellows and oranges, paint color plays a vital role in creating the right mood in a room. Debbie Zimmer, color expert at the Paint Quality Institute, offers insight on the psychology of popular colors. “Paint color is so powerful that it can influence our state of [...]
A Princeton-educated physicist-turned-farmer is growing more than vegetables on 30 acres in Missouri. Marcin Jakubowski is developing a collection of machines designed to build and support villages that sustain themselves with everything needed for modern life—from energy to finished products. (more…)
