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Time for a Change: Home Design Trends We Need to Leave Behind in 2020

Cooped up at home for most of the year, almost everyone got themselves busy decorating their spaces at one point or another. For sure, you’ve taken advantage of holiday sales to get new furniture and décor to beautify your rooms. While you’re still hyped about interior design ideas in these first few days of 2021, take another look at your home, this time to see which trends need to go. Trust us, you will find some that look outdated or simply impractical in functionality.

Leave these styles, furnishings, and accessories in 2020 to keep your place fresh this new year:

High-Gloss Metal Finishes

A lot of people were into this look last year, using strong, deep neutrals like black, charcoal, and navy complemented by touches of high-gloss metal finishes. It carries a modern atmosphere. But in some instances, it could also feel like it’s cold and unwelcoming. In 2021, house interior designers in the Philippines say that cool is out and coziness is in as people spend more time at home. 



From neutral tones, people are more likely to go for warm hues that make the space more inviting. From the luxury feel of metal finishes, they will go for the comfort of hardwood and clean ceilings moving forward. Swap your home’s sleek, streamlined look for a modern tropical design with a more homey feel. 

Single-Purpose Rooms and Furniture

Since almost everything happens at home now, you need to maximize the space you have. In the latter part of 2020, people have ditched single-purpose rooms. Bedrooms aren’t just sleeping areas. There’s a corner for a mini office where people can finish their work tasks and attend virtual meetings. In 2021, this trend will become even more popular. In fact, multi-purpose will not just be in rooms, but also in furnishings. This is most beneficial for small house interior designs.

Start planning how you can make rooms function in different ways. Maybe you can create a nook in your kitchen island where you can place your laptop and work while cooking. Or, you probably can include a convertible cabinet-table in your family room to make it an instant classroom for your kids.

All-White Color Scheme

The popularity of the industrial look paved the way for no-fuss color palettes, such as the all-white. But over time, this scheme looked too simple for people who spend more time in their homes now. It may even carry this cold, sterile atmosphere as some house interior designers in the Philippines noted. If you have an all-white room (or an all-neutral tone, for that matter), you may want to consider adding a pop of color this 2021. 



Perhaps you can try the brighter hue of the Pantone color of the year: yellow. Plaster a wallpaper with visually-appealing patterns on one side of the room. Get a feel of it and see if you can incorporate the colors in other parts of the space.

Maximalist Design

This is an interior design idea known for the mantra, “the bolder, the better.” From bright, vibrant hues to contrasting patterns to luxurious decor pieces, everything is big in maximalist design. But in the age where the home is always busy with remote work duties, virtual meetings, endless cooking and baking sessions, and online classes, you wouldn’t want a space that can quickly look visually tiring and cluttered.

You don’t have to let go of the style altogether if you still love bold colors and textures. All you need to do is dedicate a negative space for each of your rooms, a corner where your eyes can find rest. Remember, you don’t need to cover every surface in your room to achieve the maximalist style.

Subway Tile

These are the common fixtures you see in bathrooms and kitchens, whether in shower walls or backsplashes. They’re aesthetically pleasing as they offer a clean, streamlined look to otherwise-busy areas in the house. But the thing is, they’ve become so overused. If you’re thinking of including this in your next bathroom renovation, you’re at the risk of having a bathroom that looks like that in a condo showroom or vloggers’ house tour. Very common, in short.

Your space has to be unique. Explore other textures and patterns for your kitchen and bathroom: basketweave marble, hexagonal mosaic, or glazed bricks. These are perfect for any kind of space, even small house interior designs.

Word Art

Home sweet home” and “Thankful and blessed” art pieces hanging on the wall are cute, but like the subway tiles, they’ve become overused. Leave them in 2020. This year, you need interior design ideas that will bring new inspiration. 



Missing your annual overseas travel with the family? Put up pictures of your trips in the past years. Been into plant parenting lately? Paintings of leaves and flowers may just be what you need. Swap the word art for decor pieces that reflect your hobbies and musings so they can serve as inspiration reminders.

A lot of the interior design ideas that became big in 2020 are worth leaving in that year. The new year offers a fresh new start even for the look of your space. Grab this opportunity to welcome a good change in your home.

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Article and Photo originally posted by Business World last January 5, 2021. Minor edits have been made by REBPH to cater to its own readers.

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