Episode #166: 2023 Decor Trend Reactions

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This week, we’re chatting about trend reports. It’s so much fun to make these predictions because they’re all really just opinions—and we love opinions! 

We’re also sharing some highs and lows and a just-for-fun book report.

You can find the podcast posts archive here.

A big thank you to our sponsors! Check out the offers from Shopify, LMNT, BetterHelp, and Modern Fertility. And, if you’re looking for a specific code you heard on the podcast, you can see a full list on this page!

Show Notes:

Highs and lows:

Elsie  

High: Prioritizing creative projects

Low: Getting dark early

Emma 

High: Watched the entire series of Wednesday

Low: Had a leak in living room

Our personal trend predictions:

Elsie  

More: Historic, wallpaper, deep colors, natural wood, antiques, formal, and elaborate.

Less: Open concept everything, all-white everything, and less of a need to “update” old stuff.

Emma

More: Bookshelves that are full

Less: Wicker and rattan

Our color predictions: 

Elsie  

More: Dark wood, reds, and greens for paint colors

Less: Painting everything white

Emma 

More: Dark colors

Less: Blush pink

2023 … what’s in:

-Pinterest came up with the term “Hipstoric Home” 

-According to Forbes, “Comfortcore” 

-Moody colors and jewel tones

-Dark kitchens

-Vintage

According to IG, we will be seeing more of:

Maximalist, dark academia, ’80s and ’90s, grandpa’s cabin (@kjp), clutter core, and shades of purple

Check out @samswhurld on Instagram

2023 … what’s out:

-Clean, minimal, modern 

-The very loud statement marble

-Paint colors: gray, light pink, and green 

-Accent walls 

-White kitchens

-Light wood 

According to our IG, we will be seeing less of:

-Gray wood flooring, rattan, open concept new builds, minimalism, and farmhouse style 

Best book we’ve read recently:

Elsie – Fairy Tale by Stephen King 

Emma – In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

To find see more books that Emma reads, follow her on IG @emmaredvelvet.

Miss an Episode? Get Caught Up!

• Episode #165: New Year’s Goals and Plans
• Episode #164: Favorite Things of 2022
• Episode #163: Gift Shopping

Episode 166 Transcript:

Elsie: You’re listening to The Beautiful Mess Podcast, your cozy comfort listen. This week we’re chatting about trend reports. It’s so much fun to make these trend predictions because all they really are is opinions anyway, and we love opinions. We’re also sharing some highs and lows and doing a just for fun book report this week. So, someone requested on Instagram this week that we share a high and low, and I thought that was really sweet. I thought it, it seemed nice and like the right thing for the right time for this time of year. So, I have a high and a low to share. Mine is my high, is that I have been for the past few months prioritizing creative projects. I did a little, what do you call it, a series of videos on my Instagram before Christmas, like 12 Days of Cozy, and that was kind of a lot for me. Like I don’t usually post that much if I felt like so good. I was like, I’m doing something creative and it’s a little bit hard and it’s challenging me and it felt like it felt very energized by it and it was a good way to start the new year. And then, yeah, I’ve been like painting and writing and I have this weird project that I can’t even really get into, but it’s like consuming my life. So that is, my high lately is just like the creative endorphins are flowing around like wildfire, but my low is getting early, dark. Getting early dark is so hard. It is so early. A lot of times it’s four 30 and we have the type of house where our back part of our house is all glass doors. So it’s very affected by the natural light. Every time Emma comes over, she’s like, what? You don’t turn on any lights. Like we hardly turn on any lights. We just have natural light all the time. And then, at night we have a few lamps and stuff, but like I honestly I like this way of living. 

Emma: Yeah. Or like the pioneer days when they would just light a candle at night and then just go to sleep and the candle went out. It’s like that Elsie’s house.

Elsie: It’s like that. So anyway, I find it just really difficult this time of year for me. And maybe it’s just like I’m strategically doing it wrong, but I just think there’s less useful hours in every day because everything happens earlier. We’re eating dinner earlier just because it’s getting dark and it’s making us feel like it’s nighttime. And then we’re watching TV earlier and then I’m even like getting into bed much earlier. And I guess, to be fair, I am waking up earlier. But anyway, the next few months for me is just surviving and not really thriving. mmhmm. Do you have a high and low to share? 

Emma: I do. So my high is I finally got into and watched the whole series of Wednesday. I think it’s just called Wednesday. 

Elsie: Oh yeah, I watched this too. 

Emma: Wednesday Adams on Netflix. I’ve been out for a little bit, so I’m late to the game. But speaking of hibernation stuff, if you haven’t seen it, I loved it. I thought the first episode I was kind of like unsure, cuz I think you never know like what the vibe’s gonna be or like what level this genre is or whatever. Like who’s the target? I feel like they should just say that when you start an episode of a new series, be like, our target demographic is the, you’d be like, oh, okay, great. It really vibes like a Harry Potter movie to me in some ways. Like it’s high school kids solving a mystery and they’re all little weirdos because they have special powers and it’s like really fun. So I loved it though. There’s like a high school dance, there’s like a little competition where they rope boats. There’s all sorts of just little things like that where I’m like, this is charming and I. All right, so that’s my high. And then my low was, the other morning I woke up and it had rained a lot the night before, and we found this weird little leak in our living room by the front door. It was one of those moments where you see a bubble in the wall because water has gotten in underneath. We don’t have wallpaper, but just like underneath the like, paper on the drywall, I guess, or the paint, I don’t really know. So have to have someone over to find where that leak’s coming from, the siding or the roof. And it’s one of those things where we spent so much money on this house last year to renovate before we moved in, and it was just such a long process. And so when you see something broken or like that, you’re like, oh no, it’s just so defeating, but it’s really not a big deal. It’s a small leak, not a big deal.

Elsie: Everyone who has renovated understands, and if you haven’t ever renovated, it feels like this, the level of work that you put into, if you can imagine your outfit for prom or your wedding or like just some kind of thing where you spent a lot of effort on one isolated thing. And then say you get an orange spray tan or something, and that’s just like horrible. Just something horrible. Actually, that’s not really a good example. 

Emma: You get a little bit of red sauce, you’re eating a piece of pizza and you’re wedding dress cuz you’re a chump like me. 

Elsie: That’s a better example. Cause it’s just like the smallest thing you can’t handle. And after you’ve done a long renovation, you’re emotionally exhausted from like paying the big checks and making all the decisions. It doesn’t matter if it’s illogical or if it’s something that isn’t even that expensive or isn’t even that big of a deal, it’s like you can’t handle things for a little while. So yeah, I do have a lot of compassion for you Emma. I been in just that situation? 

Emma: Yeah. It’s just a recent low, not a big deal, but you know, everyone has things like that, but we had that this week, so I was like, oh man. 

Elsie: Boo. Okay, so this week’s episode is our 2023 trend predictions episode. So we are sharing our own predictions. We are reacting to predictions. I spent a whole afternoon, recently reading all the articles on the first page of Google, watching all the top TikTok videos of all the things people think. And before we get into it, I just have to say a little bit of a disclaimer. It’s like this every year. First of all, this episode is just for fun and I totally get it. Like anytime you bring up, even just the word trends, some people, a small group of people freak out and they’re like, trends are horrible. You should never follow a trend. You should just do what you love. And like the thing is, we know. You should do what you love and like we’re not telling you to change anything about anything. This is just for fun. And it’s honestly just like something fun to talk about. Like I just enjoy keeping up with what’s in style and obviously, some of it’s not for me. And then obviously some of it I’m like more into and like we should all have that and we should all have the confidence to be okay with that and exist in a world where like some trends are turning us off and turning us on, whatever. And then the other thing about it is, I think this is where it gets kind of messy, the designers at the forefront, the interior designers who have big Instagram accounts where it’s like all they do is try to do something different and show their talents and it’s like a portfolio or a magazine cover and things like that. That is one part of the spectrum. And the other part of the spectrum is like what House flippers are doing this year. So just keep in mind that whatever, Miss Cool lady designer, she’s like painting her kitchen purple and everyone’s like, oh, that’s so weird. But then in four or five years, it takes four or five years. For the house slippers to do the exact same thing. And that is how green paint started. That is how white kitchen started. That’s how everything starts. That’s how everything goes. And it’s okay for me, I would say I’m in the middle of that spectrum. I’m not cutting edge. I’m not behind. I’m just average. I’m like an average hyped home person. Anyway, no matter where you are on the spectrum, just give yourself a thumbs up. 

Emma: But then also I sometimes think of it more like I’m a person just sitting in the crowd watching a runway show. I don’t really feel the pressure of, I have to wear this, or I have to do this in my home. I just wanna see what’s new. Yes. I just wanna see what the designers are coming out with, and if it’s something that I did two or three years ago, then I can pat myself on the back and it’s something that I’m gonna do two or three years from now. Well, that’s fine too. Who cares? 

Elsie: Yeah. So just take it from us. We will lead by example. There’s some things on the going out list that we like that we’re doing. And we don’t care. 

Emma: Honestly, the going out list is a lot of what my current house that I just did looks like . So get ready.

Elsie: Okay. So before we jump into what the internet thinks, let’s give some of our personal predictions. So these will probably be pretty different because Emma and I like different stuff, and that’s good that we’re not exactly the same. This is what I am seeing slash I want to see slash what my algorithm shows me because I already like it. I am seeing more historic, more wallpaper, more jewel tones, more deep colored rooms, more natural wood and dark wood. More antiques and more formal rooms, more elaborate. For the less, I’m seeing less open concept. I’m seeing less all white, less of a need to, when you flip a house, to update every single thing to be new and just to say, where I am in life. I would rather live in the home alone house exactly as it is, even with the tile countertops, with no revisions, then live in any farmhouse, modern mansion that has been built in the last 10 years. So I just like the old, cozy. And then my color predictions, I think way more dark wood. I think dark wood is definitely happening. I think reds and greens and I think tones like jewel tones, purples, more emerald green, things like that. And then like wine colored. Oh my gosh. Earlier today I was showing curtain sample just to my kids because I was just trying to keep them chilled while my husband was on a phone call. But anyway, I was like, look at this thing. I have curtain samples. And Goldie was like, I want this one, his was called Red Wine, she’s so funny. Okay. Anyway, what I’m seeing less of, I think we will see less in the. next five to 10 years less painting everything white. I think that is something from the past that was super cool. It was like white on white, on white, on white, on white, on white with a tiny bit of gold. That was everything from my past homes and what I was into for a long time. And now I think the time to paint your furniture white has ended. And I think it’s more about colors and natural wood. And then I think also more contrast. And one last thing I’ve heard people say kitchen trends goes every 10 years from light to dark, light to dark. And it is now starting to transition into the dark 10 years. So for the next few years, you will probably see more and more kitchens with wood, kitchens with darker colors, darker cabinet colors. Like Emma has just done a darker color and we’ll probably see less of the white, but I personally am a defender of the white kitchen. I just think that people are going a little more like cream. It’s not like white cabinets with a pure white counter. Maybe there’s some darker marble or other elements. So anyway, there’s more than one way to do it. What are your predictions? 

Emma: Okay. Yes. I have some predictions and then a confession. Predictions first. So what I think is in is bookshelves that are full. So like the library vibe. I think a library vibe, people are into that. It’s a cozy vibe. It’s actually kind of expensive too, to have that many books on your shelf. Anyway, libraries or just full bookshelves, that kind of feeling. And then I also think darker colors of paint are still in. For the record I actually I don’t think my kitchen’s that dark, I would put it in the middle. It’s not a white kitchen, although I still love a white kitchen, but mine is not. It is a green kitchen. So stuff that’s out is, I’m not seeing as much wicker and rattan. I’m not seeing as much of that. I still love it, but I just feel like it was having a heyday and I’m not seeing it as much now. 

Elsie: I agree. That’s one of the things that like, it pains me to say it cuz I do, I love my wicker. But I don’t think it’s on the way up as a trend. It’s definitely on the way down. And it doesn’t mean like you can’t have it.

Emma: Don’t get rid of it. Don’t get rid of it or anything. But I just don’t think it’s like having a hay day anymore. 

Elsie: It’s not an exploding trend anymore, for sure. 

Emma: And then I also think blush pink is final. I always will love pink, but I feel like the blush is kind of not as popular right now. I’m not seeing it being used in interesting ways right now. 

Elsie: I think that a muddy pink, like the pinky beige is the new, like trendy pink color. And like the pastel, the Easter egg type of color is not as much. 

Emma: Yep. And I would agree. And then my confession is, I think in part because we renoed last year and all that, I’m just in a space where I’m like, not that into home decor. I shouldn’t even say that on our podcast. You probably would never guess that from what I like to do for a living. But I’m just more into like crafting and cooking and I don’t know, I think I’m just a little burnt out on it and I’m trying to think of how to make my office, my home office that I’m sitting in right now, Elsie you can see it something a little more interesting. But it just looks pretty boring. Yeah, it’s just like white based. 

Elsie: It looks just like a white room that doesn’t have anything. 

Emma: It does not look like a blogger’s home office at all. But I just can’t, I don’t know. I’m just not feeling it. I think it’ll only be this way for some time. I think I’m just in a little burnout phase. I’m just kind of like, eh, whatever. 

Elsie: To be fair to you. She said to me privately last year that she didn’t like doing the trend episode. I love the trend episode. We will do it every year because one of us likes it, and I can be honest about that and I do think that renovation burnout is a real thing when you’ve been through six months or more of it. You do need a break. That’s really, really normal. 

Emma: Yeah, I’m not really looking at that much new stuff lately. I’ve noticed that I’ve unfollowed a number of like just interior accounts. Not cuz I dislike them or anything, I just don’t feel very inspired by that type of content, right now. I’m really into cookies and weird charm bracelets. That’s what I’m digging, so I don’t know. 

Elsie: I do think it’s like a cycle of health to take breaks from things that gave you burnout and your home renovation last year was not a pleasant experience for you and now you are ready for the break time. I think that’s good. 

Emma: Yeah. I just need a little break so I’m not as up on things. But anyway, sort of a side note. I just think it’s a funny confession for this episode, so I was like, I’m just gonna say it. 

Elsie: Yeah, well let me say before we jump into the, what’s in according to the internet. The opinions go all over the place, so I kind of cherry picked the things I agree with. The things I like, the things I thought were interesting perspectives or funny, or I hadn’t heard before. But I would say for a large part, people just don’t agree. It’s actually kind of weird. Like one person will be like, ax, accent walls haven’t been cool for 10 years, and then another person will be like, axon Walls were the biggest trend of the year last year. And it’s like, oh my God, we get it we don’t share notes. We just got the random stuff. There is definitely a few new things this year that I haven’t seen in years past. So first of all, I went with Pinterest Predicts and it’s like a trend prediction thing for the year. It’s kinda like a mood board, but it did not have a lot of home stuff on it. A lot of it was like fashion or other things. The only home specific one that they had, I loved this term. I’ve never heard of before, was the hip historic home. And I do think that’s a great way to put it, but I think what it means is basically like a historic home where you are embracing and honoring the heritage of the home by filling it with old things, but also weird stuff combined. So some weird art, some things that are personal to you and your family, but also, kind of just like decorating along with the era of your home, which I think that’s a great perspective and a great way to decorate. Okay, the next one, tell me if you love this or hate it, is according to Forbes, the thing that has been in, the thing that is going to continue is called Comfort Core. So it’s again, with the Gen Z thing where we have to put core at the end of every word. But I feel like this is just a continuation of the last three years of trend predictions were influenced by the pandemic and they were a lot about not having any uncomfortable chairs in your home, not having any sofas or chairs that you don’t use. It’s like we’re past this point in human history where we have sitting rooms where no one sits in them. And I think that we all kind of agree that’s like a good like we should use our homes. 

Emma: Yeah, I think we’re all on that page. I think.

Elsie: Yes, and what I consider comfortable and what you consider comfortable, I think could be significantly different for each person. Like I’m like all about a king size bed. I’m all about a sectional. Like not everyone cares about those things. Everyone’s a little bit different. 

Emma: Yeah, when I hear the word comfort core, I’m like, okay so we’re just wearing robes every day. That’s where were at. But no, I mean, it could just be comfortable pants. They can still be jeans. At different levels, different things for different people. 

Elsie: Yeah. I think filling your home with things that bring you comfort is definitely 10 out of 10. What we should all be doing. Okay, so let’s talk about the moody colors and the jewel tones. This was on pretty much every list. This is one of the things that the internet agrees on is that all white rooms are basically, out and colorful rooms or moody rooms are more in. I think it’s interesting, it makes perfect sense along with the kitchen thing, where it’s like we’re going back and forth, back and forth. I think that human need for change is just a reflection of that, and I honestly, I like it. I am fine with it. I think that redecorating your home every 10 years to feel a little bit more like quote-unquote, current. Sounds good to me. I have no issues with it. I think the jewel tones and moody colors and darker colors aren’t for everyone. So I would say, and they’re not for every room, so I would say find the rooms where that shine with them and don’t try to force it on yourself. If you want a white kitchen, get a white kitchen. You know what I mean? If that’s what makes you feel like clean and fresh and happy, still do that. Okay. So my mood room testimonial is this, you know that little room I have at the top of my stairs where the hidden library is, but it’s it connects the hallway in my bedroom. It’s not even really a room. It’s like a foyer or a landing spot. And it was a nothing space for almost the whole time we lived there, but when we put in the hidden library the way it was basically the armoire was too big for the space, so we had to make a design compromise. And the compromise that we chose that was the least bad was to push it and set it into the wall. So the from the front you can’t really tell, but from the side it’s like half an armoire is there and then it’s drywalled around it. It does not look like a free standing armoire from the side. But I knew in the back of my mind that like wallpapering around it would conceal that quite a bit. So, As soon as I knew we had to make that compromise, I was like, okay, let’s get some wallpaper in here and it will be fine. And then we did the trim to match and it turned out pretty significantly darker than a lot of the other spaces in our home. And I do not think of myself as a moody person, I would say I’ve definitely identified in light bright. I think I’m very known for like pink and gold. This little room changed my life I love it so much, it’s so vibey in there that it inspired me for the future to do more rooms that are more, bold. So, yeah, I feel like just try it one time if you’re not sure is my advice.

Emma: Yeah, for sure. I also like that we tend to kind of cycle through different colors because I don’t know, it’s not that colors have feelings, but I think it’s nice that it’s not like these colors are good and these colors are bad. They kind of all have their time in the sun, so I think it’s fun. In our house we have quite a bit of green in the house. We have one area that’s more of a dark, almost kind of jewel, Tony Green. And then our kitchen is more of a middle of the road, not super dark green, and our bedroom is kind of a terracotta pink, and we painted the walls and the ceiling and like all the trims. So it feels very moody in there. 

Elsie: It’s very reflective, it changes the color of your skin and it feels very, cool when you’re in there. 

Emma: Yeah. It’s very vibey. So it’s a real chill zone. And then, our room that has the screen, the TV projector, it also has the ceiling painted, so it also kind of changes the color of your skin and just feels like moody in there, which is nice. But a lot of our house is also white. I think that although white is maybe on its way out, it is kind of nice for those low light times of year, at least here in the Midwest. Cuz I feel like it helps a little bit. As far as like getting a little more reflective sunlight in your house for a little while.

Elsie: I would definitely defend that I definitely don’t want every single part of my house to be a dark color. It creates a nice flow. But I think that what they’re saying is more just like a white room where white is always your paint color for your walls as the default is no longer the move. Which I like that, I think is nice to change it up. We talked a little bit about dark kitchens. I think beyond the cabinetry, the colors, I’ve seen people choosing more darker warm colors, like a brick red or a plumb type of color, which are really interesting. Also, dark wood and also I think just going beyond the white countertop. Even in a kitchen that is quote-unquote white kitchen it could be a little bit more like beige type of color on the cabinetry, and then a little more of a darker marble. And that even makes a very big difference. I think it’s gonna be a fun time for kitchens because even though I am a lover of white kitchens, it’s kind of boring to look at. It’s like we’ve seen it all. So I have been enjoying seeing people take more risks, specifically with the kitchen, cuz I feel like that was just not really happening for a while and now it’s starting to be like, ooh, pretty, like getting pretty out there. I wanna take a risk at some point in my life when I get on my next kitchen, I wanna be a little more risky.

Emma: I’m sure you will. 

Elsie: Okay, so vintage. I wanted to ask you, vintage is always on our list every year, but I’m like, is it because it’s always in style or is it because someone is always thinking it’s a new idea every year, even though it’s not? Or is it just because I’m the one making these lists?

Emma: Yeah, I dunno. That’s a good question. I also think too, what vintage? Because I feel there was a time where it was like absolutely everyone was crushing on mid-century modern. And now I think people are a little more interested in like older, more historical type, earlier century type things. So I think it also depends, what do you mean by vintage? Cuz I think that’s it., Vintage is always in, but I think we’re kind of crushing on certain eras at different times. Also to our niece, Y2K is vintage. 

Elsie: So according to our Instagram, people were saying, here’s what they say is coming into style. Maximalist, which I agree with, just like the more is more look, we’re trying to keep the Kim Kardashian very simple rooms. Not as much anymore. More like bring it all in dark academia, which I don’t think, if you don’t know what it is, it’s pretty much like the Wednesday Adams show aesthetic, it’s like an old library. Lots of books and lots of dark wood and SCOs and candles and things like that. And then eighties and nineties, which to me are two completely different things. Not a unit of one, but I definitely have seen that our friend, her Instagram account was called Sam’s World. I will link her in her show notes. I think she’s the cutest and best version of an eighties aesthetic that I’ve seen. I love it. I recently visited her home and it’s such a vibe. And then for nineties, I actually feel I’m vibing more in this direction because of what I was saying earlier about the Home Alone house. Just like the colors from that era, I have been waiting and waiting for them to make a comeback. They were sort of like the old lady colors of our childhood. Sort of like what you would see in a traditional home in our childhood and in our teen years. And then they became pretty much obsolete for a long time. People just did not ever use red and green together in a room. And now you’re seeing it again a lot. And I’m into it, I like it. And then, when someone said the term grandpa’s cabin, which I take it to mean KJP style, so we’re wearing a lot of flannel. We have our thermos. I definitely support the grandpa’s cabin aesthetic if that’s a real thing that’s happening. I love it. And I wanna see your house. And then people say clutter core. I feel like that’s another extra, I don’t even know what it means, but if it means sounds like maximalist sounds like the same thing. I’ve seen people say it to mean, what I think of as a very curated, like say that you have your dresser and then on your dresser instead of having one mirror set there you have five and they’re kind of overlapping. And some people would call that clutter core. And to that, I would just say that’s not clutter. That is very intentional, nice decor. So I don’t know. I think we just have different opinions about what it means. I don’t want a cluttery house on purpose, but everyone has one on accident sometimes. I don’t know. I feel like it’s a little, it’s weird. 

Emma: My son’s nursery is very clutter core.

Elsie: If that’s what we’re calling it, then I’m gonna say I don’t support it as a trend. And then the last one is shades of Purple, this is for sure a trend that’s happening widely. There’s lots of different types of purple you can pick your favorite. And then for 2023, what’s out according to the internet? So people say all these things every year, but I don’t know. Clean, minimal, modern. I do think that for a while in the early, how do you say, early 2010s? In that era, I think that it was like the more modern, the better, if it’s old, make it modern. And now that I think that idea is not as much in play. But I still think that like minimalism to me, I will always defend a cool mid-century home. So that’s never gonna be outta style. It’s just like if you’re a mid-century home, be a mid-century home. Anyway, the loud statement marble, I put two question marks by this, I think it’s 50/50. I think that maybe for people who are just so cutting edge, maybe for you, it’s been in style for a few years because we’ve been seeing it for a few years. But I also think that there’s so many thousands of people who have been saving up to renovate or planning their next renovation or just don’t care. I wanna try that. I think countertops are just, they have to be a slower thing to go in and out of style because people are slower to change them, right? It’s not like our nails. So I would say on the loud marble statement, marble, I would call, neutral. I don’t think it’s in style or outta style. I think it’s just like, do you wanna do that or not?

Emma: Yeah. That’s what I would say too, cuz I think it’s so beautiful. But it kind of has to be its own thing in a way. Otherwise, you’re doing clutter core. 

Elsie: Yeah, maybe for like magazine people, just because they’ve featured it so much. Maybe for them it’s a little bit outta style, but it’s just because it’s been hugely spread. 

Emma: I mean the only reason I don’t have loud statement marble in my kitchen where we have the peninsula with the waterfall is cuz I didn’t have enough money for it. Cuz otherwise I would’ve loved it. 

Elsie: Let’s just not call that a trend. It’s also, to me the evilest thing you can do is call someone’s brand new $20,000 countertops out of style. Okay, so paint colors. People are saying out-of-style gray but we’ve been hearing that forever. Light pink, we’ve been hearing that forever. Green, I would say honestly, if you’re a snob, maybe, but for most people I think it’s gonna stay for a few more years. 

Emma: I also like green to me is one of those colors that a lot of people, whether you’re married or you have a roommate, whatever, but you’re designing a space with another person who might not want, say the new purple that’s in. I think green is a good meaning grout. 

Elsie: I think that’s why so many people have embraced it as their statement color because I think it’s an easy statement color. And it’s a little bit more interesting than navy. 

Emma: Just a different option from navy, I would say. Because they’re both kind of nice in a very similar vibe in a way.

Elsie: I don’t really think paint colors can be out of style, but do what you will. Okay, accent walls, I personally think that accent walls are kind of outta style. I personally would rather have my wallpaper go all the way around, or if it has to be just one wall I would do just the ceiling. But that’s also like a personal preference. I have done an accent wall in this home for my kids room because I knew that I wouldn’t wanna keep it forever, and as it turns out, my four-year-old picked it off the wall and damaged it so much that I had to take it down after like a year. It was like her hobby every night. I don’t have a strong opinion about accent walls. What do you think? 

Emma: I honestly don’t love them, either. So I can see why they’re on the list. But I do also think they really have their place, especially kids’ rooms. And also, every now and again there’s a room that it just really makes sense to just paint or wallpaper one portion cuz it might be shaped in a weird way. I’m just like let it be. 

Elsie: If you are doing it just to save money though, I will say, to do the little piece of trim and then do just the half, the top half part is nice. Doing just the ceiling is nice, but do what you want. I don’t think accent walls is a big trend one way or another, personally. Okay, white kitchens, I do agree with the thing that darker kitchens are going to be coming more in, but I do think it’s gonna take a few more years before it’s really seen and felt. Cuz you have to see it in a lot of houses that you love and say, it’s what you have to be pinning and I think that trends like that take a while to catch on. I think it’s definitely coming around, but if you just built a white kitchen, don’t freak out. These trends, it’s not like if you’re wearing a Gucci belt or whatever. What are the things that kids say are bad, whatever. It’s not like that. 

Emma: I also just think white is a nice neutral. I could see house flippers doing this for a long, long time because you can always paint your lower cabinets if they’re already painted. Where as if they’re wood, then you kind of have to decide if you wanna leave it. I just feel like it’s an already made choice for you. So I never mind if like brick is already painted white, even if I’m not going to keep it that way. It doesn’t really make me upset or anything. 

Elsie: That’s true. Also, I think that’s the thing I hadn’t considered yet is a size of kitchen, a very, very tiny, small kitchen. Maybe the best choice is still white. I’m gonna try on the next couple to have a more definitive opinion and not just be like, either way is great. Because this is a trans episode and I am trying to be opinionated, so light wood, I definitively do think that people will start shifting more towards darker wood over the next couple years.

Emma: Yeah, that seems accurate to me. Although personally, I’ll probably always prefer light wood. I just don’t love dark wood. I love harry Potter and I loved wednesday, but I just don’t really wanna live in the academia. It’s just not my thing.

Elsie: And then according to our Instagram, we will be seeing less of gray wood flooring. I think that’s just a get it outta here. If you have gray floors already, I’m sorry, but if you are putting in floors and you have a choice between gray or Brown, choose Brown, definitely choose brown. Because I do think that the problem with gray is that it is like of timestamp from five years ago and no other time in history were people doing gray wood floors except for this just like recent trend. 

Emma: It just feels a little sterile to me too. People will say that about white, and I actually don’t feel that way. I feel like white can feel at times, cozy. It depends. But it’s the light gray wood floors that I’m like, feels a little sterile. That’s just me. But that’s how I feel. 

Elsie: I agree. But gray is my personal least favorite, neutral. So I never like it, and I’m always a hater. The next one is rattan. I am a big rattan person, but I will say I do agree that it’s not a new trend. It’s not an up and coming trend. It’s an old trend, and I still will definitely keep my beloved rattan and wicker lamps that I love. I just love them, but I probably will not add a whole bunch more. And the other thing is that during times when Rotan isn’t as popular, I remember 10 years ago in my first home, I got a peacock chair and I painted it, and for the past five years I never, ever would’ve painted anything. And now I’m like, actually I think I would paint again, a rattan bar cart or something like that. I think would be really cute and adorable painted. So I think maybe on the times when it’s off, then maybe that’s a good time to paint it. I know some people think that’s a sin, but I don’t care. 

Emma: Yeah, It’s not a sin, everybody calm down.

Elsie: A lot of it’s already painted because a lot of it is the white, the grandma style porch furniture? Which I love, and you can paint that any color you want. Hopefully guilt-free. This next one is so controversial, open concept, new builds. So I have personal experience with this, I am just gonna say this is honest. I’m just being honest. I don’t like open concept new builds, but I don’t think they’re going outta style. I do think that’s what people want, and I do think that maybe it’ll be a little bit less. Because I think it’s pretty extreme, but I think a lot of people want it, and I think it’s a selling feature for a lot of people, right now. 

Emma: I mean, here’s what I think. I think that thoughtful, open concept rooms and builds will always be in style, but just not thinking at all, and let’s just leave this wide open is not good anymore. I think we would’ve taken it before and now we’re like, no, this feels like a big open cave and we don’t like it. But a thoughtful open concept is, I think always good because there are rooms that it just makes more sense. It just feels better and it would actually feel really closed in and kind of sad or make it impossible to entertain, impossible to have any amount of guests over. So there’s spaces where it just makes sense to have some open concept. And then there’s other times you’re in a room and you’re like, Wow. It feels like there’s an echo everywhere I go, even though there’s a million rugs in here, just this big cave of a room, and it’s no good. It’s no fun. It doesn’t feel good. It feels weird. It feels like you’re in a weird office building and you’re like, I’d like to just hang out in this house, but it doesn’t feel good. Has to be thoughtful. 

Elsie: Yeah, when we moved into our McMansion, which is built in the nineties, and this was open, this was not about the kitchen, this was about the living spaces, like the entryway, living room and dining room, were all one room. And when we defined them to make them still open with big arch doorways, but they’re slightly more closed in. It’s more defined, and for me it’s so much better, like huge improvement. I think it could just be as simple as that. Just having a little bit more definition. If I were house shopping right now, I would not look at a house that had the kitchen and the living space with no walls in between. I just don’t like that as a consumer and according to my realtor, I think so many people do like that. It’s interesting. 

Emma: I think it depends on the house and the square footage and a number of things. 

Elsie: That’s true. I think open concept on smaller homes makes so much sense. And then the bigger your home gets maybe makes a little bit less sense. It is a huge trend that in future years, the good news is if someone wants a little bit more definition, it was so easy for me to add those little walls, little framing, little drywall, little bit of trim work. It was not hard to fix it and I think in the future if people want to close in their rooms a little bit more, that will be pretty easily done. Minimalism, I have no comment. I don’t think I’m an expert about minimalism. And farmhouse style think this has been on the list probably all three or four times we’ve done this episode, however many years it’s been. This is always on the list, but I do think officially it is not really a trend anymore because even the people who were iconic farm style, like Joanna Gaines and the Studio McGee lady, they like don’t do those styles anymore. They’ve evolved too. So I definitely think that the shiplap everything style is from the past decade now. 

Emma: Yeah. I think it’s kind of evolved. We just did so much of it cuz it was so popular because it is really lovely, but I think it’s just evolved. So now it’s kind of broader. 

Elsie: Yeah. I think it’s evolved into either more of a broader historic type of style or more of a, I don’t know what to call it, like the Amber Interiors type of style. It’s sort of modern, but it’s sort of rustic.

Emma: I don’t know what to call that, but yes.

Elsie: Anyway, we agree. We get it. Okay, that was fun. I hope that whatever your pet peeve trend is, don’t do it. Whatever the trend that you love the most is definitely do it. Hear what I’m saying? That’s what we all have to do. I think it’s cool to be different. It is always has been and it always will be.

Emma: Yeah, it is. And it’s like, do what feels right for you and your family. If you need some dark wood and you don’t love it in your house, but your husband loves it, just get some dark wood man. Who cares? It’ll come back into style. It’s coming in now and it’ll go back out again. It doesn’t really matter. Just try to find a happy cozy space.

Elsie: You can change most things. Except for maybe $20,000 marble countertops. Okay, that was fun. I personally just love trends. I love observing the changes. I like how it cycles and I think it’s something not to fight against, it’s something to embrace and sort of celebrate. Cuz it just means we’re all redecorating is a form of entertainment and a form of nesting. It just makes some of us happy to do it over and over again. So subject change before we go. I thought it would be fun to do a book report, cuz we used to do these all the time on the podcast. And then when we started the book club, I kind of stopped putting them in the outlines. But we definitely read books all the time that we don’t talk about on the podcast. You wanna do a book report? 

Emma: Yeah, for sure. This is just what we’ve been reading lately, what we thought of it. And for me, if you wanna see other books I’m reading that are or aren’t in the book club, then you can follow me on Instagram or just check it. You don’t even have to follow me, but it’s Emma Red Velvet. I put pretty much every book I’m reading most of the time on my Instagram, so you can find it there. But what I’m reading currently is a very old book. I’m reading in Cold Blood by Truman Capote right now. I started it over the Christmas break. I actually bought it off the thrift. 

Elsie: That’s a mystery right?

Emma: No, actually it is non-fiction, although there is quite a bit of controversy around it because people say that he perhaps embellished some or added things that he couldn’t have possibly known. But he spent a lot of time with the murderers. There’s two murderers and he was in the town where the murder took place, so he met lots of people there. So it’s non-fiction. Some people consider it the first true crime investigation, but I don’t know if it really is. There may have been something before it. I imagine there was, but at any rate, it’s something different from some, many of the other books that he wrote.

And it’s really lovely though. It’s very poet. If you’ve never read a treatment quote, he’s one of those masterful writers where you can read an entire chapter, it can be however many pages, 10 pages or more, and then you get to the end, you kind of realize the only thing that happened was a farmer left his house to start tending his fields or something. That’s all that actually happened but it was just, beautiful. And it’s still kind of a journey and a ride. He’s just one of those writers that you can really get like wrapped up in it. So it’s very fun. And it also does feel, in a way in a certain period, in a certain time. I haven’t read this in a very long time, and I can’t remember if I read it all before, but he’s sort of a strange person to be in this small town. He’s a very New York, artistic man, and then he’s in this kind of very farming community. So it’s a really fun, interesting it’s like you’re really getting this outsider’s perspective, but he also is extremely, you can tell he’s very empathetic and like friends with people he’s meeting and talking to. So anyway, it’s a very fun book. It’s a weird book, but it’s very fun and there’s a reason it’s famous. It’s quite good, I think. 

Elsie: Nice. That’s cool. I’ve never heard of that before. 

Emma: And it was a real murder that took place and it’s extremely tragic, but I’m one of those people that listens to a lot of true crime. I am almost used to hearing about a lot of murder. But this one’s obviously very sad and it affected the entire community cuz it’s sort of a small town. So I think he does actually a great job letting us learn about the victims and who they were and what wonderful people they were and the effect that their deaths had on the community. It’s kind of cool. So I like that too. Anyway, that’s what I’m reading. 

Elsie: Nice. The book that I finished right before Christmas is Fairytale by Stephen King. I loved it so much. I thought it was a masterpiece. I was very curious when I saw the cover and I thought it was called fairytale, it was like, is he influenced by all these fairy. It’s like fairies, ferries, and ferries. But the answer is no. He is not influenced by the fairy at all. It is more just his take on classic fairy tales like Jack in the Beanstalk and The Wizard of Oz, and like all of those sorts of fairy tales. It is very beautiful. It is very long. I will say Stephen King is my absolute icon and I’m in love with him. But for my birthday, my husband got me a Stephen King coffee table book. I’m in love with him, but his books take so long to get started that it’s like hard for me. I feel like it’s just not as common anymore. It’s something that I have to devote myself to is like the groundwork of how many hours of reading it takes to get to the fairytale. So anyway, I’m not saying that to diminish it. I’m saying it more to like, if you’re gonna read it, don’t get discouraged, push through and do read the whole thing. It’s so amazing. 

Emma: I think fantasy can be like that too, where there’s a good amount of world building or lots of characters to introduce and it’s kind of like the first part of the book, it’s a syllabus for the class you’re about to take and you’ve gotta get through that part and then it’s great, but a little bit of groundwork. 

Elsie: Yeah, I think that Stephen King just has really, really, really long books and I’m just not used to it. The pacing is just really different from a lot of books I read are half the length, have to give it the time. So we will be back next week with our first Comfort rewatch episode. So if you want to pregame with us and be prepared, the movie we’re talking about next week is, It’s Complicated. It’s a Nancy Myers film from 2009 and it is hilarious. So we’ll be back next week.

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