The Vertical Arts design team is always looking for the next design trends to add a wow factor to projects – if even for an accent wall or one-room feature. Here are a few we’ve integrated recently that stand out and can be easily incorporated into a mountain home aesthetic.
Design Trends for Your Mountain Home
We continue to see the disappearance of all-white kitchens. In fact, our team hasn’t designed a completely white kitchen for years. As we noted to Architectural Digest, it creates a clean look, but homeowners are now seeking kitchens with more depth and texture. Shifting from all whites to a bolder choice in paint color, flooring and backsplash allows homeowners to be creative with the space and let some of their personality shine through. We first saw this through the integration of more colorful patterns into backsplashes. Now, clients are going even bigger, adding color to cabinets, tiling and even countertops. We provided input to Martha Steward that our clients are also asking for wood and natural textures in their kitchens. Bold, and even black, are also back with statement countertop materials like marble, unique wood or textured laminate to add flavor and personality.
This kitchen in Steamboat Springs takes the complete opposite approach to all-white kitchens, incorporating the couple’s European, modern aesthetic while incorporating natural textures.
While we’ve utilized this for years in Colorado, markets across the country are leaning into nature with their designs – bringing the outdoors in. Natural light, layered lighting, natural textures and even green paint, mimicking the tones of the outdoors, are growing in popularity, including everything from rich forest-like tones to gray hues. And it’s not all about aesthetics as we told Veranda that air quality remains top of mind in homes post-pandemic. As people try to create healthier air quality in their homes, we’ve heard a lot of moving glass panels, giant sliding doors and window systems requested.
With 360-degree sweeping mountain vistas, these homeowners were looking for outdoor living spaces to rival the interiors. Stone walls juxtaposing floor-to-ceiling windows serve as thoughtful transitions between quarters while expansive windows and flush patios offer a seamless transition to outdoor living spaces.
Mixed metals are another thing that have been slowly making their way into more mainstream design. Satin nickel is regaining favor over brass for finishes, and we’re starting to see a rise in the use of mixed metals to help update elements clients already love with new hardware or metals that sometimes create a completely different aesthetic. Don’t be afraid to mix gold, silver and brass. They generally play well together and add a sense of vintage-feeling warmth.
Mixing metals gives a sense of vintage-feeling warmth and offers a way to repurpose older hardware with new touches.
Dopamine décor is another trend that can sometimes be large and overwhelming. Our experts chimed in to Martha Stewart and noted that if done properly, it can be scaled to take the home’s personality to the next level. Dopamine décor is all about making you feel good about the space you’re in – stimulating the brain through the use of layered colors and patterns with playful hints of nostalgia. Creating the look is not as easy as it may seem. It takes a thoughtful approach to mixing bold colors, patterns and textures, while still maintaining a cohesive end product. Although the goal of dopamine décor is to enrich the senses and even seem chaotic, the looks are very curated scenes with appropriate scale, complementary colors and textures that all work together towards a whole
To some, a mixture of bright colors and patterns may seem distracting, busy or too loud. When done correctly, like in this home designed by our team, the dopamine décor creates a lovely space that kicks in the feel-good dopamine while you’re in it.
Avoid These Design Mistakes
Alongside trends and styles we’re loving, we gave our insight to Martha Steward about a few design mistakes to avoid:
- Non-complementary paint colors: Paint colors can have one of the biggest impacts in your design. You need the right palette, flow and also coordination for trim colors. Too often, homeowners default to bright white for trim, which might feel safe but is not always right with the other paint colors. When picking paint colors, select a trim color that is complementary to the wall color or go tone-on-tone. Each option adds a layer of sophistication and helps the room feel more thoughtful.
- Mixing lighting temperatures: While this is technical, lighting temperature plays a huge factor in room design. Walking into a room with light fixtures that do not have the same color temperature can be jarring and feel uncomfortable. In a residential space, you want it to feel warm and inviting, whereas you might have cooler, bluer lights in office or healthcare spaces.
- Mishung artwork: Art that is hung too high or low can throw off a room’s proportions and leave a space feeling off. Our rule of thumb is that the center of the work should measure 60 inches from the floor – or roughly eye level. And then there’s the artwork that’s not quite the right size. Unless it’s intentionally done, art doesn’t look its best when it is the wrong scale for the space. When sizing art above a piece of furniture, use the rule of thirds – where the piece is between a third to two-thirds the width of the furniture piece it is hanging above.
Properly hung art has appropriate proportions to its location. Generally, the center of the work should measure 60 inches from the floor, or roughly eye level, like this piece in the entryway of a Steamboat Springs home.
Don’t hesitate to reach out to us for more of our design expertise. And if you like what you see, view more of our most recent design work here.