DESIGN TRENDS FOR 2020

ASK THE EXPERT

By Thomas Burger

“2020 Design is focused on Well Being, Ease, Comfort & Sustainability”

ARCHITECTURE

Contemporary Design is the trend for 2020 over Traditional; however, both are always in vogue and simply a matter of personal style. What’s not in vogue are soffits and pop-outs and recesses and postage stamp windows and small scaled materials. If your architect is still incorporating any of the aforementioned, then it’s time to fire your architect!

Materials should reflect the newly available large scale products such as 48 x 48 floor tiles and large floor to ceiling walls of glass replacing small framed windows. Materials should also feel natural and help bring in the outdoors verses over polished over manufactured materials of the past.

Traditional as well as contemporary designs should be updated with clean lines and large scaled materials and then, and only then, should a layer of classical adornment be applied.

Another trend, that should be a staple, is ease and comfort. However, I continue to see master bathrooms in 8,000 sq’ homes that one has to jump over the back of the tub to enter. If your tub is positioned in such a way that you are not able to easily step into from the side as intended by design, then call your architect and give him a piece of MY mind!

DECOR

What’s in Vogue? Earthy materials to counter the high tech electronics and large scale rooms of today such as – wood, hemp, natural finished raw stones, oxidized metals, organic forms that reflect nature and finally the use of materials in a more all encompassing way such as wood walls and ceilings which help warm up the new contemporary homes of today.

Mixing contemporary and traditional furnishings and art also are setting the trends for 2020 in high end design. The mixing and juxtaposing of man made and nature made materials such as resin and woods, which are being featured in my custom furniture designs, are very popular today and quite chic.

As far as the “In” color – understand that color trends are a marketing technique to sell more paint and more fabrics. Live in a color that makes you happy. It is my advice to be aware of trends but not to blindly follow trends. When I look back to the 70’s, I wonder “what in the world were they thinking”?