Emerging Home Design Trends: Green Kitchens, Art Studios, Home Bars

By analyzing year-over-year growth for its search terms, Houzz identified the most popular and quickly growing home design trends for the year. The search terms show homeowners are most interested in functionality and fun this year. Houzz found specific activity rooms to be exploding in popularity—and it’s not just home offices. In fact, home offices were the least popular search term compared to others in the category (but searching for “home office” did increase 108%). Searches for art studios have spiked 875%, wine cellars jumped 277%, and home bars increased 277%. One designer told Realtor.com that families are spending less on travel, dining out, and entertainment, so they want it at home.

But nothing compares to installing your own space to paint. An insane 10-fold rise of 875% on the phrase “art studio” means homeowners are practically dying to free their inner Picasso.

“People are making more of every space they have if they can’t build out, putting garages, basements, and porches to work as offices, gyms, and playrooms,” says organization expert Darla DeMorrow, of HeartWork Organizing.

2. Green cabinets, tile, furniture, and more

Per the Houzz trend report, 1 in 5 of us is opening up the kitchen to the outdoors by grabbing the color green. The result: Searches on the term “green cabinets” soared a whopping 829%.

Also trending big-time: “green tile bathroom” (up 771%) and “green accent chair” (754%). And homeowners with black thumbs embraced faux greenery with a vengeance. Searches for “artificial plants & trees,” as well as “indoor pots & planters,” went up seven-fold (658%) and four-fold (353%) respectively.

Design pros confirm the popularity of verdant shades and even muddy colors.

“Goodbye, cool grays. Hello, warmer earth tones,” says Karen Gray-Plaisted of Design Solutions KGP.

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