How Have Home Design Trends Changed in Just One Year?

Do you feel like homebuying preferences change like the weather? You’re not alone. Just ask Nino Sitchinava, an expert from Houzz. In less than a year from when she gave an in-depth, data-driven presentation at John Burns' 2019 Housing Design Summit, her team has already seen major changes in what people want to see in a home. With access to social media, homeowners are able to grab inspiration at the touch of a button, changing the speed at which trends come and go. One of the popular home styles of recent years, the farmhouse, is on the decline. Modern contemporary is hot, and bold accent colors are making an appearance in what used to be stark white kitchens. But there is one trend Sitchinava says is going to last: Homeowners are spending big on remodels.

Builders can finally rely on data as well as opinion to make multi-million dollar design decisions, resulting in improved profitability.

At last year’s Housing Design Summit, the head of architecture at one of the largest builders in the country shared that consumer design preferences were changing more quickly than ever, attributing most of the reason to the Internet, and specifically Houzz and Pinterest. This was causing consternation for his salespeople, who were having to respond to customer requests for more up-to-date designs and materials.

Also at the Design Summit, Nino Sitchinava from Houzz laid out the most data-rich presentation of design trends I have ever seen. In this podcast episode, Nino shares an update on those trends, with one of the hot trends she mentioned last March already on the decline!

As a gift to you, here is a link to her presentation last March. Be sure to attend this year, where her teammate Liza Hausman will keynote.

Here are a few of Nino’s insights from the podcast:

• Colors. Shades of white continue to dominate, followed by gray. Strong accent colors are showing up in unique ways, such as on island cabinets (~40%) and in appliances.
• Custom cabinets. Cabinets now comprise up to 2/3 of the kitchen remodel spending, as affluent older homeowners are opting for custom cabinets over stock cabinets. Cabinet storage in islands has become even more critical, often including accent colors of black, blue, and emerald green.
• Two-person showers. Bathroom remodels include larger showers, a trend led by the new home industry years ago. We recently pointed out that this new home trend had gone too far, with ridiculously oversized showers now returning to more functional, 2-person, spa-like showers.

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