2024 Design Trends Analyzed

I’ve been seeing soooo many design trends posts lately, I usually write a few myself at this time of year. :-)

I normally come at those from my experience with recent client work, from attending trade fairs and shows to see what will be coming to market and from questions I get on my blog from people randomly finding my articles. I can tell from all these, generally, what problems people are having with their homes, what they are wanting, and what is being done by suppliers and service providers to help fill those needs.

Well, this past year was pretty different for me.

The last trade fair I attended was KBIS in February, as my knee was going down hill fast and wouldn’t hold out for much travel or walking around. My mom passed away last spring and then I finally had my knee replacement done end of August.

So, I’ve been a bit out of the loop with markets and trade shows and I haven’t worked much with in-person clients this past year.

I have, however, gone in pretty hard on my email consultations and my Instagram Q&A’s. They’ve been fun and kept me busy with design work while recuperating and taking some time to heal.

I’ve watched a lot of Youtube and now have some favorite creative home design and garden channels I enjoy. I’ve seen all the trends that publishers like AD, House Beautiful, Martha Stewart, etc. are reporting as well as a lot of influencers that feel they have a grip on it all. :-)

So how about we just take the armchair quarterback view of all these and give a review on the ones that seem to be coming up often out there?

Major Design Trends for 2024

1) white kitchens are out.

If you have white kitchen cabinets, don’t fret. I have a different take on this.

First of all, remember these trend exclamations are really just clickbait titles that are designed to catch eyeballs out there. So, while it sounds like it is all doom and gloom for the white kitchen, remember, people do like to alarm you and make you read.

White kitchens will be around forever. I’ve had one in almost all my homes for the last 45 years. Everything comes back around and people will always love a fresh, white look in their kitchen.

I do think you can mix your white cabinets with things like a dark countertop and/or backsplash, a constrasting or dark kitchen island, some kind of interesting ceiling treatment, a wood floor, etc., to warm up a space and update if you so desire.

These white kitchen cabinets were mixed with a dark countertop and wood interior of the upper cabinet. Black metal doors were applied to the upper hutch area. KBIS 2023

See how this predominantly white kitchen seen at a model home tour looks more interesting with the bold green backsplash? Backsplashes are some of most reasonably priced surfaces you can change in a kitchen. It’s a small amount of square footage typically and you can change it out without disturbing other materials much.

I think the white look people are mostly opposed to these days is the all-white kitchen with white cabinets, counters, backsplash, etc. It is harder to make that look more interesting because of the lack of contrast and boy, there were a lot of those all-white influencer kitchens out there.

The white on white on white kitchen is out these days, this one seen at a builder model home in 2023.

I think people will still love white marble countertops and some white cabinetry no matter what. Just take a look at the number of designer’s own kitchens on the Youtube channel Homeworthy. Those designers are not going to be ripping out their white kitchens anytime soon.

2) Gray is out.

People seem to be screaming for color these days on social media, but honestly, a warm gray is still really appealing for an envelope and for kitchen cabinets if you want a nice neutral.

Gray kitchen cabinets seen at a model home tour in 2023.

For me, greige should be the color of the decade as I feel it bridges the gap and you can lean warm or cool with it.

Give me a nice gray color over baby poop brown and gold any day!

You can always add color to neutrals like gray and white and people will focus visually on the COLOR, not the neutrals.

I remember one older designer once told me, “Put a yellow lamp in an all neutral room and people will call it a yellow room.” :-)

That’s why I wrote this post on adding color to an open plan house, because sometimes you just don’t want to paint all the walls.

3) Travertine is back.

Many years ago I wrote a popular post about travertine floors and how to deal with those if you want to move to a white kitchen.

There are some beautiful travertines out there, for sure. Some that I even like! :-)

As with any product though, it is truly all about quality.

We stopped liking the farmhouse look when it showed up at Bed, Bath and Beyond and Walmart with some cheap faux looks, right?

We stopped liking travertine tile when they were advertising it on the side of the road for $1.99 a sq. foot at the local flooring stores. Then it became the go-to flooring for many homes in suburbia, like this one in one of my remodels :-(.

That stuff was pinkish, unattractive and hard to maintain back then and it still is today.

Beautiful, quality travertine, used in appropriate ways, was lovely 15 years ago and it is lovely now.

Travertine stone tiles seen at KBIS 2023.

4) Bulky curves are in.

Oh gosh, we’ve seen this for the last 5 years. Here’s a post I wrote about the curvy furniture I saw at market back in 2018. Yes, it is here….all over the place.

I guess when Walmart is offering it, we might cool off that trend? Hmmm…

Walmart website furniture

I think having a few pieces with all these bulky curves are nice, but I wouldn’t go overboard. To be honest, that chair/settee…whatever it is (office building lobby furniture) doesn’t look too comfy.

I do think with a piece like that, it could be used in a grand entry hall under the stairs, or somewhere as a statement, visual piece, and that would be great.

5) Doing What you want is In!

It seems really odd to me with how popular “trend” posts are these days, every trend forecaster prefaces their prediction by saying for you to do you. In other words, if you like your off-trend stuff, then that is great. Go for it.

Ha ha ha….I get a kick out of that.

That basically means, “don’t come after me”. :-)

I do think that there is something of a social revolt about trend following and people are beginning to show their own style more in their homes.

I know, for me, I love a good Nancy Meyers’ designed movie set home and I feel like I’ve created that over the years. I love my home so much I could live here forever, if it wasn’t two story. :-(

I think we are all beginning to appreciate the unique, collected and nuanced looks that people everywhere are creating for themselves.

It doesn’t mean that we all have to do the same thing, it just means we can celebrate more styles than ever before.

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I toured a bunch of builder model homes this past summer and here were things I noticed.

This blogpost was thoughtfully written by me, Carla Aston, and not by AI, ghostwriters, or guest posters.