Of the many design trends that come and go, some of those that stick around have become so prevalent that they've ended up looking cheap. They're too commonplace, too overdone, all their finesse and intrigue has been wrung out from overuse.
So these five once-loved but now has-been, interior design trends are the ones that designers are tweaking, dropping, and downright contradicting so as to make homes that are so much more lavish and sumptuous – expensive-looking, if you will.
1. Gallery walls
It's actually very hard to make a gallery wall look elegant. Only the true professionals can curate spaces full of art that look upscale. A mix of cheap prints hung in cheap frames inevitably ends up looking, well, you guessed it.
The New York-based designer Noa Santos suggests focussing on vignettes instead of sweeping gallery walls. Add just one piece of art to a corner, and make that area special, rather than covered. And he has the perfect advice for how to do that.
'Use your phone as a tool – pretend like you’re a photographer and just look at the space through the lens,' Noa says. 'What is feeling unbalanced? What is unfinished? And go from there. It’s helpful to analyze those photos. Design can be enjoyed in smaller gestures and you can start with just a corner of your house.'
2. Matchy-matchy color schemes
There has been a rising color trend for going big on one shade, using it to drench a space, and then taking it to the furniture, too. The trouble is that it risks making everything look the same, you can't appreciate each individual piece, and it all gets lost in the whirl of a singly-toned space. It ends up looking like the person who designed the space didn't have any imagination, just picked a hue and ran with it. It can end up looking a bit cheap if not really well executed.
Designers say it's smarter to bring in a clash – something more daring and more refined. 'If the desired outcome is something a little more dramatic, you’ll want a contrast, rather than a color compliment,' says the interior designer Lara Bates, founder of the studio Lara Et Al. 'In that case, choose a dominant color in the room and go for the opposite shade on the color wheel for the wood trim.'
3. White or gray walls
The time has come to banish white and gray walls for good. Sure they are easy and inoffensive, but not very elevated and these once on-trend shades can end up making your rooms look cheap and unconsidered. Designers note that your home will look far more luxe if you go for richer tones.
'We’ve been moving even moodier, and my interiors will shift darker this year,' says the Washington D.C-based interior designer Zoe Feldman. 'Moody palettes, moody wallpapers, nothing super-fresh. I love deep greens, curry tones, lots of terracottas. I’m deep into port and would say brown over gray and white any time. These tones are the perfect backdrop on which to layer an element of surprise, a lapis blue vase, perhaps, that just seems to shine out against them, looking just so rich and inviting.'
4. Slimline countertops
So this is a tricky one, but with the rising trend for manmade surfaces – chosen as much for their lower price points than for their durability – countertops have inevitably become thinner. The less material you use, the more affordable it is, but the trouble is that it can end up looking a little cheap, too.
One hack is to 'waterfall' the countertop material over the side of your bathroom vanity or kitchen cabinets for a couple of inches, to give the appearance of it being thicker and therefore more expensive looking. As Lara Bates rightly points out, ‘The deeper the stone you use, the more luxe a room feels.' And you can't really argue with that.
5. Keeping everything overly symmetrical
Tying into the trend for too much matched color, is the growing trend for symmetry in interior design. It's a classic design trick, used to create order and rigidity in room layouts, but it often ends up looking dull.
Symmetry certainly has its time and place, but it can risk your rooms looking cheap, purely because they lack depth and character. A room looks so much more lavish when there are curves to sink into, a mix of couches and chairs, and an irregularity in what has been chosen.
'It’s got to be about using organic shapes, introducing an asymmetry that is unexpected and pleasing to the eye,' says the LA-based designer Brigette Romanek. 'I really like the curved sofas by Pierre Augustin Rose which just take the formality out of a room. Why should a coffee table be rectangular? Curved edges have more heart and soul,' she says.
Not all trends are ones to be followed, some can end up making you home look cheap whether that's because they are dated or just don't work in your home. Really the key to ensuring your home looks expensive is to decorate with meaning and only embrace trends that reflect your personal style.
