When it comes to the latest interior design trends, 2024 has shed the 2023 look of beige walls, the accumulation of ‘stuff’ and the ‘aesthetic’ look of the whole house. Instead, we’re embracing a more vibrant home design that allows you to inject your character into the space.
Let’s go over the latest interior design trends hitting Aussie houses, why they’re important as a homeowner and how to turn your ‘That’s so 2023’ home into a masterpiece that reflects the trends of 2024.
Introduction to Home Design Trends
Home design trends are commonly understood to mean the exterior and interior design trends that change over time, but can influence how we decorate our homes. Interior design trends are often set by the prevailing mood of the year and are propagated by interior design experts.
Current home design trends deal with all of the aspects of interior design that you may (or may not) have thought about when decorating your home. These aspects can include but are not limited to:
- The use of natural light in a space.
- The use of (and type) of furnishings in a particular room and how they make the room feel smaller or larger.
- The colour of the walls and how they affect the ambience and energy in a room.
- The types of appliances in use in the kitchen area, their age and their look and functionality in the broader context of the space.
- How the bathroom feels and looks: including the amount of space in the room, the type of bathtub and shower set-up, the presence of a single or double vanity, countertop space and more.
While it is not critical that you update your home design in-keeping with interior design trends every year, small refreshing elements each year are a good idea. These keep your living spaces looking and feeling newer. Consider large renovations or interior design projects on a biannual basis
Why Current Home Design Trends Matter
Home design trends may seem like an unnecessary fad that come and go like the wind, but they do perform an important function, particularly when it comes to your home’s overall value. Aside from how it feels to try out a new ‘thing’ in your home, whether that’s an appliance, table, or moving furniture around for a refresh, having a modern home is going to increase the overall resale value of your home.
It would take a very specific type of buyer to purchase a home when the entire interior design hasn’t aged past the 1970s. By keeping your home reasonably updated with the changes in the interior design trends, you’ll be able to sell your home for more money.
Even if you’re not looking to sell, by keeping your home’s design updated with changes in your aesthetic choices and even changes in your life, you’ll find a new appreciation for your home and its reflection of you. After all, it’s your home, you should enjoy living in it.
Room-Specific Design Trends
Let’s go over the room-specific design trends for 2024, in case you’ve been searching for ways to update that one room in your home.
Living Room Trends
Modular Furniture
Modular furniture is multi-purpose furniture that can be easily changed from one state to another to perform a different function. People living in smaller spaces can particularly benefit from modular designs as they offer a more efficient use of space.
Embracing Raw Textures
Rather than decorative elements, raw textures are dominating the living room home decor trends this year. For you, this could mean a collection of unfinished wood side-tables, or a throw made from real animal fur. Raw textures breathe a sense of earthiness into your home, in keeping with a move away from ‘Tiktokable’ aesthetics and towards authenticity.
Hand-Thrown Pottery for Dishware
We all have a favourite coffee or tea mug, right? Well, in keeping with our ‘return to earth’ theme of home decor this year, hand-thrown pottery for plates, cups and mugs are all the rage. Rather than a factory-produced porcelain mug that can break with a hard stare, people are opting for a hearty mug for their morning cuppa.
Kitchen Design Trends
The Multifunctional Kitchen Island
The kitchen island is at the heart of most kitchens. It’s the centrepiece that becomes a storage space, seating area and its countertops become laden with fruit bowls (hopefully full.). Having a large kitchen island that serves many purposes will allow you to entertain guests, maximise your storage and integrate appliances such as your oven, or prepare food on a built-in cutting board.
Greens & Blues in Kitchen Cabinetry
While countertops remain a favourite white, or off-white, 2024’s kitchen cabinetry colours are returning to the earth with a royal blue, Myrtle green, or pine green. In contrast with a sharp white colour, these offer a non-contrasting combination for use in your kitchen.
Marble Backsplashes
Offering a ‘splash’ of luxury are marble backsplashes. These gorgeous, often white pieces of stonework provide a bright contrast to darker hues of cabinets and flooring, while still made from natural materials.
Bedroom Trends
Lots of Pillows
Having more than two pillows on the bed is becoming a thing again. Many pillows on a made bed for that ‘comfort’ feel is a 2024 theme for bedrooms.
Biophilic Design
In keeping with a return-to-nature theme, biophilic design is reappearing in 2024. Your bedroom should have plenty of natural light, lots of small or large plant life, and wooden bedframes and furnishings.
No More Bulky Chargers.
While most of us charge our phones at night beside our bed, the introduction of hidden wall chargers is becoming a thing in 2024. Or, a sleek wireless charger, rather than a charging block that sticks out of your wall. Built-in charging ports with new furniture is becoming the norm.
Bathroom Trends
Muted, earthy tones
The bathroom is one of our most sacred living spaces. In an ode to that notion, earthy, muted greens and browns are back among bathroom colour schemes. Relax in the bath with air-purifying plants. By choosing a muted tone for your paintwork or cabinetry, your bathroom will give you a sense of calm, which is what we’re all looking for in a bathroom, right?
Backlit Mirrors
LED lighting is preferred to incandescent almost exclusively throughout homes. Backlit mirrors offer a bright viewing light without the need for any external light fixtures, reducing the sense of clutter on your walls and providing a clean, unencumbered vanity area.
Smart Toilets & Showers
Integrating smart technology into the bathroom was a theme in 2023 that’s carrying on in 2024. By using smart toilets or showers that have features that control water flow settings to maximise water and energy savings (and minimise waste), you’ll be saving money and the environment in 2024.
Outdoor Living Spaces
Outdoor Dining
While eating indoors has its place, there’s nothing quite like a regular garden party with all your friends and/or family. By incorporating tables and chairs or other seating arrangements into your outdoor space, you can entertain guests in the warmth and comfort of nature.
A Vegetable Garden
While we all try to live more sustainably and deal with the increasing cost of living, growing your own vegetables is a hot 2023 trend that’s fixed to continue this year. There’s nothing like eating something that you’ve grown yourself. Vegetable gardens need not be complicated, either. Do some research and get planting.
The Influence of Technology on Home Design
There’s no doubt that technology plays a huge role in how homes are designed today. From concept to completion, many parts of home design are now heavily reliant on technology. Let’s take a look at how smart technology can be used in your interior design plans for 2024.
Smart Home Gadgets and Integration
Smart home gadgets like Ring Cameras, Amazon Echo or Alexa and Google Home play a pivotal role in how our homes run. You can automate lighting, water sensors at the tap, garage doors and heated flooring. Integrating small measures of smart technology like motion sensor lights and smart thermostats can help you save money on electricity and water, particularly in the kitchen or bathroom areas of the home.
Virtual Reality in Interior Design
One of the most interesting things to come out of the VR world in the last year or so has been its use in interior design. Professional interior designers use virtual reality to walk a customer through their interior design choices and how they might look against the backdrop of their space.
By using VR, customers can get a feel for what their interior design will look like before proceeding or choosing to revise suddenly-undesirable elements.
Design for Wellbeing
With 2024’s return to earthy tones and nature, it makes sense that we’re re-focusing on wellbeing this year. Think about your own feelings when you walk into a room. Prioritise comfort when sitting in a chair or on the sofa. Choose paint colours and accent furnishings that make you happy and smile.
Creating Wellness-Focused Spaces
This is the year to give yourself that reading nook or basement gym area. Creating a space that you can get away from the hustle and bustle and clear your head, or exercise, is becoming an all-important theme for wellness-focused interior design in 2024.
The Importance of Natural Light
Natural light gives the appearance that a space is larger than it actually is. Using large windows is a great way to let in more natural light. Consider this when redesigning a room, particularly in the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom or living area. Feeling the sun on your face also increases dopamine.
Trends in Home Offices and Work-from-home Spaces
Standing Desks Replacing Traditional Desks
If you work from home, then you may find yourself sitting for long periods. While this may not hurt at first, putting pressure on your sciatic nerves over time mostly certainly will. Standing desks are all the rage in 2024 and provide a remedy for back pain. Make sure that you’re still moving every 10 to 15 minutes to get your blood flowing again, though.
Minimal Distraction
Choosing home office decor that’s minimalist is hugely important. You don’t want to be distracted by anything while at work. Plain walls, simple light fixtures and soundproofing are important elements in distraction prevention.
Large Desks, Multiple Monitors
For those who run many programs simultaneously or who struggle to work from a laptop, companies are investing in you – thanks to larger desks and multiple monitor setups. If you have the space and need, investing in a large desk and multiple monitors will increase your efficiency and streamline your workflow.
Final Thoughts
Whether you’re building a new home or are renovating your older home, it’s important to keep updated with the current home design trends and at least ensure that some of our above list is either on ‘the list’ of your home design necessities, or is already in place.
Contact Worthington Homes today to see how we can help your new home take shape with our expert design team and colour consultants, providing advice, knowledge and resources to have your 2024 home looking vibrant and beautiful, just like you.
Frequently Asked Questions
As one of Sydney’s premier custom home building companies, we receive plenty of questions about our services, recommendations and building options. Here are some of the most asked questions about home design this year.
How can I incorporate sustainable materials into my home design?
Sustainability is still front-and-centre for a lot of Australians, and incorporating sustainable materials into your home design is not only good for the planet, but you might surprise yourself with the result. Using wood products made from bamboo or recycled wood, or choosing organic 100% cotton for your bed linens. Even simple things like using glass containers for food instead of plastic is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint with a recyclable and reusable material like glass.
What colour schemes are currently popular in home design?
2024’s colour schemes appear to be all about injecting some warmth and light into our home designs. When choosing a wall colour, consider a light yellow (rather than a bright one) or a faded “Oak Buff” from Taubmans is a good choice. Consider all of the elements in a room, as well as the colour scheme of the rest of your home.
Bright colours seem to make the best use of natural light as well, so don’t worry if your bathroom is an all-white paint, this will help offer the appearance of scale and improve your mood while offering a classic look.
How can I maximise space in a small home whilst staying trendy?
Maximising space is one of the problems many homeowners have. We all have so much stuff that it can be tricky to make the most of your space whilst staying updated with the trends of the times. Some of our best tips include:
- Use objects that are rounded or curved. Sharp corners tend to make a room appear smaller.
- Installing large windows in your small home will allow more natural light in, giving the appearance of more space. Consider a large bay-style kitchen or lounge window.
- Utilising vertical space well is a key component of small-home living. Consider using wall-mounted wicker baskets or thin wooden shelving to store items, particularly in the kitchen, where this method tends to work best.
What are some budget-friendly ways to update my home decor?
There are many budget-friendly ways to spruce up your interior design and home decor. These can include:
- Upcycling or recycling discounted or older furniture that you can find online cheaply. Whether that’s a gorgeous old mirror vanity off Facebook Marketplace, that just needs a bit of TLC and a fresh coat of paint, or sanding and refinishing your old dining table instead of buying a brand new one.
- Another budget-friendly option to update your home decor is to go bargain-hunting for new wall art. Sometimes, your local arts community might have a craft sale at a weekly community market, these can be unique pieces with character and flair that can replace your store-bought artwork.
- Maybe you’ve got an old vintage chair you just can’t bear to part with. Well, one great way to give it new life (and your home decor a new look) is to have it reupholstered with some fresh fabric.
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