Looking for an easy room redo? These Room, Kitchen and Bath trends will bring a sense of peace and calm into your home and will innovate the way you live.
Layers upon Layers
Carpets are seeing a resurgence this year, with an emphasis on layers. While hardwood floors aren’t going anywhere, outfitting one or more rooms with a full-coverage feature carpet is becoming the boldest way to make a statement, and borders are in vogue. Often considered the “little black dress” of home décor, carpets can please maximalists, who will aim for rich contrasts, and minimalists, who will choose wall-complementing colours.
The current trend is creating bespoke carpets: layering carpets on wood, tile or even other carpets, then intentionally leaving space for the borders to show. Natural textiles are leading this trend, from jute and sisal to seagrass and wool. Patterns are leaving their mark as well, from classic checkerboard to rainbow-shaped curves.
Carpet tiles in contrasting colours are also making a functional appearance, abandoning their presence at the office and creating colour blocking that’s easy to replace in the event of a spill. For those ready to show off their most audacious sides, choose bold heritage prints to work in a little extra carpet glam.
Peel and Stick
Looking for an easy room redo? Vinyl wall decals offer a creative solution. Cutouts Canada — based out of a boutique in Langford Station — offers custom and pre-made decals for every room. If committing to a feature wall or repaint seems intimidating, vinyl creates a professional painted look and is easy to apply and remove, making it possible to personalize your walls every season.
Specialized decals can be applied to walls, doors, windows and furniture. Designs range from special occasion and contemporary looks (think geometric shapes) to playful prints. Co-creators Bartosz Bos and Jordana Bingham launched their company as an Etsy shop in 2017, after seeking solutions to customizing rented living spaces. The pair is passionate about creating spaces that reflect the personalities of those living in them.
Forty Solid Winks
Enjoy your dreamiest sleep this season with a custom-built mango platform bed. The Willow Bed, made by Monarch Furnishings, brings contemporary rattan webbing into its design, calling forward mid-century motifs while offering a modern appeal.
The structure is created completely of solid mango wood — from the bracing to the slats — sustainably sourced from mango farms in Indonesia. For those looking for a classic design, the Retreat Bed can be specially ordered and features an elaborate canopy for draping romantic textiles to bring extra dimension to your sleeping area.
Canopies capture a feeling of coziness, perfect for oversized rooms, and build separation from the outer world. Those who prefer open space while they rest, however, will appreciate the Milano, which offers decorative horizontal slats on the head and baseboard — also fabricated from solid mango wood.
Your Fridge Is Calling
Smart fridges aren’t new in the world of tech design, but their features are starting to sound like something out of the movies. Beyond adjustments people can control from their smartphones, this year’s top-rated smart refrigerators can even text you back, share photos of what’s inside, dispense custom ice cubes and clean up after themselves.
Samsung’s “Family Hub” four-door line offers the ability to see inside the fridge from anywhere (through your smart device) and search recipes based on what’s inside. The fridge will even send cooking instructions to the smart oven. Its upgraded model comes with a fingerprint-proof finish, a smart divider that can cool at different temperatures, and an auto-fill pitcher for ice water on demand.
Meanwhile, the GE Profile smart line features built-in wifi and a voice assistant that can send alerts if the fridge door is left open.
LG’s smart freestanding side-by-side model includes “InstaView,” where users can knock twice to illuminate the window panel and see its contents without ever opening the door. Its craft ice maker creates custom ice (crushed, cubed, rounded), and its water dispenser removes nearly 100 per cent of the bacteria found in its nozzle every 24 hours.
Lux Latrines
Bidet fans may be excited to see the newly released Joy & Fortune “Super Egg” — an egg-shaped smart toilet with self-sanitizing UV rays and specialized wash functions for all members of the household.
The seat features a digital interface and artificial intelligence voice control that can auto identify people for custom wash preferences, then completely sterilize its bowl between uses. While the product is currently available overseas for a hefty shipping fee, Victorians can experience minimalist style and maximum hygiene through Kohler’s Karing Intelligent Chair — an elongated and compact smart bidet that offers hands-free functionality, personalized settings, UV cleaning, an LED nightlight and pre-mist cleaning along with an air dryer for a tidy experience.
