The Stupid Thing About Interior Design Trends (from someone who enjoys style trends)
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There’s something… kind of stupid about interior design trends.
Don’t get me wrong, I personally LOVE staying in tune with what’s going on out there when it comes to style trends, then implementing them into aspects of my apartment styling. Exploring trends can be an inspiring way to get ideas for your small apartment decorating while feeling included in the cultural zeitgeist.
Trends are a beautiful resource, not a rulebook. But sometimes trends are treated like rules.
So in this post, I’m diving into what you can ignore when it comes to design trends and how they're sometimes talked about. If you’ve ever found yourself feeling confused by the ever-changing and contradictory decor dogma out there (usually unilaterally decided by magazines and content creators who want clicks…) allow me to free your mind up a bit and remind you of what interior style trends are really here for!
Would you rather watch than read? Here’s the video! ↓
First off, I think that interior design trends are a beautiful thing in that they act as a window into a certain period of time and what the world looked and felt like then.
Trends say so much about our identity and what we're going through as a society. So to me, trends are actually not as frivolous and materialistic as they are often portrayed. They actually carry a lot more meaning than you might think! And really, they're also just fun.
But there's something I find problematic about the way interior design trends are often spoken about.
And my intention here is to hopefully relieve any pressure you may or may not feel when it comes to participating in interior design trends, or more importantly, how you might feel about discarding things that you love just to stay on trend.
Because here's what I find so silly: when magazines, content creators, interior designers, whoever, take it upon themselves to arbitrarily decide that a certain thing is out.
Now, I'm not denying that styles come and go. Trends are inherently ephemeral, so they will eventually go away. That's actually part of the beauty of trends; they're like a delicate rose whose petals will eventually fall. You could say that trends are a metaphor for our own mortality as we too careen ever closer to the void of non-existence… This was not intended to send me into a low-key existential crisis so let's get back on track. 🙃
So no, I'm not saying that there's no such thing as styles going out. What I am saying is to think twice when a magazine or content creator deems a style as “out” because you know what? Most of the time it isn't true.
More often than not, it's just a ploy for content. Because think about it, what drives more clicks than anything on the internet? Fear.
When someone is dying for content ideas (been there ✋) what's better than just announcing that a certain style is out, then blasting it out into the world as if it's real, then gathering all those fear-based clicks from people who just want to make their home pretty? It's low-hanging fruit. Easy content.
There are also my fellow decor YouTubers… And I mean no shade here, but pardon me for a little bit of shade… There are certain decor YouTubers who have so many videos with titles like "Stop Doing THIS With Your Decor NOW!" or "10 Things to Get Rid of From Your Home ASAP!" And then on their thumbnail they're making faces like:
Like… who are you? 😂 Who made you the lord of the trends? Can I see your Trend Lord credentials, sir or madam?
Now, I'm not against taking styling advice from people who are good at it. Hell, that's what my own YouTube channel is all about; apartment styling tips. But I personally feel that interior styling advice should make someone feel empowered and inspired, not ashamed.
Also, we can't be so flippant about interior design trends.
Let's say you painted your walls gray a couple of years ago. What are you supposed to do, go through the hard work of repainting them just because some magazine said that gray randomly sucks now?
Are you supposed to get rid of your Edison bulb lamp just because some content creator randomly said that Edison bulbs are out? …Then directed you to their affiliate link to a different lamp from which they will earn a commission? 😉
No, interior design trends are not like, say, fashion trends. For example, if skinny jeans are out now and I genuinely want to heed this trend change, it's easy for me to just not wear them anymore. And it would be relatively easy for me to just go out and buy some baggy jeans if I wanted to. (I don't want to, for the record. I don't understand this baggy jean thing that's happening, I really don't. This Millennial wants her skinny jeans back!)
Fashion is flexible, interior design is not. Interior design is and should be more permanent.
If everyone actually listened every time something is randomly deemed out, it would cost a fortune, it would be a lot of work, and it would be wasteful.
We can't be buying furniture and decor willy-nilly like this. I feel guilty just switching out my area rug in my living room as many times as I have. We are all consumers, there's no denying that, and decorating is an innately consumerist act. I'm not denouncing buying things. What I am denouncing are baseless claims about what I should be buying and and what I should be getting rid of.
If I'm going to buy something or get rid of something, it's going to be for reasons based in reality, not on someone's weird whim.
Casual knee-jerk trend signaling (the kind that isn't actually based on reality) is only good for three things: content, consumerism, and companies who sell furniture and decor.
But really, I know I'm ranting a little bit, and I realize that this is not that serious. So what if people casually proclaim the death of trends like throwing spaghetti at the wall? Most of their proclamations don't end up sticking and most of us just move on after momentarily noticing them. It really is not that serious.
But it is… kind of stupid. At the very least it's just a little bit silly.
So that was my stupid rant about something… pretty stupid, haha. Really, the whole point of this is to just remind you to be yourself in your decorating process and to take these grand proclamations of what's in and what's out with a grain of salt.
And then put that salt in a cute little salt shaker that looks cute on your kitchen counter. 😉
