These are the defining styles of each generation, according to designers.
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Interior design is ripe for nostalgia.
Everything oldcan indeed be new again, particularly within the confines of a home.
Photo:KatarzynaBialasiewicz / Getty Images
As tastes evolve, its no wonder that certain design choices eventually label a time and place.
There are such large generational shifts in music, culture, and politics, designer Melissa Oholendt ofOho Interiorssays.
It makes sense that interior trends would follow the same trajectory of having identifiable generational identifiers, too!
After all, trends come and go, but good memories sure can stick around for the long haul.
Read on to get a few blasts from the past.
It was a time of knickknacks and Thomas Kinkade paintings, she says.
This was also probably a backlash to their parents' generation of high mid-century modern design.
Think lava lamps, shag rugs, and decorating with vinyl records.
So rather than faded white shabby chic, they went with raw steel and all black everything.
Vroom agrees, noting that this generation pulled from a range of styles in the name of rebellion.
Mixing and matchingwas key.
They have a less is more approach, she says.
Yes, you know the one: Millennial pink.
Teenage Melissa deeply wanted pink inflatable furniture that came straight out of the dELiA’s catalog, Oholendt says.
Millennials are harder to categorize, she says.
They want to define themselves and their aesthetic as entirely new and different, she says.
I see this as the trend of neon and candy-colored, bubble-shaped furniture.
Vroom notes that Gen Z has taken the sustainability of Millennials but layered it into maximalism.
Thinkvintage and thrifted pieces, she says.
Interestingly, Oholendt sees a more traditional approach in her observations.
They hate overhead lighting, and theyre not wrong about that!
Thats the thing about design: Its always changing and likely rooted in something else.
The popularity ofcottage coredefinitely came from the tastes of the Silent Generation, Oholendt says.
Love you, Baby Boomers.
