D espite our best efforts to be different or to create a timeless interior, it’s easy to be seduced by an enticing trend or two. That trend might speak to us so deeply that we embrace it fully, or we might just buy a couple of cushions for the living room. In this fast-paced world, it seems we have hardly embraced a trend before we are being swept into thinking about another. Luckily with paint, it’s easy and relatively low cost to keep up with colour trends; to change last year’s colour to this year’s. But how do interior trends happen? Who decides that deep green is the new must have wall colour, and that copper should be replaced by antique brass? That bitter yellow accessories are on the up, and that red is out? And why do we bother? As Resene colour expert Carolyn Atkinson says: “Our homes are so often our happy place, a place where we can just be ourselves. We may dress the exterior to meet social expectations, to blend in or to impress, but we can express ourselves in our interiors. Many of us are happy to spend time and money to get our interiors just right. How we decorate our homes reveals a bit about our aspirations, values and tastes.” Interior trends don’t happen in isolation. Economic and social events, both global and local, have a huge part to play. As a general rule, when the world gets scary with economic uncertainty and social instability, colours become more cocooning and calming. We want to hide away from the strife. When the world is on a high and times are good, colours become truer and brighter. We want to break free of the shackles of seriousness and have some fun with our newfound freedom. Just look back at history and how social change influenced how we decorated our homes. The 1920s was an era of new-fangled machines, new discoveries and optimism, hence the Art Deco style of the time featured bold colours and stylised geometric (industrial) designs. Travel to exotic places became popular, so souvenir accessories from Egypt and Africa started to appear. The post-war 1950s were a time of optimism, which translated to bright, happy paint colours and lots of them. Newly built homes were decked out with coloured bathroom fixtures, chrome and Formica. Pretty pastels like mint and soft yellow were part of a sunny, breezy decorating style. Where do interior trends come from and why do they happen? interior trends happen how Then there was the psychedelic self-expressionism of the 1960s which led to intense and bright colours at home. The tide turned away from plastic and easy- going ways to the greens, browns and macrame of the 1970s. Since then we’ve seen the glitzy 1980s, the minimalist 1990s, the stronger colours of the 2000s… on it goes. Technology influences home décor. When televisions became popular in the 1960s, we redesigned our living rooms around them. Now that personal device use is on the rise for entertainment, we’re creating private nooks to retreat to. Carolyn Atkinson says the current trend for greys, beiges and deep light-absorbing colours like deep charcoals, moody blues and dense greens lets us Resene Organic Resene Nocturnal Resene Paddock Resene Ciderhouse Resene Seaweed Resene Steam Roller Resene Grass Hopper did you know... that the habitat plus - decorating and colour trends booklet is now available? Get yours at your local Resene ColorShop or view online at www.resene.com/habitatplus. the cyclic trend hovers, but is unable to land as personal expression explodes Left: It's back to nature with textural finishes. These plywood panels are stained in Resene Colorwood: Resene Tiri, Resene Bleached Riverstone, Resene Limed Ash and Resene Colorwood Greywash. Resene Tiri Resene Limed Ash Resene Bleached Riverstone Resene Colorwood Greywash 32