These Are the Design Trends to Avoid, According to Interior Designers

Just over a year ago, when we were celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing, I talked about the lack of diversity in space and mentioned Mary Jackson. In 2016, the movie Hidden Figures shared the stories of Mary Jackson and two other Black female mathematicians – Katherine Johnson and, Dorothy Vaughan. They worked at NASA when a ‘computer’ still meant a person carrying out mathematical calculations. The film is based on a book by Margot Lee Shetterly, which I am reading at the moment. The book offers a more detailed and accurate account of the prejudice these women (and others) had to overcome.

2017 is the 100th anniversary of the start of the Cottingley fairies story, a hoax which entrances the UK to this day. Cousins Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright faked photos of fairies at the bottom of the garden, intended to be a practical joke on their grown-ups. When Elsie’s mother showed the photos to the local Theosophical Society, she set in motion a chain of events that led Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to declare the photographs to be authentic. He wrote an article on fairy life for The Strand magazine in November 1920, and fairy fever gripped the nation. Conan Doyle later wrote a book on the subject, The Coming of the Fairies – The Cottingley Incident.

Lauren Moore, Nottingham Trent University

One of the challenges the world faces at the moment is antimicrobial resistance. Until the 20th century, commonplace illnesses caused by bacteria – such as pneumonia and diarrhoea – were the number one cause of human death in the developed world. Then we developed antibiotics, and these diseases became almost irrelevant. We added anti fungal, antiviral and anti parasitic treatments to our arsenal, and it looked like infectious diseases were on the run.

So many recent, trendy aesthetics are loud and impactful—patterns are bolder, colors are brighter, and palettes are warmer. In fact, a lot of the latest viral trends, including grandmillennial, maximalism, and even Barbiecore, are beloved because they make such a statement. 

Bloomcore, also known as flowercore, is an aesthetic trend that is just right for gardeners. It embraces the natural world, and most importantly, flowers. Putting nature first, it creates a pretty, flowery look both indoors and outside in the garden.

Along with kitchens, bathrooms are one of the places that best sell homes—if you’re considering a renovation, they’re a great place to invest. Plus, they're spaces where small changes can make a huge impact. If you want to revamp a room, you can completely transform it with just a few tweaks. And, of course, unlike a formal dining room or a seasonal patio, your bathroom gets daily use—it needs to spark joy.

It’s well known that the housing market is so competitive right now, but prospective home buyers aren’t the only ones hurting—renters are, too. According to personal finance website WalletHub, inflation has impacted rental prices, and 2022 saw the second-highest price growth in decades with a 6.2% year-over-year increase. 

For those who are looking to buy a home for the first time, the feat can seem like quite the hurdle. With housing prices and interest rates still high, and a competitive market, it’s tough out there! And the number of first-time home buyers are dropping, too, because of those high prices—according to personal finance site WalletHub, 26% off home purchases were made by first-time home buyers in 2022, down from 34% the previous year.

How you manage garden pests and diseases is a personal choice, and there are many management philosophies. Two of the most common methodologies are integrated pest management (IPM) and organic pest management. IPM was developed in the 1970s as a response to conventional gardening practices that relied heavily on pesticides. In contrast to those practices, IPM promoted sanitation, the use of disease- and pest-resistant plant varieties, and monitoring pest populations.

Design trends are constantly changing, but sometimes a style reemerges at precisely the time when it feels new and fresh—no matter how long it's been around. Scalloped design is having just that sort of moment. Scalloped borders in interior design can be found as far back as the Renaissance, and they were often used in Art Deco interiors in the early 20th century, and again during the preppy 1980s. 

If you had asked how I felt about geometry when I was a high school sophomore preparing for final exams, I would have had an immediate and firm answer: “No, thank you.” But as soon as that geometry had anything to do with food, I’d correct my answer to “Count me in for all the research!”