Baby Boomers Warm Up to Cozy Decor
Somewhere in the world there are people who can afford to change the interiors of their homes about as often as they change the interiors of their clothes closets, but let’s ignore that for a moment and explore a significant question: Would you rather live in a museum or in a place where you can put your feet on the furniture and spill Jiffy Pop?
If you’re the comfortable, slouching popcorn sort, rejoice. In the world of interior design, you are currently In. If you’re the stark lines/stark colors, cutting edge, designer item, museum-quality, don’t-let-kids-near-it type, the wheel has turned. You’re Out.
The baby boomers--members of the generation that has, for better or worse, defined tastes and trends in the United States for at least the last two decades--have struck again. But this time, said Dana Eggerts of Creative Design Consultants in Costa Mesa, the result appears to be a return--at least in part--to balance, proportion, humanity, sanity and enduring value in interior design.
Yes, she said, interior design styles change. Not with the often breathtaking speed of fashion in clothing, but change they do, sometimes subtly, sometimes not, and sometimes not for the better. But, said Eggerts, the current trends in interior design will probably stress practicality and livability over showmanship and transitory glamour.
“People don’t want their home to be a museum,” she said, “they want to live there. The largest buying segment of the population is getting older and they have kids now, families. You can’t live in a black and white environment, for instance, with children.”
Before the patter of little feet and a greater feeling of home and hearth arrived, said Eggerts, the homes of the upwardly mobile could be conversation pieces rather than cozy environments.
“The reason they had their homes,” she said, “was as a showcase. They worked so hard and they had achieved so much and spent so much they wanted to point to their homes and say, ‘See?’ ”
Now, she said, balance--which may be the most indicative word in today’s interior design market--is returning. And the economy and the social politics of the time have much to do with it.
“That’s always an influence,” said Eggerts. “Buyers don’t want to give up quality, but they have less money. Conspicuous consumption is definitely out. People don’t have the money to change all the time, so they want a grand plan as to what they’re going to do. Then they can add pieces to it as they can afford to.”
The basis of the grand plan--1991 version--is a kind of selective eclecticism, said Eggerts, borrowing harmonious bits and pieces from past styles (some in the recent past) and incorporating them into a thoughtful whole.
“The trend is coming back to traditional with a new flair,” she said.
There are several elements, but the first among them is:
* Color. “There was always something of a light beige, and that’s still being used, but with darker colors for accents,” said Eggerts. “A few years ago, everything was dark. Now everything’s light, with richer color in the background, a mix of traditional with contemporary. The sofas could be contemporary with a rolled arm and the accent pieces could also have a contemporary European flair. That’s very big.”
The idea, she said, is to think of the light carpet and the light-colored walls--a cream or taupe color rather than the formerly ubiquitous beige--as a kind of canvas on which to place darker accents, such as pillows on a light sofa or darker art work on the walls.
Those darker colors, said Eggerts, are likely to appear as shadings that only a few years ago were widely known as “earth tones” and used on nearly everything. Today, however, the colors are more subtle, used more sparingly and are called for by names such as bronzes, metallics and moss greens, said Eggerts. They won’t show up only on walls and floors, she said, but also on:
* Furniture. Here, said Eggerts, there will be a thirst for the real McCoy. Synthetic materials, she said, are likely to take a back seat to finishes in real wood, real stone (such as granite) and real ornamental metals.
“We’re seeing more and more special finishes on wood,” she said. “It’ll still be wood, but it’ll look different, like crackled old world wood, maybe.”
And, she said, the preference for special wood finishes also will be seen in antiques as a way of integrating then into a more harmonious blend.
“There’s a big boom coming (in antiques),” said Eggerts. “The antiques with special finishes can be put in a more contemporary environment. For a lot of people, having antiques won’t be a hobby, it’ll be more like having a piece of art that’ll be with them for a while.”
But before they buy that perfect antique chest they’ve had their eyes on, said Eggerts, almost all homeowners will turn their attention to:
* Electronics. Specifically a phenomenon Eggerts calls a “media wall,” a section of a room devoted specifically to a stereo, television and likely a VCR.
“All homes regardless of size today have to have media walls,” she said. “It can be a small section, but it has to be able to hold a monitor for a TV. We’re finding the buyers will buy the media equipment before they’ll buy a dining room table.”
The fascination with electronic gadgetry is in part an attempt by the person who owns a smaller modern home to compensate for the lack of space with technology. High-tech lighting, security systems and climate control electronics often are seen along with the sight and sound machines.
The media wall, said Eggerts, often appears in an area designated as the family room, a place that must be eminently utilitarian rather than delicate.
“The fabrics in that room have to be very practical,” she said. “The look of our family rooms now have to be such that they become places where people can put their feet up. They can’t be stark white, ever.”
So what are the preferred interior colors? Eggerts said that depends in part on how much experience you have in home ownership and how trendy you want to be. True, the new generation of earth tones is expected to make a big comeback, but waiting in the wings could be another collection of retro shades that may be favored by the truly trendy.
Fashion in clothing, said Eggerts, sometimes dictates fashion in interior design, and the coming colors in fashion are likely to be the bright, splashy primary colors that were popular in the 1960s, the sorts of colors that might have been seen on the joke wall of the “Laugh-In” show.
However, Eggerts said if these colors materialize in the design field--usually about a year after they’re seen in high fashion--they likely won’t be embraced by the established homeowner whose home already has, to one degree or another, a defined style.
More likely takers would be the first-time buyer who may see the home as a vehicle to show off the latest style.
“We do a lot of model homes,” said Eggerts, “so we have to stay on the leading edge. People who buy a new home might tend to look at the models and decide they’d like the newest and latest colors rather than the tried and true ones, especially if they’re first-time buyers.”
An established buyer who may have lived with high fashion and possibly regretted it probably knows that trying to stay currently fashionable in the world of interior design “gets real tired,” said Eggerts, who admits to having in her home, years ago, a turquoise leather sofa. She groans at the memory today.
“That’s why I think the timeless look is always the direction to go in,” she said.
Eggerts’ own home, a Spanish-style two-story house on the Balboa Peninsula, is a good example of the designer practicing what she preaches. The classic elements of the house--the hardwood floors, the crystal door and drawer handles and the textured walls--have been allowed to remain.
The walls are a bright cottage white and the floors are covered with a cream-colored carpet that allows a view of the hardwood as well. The light-colored sofas are accented with dark pillows and the walls are warmed up by dark artwork and green plants. Items such as coffee tables and lamps show off artfully finished metal work. And the upstairs den has the requisite media wall.
Still, Eggerts said she believes that there are always cyclical elements in interior design.
“It always comes full circle,” she said. “I had a client request a bean bag chair recently. It sounds strange, but it might work really well in suede, for instance, for the kids’ play area. You can’t really close your mind to anything because there always seems to be a new form of it.”
