Interior & exterior design trends with Katherine Lightfoot

Our homes are an extension of who we are. Whether you’re building a new home, renovating your current one or dreaming of the near future, it’s important to choose an aesthetic that suits your lifestyle.

Looking for home design inspiration? Be inspired by Katherine Lightfoot of Kella Design Co. Top interior and exterior trends of 2021.

Home exterior, the first impression

Your home’s façade creates the ultimate first impression. The exterior of your house should set the tone for what is to come on the inside. There are many exterior trends floating around, explore our favourite trends below that are showing no signs of slowing down.

Neutral colour palettes

Neutral colour palettes for house exteriors have become a popular choice for homeowners. In particular, the family of cool grey shades over the traditional warmer browns, beige’s and reds.

Shades of cooler toned colours such as greys, black, charcoal and whites are modern and easy to work with combinations. The key to creating an impactful exterior is to ensure you have contrast and a focal point to prevent colours fading into one.

For a smart and modern look, grey is best complimented with a bold matt black or charcoal roof, window joinery or garage door. This helps break up the large planes of cladding and helps to give the house dimension. Alternatively, add a touch of warmth by mixing a grey façade with stained cedar cladding features. This adds a layered element to your home creating character

Statement Doors

Another trend making quite the entrance are large statement front doors. Your front door is the perfect opportunity to create a focal point with different styles and sizes. Statement styles include double height doors, full glass or steel framed doors and large scale pivot doors. Key tip: add statement door handles for a touch of character.

Rethink Brick

The traditional brick is making a comeback. Bricks are undeniably, timeless, beautiful, and richly diverse. No two brick walls are the same, which is why brick detailing has become a popular concept among homeowners who wish to create impactful features inside and out of their home.

Key tip: With the variety of fresh and modern styles and colours of bricks you can keep them raw or paint a brick to create a sleek look.

Interior Trends

Interior design can effectively optimise space in our home to create a sanctuary that suits our lifestyles. There are a huge number of interior design trends on the scene that help to accomplish this.

Colours, tones and patterns

Muted, natural, earthy colour palettes are becoming increasingly popular for all interior spaces. Homeowners are experimenting with tones, in particular shades of greens, browns, rusts and variations of whites. This is then combined with a variety of subtle patterns such as; stripes, curves and gingham to create an aesthetically pleasing effortless modern look.

Textures

Visual interest and physical comfort are both increased through the use of textures, especially in soft furnishings such as; rugs, curtains, towels, cushions, throws and bedding.

Key tip: use your artwork as the base for your colour palette, selecting the tones of your soft furnishings from the colours in your art.

Fabrics

Boucle is a huge fabric trend coming through into all areas of the home. Especially in whites and creams, for soft furnishings and furniture. It brings in a beautiful strong texture which adds another dimension to any room of the house.

Linen is still a fabric we are loving, it is a natural fabric with a textured look which comes in many muted variations of colour, linen is perfect for bedding, drapes and upholstered furniture. When using linen, an important factor to consider making sure it is protected from direct sunlight as it fades. Linen polyester blends are a great solution for this issue as it combines the UV properties of synthetic fibres with the look of linen.

Full height ceiling to floor sheer linen look drapes are also perfect to add softness, warmth and texture to your bedroom and living space. Velvet is also still a top trending fabric for cushions and furniture, perfect for adding a touch of luxury.

Key tip: With velvet, try a polyester velvet as a more hard wearing, child and pet friendly option.

Furniture

Slatted, rolled and scalloped vertical timber furniture pieces are a current crowd favourite.

This style comes through in large and small furniture items such as coffee tables, bedside tables and drawer units. Flowing through to the bathroom and kitchen, this trend can also be used for vanities and kitchen cabinetry.

Upholstered headboards are a must! Whether that be a deep buttoned, simple slip cover or vertical panelled linen, boucle or velvet, it is a must have for every bedroom.

Bathrooms

Terrazzo style and vertically laid small scale subway tiles are very on trend, mixing the two together creates a very texture heavy bathroom with lots of visual impact.

Key tip: A great way to inject colour into your bathroom is through coloured concrete basins and baths, available in an array of colours.

Vertical heated towel rails look great for a casual bathroom, and work very well for small spaces. Vertical lines are on trend throughout the bathroom, seen in tile laying, vertical fluted vanities and fluted glass shower glass screens.

Matte black was the go to tapware finish for the last couple of years, however now that most companies are exploring more options, the gunmetal and aged iron tapware finishes are becoming more popular. Gunmetal looks very modern and sleek and in comparison to the standard chrome it adds some luxury to the space.

Curves

Curves are back! We are absolutely loving the softness that curves are introducing into our interiors. Whether that be in our furniture, handles, cushions, mirrors, lighting and even kitchens and bathrooms. Key Tip: A combination of sleek simple lines and soft curves is a match made in heaven for a modern look.

Accessories and Styling

Quirky candle holders, vases and lighting is very on trend, accompanied by the very popular organic ceramic table or floor vessels in earthy tones. Touches of natural stones and marbles are also coming through in accessories. Large scale hard cover books are also a must for styling your living space.