Four Top Interior Design Trends for 2021

The experts agree: 2021 is the big year for vintage nostalgia and retro decorating as popular design trends — at least,  so say the country’s top interior designers. From comfy-cozy Cottagecore to chintz-laden Grand Millennial and rustic Shabby Chic, the most popular designs harken back to earlier times, recreated with antique-inspired furnishings and accessories.

Here’s a look at what’s trending in 2021 and how designers incorporate these themes into today’s homes.

Cottagecore

Trending for several years now, Cottagecore is still going strong for 2021, and its multitude of variations continues to make it popular. Essentially a nostalgic, romanticized take on agricultural life, Cottagecore encapsulates the perfect English country cottage or farmhouse while ignoring the hard work it takes to maintain a rural lifestyle.

Hallmarks of Cottagecore include vintage stained-glass windows, oak beams, polished wood flooring (with vintage-look tile or linoleum in kitchens and bathrooms), spindle chairs, and primitive painted furniture. For accessories, think dried flowers and houseplants, baskets, pewter plates, handmade pottery, fine stoneware (like Blue Willow), and for diehard fans, larger pieces like authentic churns and spinning wheels.

For 2021, Cottagecore has gone even more rustic. This countrified incarnation incorporates a great many design elements from traditional farmhouse styles, including oak beam ceilings, wide plank wood flooring  (made cozier with handmade rugs), and light fabrics in gingham and floral patterns.

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Grand Millennial

Aesthetically, Grand Millennial is a step up from Cottagecore — the English manor house as opposed to the English country cottage. In Grand Millennial, charm is expressed with more elegance and chic — instead of a Blue Willow teapot, think sterling silver or Crown Derby.

Grand Millennial rooms typically feature elegant polished wood flooring, luxurious decorator rugs, and classic “brown furniture” — the heavy, carved and polished mahogany, oak and cherry tables, chairs and beds so beloved by earlier generations. Once relegated to the rubbish bin, these pieces are going for high prices (and being reproduced) again.

Another hallmark of Grand Millennial is an abundance of chintz — enough chintz to resemble a Laura Ashley showroom. Other hallmark touches include needlepoint cushions, plenty of English bone china, and elegant floral (never geometric!) rugs.

Shabby Chic

Today’s Shabby Chic has an anything-goes feel, incorporating elements from Rustic Farmhouse, French Provincial, Primitive, and Retro design styles. A Shabby Chic living room might feature aged (or painted) pine furniture paired with knotty wood flooring and accessorized with authentic (or reproduction) early 20th-century teddy bears and ragdolls, vintage-look glass bottles or even 1950s kitchen accessories (the more used, the better). The hallmark of Shabby Chic is its well-lived-in look, with gently worn furnishings that look vintage (even if they’re not), placed in a thrown-together way that just borders on clutter; but it’s a clutter that’s charming rather than claustrophobic.

Traditionally, Shabby Chic expressed more of an early 20th-century vibe; but today, Shabby Chic can also encompass mid-20th century 50s and 60s retro, or even more contemporary looks. It’s basically a hodge-podge, with a running, “well-lived-in” theme that can include a wide range of design aesthetics. Think flaked-off paint, silver with heavy patina (or a bit of tarnish), worn vintage rugs, and faded prints, and you’ve got the look in a nutshell. Typically, the trend in Shabby Chic is to avoid muted colors, favoring soft pastels and various permutations of white and gray instead.

One advantage to this design aesthetics is that all three share similar design elements. This means that you can mix and match various pieces to achieve these different looks throughout your home. For example, the wood plank flooring that’s so popular with Cottagecore also works beautifully with both Grand Millennial and Shabby Chic.

Likewise, if you’re looking to find a sofa that complements your flooring, the good news is that the same style sofa can go with all three of these decorator schemes. Even better, a simple, traditional, or classic style sofa in a neutral design can also work wonderfully well, especially if you match it to your décor by adding needlepoint cushions, hand-woven afghans, or other accessories that reflect the overall theme.

Blues, grays, pastels, and earth tones

One of the country’s top paint brands, Benjamin Moore, has just announced its color of the year: Aegean Teal (2136-40), a soothing oceanic blue redolent of ocean breezes. Other trending colors for the company include neutral shades of gray and white, as well as peach and yellow tints. Likewise, paint manufacturer Pantone has announced its two colors of the year: Ultimate Gray (17-5104) and Illuminating (13-0647), a vivid yellow.

These color choices reflect the year’s favorite shades among interior designers — soft pastels, ocean blues, and neutral earth tones. These colors provide the perfect backdrop for Grand Millennial, Cottagecore, and Shabby Chic designs, as well as for a myriad of other design schemes and décors.

Whichever trend you prefer, the good news is that there’s an abundance of affordable home furnishing choices available to help you achieve the look you want. From traditional wood plank flooring to furniture and accessories, you can mix and match a variety of items to achieve the home of your dreams.