In what has already been an exciting year in interior design, with brave new combinations of colours and materials, the 2017 Australian Interior Design Awards finalists share some key common trends. To bring your home up to award-winning standards, consider these expert tips:
Imperfect beauty
From mismatched scatter cushions to handmade design items, interior spaces are being finished with less attention to symmetry and more focus on the imperfections of authentic, natural materials. Today's more progressive approach to interior design highlights common materials being reinterpreted in new ways that steer away from traditional ideas of luxury.
2017 is about using natural timber and stone to accent key areas of the house that individually reflect the home's location and function to build a personalised statement rather than a specific 'theme'.
Bringing the outdoors inside
Indoor plants are well and truly back in favour. Just open any interiors magazine and you’ll quickly notice the abundance of lush greenery scattered throughout beautifully styled homes.
Not only helping to bring the outside in, indoor plants are great at purifying the air and lifting an otherwise dull or uninviting space.
Fiddle Leaf Fig mania, for example, has taken the interior design world by storm. Loved for their big glossy, leathery leaves, Fiddle Leaf Figs make exceptional house or office plants, particularly in larger areas. And thankfully, for the not-so-green-thumb, they require only weekly watering and care.
The final touches
•The emerging trend of leaning rather than hanging prints and mirrors (including geometric shaped mirrors) against walls or on floating shelves is also being widely used to give rooms a more casual appeal.
•Beautiful bedheads remain on-trend and are favoured for adding a sense of luxury and texture, as well as setting the tone for the room. With an endless amount of fabric choices available, the bedhead can be used to create deep dramatic looks in darker tones and a calm, serene feel in lighter fabrics.
•Feather filled cushions continue to be a quality option for styling your home. They retain their shape, are longer lasting and more versatile than polyester fills. Add a karate chop to the top of the cushion to finish the look.
•Finally, the appeal of large rugs cannot be understated, particularly in winter when they add texture and warmth. Also useful to help zone a space, rugs are essential for consolidating the concept of a room, or ‘bringing the look together’.
To find out more about how to style your home like a professional, visit the Australian Interior Design Awards website.