The “New Home”

By Claire Bond, Images Various Sources

Decorator and paint expert Claire Bond, the Plascon Spaces Showroom Brand Ambassador, highlights new interior trends for contemporary living, including fashionable surfaces, reimagined brick and patterned flooring.

Lifestyle shifts in recent years have meant that the home has come back into renewed focus as a space for making connections with friends and family. This “new home” is a place that comforts us and brings us together, it is the cocoon that provides an antidote to the frenetic whirl of technology-laden day-to-day life, from which we cannot easily switch off. Ironically, it is the non-stop technology that frees us from a past where we would otherwise have been stuck at the office and has ushered in the age of the “mobile workplace”. This gives us the liberty to work from home, or anywhere, really.

In response, modern homes have become multi-functional, combining the need for work-from-home spaces with relaxation and entertainment zones.  Hence the widespread popularity of open-plan designs and the new vogue for barn living, which allows for this kind of flexibility.

As a rising trend for these contemporary homes, the use of exposed brick, lime-washed brick and even painted brick is becoming increasingly popular. The rough, coarse texture of brick alongside high gloss floors and glossy units, results in rooms that are both modern and traditional. The brick introduces the familiar but because it references it in a fresh way, it does not allow the room to lose its style, but rather adds to it.

For example, have a look at how European designer Jaime Hayon has transformed the historic building of Le Sergent Recruteur into a modern restaurant that keeps the natural rustic feel of the original building.  Note the way the brickwork has been used as a proud feature of the interior. The feeling is one of simplicity, harmony and intimacy. We should be seeing a lot of this stylish use of brick coming through. It is particularly useful as a way of bringing brickwork homes up to date.

Style today is a celebration of simple natural materials and textures combined with elegant fabrics, painted wall effects, or wallpapers. A homeowner can select demure pastels or bright colours in geometrically bold designs as both offer a way forward.

Look out for interesting patterned floors, be it in your tiling options or merely painted. Lastly, items you have collected, be they of sentimental value or monetary value can be mixed up to create a unique space that has the soul to bring a family home.

Have a look at the accompanying images, as these rooms manage to explain visually where I feel the mood in interiors is today. The home is forever evolving and the decor and design of our own homes is part of who we all are. Enjoy expressing our modern life in yours!