- Welcome back to Houzz TV live I'm Rick Spence,
with me today is Mitchell Parker from our editorial team.
And he's got some trends for 2021.
This is always a great article,
everyone looks forward to it.
So Mitchell really excited to talk to you.
- [Mitchell] Yeah, thanks Rick.
So every year the editorial team kind of
takes the opportunity to look back on the previous year
see what was popular and then kind of look
at what will be popular in the coming year.
So we look at past articles, we looked
through hundreds of photos, we review Houzz research
and we talked to dozens of pros on Houzz
to kind of formulate what we think will be
big in home design in the coming year.
- Let's pull it down to what we think are maybe
sort of the 10 hottest trends for 2021.
And if the folks want to dive in deeper
they got the full article and all the good stuff there.
So why don't we start in the kitchen?
That's a favorite spot, what's happening in the kitchen?
- Yeah, so one of the trends we looked at is, you know
traditionally designers talk about the work triangle, right?
It's kind of the natural footpath between the refrigerator,
the sink, the cooking area you kind of move back
and forth between these various zones.
But you know, today homeowners, you know, expect so much
out of their kitchens that we're seeing multiple zones added
into this, this work path.
We kind of call it a work trapezoid
or something because you think about the shape of it.
You know, you've got a coffee station
you've got a baking station, you've got a prep station
in addition to the cooking station.
So, you know, we see homeowners who like to cook
with their partner in the house, or, you know
have kids come in and grab a drink
and not be in the foot path of the person cooking.
So the kitchen is kind of really expanded
into these multiple zones.
And we've been seeing that in this photo here
that you have here is a really good example.
You have this baking center in the far back wall there
so that it's kind of out of the regular path
and it's kind of a destination that you can go to
to get some work done and you know
stay out of the way of the other people in the kitchen.
- [Rick] People love those making centers.
- [Mitchell] Yeah, it's huge
and we saw a lot of baking in this previous year,
you know, people spending more time at home
and want to get their baking stuff in order.
So, you know, a lot of people learn how to bake
you know, sourdough starters, all this kind of stuff.
So, you know, we think that's gonna carry
over into 2021 for sure.
- Get your baking on, you have a baking center there.
What are you working on?
- Not a center it's a cabinet maybe
cabinet and drawer, but you know I've got two kids
and they've really enjoyed baking in these previous months
and they've gotten really good at it.
So you know who doesn't like to bake?
- Absolutely. Okay, so what about some style in the kitchen
what's happening with some of the materials
and what's going on their backsplashes and countertops?
What do we see in there?
- Yeah, so the biggest thing we saw in backsplashes
I would say is something called Zellige tile,
hope I'm pronouncing that right.
And it's kind of this Moroccan handmade tile
and it's kind of different than the Moroccan style
tiles we've seen in the past that are,
you know, very brightly pattern and intricate
and find them on the floors
and sometimes I'm backsplashes but these are just simple
small square tiles with kind of a handmade look
and a glossy finish on them.
Subway tile backsplashes still remain super popular
but for somebody who wants something kind of similar
but enough of a departure, these tiles are just
really taking off just a beautiful tile and very simple
and we're definitely gonna see a lot more
of it in the coming year.
Also in the kitchen touchless faucets
are really starting to take off.
Hand-washing was front and center of everybody's minds
in this previous year.
We saw a lot of faucet manufacturers come out with lines
that featured voice activated faucets, touchless faucets.
There's one faucet that we show here that kinda
has this button on the end, so you can kinda bump it
with a forearm or bump it with an elbow.
So if your hands are dirty, you're not kind of,
you know worrying about touching
and spreading bacteria throughout the kitchen.
And then this one from Kohler is completely hands-free
it's voice activated.
And they even launched a new feature where you
can connect it to a Google home or an Amazon Alexa device.
And it will talk to you through the CDC guidelines
of hand-washing so that you can kind of make sure
that you're following the right steps.
- [Rick] It count you down 20, 19, 18, almost finished...
- If you don't follow the steps,
I don't know if they let you go or what
but hopefully they let you off the hook.
- Sorry, I cannot wash your hands Mitchell, right?
(laughing)
That is when denies you access or something, right?
- Looks like you still have something
under that pinky nail right?
- Right.
(laughing)
Yeah, that's really good for making meatballs too.
When I do meatballs, it's always an issue
I've got to like kind of do the elbow to turn the...
- Yeah, handling chicken or meat or something or...
- [Rick] Whatever, yeah.
- You don't wanna be touching stuff,
so I'm very conscious of that.
So something like this feature would really
make life a little bit easier.
- [Rick] All right, let's go into another space
in the home with a lot of hard surfaces, the bathroom.
What do we seen in the bathroom?
- Well, what we mentioned earlier that same Zellige tile
is found everywhere we've seen some colors of that same tile
in the bathroom, but one of the biggest things
and it's really nothing new, but a curbless shower.
Some people call them barrier free showers where
the main floor kind of just continues into the shower.
You do have to keep in mind how the tile is gonna drain.
You've got one continuous floor.
So you've got to keep in mind
how are you gonna transition the material?
Or if you're gonna keep the tile the same
how are you gonna do the shower enclosure?
So there's kind of some technical things to it
but definitely a feature that is catching on.
- [Rick] And it's great for aging in place too,
when they do sort of a wider birth to get in and out,
you can, you know I know a lot of people are thinking,
maybe not now but down the road.
So when they're building sort of their dream home
they're kind of thinking in advance
and curbless makes a lot, a lot of sense there too.
- Yeah, even a low barrier, that's just a couple inches
it's kinda be difficult to navigate,
you still got to take that step into it.
You can't really get a wheelchair into it
lift a walker into it.
So definitely the curbless is something that anybody
who plans to age in place or is interested
in universal design will definitely wanna consider.
- What about some of the bigger materials,
the bigger choices in the space
- [Mitchell] We've seen a lot of slab materials,
quartz countertops, some of these companies have, you know,
their materials is thin is six millimeters
so that you can use those big slabs
of quartz to line, shower walls with
and it just creates this continuous seamless look
in the shower that, you know
you don't have any grout lines visually it's kind
of expansive and just creates a really, really neat feature.
- [Rick] All right, let's step outside for a second
and tell me a little bit about what's happening there.
- Homeowners are looking outdoors
to create more living space as they spend more time
at home and they want to get outdoors, but you know
maybe they can't go to public spaces or, you know
parks or restaurants or stuff like that.
And they're creating more opportunities in the backyard.
And if you want to have a lounge area
a dining space in the backyard, you need shade.
The pergola is a great idea to add shade in the backyard
and you can work with a professional to design a custom one
or you can go as simple around just build a basic structure
that might not take very long
maybe you can get it up in a weekend or so.
No other trend really got put under the microscope
this past year more than the open floor plan.
If you have an open plan your kitchen is your dining room
and your living area and you've got a busy household
with competing video meetings and school sessions.
People quickly saw that these open plans can kinda get
out of hand when a lot of activities
are happening in the same space.
So we did see that some people were considering, you know
partitions or screens, you know, like sliding doors
or just a space that you can close off
and have some quiet time and the backyard cottage
or a sometimes called a she shed
or a shed or an accessory dwelling unit really took
off this year as well.
And you know, I think we'll continue into 2021.
It's a little bit easier to, you know, construct
than a home edition where you're ripping out a wall
you're building onto your house.
These structures, you can build them up
into the backyard up some power, some plumbing to it.
You can use them and it doesn't have to be a lot of space.
You can use them for a home office, yoga studio
a music practice space, or just, you know
a place to go inside, close the door
and have some quiet relaxation time away
from the craziness that might be happening in the,
the open floor plan inside.
- 2020 was a year we'd all like to forget.
So in 2021 kind of embracing the cozy right
and embracing health and in embracing happiness.
And one way you can do that is making an ultra cozy bedroom.
- Yeah, you know the bedrooms continues to be a place
that we seek refuge in to be a calm, quiet place.
We think of comfort, we think of padding,
we think of softness, you know
one way to do that is with a headboard.
And we've just seen a lot
of these channel tufted headboards show up this year.
It's a way to bring in some kind of visual texture
some dimension to the headboard, you've got the
you know, vertical lines of it that can kind of
accentuate the rear wall or the height of the space.
And it's just an opportunity to bring in another fabric
another color to make it look a bit more cozy.
- So cozier, healthier homes.
One thing that comes up a lot is ventilation natural light
anything happening there, any trends there in 2021?
- [Mitchell] Yeah, ventilation for sure
you know, air quality was huge this year.
You know, it kinda ties back to this expectation that
we need our homes to be nourishing.
And, you know, the quality of air was a big topic
in 2020, you know, on the on the West coast,
we had a lot of wildfires, you know
this airborne virus that was out there,
you know just had really people thinking
about the air quality inside their home.
So a huge surge in interest in air purifiers
these HEPA air filters and a big focus
on ventilation and air quality inside of homes.
And I think that's catching on
and more people would definitely be interested in that.
And we'll be discussing something like air quality
and ventilation with their home design grows.
- Thanks, Mitchell, that's a nice overview
and if folks want more, they can check
out the full article with all 36 trends.
Lots of great stuff there.
Thanks for taking the time.
And I can't wait to see how this pans out.
- Thanks Rick, here's the 2021.
- Here's the 2021 virtual drink.
All right.
- [Mitchell] Cheers mate.
- Cheers.