From avocado green refrigerators and shag carpet to chintz wallpaper and preppy pastels, the way a home is designed and decorated reflects the style and values of the time. What’s important in that decade is often highlighted through interior design, from centering the living room around game tables in the 1800s to stately radios that took center stage in the living rooms of the 30s and 40s. It should come as no surprise then that current home trends have been solidly influenced by the drastic increase in the amount of time people have spent at home during the past two and a half years.
“The more time spent in the home, the more we’ve all reflected not only on how our homes looked but also truly took into consideration the creature comforts, the mix of form and function,”
said Jessie Fogarty from LG Gallery, a Las Vegas boutique home furnishings store. Fogarty noted that customers are also mixing metals and finishes, eschewing the notion that they have to stick to one style.
Customers combine wood and stones, fibers and metals, antiques, and contemporary pieces, curating their spaces to make them their own. “A more eclectic look [rather] than being married to just one rigid style is becoming more common and where we at LG Gallery find the most excitement. The personality being apparent in design is what makes the house a home,” she said.
That personality is being infused in different ways throughout the home, especially as millennials move into the housing market and lean into more traditional brands and styles - some of which were favored by their mothers and grandmothers.
“The millennial generation, and even Gen Z, is embracing MacKenzie-Childs,” said Fogarty referring to the colorful hand-painted furnishing and decor brand perhaps most distinguishable for their black and white courtly check pattern, accented by bold pops of color. “Their influence can be seen across social media in the homes of influencers, adding visual pops to recipe videos on TikTok, and in popular culture in the kitchens of reality TV stars,” said Fogarty.
Las Vegas Realtor Traci Human of Traci Human LV Homes has also noted that “the wave of grey has definitely finished, but homebuyers still prefer neutral tones throughout,” looking for a blank canvas to make their own.
Bold uses of color incorporated into home decor choices aren’t the only ways younger generations of homeowners are shifting away from a sea of neutrals. “While both traditional and contemporary styles are heavily apparent in the Las Vegas Valley, there’s no denying that the newer contemporary styles paired with dark frames are dominating the younger mainstream market,” said Jessica Wells from HyBar, a local window, and door installation company.
Dark colors are turning up elsewhere in the home as well. Gone are the white kitchens of the 2010s. Instead, customers are opting for dark oak, wood colors, gray, and mochaccino matte options,
according to Euro Kitchen Cabinets’ Georg Wyink, who has found mixing various textures and colors together for slab panel doors also to be incredibly popular recently.
Marrying textures, colors, and even metals together in unexpected ways goes hand in hand with another trend popping up in Las Vegas area homes: integrating the outdoors with the home's interior.
“One of the most common remodeling projects that pique our clients’ interest is our window wall installation services,” said Wells referring to HyBar’s large moveable window walls. “We find that most people enjoy the clear views and natural light that large window walls provide while staying cool in the comfort of their own homes.” For the past two and a half years, people have sought ways to be outside. By incorporating window walls, they can bring the outdoors in and “transform your home entirely as we tear down blank walls and replace them with massive multi-slide or folding doors, redefining the essence of your entire home,” said Wells.
It’s the perfect trend considering Las Vegas’ heat and for entertaining at home – which is also on the rise. According to Wyink, his clients are only interested in open-concept kitchens packed with technology upgrades like sound systems so that they can entertain because “with a closed kitchen, it’s not possible,” he said.
Fogarty has also seen an uptick in customers looking for kitchen and decor items specifically for entertaining purposes. “As we find ourselves in the position to entertain more in smaller groups at home overwhelmingly, we on the retail side are seeing a renewed interest in serving pieces, table linens - everything that elevates even a basic gathering to a special event,” she said.
On the real estate side, Human says that open floor plans continue to be the preferred floor plan, “people enjoy entertaining and gathering in large open spaces,” she said. Another trend still firmly entrenched is the need for a home office space, a craze that began in 2020 and has only increased as remote work has become the status quo for many. Homebuyers are also seeking out homes with flexible space options, “having a loft or additional bedroom space is still popular as a lot of our clients are working from home.”
Room for entertaining and working isn’t the only space Las Vegas homeowners are interested in these days. There’s also a growing trend when it comes to garages and residential parking options. Homeowners are reclaiming vertical wasted space in the garage and even in the ground for additional vehicles by installing residential lifts and car parking solutions – something especially helpful in the scorching desert heat. “People are learning that they have the ability to park more cars in their garages than they currently do now,” said Laura Jones-Zwick of Expert Automotive Equipment/Residential Parking Solutions. This is helpful not just for getting additional cars out of the sun, but also when it comes to vehicle parking limits imposed by homeowners associations. “It’s less expensive than most people think and easy to operate,” said Zwick.
The seamless integration of technology throughout the home is an enduring home design trend that continues to hold strong. From larger-scale implementations, including easy-to-operate garage car lifts, and automated moveable window walls that operate with the touch of a button on a smartphone, to installing tech-savvy appliances and ring doorbells, this is one trend that will only continue to grow. After all, it started with that singular radio holding court in the living room.