co a lesce: to blend or come together
Less than a decade ago each region of the US could be identified by its use of color, texture, pattern and design elements. With the advent of well published “celebrity” designers, specialized home design media, mega home design retailers- from low to high-end, and the growth of targeted home design publications, has design across the US become more “coalesced?”
With the exception of perhaps the Northwest US (perhaps they have been the design leaders after all?) I think the answer is a resounding YES. Designers and consumers have become more universal in their approach to design and the elements that make them comfortable. There is a greater blending of color, texture, and design aesthetic across the US today than ten years ago.
We have strongly taken to the use of “modern” design elements, “clean” colors, “paired-down” design elements, and greater texture across the US. The trend is not contemporary “sparse” but “clean”, not fussy but “bridge-transitional”, a mixture of sleek and antique.
America is growing into its interiors. We employ a greater number of interior designers today than ever before. We are honing in on what we like, what makes us comfortable. Our interiors reflect more who we are rather than whom we think we should be and how that is communicated through our surroundings. Interiors that reflect the real us not the idealized us.
Mixing, upgrading, changing, refining.
What do you think? Have our interiors become more “us”, less what we think we should “represent?” Are they more united across the US in terms of color, style, and texture use? Are we uniting the real us with our interiors?
Look through some magazines and form an opinion. What might be the causes? Where might our interiors be headed? Talk to us!
