WARM. COZY. TRADITIONAL. INVITING.
After years of cool grays and blues being on point, local interior designers say the pendulum is swinging—in part because that’s how pendulums work, and in part because the state of the world has people stressed and seeking comfort.
“I put music to everything, and my soundtrack right now is Have You Ever Seen the Rain by Credence Clearwater Revival,” says Karen Bow of Karen Bow Interiors in Darien. “I think that epitomizes what is going on in the world and what’s happening with my clients. People hire me to bring the calm. There’s an emotional level to it right now. People are looking to maximize what they have. They’re not looking to make big changes. We’re all a little weary. All we’re looking for is the possibility of change. And maybe it’s as simple as a throw pillow.”
Whether it’s making small or big adjustments, freshening up classic pieces or reconfiguring rooms to make them more usable, clients are asking interior designers for help with making home feel more homey this spring.
Michelle Morgan Harrison
Douglas Graneto
WARMER TONES
Michelle Morgan of Morgan Harrison Home in New Canaan is one of several leading designers who say people are craving warmer tones all around them.
“We have been in cool colors for over a decade. Really, 15 years or so,” she says. “And the eye is done with the cold. We’re warming again. The palettes are reverting back from blues that are now warmer greens. It’s not a purply-gray blue. It’s warmer. The grays are turning to gray-beiges. Even dark woods again, dark walnut.”
Douglas Graneto of Douglas Graneto Design in Westport and Darien is another designer receiving requests for more soothing shades.
“I have seen a really big move toward warmer tones,” he says. “People are warming up their houses and moving toward creams and green tones.”
Graneto adds that for some people, it’s simply that things go in cycles, and these shades can feel fresh and new right now. “We’ve embraced gray for quite some time, and when we fully dove into the cooler tones, that felt fresh because in the eighties and nineties, everything had a yellow and brown undertone to it,” he says. “That’s why the blues and grays felt crisp and new and exciting. It’s not that it’s done—blues and gray tones will always have a place in design—but the warmer tones feel softer and new again.”
COLOR DRENCHING
Christina Roughan is seeing much the same thing at her firm, Roughan Interiors in Weston, but with some clients specifically looking to color drenching to achieve the desired effect.
“I think it started in the fall, really, the warm neutrals and earth tones—beiges, terra cotta, rust,” she says. “Everyone is going in a way that’s just more homey and inviting. Even in contemporary homes, which we do too, it’s color drenching, and that doesn’t have to be a dark color. It can be a beautiful green, like a moss green.”
Color drenching is the idea of having everything in a room—from the ceiling to the accessories—done in the same color, or in variations on the same color. Bow says she’s also seeing clients lean into the idea.
“Color in abundance becomes a neutral,” Bow says. “It’s as serene as serene can be. It happens by layering combinations of color in abundance. You don’t accent something unless you want it accented. Trim is out. If you do the walls gray and the trim white, you’re accenting trim. Why? If you have beautiful molding and you want to bring attention to that, do it, but in a kitchen, maybe the cabinets are one shade of green, the walls are another shade of green, maybe there are four or five shades of green, and that makes the color become neutral.”
Douglas Graneto
Michelle Morgan Harrison
SMALL CHANGES, BIG IMPACT
Roughan says clients don’t have to make huge changes to feel a real difference.
“Just having different artwork in a space drastically changes the look and the feel,” she says. “You could have a caramel suede throw pillow on an ivory sofa to make it more inviting. Maybe heavy fringe. That can add a lot of depth and softness. Or what I love to do is search the globe for decorative smalls that really make an environment, like a beautiful bowl from the South of France that nobody else has, and you put it on your coffee table. Things like that—they really have provenance, and when you walk into a room and sit down, that could be a conversation. You talk about travel or the arts. There’s a lot that goes into every single light fixture. Individual things can be very special.”
Bow says a similar result can be achieved by introducing a new texture to a room. “I have a client with a lot of antiques. You can’t add another antique or another wood, but you want to freshen it up. So you add metals,” Bow says. “You could do the obvious brass or nickel, but I try to do textured or colored metals.”
Graneto says that even changing out some of the smallest accessories can brighten up a room. “Maybe it’s not all silver picture frames,” he says. “Add some wood or ceramic frames that have a warmer feel.”
Reupholstering can take things up a notch in a similar way, he adds. “If you have sofas or chairs that you love, reupholstering them is a way to use what you love and make them feel fresh again. If you have an antique chair from grandma, and it’s a shape that you like, reupholstering brings new life to it.”
CURATING SPACES
Roughan says that simply switching up what’s in a room can make a big difference as well. “Move things around. Move things out,” she says. “It’s like a refresh, and it gives you more mojo to do the next step. You sit back and think, this looks great.”
Bow also says that reconfiguring a space can give it a major boost. “People are looking at their traditional rooms and thinking they love it, but they’re not really using it very much. So, they’re turning these areas into dual-purpose rooms,” she says. “I have a couple of formal living rooms where we’ve incorporated game tables to transform the spaces into entertaining rooms. Or maybe we do an air hockey table, but it has a custom top on it, so it’s styled as a library table.” The addition of a custom Steinway piano is another option.”
All these ideas, she adds, are ultimately about feeling even more at home, when you’re at home. “I think it really is about maximizing what you have,” Bow says. “Love the home you’re with.”