Vintage and cottage looks is where it’s at this year as far as interior decorating is concerned.
And visitors to the Ridge Meadows Home Show can learn about it at Design Alley’s seminars and showcase this weekend.
Ronnie Vanstone, who is the creative side of Design Alley, has been coming to the home show since the early 2000s, and she calls it a “great show, well run, and well attended.”
“We get the opportunity to meet and help many new people over the course of the show weekend and visitors to the show really seem to enjoy the showcase and seminars,” she said. “It’s a win-win for Design Alley and visitors alike – we get to meet and chat with people who may not know about us and the services we provide and visitors get a chance to experience working with a design team and learning about new trends and products as well as getting some great free help and advice.”
Every year there are many new trends and “micro trends,” Vanstone said, but this year the most popular are vintage and cottage.
She has combined the two this year – firstly, vintage, a “nod to yesteryear” using craftsmanship of the past, with items that are either truly old, or reproduced to give them an antique feel.
“[Vintage is] not old or worn but rather gracefully aged – [it] is warm, elegant, but lived in and truly pretty,” Vanstone said.
The cottage look is an “eclectic assortment of new and old with a holiday feel,” Vanstone said, adding that it’s fresh, cheerful, airy, and inviting, making every day feel like it’s a holiday.
Vanstone will hold seminars about colour at the home show, called “Colour Confusion.”
This year the trendiest colours are greys, blues, and purples.
“This year’s softer colours, and things like the popularity of the cottage look, reflect the high stress, fast paced world we live in today,” she said. “I think we all lead such busy, technologically plugged-in lives today, that the holiday atmosphere of the cottage look, mixed with the slower more graceful feel of items lived with and loved in days past appeals to people.”
“Colour and trend forecasting is a rather involved process with a lot of contributing factors, such as prevailing social attitudes, economy, current media, and just the need for variety and change,” Vanstone added.
She also thinks it’s time to let go of the earth tones that have been dominant over the past few years, and people are ready to embrace a fresher, lighter colour palette.
“After all, change is as good as a rest, they say, and vintage cottage and fresh softer colours will be like a restful holiday all year,” she explained.
Vanstone tries to keep her seminars fun and interactive, and hopes they help take away some of the fear of designing and decorating.
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