Architect Pete Schwartz names the open-floor plan as a trend he'd like to see go "out."
What should go out?
Pete Schwartz
Vessel Architecture & Design
I’d like to see the open-floor plan go away. What I mean by that is the unfortunate trend in a lot of home design over the past 30 years that has been to build the biggest volume you can get under a roof. People watch HGTV, and they think they got a great piece of architecture because of the term “open-floor plan” and granite countertops. In reality, you end up with a gigantic room that is really unusable because it’s not to the scale of the people that live there. What I’d like to see is not a return to a bunch of little bitty boxes that are separated by walls but a return to smaller, well-crafted spaces that are meaningful.
Paul Fendler
Fendler & Associates
You see a lot of white kitchens with white marble and nickel-plated hardware. It’s time that that goes away. I think that slowly now we’re starting to see colors come back in. It’s cyclical, but I think people get tired of that look. It seems to be bold colors and a combination of colors that are coming back in.
What should come in?
Marcia Moore
Marcia Moore Design
I love an eclectic look, where you use a lot of different elements. It makes for a really interesting home. You look around and see all kinds of things: a few family heirlooms along with contemporary art and some new furniture or rugs. Your house doesn’t look like anybody else’s. That’s, to me, one of the hallmarks of good design: You’re not copying anybody else.
Julie Abner
Julie Abner Interiors
There are some beautiful new trims, like decorative tape, that are just so sophisticated and smart but that you can do really simplistically. I’m glad to see that come back. We went into a minimalistic phase. The trimmings that we’re seeing now add a little element of interest without getting too overdone.
