2019 Home Design Trends in Houston, TX
We’d like to preface this blog by stating that because something is a trend that does not mean it’s an absolute design choice. We strongly encourage our clients to choose their home design based upon their wants, needs and the functionality that makes sense for their families. While it’s no secret that designs come and go, there are many designs that are simply classics that will remain in style and truly stands the test of time. On that note, we’ve noticed that trends tend to circle around every 15-25 years, but with a modern twist, for example, gold hardware and mid-century mod furniture.
Backsplash Trends
Let’s discuss tile shapes quickly. Understanding each shape of tile will help you narrow down the selection.
Square
Subway
Arabesque
Hexagon
Mosaics
Triangle
Diamond
Octagon
Rhomboid
Chevron
Lantern
Texture
Each comes in various sizes ranging from smaller mosaics to larger tiles. Each tile can be installed as a backsplash, wall tile, floor tile, and shower/bath body.
Geometrical Tile Shapes such as the hexagon, octagon, and triangle are very popular and add a retro vibe when installed. They make a great choice for your bathroom, laundry rooms and catchall rooms if you are aiming for the vintage/retro with a modern twist motif.
Cement Tile/Stencil Tile. This tile requires a knowledgeable installer. The installation method is quite different than your porcelain, ceramic and natural stone. This tile is purchased per tile which differs from per sq. ft. Cement tiles are designed with beautiful patterns for a nice visual. This tile can be installed on the wall or floor. It offers a beautiful pattern.
Coutertop Trends
Quartz counters are currently the most popular counter top being installed at the moment in Houston; more specifically Quartz that resembles marble. Luxurious looking without the continuous up keep of marble, quartz gained in popularity because of the many selections, styles, colors and most importantly its durability. Not to mention it’s much more budget friendly than real marble while offering a more benefits such as lower maintenance, more durable, and it’s nonporous which means it doesn’t stain like real marble. Every designer, builder, flipper, remodeler and contractor is using quartz.
Granite is not too far behind in popularity.
Quartz Countertop
Granite Countertop
Cabinet Trends
Colors and color blocking. Adding hues to the kitchen is all the rave. Colors help set the mood and feel. Matte finished cabinets are increasing in popularity.
Bright Kitchens. Many of our clients LOVE bright kitchens. Installing light colored cabinets is the best way for a bright kitchen and many offset the bright cabinets with a darker counter or backsplash. White cabinets are on the up rise, and other colors such as light grays are too.
Upper glass cabinet doors with Decorative Mullions and Mutins are VERY trendy, stylish and add a world of elegance with their design. This is a particular favorite of mine. We love adding a few upper cabinets to frame around the sink area to add a beautiful visual. If you’re not keen on a glass display because of the transparency, a mirror substituting the glass is growing in popularity.
Open shelving is popular but may not be functional for every family. Joanna Gaines of Fixer Upper seems to love using open shelving in the kitchen, especially around the sink area. While they are beautiful, many Houston homeowners rather shy away from this style of cabinetry and opt for beautiful cabinets with glass doors. If you are interested in an open shelving concept, there are limitless options to choose from. This style is a wonderful option if you love to display your China or have plants in your kitchen. Open shelves can absolutely be incorporated in any type of kitchen, even as accent shelving.
Traditional kitchen cabinets are popular but very taste specific. Homeowners like to pick this particular style of cabinetry to fit their design motif. Traditional cabinetry offers beautifully carved designs and very rich in color. This style of cabinetry is fun to design because of the all different trims, pillars and corbels that can add elegant detail.
Shaker Cabinets are popular have been for quite a few years now. Minimal design with straight lines, they are design adaptable and aesthetically pleasing. These cabinets are a perfect choice for builders and flippers because they are neutral in design and not very taste specific.
Gold and Brass hardware. Old world charm meets elegant modern. Gone are the days of chunky and clunky faucets and cabinet hardware and in are minimal sleek straight lined gold and brass hardware. Some love and some hate this trend. When designed right, it looks beautiful. One major down side of this trend is that once it has passed, it makes the space look very dated.
Traditional Style Cabinets
Dark Modern Kitchen
Shaker Style Color Block Kitchen
Dark Matte Colored Cabinets with Brass Faucet
MIRRORS
Mirrors are very vogue at the moment. And not just wall mirrors, but mirrored furniture, cabinets and armoires! Smoked and antiqued mirrors add old world charm and when paired with decorative mullions and muntins, it modernizes the décor.
Wallpaper
Love it or hate it, wallpaper is trending. Wallpaper can be fun and add great pizzazz to your room. Patterns, florals, shapes and textured wallpaper are what our clients LOVE. We have been doing more accent walls in wallpaper than full rooms. It’s a great backdrop to a desk or bed and can be added as a beautiful focal point.
Flooring trends
Waterproof flooring is a more of a necessity for Houston homeowners than an actual trend. For homeowners that have braved Hurricane Harvey and faced its aftermath and destruction to new home owners that refuse to fall victim to such a disaster, all are asking for waterproof flooring.
The flooring best suited to be called waterproof is tile. Tile flooring offers so many options, designs and layouts. There is something for everyone. Tile is the preferred flooring option for Houstonians because of the extreme heat and weather conditions. Spills and floods can be easily cleaned on a tile floor and it offers a cooling effect in the hot and humid summer months. Luckily, winters here are milder in comparison to other areas of the US and tile isn’t a complete nuisance during the winter. 98 out of 100 homes we enter have at least 1 area of tile flooring. Some homes are completely tiled while others are tiled on the entire first floor opening the second floor to another flooring choice.
Hardwood Tile Planks Flooring. Tile that looks like hardwood is very popular in Houston because of how stylish it is. Since Houston is such a warm and humid climate, solid hardwood floors require more upkeep than most homeowners have time for. (Stay tuned for the pros and cons of installing hardwood in Houston). Tile that looks like hardwood is the perfect solution. Easy to clean and extremely scratch resistant are qualities that make it a wonderful choice for Houston homeowners. Wood look tile flooring is offered in a variety of colors such as browns, the uber trendy grays, and whites and multicolored for a more rustic and distressed look.
Faux marble tile (not to be confused with Quartz). Faux marble tile is typically a porcelain tile with a Carrera marble print. This tile is offered in matte and gloss finishes. It is a perfect alternative for getting that marble look on a budget. It’s also more durable and requires less maintenance than real marble making it a great choice for tile flooring in Houston.
Waterproof luxury vinyl. Waterproof luxury vinyl comes in both stone and hardwood variations. Te COREtec flooin brand is our coice of clickable luxury vinyl. Wen tis product it te market, it revolutionized te floorin world. Now tere are many brands tat offer clickable luxury vinyl. We ave many in stock colors of various luxury vinyl brands.
Engineered hardwood. Engineered hardwood is much more popular for Houston homeowners than solid hardwood. Offering the same aesthetic appeal, sometimes you cannot tell if its solid or engineered!, it requires a world less upkeep. Cool toned engineered hardwoods have been gaining in popularity as opposed to browns with red and orange undertones. Browns tones with an undertone of grays are trendy because that combination offers the cool tones that Houston homeowners love. My favorite engineered hardwood to date is Bruce gray hand scraped hard maple. If you happen to have an engineered hardwood but you want to change the colors, we offer sanding and refinishing hardwood services.
Solid Hardwoods. Flooring trends wouldn’t be complete without solid hardwood. While it’s true that engineered hardwoods are more popular than solids, we can’t leave solid hardwood off the list completely! Many of our clients simply love their hardwood and wouldn’t have any other way! Wide plank hardwoods are much more popular with our Houston clients that narrower plank hardwoods. We’ve also book installing a lot more Herringbone and Chevron pattern hardwood. LOW sheen and oiled floors are beloved and are often sought after from our clients. Once main point we’d like to make, specifically because of te Houston climate, is to install live sawn or rift and quarter sawn hardwood. These refer to the types of cuts of hardwood. They offer a more structurally sound hardwood and the hardwood expands and contracts much less when cut in this manner.
Sheens. Semi-gloss and glossy sheens for hardwoods and engineered hardwoods are very outdated. Having glossy floors automatically makes your hardwoods look dated and old. Not to mention you can see every scratch and slight discrepancy with high gloss floors. Softer sheens like satin and matte finishes are VERY in. Houston homeowners almost ALWAYS choose a prefinished solid or engineered hardwood, and most manufactures offer their floors with a proprietary sheen blend. However, very few manufactures are making high gloss flooring.
Contrary to outdated glossy hardwoods and engineered floors, polished tile that is glossy is trending right now in Houston. Glazed tile has a more muted finish close to matte but not quite as dull as matte. This particular finish is equally as trend as polished tile and if often installed in areas with water and moisture to avoid slip and falls.
Paint color trends
Grays are still super popular. I have a sneaky feeling that the grays will start to shift toward whites and all the palettes of cool white tones and we have been seeing a sift toward geige color paints – Just my opinion for now, we shall see!. Light bright colors are VERY in, in Houston TX. Clients want their home to feel light, bright and cheerful. Some of the most popular colors our clients have been choosing are:
Popular Gray Paint Colors
Sherwin Williams
Amazing Gray
Sherwin Williams
Agreeable Gray
Sherwin Williams
Light French Gray
Sherwin Williams
Repose Gray
Behr
Fashion Gray
Behr
Skyline Steel
Behr
Natural Gray
Behr
High Speed Access
Behr
Silver City
Behr
Tin Foil
Behr
Silver Feather
Behr
Silver Drop
Popular White Paint Colors
Benjamin Moore
Chantilly Lace
Benjamin Moore
White Dove
Farrow and Ball
All White
Behr
White Pepper
Behr
Off the Grid
Behr
Soft Focus
Behr
White Time
Behr
Mission White
Behr
Swiss Coffee
Behr
Diamonds Therapy
Behr
Painters White
Behr
Cotton Knot
Behr
Morning Dove
Behr
Snowy Pine
Behr
Evening White
The most popular paint sheens are flat/matte, eggshell and satin. Semi and high gloss are mostly used on trim and mouldings as these finishes are much easier to wipe clean. Our preferred wall paint finish is satin. Satin is the goldilocks’ finish between flat and gloss as it’s not too shiny (i.e. semi-gloss) but it’s not too dull (e.g. flat) and it’s super easy to wipe clean without taking off the paint.
Powder Rooms
BOLD Powder rooms are tending. Powder rooms are smaller than your master bath or guest bathroom. This is the perfect opportunity to make this room stand out.
Floating Vanities and Bucket Sinks. Floating vanities are more of a modern design while bucket sinks are total farmhouse décor. One main staple of a power room is your pedestal sink.
Cement tile or stenciled floors. Cement tile is generally more expensive than porcelain and some natural stones. However, if you happen to love cement tile, it’s completely worth it. Each tile is handcrafted thus the reason for the pricing being per tile and not per square foot. Cement tile, although beautiful, can have an overwhelming and over stimulating design effect. A powder room floor is the PERFECT space to lay this floor because powder rooms are typically smaller in square foot size than other areas of your home. This style of tile is a definite design must for that farmhouse style everyone loves!
Shiplap. Tons of homes in Texas have shiplap. Many have it exposed as a design element, while other older homes have it hiding under the current walls. It’s such a great surprise to find shiplap. Shiplap is the epitome of a Texas farmhouse.
Technology Infused Homes
On MAJOR trend of 2019 and for future years are technologically advanced homes AKA Smart Homes. As our technology advances, so does the need and requirement to implement it in our everyday lives. This is going to be a blog of its own, so stay tuned!
Conclusion
So to recap on the overall design and building trends in 2019, COOL toned colors are in from wall paint and paper down to the color of your flooring, cools tones are hot. Houston homeowners love light colored homes.
Clients are packing a design punch in their powder room bathrooms. Going for more of a bold design in the powder rooms because of the size, it’s been a great experience working with our clients when they have the bravery to choose some daring styles. From bucket sinks to cement stenciled floor tiles, if you want to try a new style, a powder room is the perfect area of your home to do so. Our clients want their kitchen designs to withstand the test of time. Choosing Quartz and keeping the kitchen on the lighter side is the best way to avoid a dated look in 5-10 years from now. Light bright colors are in. Accent walls with wallpaper with beautiful patterns add for a beautiful visual.
Contact The Pros for all your updating needs in Houston, TX. We would be more than happy to assist you.
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