New home trends

Home trends for 2020

From kitchen cabinet hardware and bathroom fixtures to light fixtures and paint colours, here’s a peek at the home design trends you’ll see in 2020.

OPEN-CONCEPT LIVING ROOMS “Open-concept is definitely staying,” confirms Jessesar Mitchell with Gerald Mitchell Contracting in Fall River, which is now also building on lots in Oakfield and Middle Sackville. “It’s just getting more open and more grand — the bigger, the better.”

Because these living rooms are often flowing into the dining room and the kitchen, she says many homeowners are choosing laminate flooring for a budget-friendly way to keep the flooring consistent throughout a large area.

ULTRA-FUNCTIONAL KITCHENS

WHITE AND BRIGHT

All-white kitchens aren’t going anywhere yet, thanks to their crisp-and-clean feel. Mitchell says many of their homeowners are opting for white counters, white cabinets and white backsplashes with white (or off-white) walls and natural-looking wood flooring.

“Sometimes people are worried it will look too stark, but once they fill it up with all of their stuff and their accent pieces, it looks so sharp,” says Mitchell. BUTLER’S PANTRIES

Custom pantries are still going strong and Mitchell says many homeowners are upgrading to a butler’s pantry that includes outlets, small appliances, a sink and hard-surface countertops.

STORAGE WALLS

No room to add a walk-in pantry but your kitchen never feels like it has enough storage space? Consider creating a storage wall with floor-to-ceiling cabinets. You’ll have enough room to store all the dishes and canned goods you could ever want and it will be functional to have it all in one spot. Plus, open shelving is on the way out — people realized it was too difficult to keep tidy!

Photos Pat McCarthy Renovations

COLOURFUL APPLIANCES

If this is the year your fridge or stove needs to be replaced (we’re not jinxing you, we promise), then you might want to think about buying the new set in an interesting colour. Top brands are offering major appliances in shades like champagne, dark grey, brown and black stainless steel. GE Appliances’ Café™ luxury range includes matte finishes (white and black) and customizable hardware in brushed stainless, brushed bronze, brushed copper and brushed black.

DOUBLE-DUTY BACKSPLASHES

Installing a new backsplash? The latest trend is making the top of the backsplash end in a shelf. How handy!

Jay Clarke, regional sales manager with Wacky’s Flooring, says their most popular backsplashes so far in 2020 focus on clean lines and soft colours — whites, creams and greys. As for what tile arrangement you should use, our experts tell us that classic subway tile is still in, except there’s a new twist on it.

“People are moving away from the classic 3” x 6” subway tiles and instead choosing much larger ones — like 4” x 12” tiles or even 4” x 16” tiles,” says Clarke.

MINIMALIST HARDWARE

Struggling to choose new handles and pulls for your cabinets and drawers? Top designers are saying that minimalist hardware is where we’re headed. Think slender, simple bar pulls instead of ornate, detailed ones.

ADVENTUROUS FINISH-MIXING Mitchell says there used to be a tendency to stick to one finish for all cabinet hardware and light fixtures, but now homeowners are more open to mixing and matching finishes — even in the same room.

“We’ll see a black lantern-style fixture over the kitchen island and then maybe brushed nickel light fixture over the sink and it looks great,” says Mitchell.

While brushed nickel and gold brass might not play nicely together in the same room, it’s easier than ever to mix finishes now that there are so many black and oil-rubbed bronze options.

Design experts say classic silver tones are slowly starting to overtake warm gold tones.

OLD (AND NEW) LIGHTING

Look for light fixtures made from naturallooking wood, lamps made from aged metals (like worn copper) and lighting that incorporates unexpected textures and materials. Geometric and oversized light fixtures are also trending.

If your home has a smart device like an Echo Dot (Alexa) or Google Home, you might want to take advantage of smart light bulbs (or smart plugs) to make it really feel like 2020. These gadgets turn any existing lamp or light fixture into a smart one that turns on/off when you ask or by following a schedule you program.

MOODIER BATHROOMS

While bathrooms are typically light and bright, there’s a movement in 2020 to make them darker and moodier with deep paint

colours, unusual or nontraditional mirrors and exposed shower pipes for an industrial feel. Interestingly, the trend is to show off your shower pipes but hide your toilet tank. Tankless toilets look really neat — like something a celebrity would have in their house — but they’re not easy to install, since they have a tank that’s hidden in the wall.

WARM TONES OVER COOL TONES While cool tones — especially greys — have been ruling the home decor world for the last decade, many experts say we’re going to start seeing a switch back to warm earth tones like chocolate, olive greens and yellow ochres. Doors painted in dark colours are also trending for 2020. They add a touch of drama in an otherwise ho-hum hallway. ■

An inside look at kitchen renovations

Pat McCarthy Renovations

Akitchen renovation may seem like it’s just replacing cabinets and swapping out counters, but it often requires a lot more behind-the-scenes work. We sat down with Pat McCarthy of Pat McCarthy Renovations in Bedford to find out more about the process of turning a kitchen from dark and dated to bright and beautiful. Here are three things you might not realize about kitchen renovations.

1. A renovator isn’t a home designer — and you’ll need both.

The first step is getting all of the right people in place. Renovation companies may have a home designer on staff, but often they’ll outsource this job to someone who focuses exclusively on designing kitchens and/or creating custom cabinets.

McCarthy will recommend several different cabinet-making companies to his clients so they can choose their favourite. Once the designer and the homeowner have finalized the kitchen plans, McCarthy says he works backwards from the cabinet installation date in order to schedule all of the work that needs to be finished first.

“We’ll do anything structural, like putting in beams for support, bringing the insulation up to code, redoing plumbing and electrical, installing in-floor heating and maybe putting in new windows or flooring,” explains McCarthy. “Then once the kitchen is dropped in, we’ll go back and do the finishing touches like plumbing, electrical, painting and trim.” 2. Everyone has a speciality and they need to work together seamlessly.

McCarthy says he and his team always work well with cabinet companies, whether it’s one they’ve recommended or one the homeowner has selected on their own. They actually prefer it this way.

“Cabinet guys like building cabinets — they don’t want to get involved with plumbing and electrical and tiling and drywalling,” says McCarthy. “So they focus on what they do best and we focus on what we do best to make sure everyone is happy in the end.” Because the homeowner hires Pat McCarthy Renovations to do the reno work, McCarthy and his team take care of scheduling any sub-trades that need to be brought in — as well as managing the cabinet company.

3. The renovation might go deeper than you expected.

“Sometimes people think it’s just a matter of tearing out old cabinets and putting in new cabinets — and maybe changing the floor — but there’s a lot more to an actual kitchen reno,” says McCarthy. “It might involve bringing the space right back to the studs and restarting it.”

McCarthy and his team often renovate homes in Halifax’s South End and he says renovating an older home is a much different story than renovating a home that’s only five or 10 years old.

“We have to check to make sure there’s no asbestos in the plaster and we may need to tear out all of the plaster because tying plaster together with drywall doesn’t give you a nice finish. We may also have to bring the home up to a proper R rating,” says McCarthy. “These things aren’t glamorous, but they’re important and they’re worth it in the end.” ■