LATEST & GREATEST FOR YOUR HOME

LATEST & Home FOR YOUR GREATEST STAY UPDATED ON THE TRENDS + 15 HOME & GARDEN AWARD-WINNING BUSINESSES By Kevin Druley | Photo by Ryan Hainey Photography and provided by Haven Interiors Studio

While November brings various distinct spices to our cuisines, adding zest this time of year isn’t merely reserved for pastries, turkeys and lattes. If you’re looking to pep up your home, you surely aren’t alone. Interior designers and consultants figure clients have thumbed or scrolled through similar home decor Pinterest accounts before visiting to discuss projects. “They tell us more what their desires are for their home and then we work our designs around what their overall desired outcome is for their home,” says Juliene Guffey of Haven Interiors Studio in Geneva. “But I think people are always influenced (beforehand) so they, a lot of times, will have a particular trend in mind. And if not, then we kind of guide them to what’s current and what’s happening right now and what we know is happening in the future.”

With help from experts in the Tri-Cities, Kane County Magazine takes a look at the latest home decor trends.  CURVES AHEAD Are things in a room feeling stale or too straightforward? You might make like your favorite baseball pitcher — or the one your friend keeps hollering about — and throw in a curve to add a sense of playfulness. “I always love including a curve in a room where everything is angular because it just softens the eye,” Guffey says. “It just relaxes the mood to add a curve.”

POPULAR WAYS TO INCORPORATE CURVES INCLUDE: • Circular coffee tables or ottomans • Circle designs in fabric • Round tables • Bowed chests Rounded or ball-shaped pillows can help augment the curve motif, even in traditional furniture, adds Carolyn Soltesz of Style It Home in Geneva.  GO GREEN “Bringing the outdoors inside” is an ongoing trend that carries many facets, Soltesz says. In other words, it need not only apply to finding an agreeable spot to shelter a plant as temperatures begin to cool. Accentuating rooms with trees or plants — faux or not — can accentuate rooms, experts advise, as branches and leaves help create feelings of warmth and coziness.

Another recommended pick: pampas grasses. “People are decorating with those in family rooms,” Soltesz says, “and it’s got that earthy, organic feel to it, as well.” To Guffey, green offers an innately soothing effect, which might help explain a surge in interest in the color, whether it’s with accents, antique pieces or furniture.

“Greens and blues have always been historically used but green, I think, is more so because it’s a comforting color and feels like nature,” Guffey says. “I think just as humans we’re naturally drawn toward nature elements because we get all of our food and our shelter and everything from nature, so

STAY UPDATED ON THE TRENDS + 15 HOME & GARDEN AWARD-WINNING BUSINESSES

I just think it’s natural to bring that indoors. It’s comforting for us.”  DOUBLE UP Although many employers have instituted return-to-work policies, remote and flexible work options remain on the table for many. “The home office is an important part of the home now, right?” Soltesz says. “When it comes time to fill a home, it’s nice that there is a home office already set up.” Perhaps your home boasts a home office in waiting. As experts tell it, multipurpose rooms remain popular following the surge of the pandemic. Soltesz says an emerging accessory in an established dual-purpose room configuration — home office by day, guest bedroom by night — is the pullout sofa. “They’re more comfortable now, and they can be used in an office like that to save space that way.” Guffey says she has encountered fewer overtures about home offices of late but finds it’s vital to envision multiple activity possibilities for many rooms, especially for young families. A potential reading area here, an entertainment area there, and perhaps a table for writing bills or a rolling desk for a child to do homework.

“Every project is so individual,” Guffey says. “It’s just a matter of really analyzing how clients want to feel in a space.”  COLOR THEM RAD Home decor experts spotlight another trend for fall: a movement away from grays and neutrals to more color.

“People are just kind of tired of all gray,” said Guffey. “They’re getting ready for a punch.” Especially prevalent are warm neutrals, including yellow, orange and red/pink. Green also has been a popular pick as an accent (see above).

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