This colour has made a new name for itself in modern interior design, bringing comfort and stability to cosy up our autumn interiors.
It’s what top interior designers are talking about in Vogue, House and Garden, Architectural Digest, Style and Form, Elle Decor and in interior design podcasts like Laura Keenan Podcast: 2022 is the year of rich brown tones in the home. These earthy colours are said to make us feel grounded, providing comfort and stability – and who can imagine why Londoners want to wrap themselves in those feelings these days?
As many designers featured in these articles say, there's still a reticence towards brown in interior design because of the over-the-top use of chocolate brown in the 70s. Some of us can still picture the entirely brown sitting room – the brown floral sofa, the wood-panelled walls, the mud-brown shag rug. However, as it was pointed out in Vogue, we’re seeing a little nod to the seventies creeping back into interior design. Maybe not the dizzying patterned lino and avocado bathroom suits, but a modern re-imagination of 70's themes, including soft curves and brown accents.
Home comforts
Home can be a sanctuary, and the use of comforting colour and design may be able to re-enforce that security for you every day, as discussed in the Great Indoors podcast. In their episode about 2022 trends, Sophie Robinson and Kate Watson-Smyth described how nature-inspired motifs, earthy colours and textures are known to make us more at ease.
With the anxiety and stress from the last two years, they said “people suddenly became aware of the effect of their surroundings, i.e. their homes, on their mental health…decorating might in the future…become something where it’s not just 'because I like that colour,' but 'I put that colour on that wall because I look at that wall every day after breakfast and that puts me in the mood I need to face the day'” (Episode 13.4, The Great Indoors).
A change to complement what you already have
The nice thing about this trend is that you can enjoy a décor refresh without having to completely re-design the room.
Cool and warm
Have you gone for the neutral, Scandi design that’s been so popular in recent years? Adding in some organic brown colours – a cosy chocolate brown throw blanket; curvy, caramel coloured glass vases; mushroom-tan wall paint – can soften all those pristine whites and sharp lines enough to make your modern home welcoming.
Photograph from Foxtons in-house photography team's Shot of the Week
A nature-lovers haven
If you did any interior decorating when we were all in lockdown, you might already have a lot of nature-inspired colours in your home. Perfect. Brown pairs well with other earthy tones like terracotta and rust oranges, shell pink, sunny yellow and forest green.
Photograph from Foxtons Interiors - Home Inspiration
A home for houseplants
Londoners love of houseplants has gone wild in recent years, so if you’ve embraced the trend and grew yourself an indoor jungle, organic tones will make the leafy greens look right at home.
Photograph from Foxtons Interiors - Home Inspiration
The new addition of a timeless feature
There's a nervousness around following interior decor trends. You don't want to buy something that'll be out of season before you can get it through the door. Instead of big changes everywhere, you could hunt around for a special vintage accent piece – some beautiful carpentry or an accent chair. It can provide just the contrast to help your modern décor strike a mature and elegant tone. Wood and leather, especially, are timeless accents, so you’ll get plenty of use out of them over the years.
Photograph from Foxtons Interiors - Home Inspiration
Dreaming of beautiful interiors? Head over to our Interiors - Home Inspiration pages.
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