I’ve been catching up on reading decorating blogs and magazines lately. One advantage of ploughing through a backlog of posts from recent trade shows and magazine feature articles looking for trends is that it clarifies whether what you’re seeing are passing fancies or a change in the zeitgeist. I believe this is definitely one of those moments of change. The way we decorate  is changing for a variety of reasons, from the economic climate and the resulting desire to make homes more cosy and comforting, to environmental concerns impacting the materials we use and how we use them, to the open-source do-it-yourself ethic of the internet generation. These factors are creating seismic structural changes in the decorating service industry, dictate what the furniture industry is offering, and are reflected in what the shelter mags and design bloggers choose to cover.

Let’s take a look at what zeitgeist-changing trends make a home sexy now:

1. Traditional upholstery details like deep button tufting, welting, and tiny nailhead trims are showing up on new eco-friendly furniture lines (the ones that use FSC-certified wood and latex or soy upholstery foams). They’re also using timeless texture-rich natural-fibre fabrics like (organic, naturally) cotton twill, cotton velvet, linen, or jute. Both the fabrics and the way they are used create contrasts of texture in a room.

2. Grasscloth, a wallcovering made of woven plant fibre, is a timeless eco-friendly choice for adding more gorgeous texture, this time to your walls. What makes it newly trendy – as with paper wallcoverings – is that grasscloth manufacturers have brought bold colours, metallic finishes, and graphic patterns to the party. The feature article on grasscloth in the June 2010 print issue of Style At Home demonstrates this beautifully (but isn’t on their website). Not recommended for damp rooms, and beware of vinyl imposters.

3. Something the high-end shelter magazines and blogs showing the homes of more ordinary people have in common are that the rooms showcased usually have highly personal mixes of vintage finds, family treasures, exotic souvenirs, and iconic designs – instead of matched furniture sets straight from a catalogue or showroom floor.  Why? They’re more interesting, soulful, and expressive to look at and to live with! On the ‘exotic souvenir’ side of this equation, watch for the ikat fabrics and mother-of-pearl inlaid tables that are making the world-traveller look feel fresh. However, what really makes this approach environmentally sound is that it’s using pieces that already exist, and that you will love for a lifetime .

4. What also looks fresh now isn’t the midcentury modern design that filled the pages of AT and Dwell a couple of years ago, but a new traditionalism and glamour (as noted at Apartment Therapy recently – not that I can find the link now in their labyrinthine maze of posts). This shows up in the use of metallic finishes (especially gold), generous draperies, traditional furniture shapes, and antiques as focal points. This doesn’t mean the rooms aren’t meant to be used for day-to-day living, like grandma’s parlour. It means people are using timeless decorating techniques to make their rooms feel cozy, warm, and rich.

5. The International Contemporary Furnishings Fair (ICFF2010) showings this week included a lot of cleverly designed pieces made from minimal materials – like Graypants’ Jupiter series pendant lamps, MIO-Culture’s pop-up baskets, and Ben Huggins’ Little Star table. All three objects are also shipped flat-packed; if you’ve ever been to Ikea you’re already familiar with the environmental rationale for doing that. Smart and sustainable sure sounds sexy to me.

6. The move toward handmade, handcrafted furniture and accessories (the New York Times noted that many of the ICFF2010 editorial award honorees shared this approach)  is so irresistable that sometimes even mass-produced plastic objects are being hand-personalized (as with the Oh chairs in the Umbra booth at ICFF). There are lots of reasons people are choosing handmade and personalized items, but I think most of them come back to authenticity and soulfulness.

Authentic, soulful, smart, warm, rich, interesting, expressive, and touchable – like the perfect mate, you’ll want to grow old with rooms designed using these ideas. And maybe make out in them just a little.

Remember my upcycled chandelier tutorial? I had listed the fruits of that project on Etsy, and a couple of the pieces were purchased by designer Robert Delpazzo of  iCrave Design in New York for “a little cafe project” he was working on. It turns out that the project was The Collective, at trendy ONE Little West 12th in the Meatpacking District. Everything in the space is made from salvaged materials, mostly sourced locally in NYC, and I recognize a number of the upcycled-art pieces as coming from other Etsy artisans. It’s a gutsy, artistic, and soulful slow-design concept in a world of interchangeable and boring bistros.

Interior of The Collective, MePa, NYC. See the green light fixture next to the graffiti wall? That's my SCOOPED chandelier, made of laundry scoops from the ReUse Centre! via Gothamist.

The interior design does look extremely busy in the preview photos that I’ve seen on the web – many commenters have been unkind, and one reviewer called it The Hoarders meet Metropolitan Home. However, I have a feeling that when you’re sitting in the space and it’s packed with people, you can’t see so much of it, and all the details that fight for attention in a photograph can be appreciated in a more intimate way. The lego-patched brick wall idea has gotten bloggers excited previously, and the styrofoam ceiling treatment is really ingenious. And you can’t argue with results: the design was inspired by both environmental and fiscal concerns, fully reflects that, and was completed for a fraction of the $2M budget typical of such projects. Judging by its reviews on Yelp, it seems it’s drawing the youthful, hip demographic that it targetted.

Here’s a roundup of articles I found about the space:

- New York Times‘ Home and Garden section

- Fast Company

- Gothamist (includes some very kind comments from restaurant patrons who describe the space as creative and inspiring)

- Martiniboys (didn’t like the decor but praised the menu)

- Zagat Buzz

- Eater

- Derek Loves Shopping

- Joonbug

- Haute Living

For the past few months, I have been primarily using Twitter instead of blogging (or using Facebook), because I like the immediacy and brevity of the platform, and its community-building aspects. Looking back over my recent activity, I realize that I retweet (that is, share useful and relevant links from other Twitter users) more than many users do.

Here are a few highlights from the past 6 months of my tweets (omitting all the conversations and time-sensitive items, and the vast majority of the retweets):

May 14:

http://twitter.com/ecoDomestica/design-decor-furniture Too many interesting decor people to #followfriday them all, so I made a List. [The Lists feature allows you to categorize the people you follow roughly by topic. I've found it really useful for figuring out what is trending within a group, and for improving the signal-to-noise ratio so I find interesting news more easily.]

May 13:

RT @GoodMillwork Removing An Old Floor http://om.ly/jaeU [If you need to put in some sweat equity to renovate your home without blowing your budget, tutorials like this one are invaluable.]

A new friend via #EmpireAve brought BC-made http://johnrossdesign.ca/ wood furniture to my attention today. Lovely!! Thanks @BaconEnvelope [Organic, live-edge wood pieces like these speak to our desire to bring nature into our homes and will stand the test of time, unlike the fads for owl images and taxidermy specimens.]

RT @jetsongreen Sylvania Intros Sleek Ultra Bright #LED for 60-watt Retrofits: http://bit.ly/cifXfs [The next-generation LEDs will give brighter, warmer light suitable for residential applications - and a lighting industry insider tells me they'll be readily available within the year.]

@hgtvcanada http://twitpic.com/1ng1f9 – ZOMG that mirror! Great mix of fabrics as always. [Re: room from unaired episode of Sarah's House 4. Sarah Richardson's team's approach to mixing vintage and modern, high and low, and creating spaces that transcend trends has been a source of inspiration for me since Design Inc first came on the air.]

May 12:

RT @sciam Green Nursery: How Significant Is the Impact of Ecofriendly Organic Bedding and Clothing on a Child’s Health? http://bit.ly/bk5GvV [Very significant, actually. Think twice about buying inexpensive fast-fashion for your kids, since the pricetag may not include all the costs.]

I just put out some borax-based eco ant “food” in the veggie garden so it’ll be safer to plant. The Jedi are going to feel this one.

May 10:

lemon juice + aluminum foil = magic http://loopframelove.blogspot.com/2010/05/rust-removal-on-ccm-galaxie.html [This green-cleaning technique can be used on anything that has gotten rusty.]

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