Interior Design Trends for Your 2021 Home Extension

Following an unprecedented year of staying at home, it’s no surprise that 2020 was the year thousands of us embarked on home renovation and extension projects to make our home the functional, comforting and comfortable place we needed it to be as we navigated home learning, home working and home entertainment.

With extended time at home now the norm, interior design trends for 2021 are understandably geared towards creating a cosy, welcoming and calming haven in which we can live, work, and play. If, like many of us, you plan to invest in creating the ideal space for your family, whether it’s making small aesthetic or space-saving changes, or a larger scale extension project, our pick of the top interior design trends for 2021 can help you make your home a stylish, contemporary space you’ll never want to leave.

Walls are back in!

For years we’ve hankered for the feeling of space that comes with open plan living, and home renovation has often been about knocking down walls to create spacious living areas in which we can come together as a family at the end of the day, and in which we can socialise with friends. With our homes taking on the multi-functional roles of office, gym and classroom, the need for open-plan living is evolving into a new trend for creating separate living spaces; a separate room that can be used for working and playing and provide a quiet, relaxing haven for adults at the end of the day.

So, if you are thinking of going for that home extension, think carefully about how you can best use that additional space – would a separate office, study or relaxation room serve you better than the big open plan living and dining room you may have envisaged a year ago?

Bringing the outside in

As we spend more time indoors, a trend has evolved for bringing nature inside with us – cue the revival of the houseplant. Vibrant in colour and texture, plants can transform your home aesthetically, but they also bring a multitude of positive benefits including:

• Freshening the air and reducing pollutants
• Releasing oxygen
• Boosting your mood and reducing stress
• Noise cancelling

The benefits of houseplants aren’t new, but at a time when we need the health benefits just as much as the mental health benefits, and we have more time at home to appreciate and take care of them, they provide a much-needed source of warmth and positivity. The abundance of species available means we can enjoy finding just the right array of plants to suit our sense of style, our available space and that suit our horticultural skills – or lack of! With a vast array of hardy plants available, even the least green-fingered among us are enjoying the benefits of a living wall, or at least a windowsill.

Multi-functional outdoor spaces

Never has our outdoor space been more important than now, whether it’s a garden the children can let off steam in, or a patio we can use for relaxing outdoors and to socialise with friends and family. We don’t just appreciate our outdoor space, we’re now doing more to adapt it to suit our way of living. You can maximise the benefit of your outdoor space in a number of different ways:

Garden office – converting your garden shed into an office has long been a coveted solution for homeworkers everywhere, but with the number of us working from home now exponentially higher, it’s easy to see why these are more popular than ever. Serving as an office by day and home cinema by night, it’s easy to see why a garden office offers the ultimate multi-functional, space-maximising solution for every household.

Home entertainment solutions – no longer reserved for inside the home, more and more of us are using our gardens as a place to offer home entertainment and leisure solutions to help provide some light relief and enjoyment at the end of a day’s work and at the weekend. Garden trends include:

• Hot tubs – this home luxury is perfect for giving you that outdoor relaxation time all year round.
• Wood burning stove – great for offering heat in the winter, an outdoor stove offers that campsite feel, promising long evenings sitting outdoors, telling stories and toasting marshmallows over the fire.

Bringing the inside out – as we’re using our gardens more than ever, we’re moving away from having our garden and home as completely separate, by moving the comfortable, homely feel of the inside, outdoors. Investing in comfortable garden furniture and outdoor soft furnishings can create that sense of flow that makes your garden feel like an extension of your home, in which you can enjoy your much needed relaxation time.

Back to nature – eco-friendly and sustainable

From warm, earthy colours like soft beige, moss green and pale orange through to natural textures like wood, clay and bamboo, the trend for 2021 accentuates the back-to-nature vibe throughout the home. Natural colours and textures give your home a warm, calming feel. Adding tongue and groove panelling or wooden beams can add real warmth and character to a contemporary home. A sheepskin throw or chunky wool rug will create a wonderfully soft, inviting space.

 

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In keeping with the celebration of nature, there’s a growing trend for choosing durable, sustainable and eco-friendly materials. Reflecting a time where we’re all thriftier with our spending and more aware than ever of our carbon footprint, the trend is very much around choosing multifunctional, long-lasting furniture that we can buy in good conscience. Whether it’s reclaimed furniture, furniture made from recycled materials or sustainably sourced, the focus of our interior design choices in 2021 is just as much on provenance as it is on style and design.

Cottagecore

The buzzword for 2021 in interior design circles, ‘cottagecore’ is the term coined to evoke the trend for creating that ‘cottage chic’ in your home. Cottagecore is all about welcoming that sense of nostalgia, vintage style, country life and good old-fashioned cosy comfort. Dip your toe in with a few quaint accessories or go all-in with gingham print or bold vintage statement pieces – whatever you choose to create your own idyllic slice of the country.

Time to go green

Where once the colour trend centred around shades of grey, this year it’s all about green. An earthy shade representing nature, tranquillity, luck and health, it’s easy to see why it’s making a comeback. Whether you opt for warm shades of olive or cool forest greens, painting your room green can help you feel calm and connected to nature.

 

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Think global

While we may not be able to satisfy our wanderlust in person at the moment, we’re welcoming global influences in our interior designs to help evoke the sense of far-flung exotic destinations from the comfort of home. The Global Influence trend is for pairing warm, dark wood with pale greys and natural materials like rattan and bamboo, reminiscent of the plains of Africa. Or if it’s the warmth of the desert you crave, opt for burnished bronze and walls of terracotta, beige and sand.

For those of us hankering after a more tropical vibe, it’s all about tropical leaves, florals, bright colours and digital prints. If you can’t make it to Hawaii, why not bring Hawaii to you?

For a more minimalistic global influence, the ‘Japandi’ trend combines the peaceful simplicity of Japanese style with the ever-popular soft, natural Scandi influence.

It’s all about the home office

A natural by-product following the explosion of homeworking, the home office is evolving. No longer relegated to an abandoned corner of a room or a desk shoved under the stairs, our home working space is now a dedicated, stylish and a well-thought-through space designed to motivate and inspire.

Our home offices in 2021 are more than just functional spaces. We’re adding colour to boost our mood, soft furnishings to improve our comfort and those added touches – plants, stylish lamps and lighting solutions, artwork and rugs to make it an attractive, inviting place we want to work in. Home extensions are being built to facilitate the addition of that all-important home office, and rather than serving as an afterthought, they are now stylish, mood-enhancing spaces we feel proud to show off as the backdrop of our online meetings.

Contact Abbey Partnership to create your dream home in 2021

At Abbey Partnership we specialise at turning your dream home into a reality. We can advise on the latest interior design trends and materials to create a space that fulfils your requirements, meets your budget and is as sustainable and environmentally friendly as possible.

If you’re planning a home extension to maximise your space, we offer a free, no-obligation consultation to discuss what you have in mind, provide advice on how you can best use your space, design and materials, and get a detailed idea of exactly what you have in mind.

Get in touch to let us know more about your project and how we can help. We look forward to working with you to create your dream home.