As showroom manager of luxury stoneware and porcelain company Stone Age, as well as founder of new sustainable artisan wood flooring brand Root, Darren Hopkins is well placed to identify the trends in interiors from floors to bathrooms and staircases to outside spaces.
Here Darren identifies the key flooring styles he’s seen this year and what he expects for 2019.
Bare Wood
Although a classic choice, wood furniture, flooring and fittings has seen a remarkable revival this year. With doors having been painted white or shades of neutral, people are going back to the bare wood look of a couple of decades ago. Those who really want to hark back to nature, are opting for more natural options for flooring such as oak parquet or wide planks where you can really see the true colour of the tree coming through.
Sustainability
Part of the reason why wood is so popular is due to its sustainable attributes, something which has become more and more of a buzzword across all industries. Sustainability is at the forefront of people’s minds and as such is touted as one of the key themes. Not just a trend, but a mega-trend – one that affects the business world for a decade or more. Sustainability helps to protect the environment for future generations and any company with goods that are sustainable will have a legion of fans who are dedicated to finding that sustainable option.
Shades of Grey
Grey is perennially popular as not just a flooring choice (think engineered wood or a large format tiles) but also in paint colours. We know that this won’t die down any time soon. Grey and warm beige limestones are the go-to stones for kitchens and ground floors. People also want the inside outside look which can often be achieved with limestones. However, white is also gathering pace as an option for those wanting a softer look for their home for a more country feel perhaps – particularly when it comes to floors. Whilst on the other end of the spectrum, darks – chocolate and black makes a statement and form the basis for a heavier style.
Mix’n’Match
Wide Plank is the thing to have with wood flooring, but it is also becoming en vogue to couple it with a parquet. Mixing wide planks with a slightly larger herringbone adds a nice modern twist on a classic combination and gives a home an individual cosier feel. People love using a parquet such as herringbone in their entrance hall, and then move on to a slightly more understated wide plank in the adjoining rooms.
Marvellous Marble
Everyone wants to use marble. Every bathroom being planned has an element of marble in it. Marble is a beautiful natural material which comes in an infinite range of colours, markings and veinings. No two pieces are the same, which no doubt adds to its appeal. Different options include ‘book-matching’, ‘vein-matching’ or ‘take it as it comes’ which also make marble unique to the home in the way it is installed. People are being far more adventurous with marble presently than in the past incorporating greens, blues, yellows, basically anything a bit out of the ordinary to make their own mark.
Go Green
Indeed, green seems to be enjoying a moment right now with lovely onyxes as well as light green marbling moving right through to strong deeper emerald marble for higher impact depending upon the overall look of the bathroom. Hot favourites that we have seen rising in popularity are Green Onyx and Ledmore. Olive tones are still going strong too with stones like limestone – Bourgos as a flooring option.
Whatever people opt for it’s clear that we like to make our home our own in order to create a space in which to relax and unwind. More and more we are choosing little quirks or colours that reflect this to make our houses an extension of our personality.
