From Art Deco to the Avant Garde: A Look at 100 Years of Home Décor

By GABRIELLA BOCK | Reporter 

From the refined lace of the 1930s to the shag carpets and even shaggier hairstyles of the late ’60s, a quick look at the history of home design reveals distinguishing trends fashioned around the socio-political pulse of each passing era.

In the 1920s, modernism was just beginning to find its way into the living spaces of American and European homes. Abandoning the polished furnishings leftover from the Edwardian era, the Roaring Twenties were an open and exciting time where young people turned away from the conservative stylings of their parents and incorporated Hollywood glamour, geometric shapes and worldly trinkets into their personal havens.

In the 1930s, despite being in the world’s worst financial and economic crisis, many Americans gravitated back toward the elegance of Colonial and Victorian stylings. Women’s hemlines were let back out and American families were encouraged to re-embrace traditional values. Such reservations wouldn’t last long, however, and with spirituous women such as Eleanor Roosevelt and Frances Perkins pioneering their own   roles in the U.S. government, young, homemaking ladies soon began looking to the future.

Favoring furniture designed in mood-lifting colors with coordinating wall accents, post-war Americans transitioned their homes into modern abodes that showcased the changing tides of industrialism.

Dominated by the era’s extreme wave of mass consumerism, the 1950s was the decade of catalog living: Following the Second World War, the nation’s sudden and abundant influx of prosperity gave Americans more choices than ever before.

Americans began to see the world through a Technicolor lens, and hues of pink made popular by Mamie Eisenhower were painted throughout every home. Kitchen appliances were designed in fashion colors like chartreuse, yellow, baby blue and mint green, and in came midcentury furniture comprised of clean lines and geometric patterns.

Moving into the Space Age, the Counterculture Movement of the 1960s influenced design by way of psychedelic patterns and futuristic furnishings while the moon landing brought Lucite and brightly colored plastics into the mainstream. Chairs and tables were crafted into unusual shapes made to appear as though they were

suspended in zero gravity, and lighting accents took form as orbits and other space oddities.

In the 1980s, Reaganomics, business and budding technology prevailed as key factors that would frill the decade with postmodern excess. Preppy pastels and floral chintz sofas were found in the apartments of the young professionals who flocked to the cities to gain their slice of the economic pie.

The dot-com era of the 1990s brought the computer into every household, while never-ending celebrity and political scandals kept Americans glued to their television screens. Minimalism and shabby chic were two popular design styles of the decade, and homes were often found decorated with natural accents designed to bring the outdoors inside.

In spite of history’s futuristic visioning of the new millennium, the 2000s have, so far been, a hodgepodge of yesteryear. The excess of the 1980s has resurfaced in grandiose bathrooms with spa-like features, and modern chef’s kitchens with sleek countertops and built-in features have become a mainstay in the all-American home. And as for furniture, the wheel of nostalgia has yet again reared itself back toward mid-century stylings with a 21st century twist.

So what do trend analysts predict for the 2020s?

For starters, a shift in the way our cities are built will play an integral role in the future of home design. As population continues to rise, developers will look to the sky as they build upward—not outward—and apartments will become smaller with modular furniture and multi-purpose spaces, recent findings from a survey commissioned by the International Furnishings and Design Associated suggest.

With less space to work with, designers will most likely favor color palettes that bring light into the room.

It is often said that trends in both fashion and the home are cyclical; Los Angeles Interior Designer Christos Prevezanos believes that pastel colors will regain popularity once again.

“I’ll be looking back to the pastel palette of LA in the 80s,” he told House Beautiful magazine in a recent interview.

Let’s just hope the puffy sofas and shoulder pads remain buried deep in the past where they belong.