When it comes to home renovations, style trends are always changing, but Southerners often lead the way. There’re entire magazines and websites dedicated to Southern-style living, and many Americans seek to emulate Southern lifestyles in their home designs. What’re some of the emerging style trends to come out of the American South?
Making The Most Of The Space You Have
Before the Great Recession, growing families requiring more space and empty nesters needing less space packed up and moved to a new home. Per an analysis by Redfin, Americans are staying in their homes longer. In 2010, the typical American homeowner had lived in their home for an average of eight years. As of 2019, the average is 13 years. Southern families choosing to stay in their current homes are making the most of the space they have. Younger families are converting their basements and garages into extra living and entertainment spaces and coming up with creative closet and storage designs to keep their lives more organized and free from clutter. Empty nesters are taking their newly-found extra space and using their bedrooms as offices, art studios, libraries and gyms to explore the hobbies they enjoy, without leaving the house.
Renovations and multi-purposing existing space are much easier when the home’s HVAC system doesn’t require bulky ductwork. Zoned Comfort Solutions® from Mitsubishi Electric are either ductless or installed with centralized compact ductwork. Ductless options like wall-mounted indoor units and recessed ceiling cassettes are especially practical for conditioning newly-built bonus rooms or converting a formerly unconditioned basement or garage into a comfortable living space.
A Home That Promotes Good Health
In the South, air pollution and allergens can be a year-round concern for homeowners. According to the popular home remodeling platform Houzz.com, more homeowners are starting to renovate for health. This is less of a style trend and more of a structure trend. People are replacing their HVAC systems with newer, more modern systems offering better air filtration. A ductless indoor unit from Mitsubishi Electric, for example, will directly filter the air in the zone it serves. Also, homeowners can simply wash the filter regularly instead of replacing it, as a conventional system would require. These filters can last up to 10 years.
Homeowners are also removing older cabinets and countertops and replacing them with natural options that don’t use any toxins in the production process and they’re choosing finishes that do not emit any residual gasses. They’re even installing no-touch toilets and faucets to prevent the spread of germs.
Recycling And Upcycling Discarded Materials To Give Them New Life
Homeowners in the South are also paying more attention to where their building materials are coming from. Many look for discarded wood and metal that’s destined for the landfill and repurpose those materials as accent beams, artwork, door frames, mantles or even tables and chairs. In the South, where hurricanes are an unfortunate fact of life, home designers often rescue materials tossed away after natural disasters. Many Southerners feel this is a great way to honor those who suffered loss in a storm. Rather than trashing pieces of someone’s home, they reuse the materials and enjoy them for years to come.
Smooth Lines And Textures For A Clean Look
Southern homes are often characterized as ornate, filled with lots of textures on everything from upholstery to walls. This trend is starting to shift toward smoother, sleeker lines in the home. While some designers have declared the “contemporary” style trend dead, Southerners are rebranding it and making it their own, trading in raised cabinets for flat-panel cabinets, turning in their smocked bedding and blankets for smoother models, and creating spa-like bathrooms that utilize ceramic and smooth surfaces over marble.
Southerners have always been trendsetters when it comes to home design. Homeowners all over the country look to the South to see what the newest style trends will be. In the coming years, we expect to see Southerners continue to spend their home-renovation dollars on maximizing usable space, creating cleaner lines, and making homes healthier.
