09 Feb 1-26-17 Design Trends in the Winston-Salem/Piedmont Triad

I get asked all the time about trends in home building or home remodeling. We often hear about trends from various TV shows, especially the ones on HGTV. The issue I have with these trends are how regional they can be. HGTV shows may be based in Texas, Canada, or somewhere in California. Those trends can be very different than what happens here in the Triad.
The advantage I have is that I meet with people who’ve been living in their homes for a long time. I’m hearing directly from the people who are changing their homes. So I am just looking for common requests I get, and here they are.
One of the most common comments I hear is “We never use this Jacuzzi tub, but we need to keep it because of re-sale.” Well, almost everybody comes to me wanting to take these big tubs out of their master bathrooms, so who’s really wanting these things for re-sale? I say very few people. You have a 5 or 6 foot space with that tub in it and it’s used once every 5 years. Then you have a 3’ shower that’s used twice a day. As long as you have a tub somewhere in the house, get rid of this big tub and put a nice sized shower in. Interestingly, most of the homes with these Jacuzzi tubs were built in the 90’s and 2000’s.
Also in the master bathroom, a lot of people think you need to have two sinks in your vanity. I’m seeing many of our clients looking for more storage in their bathroom. So they would rather have more cabinet storage than a second sink. Maybe this is by having more drawers in the base cabinets or actually putting tower type cabinets on the countertop. In either case, additional storage is desired.
Bathroom mirrors – pretty simple here. We’re not doing those huge mirrors much. Most of our clients prefer to have individual mirrors at each sink location.
For cabinet colors, gray is still in. Shaker style doors are popular.
In the kitchen area, we’re seeing more people selecting Quartz for their countertops. The main reason being is people have always liked Marble, but marble stains very easily. The Quartz manufacturers can make quartz look very much like Marble. There are lots of options for quartz that looks like marble, and that’s what drives the selection.
For appliances, we’re seeing more induction cooktops as well as microwaves that operate like normal drawers under your countertops.
Lastly, for metal finishes on your faucets, door knobs, or cabinet knobs, Chrome is still a great option. It’s pretty much timeless. Whether the house was built in 1920, 1940, 1970, or 2010, Chrome has been and continues to be in all those homes, even from the very beginning.
When you look back on all of these localized trends, the overriding theme is simplicity. Most people prefer a simple, elegant style.