The only constant in home design trends is change.
With trends evolving left and right, they can be difficult for homebuilders, remodelers, and contractors to keep track of. But with the latest trend-tracking ideas from JELD-WEN home design experts—along with insights from one of the housing industry’s top research and consulting groups, Meyers Research—the most-popular and recent design styles can be narrowed down to four key areas.
- Materials and products
- Color
- Interior design
- Exterior design
While these trends may change or fade, think of these as starting points for your conversations with prospects and customers.
Score some environmental and function points with a metal roof made from recycled material that can last for decades.
Material and product trends for the WOW factor
The latest innovations in building science and technology are enabling a variety of exciting advances in product design, engineering, and manufacturing. These breakthroughs facilitated a new generation of entry door styles, sizes, and looks. Today’s door height is stretching higher, from the standard six feet eight inches to a lofty eight to ten feet.
Additionally, fiberglass is starting to replace wood on many entry door applications. While the aesthetic differences are minor, fiberglass doors are low maintenance and extraordinarily durable, built to resist the dents, scuffs, and cracks that come with daily use. JELD-WEN architectural consultant Eric Miller explains, “You may [sometimes] pay extra for a custom fiberglass door. But it will be the last time you ever [need to] purchase an entry door for that house.”
There are some big transformations occurring with roofs and garages. Metal roofs are scoring design and function points by using recycled material, allowing for 60 years of durability and energy conservation through reduced heat gain in the summer months. Exterior garage doors are also gaining an interesting aesthetic with decorative glass, reclaimed wood, and even black-painted doors with unique patterns and textures.
Stay ahead of the trend with a dark window profile that will add elegance to any home.
Colors that pop and charm
Color trends are often unexpected from year to year, but dark colors are trending more than ever. Dark window profiles are becoming more common in interior and exterior settings, with vibrant, chromatic colors creating modern art-like visuals for living spaces.
“Stopping power” is the new watchword for colorful interior doors, with bold hues from JELD-WEN such as denim, juniper, and black cherry lending a touch of elegance and personality to nearly any setting. Even minimalist black-and-white patterns can create an Art Deco style for timeless decoration.
Influential design professionals have cracked the code on why certain colors reign over others from year to year. A recent Zillow survey compared entry door colors of more than 135,000 sold-home photographs from around the country. They concluded that homes featuring black or charcoal gray entry doors sold for USD 6,271 more than expected. Other influential designers and bloggers ranked neutrals, white, cool tones, and warm tones as the top interior color palettes in 2020. Similarly, white, gray, cream, dark green, light blue, barn red, and yellow were listed as 2020’s top exterior colors.
Indoor design trends that soothe and comfort
The pandemic has reshaped how many homeowners view their interior spaces. The previously well-loved open floor plan has come under scrutiny, because all that open space is now working against homeowners’ needs for personal space, quiet areas, and professional boundaries. To address this, builders and remodelers are creating divided spaces with more walls to separate and adapt to any space on a temporary, on-demand basis.
One way to accomplish this is by installing sliding barn doors that create privacy or connect spaces instantly. JELD-WEN’s DesignGlide soft-close barn door hardware turns interior doors of standard width and any height into functional barn doors – no custom door required.
Multipurpose rooms are also trending in homebuilder plans. The idea of an undefined flexible space that can act as a guest room, den, or playroom is an appealing notion for more households. The need to transform these rooms into home offices can be resolved with JELD-WEN ProCore interior doors, which reduce sound transmission by up to 50 percent compared to a standard hollow flush door. This way, customers can feel at ease knowing they have a private, quiet place to work.
Other interior design trends include more natural and environmentally friendly spaces. Biophilic designs that bring the outside in can brighten up home life with natural materials and ample vegetation. Plants and flowers are also known to reduce stress and lower blood pressure while increasing productivity and creativity.
Divide up that open floor plan with sliding doors that quickly transform your living space to a private work environment.
Relax, you’re home
The desire for a seamless transition from indoor to outdoor living continues to grow, and multi-slide doors and server windows deliver what homeowners crave.
Today, some glass wall systems scale up to 12 feet high, and the doors for those translucent portals come in either sliding, folding, or swing configurations. Greg Pearson, JELD-WEN architectural consultant, says, “Multi-slide doors are increasingly selected for large glass wall systems because of the simpler tracking systems and larger panel sizes.”
A new server window trend is also catching on to keep the refreshments and snacks flowing from the kitchen to any outdoor space. The idea was borrowed from commercial restaurants that integrate outdoor dining into their food service. The “Servery Window” from LaCantina features lightweight stainless steel hardware and a flush sill option for a seamless indoor outdoor transition.
Finding the trend 411
More resources to keep in mind:
- JELD-WEN’s Style Collections are organized by four major architectural styles—Farmhouse, Coastal, Updated Traditional, and Simply Modern
- WGSN, a major trend forecaster
- Color trend experts ODL and Sherwin-Williams
- Houzz and Pinterest for a plethora of insightful design commentary
For more local insights, ask a JELD-WEN representative to get your project off the ground.
