Often when the new year comes around it's time to clean up on bad habits, but it's also a time to improve on your home with a much-needed update. 

It’s all about comfort in 2021, with design trends curated to make your home as peaceful and even luxurious as possible. Something especially important when you’re using your home to not only relax but double as a productive workspace.

Many of the 2021 trends revolve around larger-scale projects that not everyone can accomplish. But whether you’re looking to do an entire remodeling of your kitchen, or aiming for a more subtle change in decorating your home there are plenty of options to choose from. 

These are eight different design trends that will be highlighted in the upcoming months to implement into your home remodeling project. 

• The Grandmillennial style
• Big kitchens
• Peel-and-stick wallpaper
• Home office upgrade
• Earth-tones 
• Houseplants
• Cottagecore
• Optimizing outdoor space
  

Read on below for a detailed round-up of these up-and-coming decor must haves.

The Grandmillennial style

Millennials have brought with them a new style of decorating into 2021.  A trend that calls back onto the older housing styles of the 1920s and 1930s it's not uncommon to find plenty of furniture that reminds you of your grandma and grandpa’s house in a millennial’s home these days. 

Pack your shelves with something more than books, all those strange little knick-knacks you’ve been hiding away now have their time to shine with this style. Pastoral paintings, animal-themed salt and pepper shakers, and anything knitted would do well. Banking on that vintage look with a good heaping off nostalgia, here are a few tips on how to get your home into the Grandmillennial state of mind.

• Wicker furniture for those that don’t know is made up of woven plant material, often you see these kinds of chairs and tables on patios. But bringing these pieces inside the house can create a sense of breeziness, and are light and easy to move around. 
• Gold and brass furnishings may seem like a lot for a room but the Grandmillenial style is about weaving comfort and eccentricity. A shiny metallic sculpture or a twisted-looking lamp base for an end-table is a surefire way of achieving this style. 
• Floral-themed designs come in and out of fashion in waves, but they never really disappear. The Grandmillenial trend seems to be leaning on the lighter colored florals, white and pink wallpaper, or a collection of frilly accented pillows to relax into. 
  

Big kitchens

In the past year, many of us have taken on some new hobbies, particularly ones that can be accomplished in the home without having to go outside. Kitchens have been put to their fullest use as more and more people take on cooking and baking as a pastime. 

Whether you’re breaking out all the gourmet ingredients for a full-course meal or just scrounging through your pantry in search of whatever leftovers, a lot of kitchen space to work your magic with is important. And though a home chef can create all kinds of culinary delights in an average kitchen, expanding on yours can certainly help.

Grandiose kitchens are at the forefront of dedicated designers’ minds this year and there are a handful of ways to improve yours.

• Open concept kitchens. A must-have for any food-lover in the midst of renovations. Lots of space to move around with little to get in the way, and plenty of island space to spread out your ingredients for some elbow-room. 
• An appliance upgrade. It’s time to swap in your outdated appliances for something new. Stainless-steel and sleek in design, a new refrigerator, stovetop, or even a dishwasher can cut your cooking time in half. 
• Marble countertops. If you’re looking for something more on the design side, marble countertops for your kitchen is the material to be using. They’re white yet eye-catching with their veined design, and bring a bright airiness to the room. 

Peel-and-stick wallpaper

Easy to remove wallpaper is especially popular with renters and apartment owners. When you can’t paint your walls or add anything permanent to them wallpaper is a great alternative option to add some character to them. 

Peel-and-stick wallpaper is proving to be the best option. They’re self-adhesive and not hard to remove, you can mix and match with wallpaper patterns all year long if you’d like. 

To match with the Grandmillennial look white or pastel colors would be best. But if you’re feeling a bit experimental try for bolder colors, like a wine-tinted red or dark blue. These shades would work in rooms where you counteract their brightness with some light-colored furniture or blankets.

Wallpaper can also serve as a sort of camouflage in the kitchen or bathroom. If you’re looking to cover up a dull-colored backsplash for your counters or hide some off-putting tiles in the bathroom, peel-and-stick can do the trick. Keep it up for as long as you like, then swap it out as trends change, your landlord will be none the wiser.

Home office upgrade

We’ve all been finding ourselves working from home more often than not lately, and it can be hard to work productively in the house. And so the home office has become one of the focal points of design for the 2021 home makeover.

First and foremost making sure your office is a space where you can be productive is most important. By making sure you have desk space for your computer and papers is a great start. 

Try to keep the clutter away so that you have room to stretch out but a plant or something to play with like a fidget toy can help break up the monotony. And it has escaped no one’s notice that Zoom calls see everything, so better to be prepared with an aesthetically pleasing backdrop for your screen. 

Bookcases full of large tomes, eye-catching paintings, or even a cool looking lamp can really add another layer of sophistication to the room. 

Earth-tones

It’s earth-tones all around for decorating this year. Whether it's your walls or your furniture or your pillows, when looking for color leaning towards shades in the green and brown variant is your best bet. 

Calming to the eye and the mind designing a room in chestnut or terracotta can soften some of the harsh edges around your house. But if you’re not a fan of the more traditional colors used in this design burnt oranges or even mustard yellows can serve earth-tones justice when used in moderation. 

The best part about painting your room in a color of this kind or applying it anywhere else is that it allows for the important pieces of art you own to shine. If there is something meaningful you want to show off, consider displaying it in a room where the colors are less loud and more inclined to draw attention to your piece.

Houseplants

A more lively kind of design trend that also doubles as a hobby, stocking your home chock-full with house plants is a great way to freshen up the space. Too much greenery can never hurt, especially when you’re feeling a particular longing for the great outdoors. 

But when shopping for plants it’s easy to get overzealous and buy whatever seems pretty for the room. Extravagant looking flowers are not always the best bet for the home, as they often require very specific watering and light requirements.

Make sure to take into account a plant’s needs for temperature and sunlight to prevent it from wilting or drying out.

Here are some suggestions for new-time plant owners.

• A sansevieria aka the snake plant is a great go-to. This plant thrives in any kind of light environment and requires little water, so if you're unsure as to where to place a piece of greenery the snake plant will do well anywhere.
• A pink anthurium serves those well who are looking for some more color. They do well in moderate sunlight and only need watering once every two weeks. 
• A monstera or the swiss cheese plant is big and leafy for a spot in your house that needs filling out. Indirect sunlight and a once-a-week watering will do for it. 
  

Cottagecore

A decorating tactic that one would expect from a country house getaway, Cottagecore is the talk of the town amongst the younger crowd looking for something new. This style is meant to be tailored towards creating a sense of comfort in the home, something we all need these days. It’s a callback to nature-themed decor.   

To achieve this look, decorate your rooms in soft colors, fake flowers, and anything animal-themed trinkets. And when deciding on patterns make sure to include vintage-looking prints. Florals are always a great go-to but a pale plaid-crossed for a pillow or blanket could do just as well. 

And of course, Cottagecore comes with a sense of sustainability, so think smart when purchasing. 

Shopping for vintage-looking paintings or accessories for your home at your local antique store could add a creative twist to Cottagecore that can surprise even the most dedicated to the aesthetic. 

Optimizing outdoor space

Fresh air can do wonders for the body and the mind. The outdoor space in your home whether it be a yard, a balcony, or a patio can serve as a refugee for you especially if it's utilized to its full potential. 

Focusing on improving the greenery in your space is one way to lift spirits, but also make sure that you have plenty of space for outdoor athletics to keep your blood pumping.

The biggest challenge about this 2021 trend will be making sure that your outdoor space is ready to be fully-operational year-round, no matter the weather. But rain or snow there are some ways to circumvent this problem.

• Outdoor fireplaces are expensive to install but one of these on your patio or in your yard is a surefire way of allowing year-round use. And if you’re a cooking-enthusiast as well, a properly procured pizza-oven can serve the same purpose. 
• Lighting for the outdoors is often a problem when night falls. Something as simple as a couple of lanterns or some upgraded spotlight fixtures can extend your gatherings long after darkness falls. 
• Native and environmentally conscious gardens have come back in style, and better for the health of your lawn to boot. By implementing native plants in your garden rather than plain old grass, you’re creating a healthier space to relax to shoo away the bugs keeping you from enjoying some sunshine.

Being comfortable in the home is more important now than ever before, and luckily enough 2021’s design trends reflect this particular need. By implementing even just one of these methods into your home decor will improve not just your style but your sense of ease as well.

Are there any other 2021 design trends that you’ve seen on the rise? Let us know in the comments and be sure to like and share!