Hello and welcome all. Welcome back to home and hosting
with me Louis Burke. Today's episode is a fun one, a
juicy 1, something you all secretly or not so secretly
love. We're of course talking trends.
Hate them, all of them. My daughter says that you are
all here to learn what's in, what's out, and how to approach
design in a way that makes your space feel more considered and
actually turn it from a space into a home.
And before we get into it, thank you all for the love on last
week's episode. I genuinely love all the DMS
that came through. It genuinely meant so much
hearing that. That conversation around feeling
more put together resonated with you.
I've been very much in that energy lately.
Steam cleaning, peeling paint off window latches.
You might have seen it on TikTok.
I've just been resetting the routines, just getting it all
organised and feeling fresh. But now back to the juicy stuff.
Or the lesson should I say, because this is more of a tough
love class run through of trends.
Because I posted on TikTok and Instagram the other day and the
video popped off a little bit. It was essentially about how
we've lost the art of knowing what trends fit where and for
what time of year you might have seen it.
We've all stopped decorating for the season we're actually living
in. It's like when people started
calling Nike Nike. It's wrong.
Stop. I'm seeing mohair blankets,
chocolate brown velvet cushions and deep winter pallets like
burgundy and heavy textures styled in the middle of 40°
Australian summer. And listen, I love beautiful
pieces. I love texture.
I love layers. I mean, you've seen my bed.
No matter the season. There's layers, but there's
considered layers. There's a time and there's a
place. Your home, just like your
wardrobe, should change with the seasons and I don't wanna hear.
We should just let people do what they want.
Why can't we just normalise having freedoms?
I've spoken about it before. It's gotten to the point where
we've completely lost all the rules.
The saying of learn the rules then break them.
That's what I stand by. Know why, have a reason, what's
the reason, What was the reason? If you don't know that
reference, nevermind please ignore.
I'm just saying we need to know why we have the stuff we have in
our homes. Not because I favourite
influenza ported in their house. We need to have a better reason,
not just because why did we do it?
Why did we bring this entire environment?
Because ultimately, we want to make our space feel like home.
At least you do. That's why you're listening
today. So just like your wardrobe, your
home should change with the seasons.
And I think we've forgotten how. And I think I know why.
So today I want to break down why seasonality in design
matters in our home, Why we've lost the plot, how timelessness
is more complicated than people think, and how retail cycles are
confusing everyone. And then we'll do a proper
seasonal speed round what's in and what's out for summer,
autumn, winter, and spring. If you take anything away from
this episode, just let it be this.
Your home should feel and look like the same temperature you're
living in. And no, I'm not talking about
the air con. Let's get into it.
So First things first, why does seasonality even matter?
It's because your home just doesn't look different.
Each season it feels different whether you pick it up or not.
In summer, the air moves differently.
The light is brighter, the shadows are sharper, the days
are longer. Your body temperature shifts,
your mood shifts. You're spending more time
outside hosting. You're not lighting fireplaces
and cuddling up on the sofa as much.
A home styled for the wrong season creates this weird
sensory tension. It's like wearing a puffer
jacket to the beach. Technically you can do it, but
it kind of feels ridiculous. Design isn't just visual, it's
emotional, it's practical. It's about rhythm.
When you walk into a home in winter and it feels cosy, that's
not accidental. That's layers, texture, warmth.
And when you walk into a summer home and it feels breezy, light
and open, that's intentional lightness.
That's not a personality. That's not, I want my home to
feel like this all the time. Your home should feel like both
of those sensations at different times of the year, and if you
don't decorate seasonally, it just feels stale, lifeless, and
honestly, like an airport or an office lounge.
And hey, even some of those lounges have more going on these
days, and I know you know what I'm talking about.
We've lost that intuition, I think, because of course the
elephant in the room is the cost of living.
But we've lost focus on the home, despite us in Australia
putting so much energy into buying one for that sense of
security, like for something that's so valuable, where's the
attention to tending for that asset?
Like I think we're taking the sit on the asset and let it
appreciate a little too literally.
Like get some curtains and paint a wall.
Like hard pill to swallow. Less Lego collecting and screens
and more items that actually bring a sense of life into your
space. It's about shifting the
priorities. And Speaking of screens, we've
lost direction partly because we're copying whatever is
trending online without question whether it makes sense for us.
And right now, in the peak of Australian summer, some people's
homes feel like an autumn winter lookbook or showcase for the
last five years. And I'm sorry, but that's not
chic. That's just plain out confused.
And how do we fix this? Well, look at your materials for
one, because materials have temperature, even visually.
Let's go through the materials in accordance to the seasons,
like a fire round. OK, so spring, summer, we've got
linen, cotton, lightweight gores, return cane, clear glass,
light ceramics, pale timber, sisal, jute.
That's just a few. These materials breathe, they
move, they feel light, they let light pass through it, they
reflect it, cool a space down visually.
Now for autumn, winter, think bouclet, mohair, wool, velvet,
heavy stone, dark timber, deep greens, burgundies, chocolates.
They absorb light. They create density.
They cocoon, which is beautiful in winter, but when it's 38° and
humid, they feel suffocating. Your brain responds to texture.
Your nervous system responds to weight.
That's why heavy materials in summer feel visually hot.
It's subtle, but it's real. And materials themselves have
their moments in a trend cycle. I mean, look at Bratan, it was
huge five years ago. Linen has been huge in Australia
for 10 years across bed linen. And I would say velvet has
really come in strong the last four years.
And look, I get materials might not be the most instinctive
thing to pick up on if you don't have a design eye because of
today's conveniences with like air conditioning and access to
so much product. Back in the day, you would use
materials that make you more comfortable.
So people had a better understanding of materials
generally. But let's talk about colour
because this one is something I think people should just know
because colour absolutely has seasons.
Another speed round like summer to me is crisp whites, chambray
Blues, citrus, soft neutrals. Autumn is that olive Ross
terracotta mustard. Winter is a focus on Forest
Green, chocolates, navies and charcoals.
Spring is like butter, blush, lilac.
Fresh green colours expand and contract with light.
Summer light washes colour out, winter light deepens them.
It all correlates to the stuff that's going on outside.
But here's the important part. You can love all colours without
needing them all at once. And the Internet has convinced
people that if something is trending and must be applied
immediately, regardless of climate, light or logic, it's
got to stick around for as long as the trend does.
And that's where we lose the discernment.
So why have we lost seasonal styling?
I think there's two main reasons.
The algorithm has flattened the seasons.
Because you're scrolling and seeing like a New York winter
and then someone's in an island escape and then there's the
Australian summer going on at the same time.
Or within seconds of flicking through TikTok, your brain stops
registering location and you start decorating like you live
nowhere or where your favourite influencer lives.
Which is my second point. Trend chasing has replaced
intuition, influences and creators style for engagement.
Not necessarily for the comfort, not for the climate, not for
real life. Like the back to back change
over a bed linen each week. That is an ad to promote sheets
and whilst that person lives in that home, it's a part time
home, part time production set. Because context matters.
You don't need a hundred sets of sheets, but if you have two to
three they should coordinate with your other linen and speak
to a time of year you'll use them the most.
I think another reason why we have lost our way is brands are
not educating their customers anymore.
Like they honestly put it on the creator to educate.
Which not all of us are made equal or professionals so we
don't they don't know either. And they're also playing a
little bit dirty and chasing up every upcoming trend to dupe and
sell you to bank profit instead of creating products that serve
a purpose. And whose fault is that?
It's sort of like the chicken and the egg theory.
The audience is to blame for not considering their purchases and
then the brand is also to blame because they don't educate.
But also let's not forget that the retail calendar is not your
home's calendar as well. This is the industry side where
brands are launching earlier and earlier winter collections in
February, spring in July, Christmas in September.
Retail is working like 6 months ahead.
Campaigns are pre shot. Influenza content is scheduled
months to weeks out. So what you're seeing is often
not aligned with the weather outside your window.
Just because winter product has dropped doesn't mean that it's
winter. It means that it's retail
winter. And when you decorate based on
the just landed page instead of what season am I actually in?
You disconnect from your environment.
And I also think that is super prevalent where people who want
to be content creators shop the What's New page on every website
and put it in their house to chase the trend to try and get
attention, to try and grow their profile, which inherently
affects the in the way that everybody is living because no
one's paying attention to the season and they're all just
trying to be content or get attention or likes.
It's kind of wild. And I'm saying this as someone
that is within this wheelhouse as a content creator, but I'm
very comfortable within it because I'm an educator and I
feel like there's a purpose behind my profile.
So I have no issues stepping out and speaking about it as though
it's there and identifying the things that are happening on it.
You know, like that's OK, I can call it out because I still know
that there's a rhyme and reason to what I'm doing online.
So your home doesn't have to follow these creators bedrooms
because they're ultimately a What's new page that is based
off the retail calendar about finding that balance between
what's available and what the weather's doing, which speaks to
what our homes look and feel like.
I did have someone comment which got a couple of likes saying are
we even decorating our home seasonally?
And yes, we have and we are and we will continue to.
It's been going on for hundreds of years and brands release
product every season, autumn, winter, spring, summer, across
clothes, food, like fashion, home, it's all the same.
And you can buy things and you can also you don't have to buy
things. It seems only now it's confusing
because again, people have been left in the lurch and had too
much freedom and they've lost all the rules and they've gone
rogue. Learn the rules and then break
them. Now back to when I said you
don't have to buy. Brown has been around since
2019. It's truly in its peak now and
will disappear honestly in the foreseeable year.
So in 2019 you could have bought a brown cushion or a throw and
you could have put it away and back out again each year for
winter to refresh your space up and until now so you didn't have
to buy something new every year, you just knew when to pull it
out and when to put it away. Regardless, brown is timeless
and that it will always speak to winter so contextually it will
make sense, particularly if it's in a winter fabric.
Honestly this person was just complaining and using
overconsumption as a reason to try and defend themselves
because they just felt threatened because they're not
decorating seasonally, they just want to win an argument.
The Internet and as commenters are truly something else at
times. But that's for another episode
because I I need at least 2 glasses of wine to get through
that. Now back to the word timeless.
Just before the speed round we need to talk about timelessness
because I know someone is thinking, well Louis, I have a
chocolate brown velvet so far. So am I not allowed to have that
in summer? And the core pieces and
furniture are different. You're not swapping a sofa
seasonally. But here's the thing, people are
misunderstanding what timeless actually means too.
I saw someone say brown sofas are timeless.
Well, they're not. They are very much at this
moment, like if you remember the early 2000s, like the boho
skirts and the caramel Leathers and the soft brown McAfee
interiors. It looked amazing at the time,
and then it looked dated, and then now it's back.
Brown isn't timeless. It's cyclical.
Every shade, mushroom, tobacco, caramel, espresso, chocolate has
their own moment. The same as like trench coats.
10 years ago, the classic trench coat was fitted and short.
Now the classic trench coat is oversized and slouchy.
It's the same item, it's a different silhouette, but both
are considered timeless in their own error.
You can't escape the trend cycle.
You can just be aware of it. And that awareness allows you to
design with intention instead of pretending that the trends don't
exist. Seasonality is real.
Trend cycles are fluid. You've just got to know the
difference and also be open to the fact that they exist and you
can't escape them. All right, let's get to the
speed round for each season. So for summer, I'm thinking
linen bedding, of course, but also it's kind of being replaced
by soft cotton. Of course, we'll see a lot of
return and jute and fresh greenery particularly return
with the like it's wrapped around glassware, colourful
cutlery, the polka dot trend. What's out is obviously the
bouquets and the mohairs, the velvets, the heavy ceramics, the
dark winter palettes and the thick layering.
So what are we burning? Green scents, herbaceous scents
like basil or produce like tomato leaf.
Then we move into autumn. I'm thinking there's going to be
a lot more charcoal and grey, burgundy and tan caramel will
start to come through light wool layers like blankets and merino
wool. I've seen a lot of merino wool,
like athleisure and also like cardigans, so I do think that
that will come through in cushions and throws because of
excess materials. I think the walnut timber trays
will definitely still be around the fur cushions and rugs as
first having a huge moment in fashion.
It's always interesting to see how the home and fashion stuff
correlates like one does one first and the other.
The velvets will still be really strong.
The woolly accents, like Mongolian sheep's wool at the
poodle, well, we'll be in. And also some deer print, any of
the rugs, cushions, things like that.
What's going to be out, of course, is going to be those
bright coastal Blues they're going to swap for like a Navy.
The crisp whites I think will come through.
The warmer whites will disappear, and then what are we
going to be burning? That's where the vanilla, the
ambers, the musks, the sandalwoods and the cinnamons
will come through. Very classic sets there.
It's kind of the balance. Like this is also trends, but
it's also things that just speak to the season.
So there's the seasonal trend in winter, there's going to be the
cool jewel tones that really come through.
Winter is the time where a lot of trends pop up in home.
That's why there's a lot of them.
So expect to see a lot of magentas and purples and deeper
pinks, greens, yellow based greens, Blues, silvers, wool
velvet layering. There's deeper palettes, just
mood lighting. Stone accents isn't going to go
anywhere. Like the marble, the stones it
won't go. I also expect to see a lot more
plaids and tartans and a lot more pattern play.
I think that what will be out is obviously like the linens, the
pastel overload and the breezy textures and what are we burning
is food, tobacco, smoky scents and whiskey, boozy sort of
scents. Then when we get into spring,
that's sort of when all these new trends that came out in
winter get their like summer versions.
So those deep Blues will become more icy Blues and then the
magenta pinks will become more bold pinks.
I think we started to see it at the start of this year, A couple
of pink T-shirts and pink never really leaves.
But I feel like noticeably it's popping up more.
Some micro florals to replace the plaids, lighter bedding.
Of course, we're going to be opening the windows with fresh
scents like fresh linen, florals and greens actually to see a lot
more frilly accents too. We're sort of seeing a lot more
of those frills plates and things in fabrics before
fashion, like fashions picked up the lace work and the boho
cotton tops. But I think that will still come
through in the bed linen. I think that one, I think fur
popped up in fashion 1st and then it'll pop up in home.
Whereas I do think this sort of frilly boho, crisp white cotton
dresses popped up in bed linen first.
So it's always cool to see that swap.
And the what's gonna be out is obviously all of those other
things. So be sure, like when we're
talking about these trends, we're talking about homeware.
So we're talking cushions, throws, lambs, vases, rugs, that
sort of stuff, trays, mirrors. So this is something that you
can literally rotate quarterly. You're packing away the new
season, which really is broken up into spring, summer and
autumn winter, just like your wardrobe.
So finally, how do you reset without buying anything?
You swap the bedding, you put away the heavy throw, you change
the sense, you rotate the cushions, or you just take
cushions away. In summer you don't have any
cushions. In winter you do.
You move the heavy ceramics and the urns and you change it for
like glass, clear glass. You open the blinds and the
curtains more. You add seasonal flowers, you
burn the candles. You don't need to buy every
season, you just need to rotate. And when things need to be
changed, you donate some things and you get some things to
replace them. It's just like how you do with
your wardrobe and you will notice a huge difference.
Like The thing is, we're looking for cohesion.
That's what we need. And if there's one thing I want
you to remember is that your home should match the season
that you're living in, not the one that's on your for you page
or favourite influenza. And hey, if you don't live in a
four season place and you live in the middle of the equator,
like at the top of Queensland, or you live in Bali, you go buy
hot. And wet season.
So that's different. You're going to have different
expectations. So ultimately, designs should
just feel aligned to where you live.
It should feel grounded. It should feel comfortable and
intentional, not performative. Thank you so much for listening
today. If you enjoyed this episode,
share it with someone who's going on about brown and
Burgundy at the moment in the middle of February, but do it in
a lovingly way. And as always, thank you again
so much for listening to home and hosting with Louis Burg.
Be sure to catch up with me over on my social channels at Louis
Burg across Instagram and TikTok.
You can read all things new on my journal.
And be sure to subscribe and leave a review of this podcast
and I'll see you in the next one.