Each year, experts at Elle Décor, Veranda, Architectural Digest, Domino, HGTV Magazine and more let us in on future home décor trends. Using my gerontological eye I curated these 2021 trends into my design for life plans – a custom blend of beauty and practicality for living longer in our forever homes.

1. Curves make a comeback

I have yet to talk to someone who didn’t join the COVID curves club (slang for putting on pounds while sheltering in place binge-watching “Downton Abbey” and indulging in too much tea and sympathy, i.e., comfort foods). However, the curves we need are not on our hips or tummies but in our living environments. 

Universal Design:

• A sumptuous velvet and brass bottom couch has curves that make wheelchair transfers a breeze. Sofa arms keep loved ones safe in place while still allowing access to a side table.
• Kitchen countertops that soften sharp corners with smooth curves reduces purple bruises that can happen with balance issues as we age.
• Bright and beautiful mobility assist chairs (this one in Grape color) that can adjust up or down, swivel 90 degrees both ways and then lock for safety allow easy access to dining tables and lower counters and are so lightweight anyone above 75 pounds (like grandkids) can roll their loved one easily to dinner or to the game room for a Monopoly grudge match.
• Coffee tables that blend marble and brass or tufted fabric tables also reduce sharp metal corners to help avoid shin gashes. Nesting tables allow for easy movement to accommodate wheelchairs and walkers.
• Curved vases are making a comeback after years of cylinders and square flower holders. Filled with faux lilacs, allergy sufferers and others with scent sensitivities can eliminate the problem of live blooms with beautiful décor that lasts forever.

2. Full frontal (and don’t forget the backside too)

Front entries, lawns and gardens are getting top billing in 2021 as we turn our homes from isolation bubbles into social gathering meccas. Curb appeal has taken on a new meaning as landscape designers create impressive first impressions with precision trimmed boxwood hedges to frame front walkways (channeling Bunny Mellon in her 1960s Kennedy White House garden design heyday). Front dining rooms with French doors now open to the lawn and porches have room for social seating. As well, backyards continue to be hot zones for design as home entertaining continues its “roaring 20s” post-pandemic revival. Staying connected with neighbors, family and friends is a vital element of the new personal determinants of health (PDoH) movement that help us all live longer.

Universal Design:

• Reno the front of the home with no steps entry and gorgeous landscaped walkway borders that help those with visual issues see the path clearly.
• A roomy porch space allows for greater accessibility for wheelchairs and those with walkers. It also adds vital sun covering while ceiling fans in the porch design keep you and your company even cooler – fans cool skin whereas air conditioning cools rooms – during warm summer days. (Note: tape down rug edges to avoid tripping).
• Backyard entertainment is on the rise. Allow a lot of room for guests of all ages and health ability to maneuver wheelchairs or walkers with easy in and out banquette seating. Ensure there is adequate lighting (including motion sensor lighting) to avoid fall hazards.

3. Swing time

The effortless ease of a pocket door is just like Fred and Ginger (or Jennifer and Bradley in “Silver Linings Playbook”) sliding and gliding across the dance floor. The pocket door, which was first introduced in the late 19^th century but gave way to hinges in the 1920s, took 100 years to make its big comeback and is now a scene stealer. Add an element of surprise to dinner parties with your own HGTV “big reveal” sliding dining room pocket doors that open to a celebratory, gorgeous table á la Martha Stewart.

Universal Design:

I love pocket doors – especially for bathrooms – which make it easier to open than traditional knob bathroom doors for those with walkers and wheelchairs. It also eliminates the concern about someone falling in the bathroom and blocking emergency access which happens with a typical inward swinging door. 

4. Central Perk

COVID brought us to a non-stop streaming, binge-watching precipice (I had an eclectic watchlist of the 90s and early aughts New York-style programs with “Friends,” “The Sopranos,” and the sublime Ric Burns documentary, “New York,”). When coffees houses and restaurants were forced to hibernate, we wound up spending a lot of time in our kitchens (similar to the Friends gang and family Soprano). We also realized that hunkering down meant stocking up on food supplies which ushered in pantries as one of the big design trends continuing into this year. 

Universal Design:

• Innovative and functional pull-out pantry cabinets and shelves are much easier as we age (the goal is to avoid stretching, bending or getting on a ladder).
• Removing cabinet doors for easy access to pots and pans is great universal design (or just a great reason to showcase that beautiful set of new copper cookware you invested in!)
• The coffee house takes its place inside an old TV cabinet and wine cellars came out of the closet (or garage or basement – similar to the end of Prohibition) as an essential design element in the middle of the home allowing instant access to life’s elixir.

5. Midnight at the oasis

Veranda magazine heralded in its July/August 2021 issue, “Sumptuously snug bedrooms are back.” (we like the “snug” reference!) Our bedrooms are our sanctuaries and nothing made this more clear than the need to float away from the worries of the last year.

Universal Design:

• “I Love Lucy” fans will be curious to know twin beds are back in style. For couples with different health issues, bed temperature preferences and nightstyles (reading or watching TV in bed versus catching zzzzzsss), the trending in twin beds may be the answer. 
• Alcove beds, like twin beds, are typically associated with children but scientists discovered the first “cave bedrooms” dating back 77,000 years ago. These early cocoons used plant material for bedding  – a precursor to today’s plant-based memory foam that provides a cooler, more body responsive sleep experience. Look for organic, plant-based (typically soy) mattresses like Zen Haven that create cooler temps along with hypoallergenic antimicrobial fabric treatment and encourage proper spine and neck alignment.
• Sleep accessories are all the rage and as a wellness expert, I love the pillow and sheet mists with lavender that encourages peaceful rest – spritz just before bedtime for the best effect. You can also burn a candle during the day, such as Replica’s “Lazy Sunday Morning,” which has a lily of the valley scent that helps create a restful environment for those with heart problems. In addition, indulge in a silk sleep mask that blocks out disruptive blue light emissions from TVs, phones and other electronic devices you may have in the bedroom that interrupt our circadian rhythm health needs.