Design Trends

Our resident design trend experts share their insights on what's in fashion this season. To see Top Ten trends, click on an image. In the featured column below, Sally & Jen offer more advice. Also, check out Sally's speaking schedule on the right. Meet her at an upcoming event!

Winter 2012

Top Ten

To see top trends, click an image.

close top trends

Sheer Fabrics

Just as sheer scarves are making a comeback in women's wear, so are soft, translucent fabrics for home interiors. The trend is migrating from Asia, where sheer textiles have long been favored by fashion and interior designers. Luxurious and sensual, sheer materials elevate the style of any room. At Hunter Douglas, you'll find hundreds of sheer fabrics across our product lines.

View Our Sheers

Through the Looking Glass

The trend of larger windows in today's new homes is becoming more popular because homeowners are looking to illuminate their homes with natural light. Thanks to improved insulation, consumers can enjoy this eco-friendly option as well as energy efficiency. When it comes to versatile window treatments for larger windows, consider our new Vignette® Traversed™ with Vertiglide™ Modern Roman Shades. This elegant treatment offers a vertical solution for expansive windows and doors while providing a perfect balance of sunlight and energy efficiency.

Vignette® Traversed™ with Vertiglide™

Open Bed/Bath Suites

Intimate and enchanting: Open bed/bath suites appeal to our private selves. With fewer walls inside your house, now more than ever you'll want window fashions that provide optimal privacy and lighting control.

View Light Control & Privacy video

Beach Is the New Chic

Beach is the newest casual style. It suits a casual lifestyle and features design elements such as bare floors with area rugs and mismatched furniture with slipcovers and incorporates a color palette of soft neutrals of white, yellow and sand. The windows showcase a range of styles and materials, from shutters and Natural Elements™ blinds to Vignette Modern Roman Shades, Country Woods® Genuine Wood blinds and Designer Roller Shades. The best part? You don't have to live at the beach to enjoy this look!

Designer Roller Shades

Cornices

Looking for the perfect crowning touch to your window treatment? Striking yet subtle, cornices of all styles transform an ordinary room into an elegant and memorable setting. Coined from the Italian word cornice (which means "ledge"), the horizontal molding provides an extra accent of style as well as structural focus to virtually any room. This design element will draw your eye upward, adding expansive height and space to your living area. At Hunter Douglas, you'll discover a wide selection of beautiful cornices and first-rate stains.

Country Woods® Exposé™ wood cornices

Automated Systems for your home

Gadgets that we previously saw only in a James Bond movie are now a part of our daily lives. Lighting, heating and cooling, security systems, even kitchen appliances — and, yes, window fashions — can be automated and controlled remotely. With Hunter Douglas Platinum Technology, you can raise or lower window fashions like honeycomb shades using a wireless remote control.

Hard-wired motorized systems

Eco Designs

Making the green grade means different things to different people. At Hunter Douglas, one of our green standards is energy conservation. In 1985, we invented the highly energy-efficient Duette honeycomb shades in response to the energy crisis of the late 1970s. More recently, we've introduced the Duette Architella Collection, which offer superior energy efficiency thanks to their patented honeycomb-within-a-honeycomb construction.

View Energy Efficiency video

Upload Your Own Photo

Not long ago, visualizing how a new style might look on you—or in your home—took a professional eye. Today, a growing number of online tools provide that valuable perspective by allowing you to upload your own photo. To see how Hunter Douglas products will look in your home, visit the iMagine™ Design Center and upload your own photo. Finding just the right product, fabric and color has never been easier.

iMagine

Sleep Better

I used to suffer from lack of sleep until I properly covered my windows with room-darkening fabrics. To determine if a fabric from Hunter Douglas will block out light, look at the sample swatch's opacity rating - the higher, the better. Or, hold a sample swatch up to a shade-less lamp with a high wattage. For a close-up view of fabric selections, visit The Hunter Douglas iMagine™ Design Center or visit your local Hunter Douglas dealer.

iMagine

A Return to Warm Tones

The design world is moving away from cooler, neutral colors and embracing warmer, terracotta tones. The overall palette is still soft, but there's a bit of spice, too. Look for mid-tone colors with purples, orange and red hues to gain design prominence. For example, these Duette Vertiglide® honeycomb shades feature soft rust hues that lend wonderful warmth and charm to this bedroom.

See Sally In Person

Join us at an upcoming event!

February 16th, 2012, 6:30pm
Spencer Carlson Unlimited
413 N. Kellogg St.
Kennewick, WA
Barbara@spencercarlson.com
509-736-5342 View Full Schedule

Ask Sally & Jen

Featured Question

Q:

Is there anything new in neutrals? White and beige seem so sterile, cold and boring.

— Gloria (West Palm Beach, FL)
A:

No matter what colors are trendy, we will always have neutrals. We use them as foundation colors. But even neutral colors change, going from light to dark, simple to complex. This year's neutrals are leaning towards warmer tones—one popular color is "greige," a mix of gray and beige. It pairs well with many colors and is great with white or stained trim.

- Sally

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