Home Design Trends For New Year

If you want to give your home a whole new look in 2007, or just change some parts of it, it will help to know the interior decorating trends likely to be in vogue.

So, on The Early Show Friday, design expert Susanna Salk visited a Pottery Barn store in Manhattan to clue viewers in.

The trends she thinks will be hot Global Style, Mix 'N Match Bedding, Embossed and Colored Leather, and bursts of color — namely red, black and bright green.

GLOBAL STYLE

Local retailers are selling more and more items that look as though they were purchased in a Paris flea market or Moroccan bazaar. Anything that looks exotic, imported, Asian, African, etc. falls into this category.

This trend is surprisingly flexible. The pieces can work in your home no matter your style. For instance, Salk shows a large woven lamp she says would look beautiful in a modern home, as well as a white country farmhouse. She also has a table/trunk that's another example of how a global piece can work in almost any setting. The piece is a soft yellow color, which makes it quite versatile, but the hardware details look Asian.

A word of warning here: Don't overdo it! You want to place a piece here and there, you don't want to do a whole room in this style.

MIX 'N' MATCH BEDDING

The next big trend is happening in the bedroom. Those matching sheet and comforter sets are out, as are the all-white, all-blue, all-any color beds. Instead, designers are mixing and matching.

Salk displayed two beds.

BED 1: An example of how you can put solids, stripes, etc., all on the same bed. How do you make sure it looks pulled together? Simply choose a color, yellow in the case of bed 1, and make sure all your patterns include that shade.

You can then punch up the style quotient even more by adding another color. Salk added red European pillows and a matching quilt across the bottom of the bed. As a final touch, she added deep red and gold accent pillows. The accent pillows pull in an entirely different pattern, but it works because, again, she stuck with two colors.

The accent pillows are actually meant to go on a couch or in a living room. Salk says she frequently pulls her accent pillows from different areas of the home.

BED 2: In this look, Salk started with a quilt that she really loved that's a million different colors. She then pulled out two of the colors from the quilt, orange and green, and added pillows and sheets in those solid colors. Normally, you would never consider combining solid orange and green. However, Salk encourages people not to shy away from using two solid colors on a bed. A patterned quilt or bedspread pulls all the colors together and makes the combo look fabulous.

LEATHER

Salk is seeing more designers using real and faux leather in interesting ways. Unusual textures and patterns are appearing, such as on a small Moroccan-embossed bench she showcased. She had a second bench that's actually made from pony leather. While the texture is unusual, the shape is classic, making it easy to incorporate into many homes.

Classic shapes, such as the leather chair, also are being sold in unusual colors, such as a rich red.

Salk is also seeing leather appear in surprising places: lamp bases, cocktail shakers, even on walls.

COLOR

Wondering what colors will be hot for the home in 2007? Salk says you can't go wrong with red, black or bright green.

To show this trend, she had a living room with three small tables full of red, black and green items, to give a feel for what's available in the various colors. Then, Salk added red items and added them to the set. She spread a red throw over the back of the couch and added some red pillows, large vase of red silk flowers, red lamp shades, and some small red items like a tray and a picture frame. Those spots of color can bring life to a room. They are all inexpensive ways to add color, and easy to change if you tire of the color you've chosen.