Interior design forecast: Less pizzazz, more down-home style

Is glamour dying?

At the very least, it's being redefined during an uncertain economy as we approach the next decade.

"There's a change away from the hip modernism we've borrowed from hotels with all the Lucite, mirrored furnishings, and bright yellow and turquoise geometric carpets," said interior designer Peter Dunham of Los Angeles, whose client list includes Ben Affleck. "We want comforting things. More American pie, less flash in the pan."

So what exactly is in store - and will be in stores - for our homes in 2010?

"More craft and things that have been touched by hand," said Keith Johnson, buyer-at-large for Anthropologie stores and the subject of the Sundance Channel's Man Shops Globe. The eight-episode series followed Johnson to South Africa, India, and across Europe as he sped through flea markets and met with artisans in search of Holy Grail furnishings and accents.

Black on track

Black walls are turning up in home mags and blogs, much bolder versions of the grays we've grown used to.

"Dark walls actually make smaller rooms look bigger," said Susan Bartlett Crater, granddaughter of Kennedy White House decorator Sister Parish. Crater and Libby Cameron last year wrote the book Sister Parish Design on Decorating (St. Martin's Press, $35). "Black also pops color in a sophisticated way."

Patricia Shackelford of Kansas City, author of the nationally recognized design blog Mrs. Blandings (mrsblandings.blogspot.com), included a post on renowned interior designer and Kansas City native Thomas Britt's black walls of the 1970s. Some of the rooms looked as if they could have been ripped from modern magazines that feature black rooms with crisp white trim and accents.

Designer Dunham is even seeing black in furniture upholstery, such as black Chesterfield sofas. And Edwardian-like black coincides with what's popular in fashion, he says.

To grandmother's house we go

We've heard "this ain't your grandma's. . . ." A new buzz phrase just might be "that's so granny."

Shackelford thinks we'll see more patchwork quilts, hooked rugs, needlepoint, and chintz.

"On Top Design, a contestant [Ondine Karady] was criticized for being too 'grandma' for using a crocheted throw," Shackelford said. "Actually, she was onto the next trend."

Shackelford said it was the return of Sister Parish design, using heirlooms or pieces with history. "It's a way to bring comfort to formality," she said.