Revealed: The four core home interiors styles for 2024

Here’s my pick of the most prevalent trending but off-beat “core” styles for 2024, with tips on how to muscle them into submission with your own innate good taste.

EPHRONCORE

This rustic comfort porridge channels mid-1990s shabby chic to match Meg Ryan’s mousse-stirred shaggy bob in Nora Ephron’s rom-com You Have Mail.

Coined by Nell Frizzell of Vogue UK last year, Ephroncore is an ick-style mired in the worst of 1980s faux distress and artless, upcycled pretention. Its supposed “timeless comfort” is just about always delivered in factory formed, Pottery-Barn-blah, the fast-fashion of interior decorating undistinguished by a single, personal decision.

Frizzell deems the Instagram cult around #MegRyanFall as undeniably cute (and she’s right).

Still, this characterless, aesthetic travesty cannot be saved by cameos of Ryan lofting leaves in a tweedy jacket and bucket hat. Once over the threshold, Ephroncore’s queasy sentiment drags us back to twee home signage, hairy bone-white cheque cushions, insanely pregnant upholstery, and a heavy smother of beige sauce.

The look has survived in what’s termed American-Classic (Carmella advised us of this in an episode of Sopranos where she rejected the inclusion of antiques in her neoclassic-inspired Villa Cosa Nostra).

These cowardly interiors are the outlier to enjoying Ephron’s period pieces.

Frizzell reminds us: “Wordplay is foreplay.”

I’m currently watching the exquisite flirting in When Harry Met Sally through my fingers to avoid a wagon-wheel coffee table.

What’s worthy in squishy, semolina roomscapes?

Well, it’s tonal decorating — so deeply relaxing.

To create a balanced, harmonious tonal scheme, stick to colours close to each other on the colour wheel. Start with whites and neutrals and apply tints and tones of a real colour (bolder is fine).

Settle on a warm or cool collection of shades. Update the late 20th-century interpretations with bolder lines to furniture, and real vintage finds.

Add fascinating detail and texture, and less invasive clutter, avoiding barrow loads of à la carte decorator pieces that say little to nothing about who you are.

GRANDMILLENNIAL

Another stifling style when applied with too much aplomb — Emma Bazilian coined the term “Grandmillennial” for House Beautiful (US) in 2019. It’s a contentious look that’s hung around magazine illustrations all over the planet ever since.

Maximalist at heart, it offers the perfect opportunity to flog more dust-catchers and social-signalling gewgaws than the open planes of Scandi-chic does.

If you took cottage core and with a little hypergamy she married up, we have the heritage-heavy salons of grandmillennial. If your granny is Hyacinth Bucket, then yes — it’s granny-chic.

Grandmillennial chatters in cut-glass vowels of panelled staircases, Laura Ashley ruffles (a trope for this posturing), needlepoint seat-pads, oriental stair-runners and Italian greyhounds in belted wax jackets.

Think Colefax & Fowler without the class.

The nearest period I can compare it to in the past is late 19th-century High Victorian, as they both rely on shameless, ostentatious display, hinting relentlessly at wealth, and accrued gentility.

Sorry, but it’s just a bit vulgar, a bit 80s and trying way too hard.

That said, there are voices out in the design community interpreting the style as an antidote to the monochromatic catalogues we are surrounded by but with more discretion.

Martha Stewart, in one of her excellent blogs, advises us to approach the grandmillennial by including meaningful heritage pieces (family nostalgia is best) and to go big on pattern.

“Consider choosing heavily printed curtains, upholstery, and wall coverings. Embellishments are also a key detail to pulling off this vibe — think ruffles, pleats, and fringe,” she states on her website.

Knitted and crocheted throws are in for 2024.

BARBIECORE

Now, do I really have to explain? Many of us lost our minds in the face of the rictus-grinning Mattel madam.

The impact of her Pepto-Bismol surroundings dazzling off our cinema screens has washed back through the world of interiors like a California surfing swell.

Together with an entire US television show dedicated to recreating the flash and fuss of life in plastic (Barbie Dream House Challenge - HGTV), numerous, bleach haired Instagram personalities have dished up kitchens and living spaces crystallised in sugar pink styling that will be out of fashion before Barbie II struts out. What can we learn from our genuine response to all things plastic fantastic?

There’s a monochromatic joy here which celebrates that opulent mid-century mood, colour, and texture in an age when we shiver in terror beyond plaster greys and rinsed-out biophilic bile. I’m delighted.

Some influencers are showing just how beautiful retro-inspired rooms with an unashamed rush of colour and pattern can be. Top among them is The House of Adora, styled by Nashville chic queen Beverley Griffith.

It’s all there in her Hollywood Regency glam-palace.

Smoky glass belted in gold, turquoise Moroccan tile, a scandalous round, red velvet bed and plush, lush, psycho-pop flair in every detail. What does this sumptuous lookbook offer? Well, as Beverley purrs out — it’s not just a look, it’s sheer all-encompassing cool that can only be matched by full-on colour-drenching. Look for inspiration to shake your creativity awake. C’mon Barbie, let’s go party. (instagram.com/thehouseofadora/).

RESIMERCIAL DESIGN

I know, I know, another invented stuff-shifter cooked up by the furniture hangers, but stay with me.

Resimercial is a term long-used to describe residential-style commercial offices and commercial-inclined residential spaces (let’s just say home offices for clarity’s sake).

It’s easy to see why firms would instigate comfier, cosy less rigidly styled domestic environments to cosset their staff and encourage greater productivity.

Beyond this corporate strategising, the reverse is an interesting take on this look too. Since the pandemic, many of us have either changed jobs, started working from home or in some cases set up a business.

The wobbling Argos study desk and stolen dining chair crammed into a corner won’t work for serious professional hours, where we may have to leap into a Zoom meeting and virtually style up a backdrop.

Back in the day, when the industrial look and mid-century crept up on us, Anglepoise in hand, we began to appreciate pieces created for office, workshop and even factory settings as being desirable after hours. In 2024, flexible home spaces that can be turned around for other functions will become increasingly popular.

Coping with a spare room or confined to an area of open-plan living, look into furnishings that can sit easily with the wider collection of leisure seating and storage. Work on that seamless flow, and use clever, closed storage solutions to shut down your day. My advice? Start at the top, investing in handsome, functional pieces designed for long hours of use from good office furnish suppliers, including O’Brien Office Systems, Donworth, or Ronnie Moore Ltd, all in Cork.

Trust me. That gentler resimercial area of design is perfect for adaptable, hard-working homes expected to do everything in increasingly small square metres.