Inspiration

With a new year comes new sights, sounds and—fingers crossed—possibilities. Calling 2020 a year of hardship is an understatement, to say the least. COVID-19 rocked our communities and sent billions into lockdown across the globe, but there was one good thing that came out of staying at home.  Quarantine has forced us to take a good long look at the effects interior design has on how we see our spaces. This past year allowed us to reinvent what home and work mean. Malta interior designers are going into the new year with a reimagined view on how to combine comfort and luxury with function. The new year promises an evolution in decorating trends with effects that will reach long past the reach of any disease. Malta homes are becoming multi-use refuges while offices turn into calming powerhouses of productivity. Below we’ve compiled a list of nine Malta decorating trends likely to emerge or continue in 2021. If you’re looking for some help designing your at home oasis, check out our recommendations for Malta painters and decorators. Multi-Purpose Spaces When home is an office, a school, and a shopping center all at once, the various parts of our life tend to get jumbled on top of each other. College students are rolling out of bed and, boom, they’re at school. Parents are sitting on their couches to work. Running our lives from home has put an emphasis on functional comfort and multi-use spaces. Malta decorators expect the new year to bring a slew of multi-function furniture to accommodate the evolving needs of a stay at home lifestyle. Hidden Hardware When work is done and school is over, it’s important that home can become home again. Foldable desks that hide as a painting or mirror were once interior design reserved for tiny homes. Now they’re becoming a useful way for home and work to exist separately in the same space. This decorating trend has even continued into the rest of our hardware. Cords, electronics, and even appliances are hiding behind sleek panels to create a calm, clutter-free design. This helps create a quiet space in not only the home, but the office as well. Malta businesses are hiding their tangle of cords behind calming wooden and pressboard panels. Let in The Light Malta ranks among the top late summer sun travel destinations on the planet. That means the country’s interior decorators are taking full advantage of all that light. Isolation was a huge problem in 2020. To help create a happy, thriving atmosphere, Malta interior designers are using all the natural light they can get. Offices and private home owners alike are using this natural light to boost the mood and increase productivity. Smaller patterned curtains and bigger windows are quickly becoming the norm. Earth Tones If you’re going to be stuck at home, it might as well look good. Malta painters and interior decorators are taking this thought to heart. The design of private homes is trending towards natural Earth tones. From bold terracotta to soothing wooden shades and cool greys, there’s an emphasis on keeping things beautiful, but simple. These colors are easy on the eyes and match well with most accent colours. With more and more houses transforming into personal relaxation spaces, this trend is bound to increase. Comfortable Blues There’s no denying that works in a pandemic can be stressful. Malta interior designers are using color theory to combat this problem. The trending color for Malta in home offices and corporations is blue. Blue promotes comfort and helps minimize anxiety. For this reason, more offices are repackaging themselves in slate blues, and sky-colored tones. This switch doesn’t just help keep workers from burnout. Blue makes an attractive sight for customers. It also happens to be another color that goes well with many different accent pieces. Bold Accents When you’re stuck at home all day, every day, things can get a little stale. To combat emotional burnout, Malta decorators are using vibrant colors and exciting patterns. With fewer people going on holiday, contrast and exotic designs add a splash of interest to a home or office. This trick is especially useful in break rooms, bathrooms, and living rooms. Adding different, but complimentary colors to each room can make you feel like you’re going on your own private adventure. Durable Fabrics and Furniture The fact of the matter is that, quarantine or not, people are staying home more these days. That means they’re sitting on their couches, walking on their carpets, and spending more time at the dinner table with their families. This extra wear and tear can take its toll on carpets and furniture. Add that to the new challenge of increased sanitization, and it presents a challenge. Interior designers are shifting towards durable fabrics and furniture. For homes, this means a comfortable space that’s built to last for the long haul. In an office, this means easy to clean fabrics and surfaces that can withstand frequent cleaning. Leather and waterproofed fabric are quickly becoming the new norm. Natural Materials We live in a hyper sanitized world where home is a lifeboat in a hyper sanitized sea. Malta interior decorators are hard at work creating inviting, organic spaces in our homes and offices. One of the best ways to warm a room is with natural materials. Wood, slate, and even braided cord create a sense of life and nature. The same trick works for offices and corporate buildings too. Office managers can use hints of nature to create a calming, productive environment. Indoor Plants Along those lines, plants are still one of the quickest ways to bring life into an environment. Not only do plants add natural color to a room, they create a visual contrast. Plants play another important role in today’s world: they can help clean the air. Plants are natural filters that help keep your spaces feeling fresh. Edible house plants is another trend on the rise. It pays to have herbs growing on your kitchen counter or a relaxing indoor aquaponics set up in the living room. Indoor gardens help brighten up a home or office and give families something to take of together. The team at Checkyourtraders.com believe in customer satisfaction and saftey, so before allowing anyone in our home please insure you do the relevant checks. Our team only allow Interior Designers who have been verified to be listed as a Verified listing, So always be safe and protect your money and your home, by using a Verified Tradesman with Checkyourtraders.com 

There is a growing interest in gardening, especially with people spending more time at home than usual in 2020, and it’s not just with retirees. A 2019 National Gardening Survey shows that the Millennial generation has taken a growing interest in getting their hands dirty and are setting the trends for 2021. Keep reading to learn more about the gardening trends for 2021 and to find some inspiration for your own home. Eco-Friendly Gardening There has been a broad shift to focus more on the environment and a great movement for going green industrially. This change can also be found on a smaller level in our very own backyards. People have started focusing on being more environmentally friendly in their everyday lives and have started using fewer chemicals when it comes to caring for their gardens. Gardeners are now becoming more interested in eco-friendly ways to keep their gardens but going organic simply isn’t enough to keep their plants happy and healthy. As a result, more people are looking to grow plants that are naturally tough, disease, and bug resistant. As a part of this increased effort, there are several programs testing the sustainability of different plant species. Secret Gardens Another growing trend is people creating their own secret gardens in their backyard. These secret spots are secluded from the eye of neighbors or even their very own household. It gives them somewhere private to spend some time enjoying their garden and relaxing. Many people enjoy tending to their garden and having a special garden nook is a great place to take some time to enjoy it. Your secret garden should have some comfortable seating and shade. You could also add some garden decor, a water feature, and some wind chimes to make it very cozy. While having a secret garden isn’t a new concept, it is once again gaining in popularity. Many people are finding that they struggle to keep a healthy work-life balance. This tends to leave them feeling disconnected from nature and no opportunity to feel the earth under their feet. By having your own special place to retreat to you can begin to feel less stressed and more relaxed without even having to leave home. Succulents Succulents have become widely popular for those who are new to gardening and are looking for something that is easy to grow. These types of plants include aloe, various cactus species, sedum, and echeveria. Since succulents come in a variety of shapes, colors, and sizes, they are easy to plant together to create an interesting combination in a planter. They also grow easily indoors and are easy to take care of. They don’t require a lot of water, are small enough for windowsills, and have little to no trouble with bugs and animals. Succulents are popular amongst the millennial generation, possibly because of how well they photograph and will continue to trend well into 2021. Houseplants Houseplants have seen a renewed interest as of late, especially with the younger crowd who have created a new term known as “plant parenting.” Social media has played a huge role in houseplants gaining popularity especially among those who follow certain influencers online. There have been several new books about caring for houseplants and teaching other gardening skills to younger generations. One theory for this growing trend is that people are delaying getting married and rearing children so having a plant to take care of allows them to nurture and connect with nature. Houseplants are also great for small spaces such as a condo or apartment. It gives people a convenient way to grow a plant in a smaller environment. Houseplants also look great and can liven up an otherwise dull space. Native plants Another trend that started a few years ago and continues to grow in popularity is planting native plants and pollinators in your home garden. The practice is in conjunction with other eco-friendly concerns and the hopes that planting certain native species and pollinators will attract insects and other wildlife. When planting these species you will help attract different types of bees and butterflies. These bees and butterflies will then gather the pollen from your plants and spread it to create additional plants and help feed others. This helps encourage this type of growth amongst the plant and wildlife population. Water-Wise Gardening Owning a garden tends to require a lot of water usage. In an effort to cut back on this use a lot of people are looking for ways to reduce their use of water in their garden. Some of these options include using gravel instead of mulch or grass, recycling rainwater, and xeric gardening. With people being more focused on climate change and reducing water consumption water-wise gardening is becoming a huge focus. Larger, public gardens are also reevaluating their water use and some are taking steps now to revamp their gardens. This trend is projected to continue to grow in popularity. If you are going to spend time redoing your own home garden it would be beneficial to consider doing this for your own space. Learn More About These Gardening Trends Today! The 2021 gardening trends will continue to be eco-friendly options such as growing sturdier plants and using fewer chemicals to treat for pests. Planting native plants and pollinators is also a great way for you to do your part for the environment on a small scale while also giving your garden some nice ornamentals. Water considerations are also a huge contributor to gardening trends. As the focus continues to be placed on the environment and climate change many people are concerned about where that will leave us in terms of usable water. Another surprisingly popular trend is younger generations enjoying caring for houseplants and succulents. These plants give those who live in smaller spaces a chance to connect with nature while also having something to nurture and love.