Houzz has quickly become the design industry’s replacement for home magazines in a digital age. It lets you can flip through all kinds of photos, just like in a magazine – and so much more! You can narrow the pictures to see only kitchens, or only baths, or only traditional homes. You can tag pictures of things you like and make notes on them. (In the 20th century these are called tear-sheets – pages you ripped from magazines to save for later – I still have a stack of these somewhere…) And you can share what you like and don’t like with your spouse, best friend or designer – all without encountering ads for Viagra or pet food.
And houzz is able to aggregate all the data it gets on what people are looking at, to show what is new and big and exciting or what is ‘so last year’. And they have far more cred when telling us what will happen in the future. So, without further adieu, a few quick insights from their current Trends Study.
It looks like a more or less even split between people who want to gut the whole thing and start over and those that just need to update. The new home market is still very small in comparison.
Why? Lots of good reasons here. It’s amazing what changes have happened since the last time you remodeled/bought/moved! The bottom two, while relatively small, are constants for everyone. Improve energy efficiency – lower costs. And whose lifestyle hasn’t changed in the last 10 years?
While you’re in there tearing things apart, you might want to choose one or two (or more!) things you’ve always wanted. A designer can help you choose wisely and make that purchase really count!