The latest Christmas trend, apparently, is to decorate with wild abandon. A maximalist approach, say the interior designers, but in my family we just call it plain old tacky. It’s nice to know that my penchant for putting vintage blow molds in my windows instead of candles is in vogue, but at the same time I start getting uncomfortable when something I enjoy doing drifts into the trendy zone. Trendy is the thief of joy.

Trendy, by definition, means that at some point in the future it will be out of style, unloved, unfashionable, old-hat, outmoded, passe and basically kaput. Seems a high price of admission just to ride the trendy train for a short while. Emphasis on short, she says as she dusts off and ascends her soap box. Back in olden times a trend would come on slowly, languidly hang around for a good while, then depart leisurely, making excuses to linger longer as it made its snail-like way to the exit. Everyone had plenty of time to evaluate, emulate, and evacuate. 

With the advent of social media, trends are short brutish things that are over before you know they’ve begun, often with an argument over whether they actually happened or not.  Kind of like Freddy Miller in high school, but I digress. A modern trend is fleetingly brief, then it becomes that which can not be named. Again, hello Freddy, it’s been a while. 

So what is the design industry, or someone who wants to decorate their home, to do? The natural result has been for people to find a neutral zone, a look that’s HGTV friendly, and perfectly unoffensive. In other words they euthanize with beige, and create a house for someone else to live in.

As a realtor, I highly encourage my sellers to use neutral paint colors and professionally stage their house before it goes on the market. In other words, make it appeal to the buyer’s taste, not your own. As a friend however, I go the opposite direction and encourage my buyers to go bold with their decorating choices and steamroll the neutral aesthetics they’ve just purchased. Who wants to live in someone else’s house?

When it comes to decorating, take a deep breath and figure out what you enjoy, and take steps in that direction. If you stumble on a style that’s the hottest thing right this minute, back away slowly. Use a few basic guidelines (light colors make a small room look bigger, larger rooms can handle rich colors), and incorporate things that make you smile, make you comfortable, and make you relax. And embrace my decorating mantra, “If it might offend, I recommend.”