URBAN LIVING Interior design stars forecast fresh fall trends

HOME SHOW TIP SHEET

ALucy Lau

h, autumn. The season of pumpkin spice, applepicking, and the sound of beautifully changing foliage crunching satisfyingly under your feet. It’s also a time spent predominantly indoors, thanks to Vancouver’s typically wet forecasts—so it’s worth sprucing up your pad before you pass the next few months snuggled up on your couch with a full Netflix queue at the ready, right?

Ahead of their appearance at this year’s Vancouver Fall Home Show, which takes place from Thursday to Sunday (October 18 to 21) at the Vancouver Convention Centre’s West building, three of the country’s top interior designers—colin Mcallister and Justin Ryan of Cottage Life’s soonto-premiere Great Canadian Cottages and Sarah Gallop, founder of the Vancouver-based Sarah Gallop Design Inc.—share with the Straight the home trends that will be big for fall so you can revamp your crib accordingly. COTTAGE VIBES

If rapidly dipping temperatures already have you missing weekends at the cabin, fret not: it’s easy to re-create the look and feel of the low-key summer getaway at home. Hell, you don’t even have to own—or have access to—a wooded abode to get in on the trend. “Cottaging—and the whole look that goes with it—is no longer the exclusive preserve of people who actually have a cottage or live in a cottage,” says Ryan, speaking by phone alongside Mcallister. “And that rustic cottage look with a touch of industrial modern is being used by so many people in urban settings as well.”

Ryan says the laid-back lodge is all about black metals, rich toffee-hued woods, and touches of glass. To keep your space from feeling too kitschy, incorporate the theme through items like live-edge shelving systems, handmade ceramics, and table lamps with wooden or glass bases that are wrapped with rope.

MIXED METALS

Forget the generic chrome-on-chrome look—for fall, it’s all about changing up the metal fixtures, hardware, and accents in a room to achieve a funkier, more eclectic scheme. “People are branching out a little more with these warmer tones and mixing,” says Gallop. “So maybe they’re doing brass and gold and black accents all in one room, so it’s less of one thing throughout.”

Consider replacing your bathroom or kitchen faucet with a matte-black or shining rose-gold counterpart, or replacing basic cabinet handles with gilded or copper options. Mixing metals in tableware, glassware, and even lighting also works. “It’s a great look because it’s not so matchy-matchy,” notes Gallop.

ALL ABOUT YOU

According to Mcallister, the biggest trend this fall has nothing to do with paint chips or the newest products hitting sales floors: it’s you—and a return to what the designer calls “nesting over investing”. “I think people are beginning to look at their homes for what they’re actually intended for, and that is they’re places where you can be the best,” he says. “Your home should bring out the best in you—you should be your happiest, safest, your best self in that space. And that comes from having a house that’s beautiful, that’s functional, and above all, having a house that’s personal.”

In other words, while Pinterest posts and interior-design shots on Instagram may be great for inspiration—and, indeed, for ideas that will help maintain or boost the value of your home—it’s important that you inject some of yourself in your space. This can happen through something as simple as the introduction of meaningful art. “Art is such a personal thing,” says Mcallister. “You don’t even need to be into ‘classic’ art—you can be into film posters, you can be into anime, you can be into anything at all.”