What Is Millennial Style, and Why Will It Be Trendy?
Vintage items, wallpaper, recycled wood. Young people prefer decor that’s affordable, cheerful and sustainable
Millennials, born between 1980 and 1995, are starting to make their mark on decor. The ingredients of their preferred style — with touches of industrial and vintage style, flexible furniture for multifunctional spaces, wood, personalized neon, wallpaper, plants and natural fabrics — define a growing trend that will be influential in home decor in 2022.
Millennials are a highly educated generation, and climate change is one of their top worries, according to the 2021 Global Millennial Survey by consulting firm Deloitte.
The home of blogger María Vázquez from Dr. Living Home is an ode to millennial style. Pictured is her living room with an adapted sofa from Maisons du Monde. Vázquez changed the legs and added a wooden board. She made the coffee table, which includes cut copper pipes.
Read stories about decorating a first home
Read stories about decorating a first home
To decorate a home in millennial style, you need affordable furniture that is sustainable. Furniture makes up 4% of the solid trash that ends up in landfills today, according to Ikea. Hence, the Swedish giant seeks to extend the life of its products through its Save the Furniture campaign. One of its strategies is to fit in with the mentality of a generation that aspires to own in the future, even if it mostly rents now.
Top Trends From Fall’s European Design Fairs
Top Trends From Fall’s European Design Fairs
A millennial-style home might have industrial-vintage decor, pastel colors, flea-market finds and affordable furniture. Should it be called eclectic? Retro? Industrial-urban? It’s not clear how to define millennial style in a single word, because it’s a blend of all those things.
Check out our beginner’s guide to get started on your home project
Check out our beginner’s guide to get started on your home project
The dining room that designer Simona Garufi designed for a Netflix exhibit at Casa Decor 2021 (pictured) was inspired by millennials in Madrid. “Vintage is everywhere. It is becoming fashionable to reuse instead of buying,” Garufi says.
She has also proposed flexible and multifunctional spaces. The reduced floor space of apartments in cities forces young people to design rooms that can serve as spaces for work, get-togethers and relaxation.
She has also proposed flexible and multifunctional spaces. The reduced floor space of apartments in cities forces young people to design rooms that can serve as spaces for work, get-togethers and relaxation.
Neon lights reminiscent of ’50s and ’60s restaurants and cafes are another characteristic of these interiors, she says. She illustrated the look in the Casa Decor exhibit. “This approach not only borrows from the 1920s with brass, blues and all the energy of that time but also updates that style and rediscovers organic forms for the sake of another goal — being more respectful of the environment,“ Garufi says.
Here we see the Madrid apartment of interior designer and millennial Flor de Lis B. Ruíz, who defines her style as eclectic. She takes inspiration from pastel tones, soft shapes and natural materials. She likes to go to flea markets and has a soft spot for furniture from the ’50s.
A Shift From Sustainability to Desirable Development
A Shift From Sustainability to Desirable Development
“My clients see that I can save and freshen those pieces up because it’s part of my personality. In Spain, we have long had a culture of throwing away the old and buying everything new, but this is changing a lot, and in 2022, preserving will be the dominant trend,” Brión says.
A notable feature of her projects is the way she balances heavy wooden features with light and cheerful wallpapers. She also prefers a chromatic range of greens, dusty blues and pinks. “I do not stop working, to tell you the truth, and it is partly thanks to the orders of a generation that already makes up a very high percentage of customers.”
Tell us: Have you adopted any of these trends in your home? How do you integrate vintage and antique pieces into your decor?
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A notable feature of her projects is the way she balances heavy wooden features with light and cheerful wallpapers. She also prefers a chromatic range of greens, dusty blues and pinks. “I do not stop working, to tell you the truth, and it is partly thanks to the orders of a generation that already makes up a very high percentage of customers.”
Tell us: Have you adopted any of these trends in your home? How do you integrate vintage and antique pieces into your decor?
More on Houzz
Read more design stories
Find home professionals
Shop for home products
“Most of my clients belong to the millennial generation, and I think it’s because I respond well to their needs,” says Spain interior designer Elisabet Brión, who created the interior pictured here. “I just finished a project for a young couple who inherited a ’70s house along with furniture that they didn’t want to throw away because of its sentimental value, aesthetics and sustainability. I opened the space up to bring in natural light, and in the end, we were able to keep all the furniture. This type of client wants character, and decor is successful when you mix items from the past and present and manage to bring them together.”
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