Home Trends and Predictions for 2025, Part 1 | Hour 1

it is the it's our second to last show. This is the last weekend of twenty twenty four, and today and tomorrow we're going to be taking a look forward as much as we humanly can in a realistic way at predictions and trends for design and decor for your home for twenty twenty five. So that's where we're going today. And of course it's going to be in my own inimitable style, my approach to this, which I hope you will find to be grounded and rational and encouraging and

inspiring all the like. But we're going to push aside as much of the BS as possible that you hear or read. If you've looked at all at trends and predictions like online, there's just so much BS out there about this kind of stuff. I don't want you to get caught up in it. So we're going to talk about that today, especially today as well. And of course we're also going to take your calls as we do. The number to reach me here at the program eight

three three two. Ask Dean eight three three the numeral two Ask Dean A three three two ask Dean. The phone lines are open now. Producer Keana is standing by ready to take your calls and she'll tell you everything you need to know. Pop you into the queue. I'm talking trends and predictions today and tomorrow. But when it comes to your calls, you get to set the agenda. Anything that's got you scratching your head about your home design, construction, DIY,

whatever the case may be. If you just want to wish somebody a happy New Year, that's cool to give us a call. It is a friendly place to land here on a Saturday morning. Let me introduce our awesome team to you. Guess is here. Elma is on the board this morning. Good morning, Bud Saturdays. There he is, there, he is. He's getting in some extra hours this week. It's cool, it's cool. I'm not used to hearing him on a Saturday morning. I know, three hours earlier, exactly exactly.

But he's home. Yeah, he's awake, he's alive. You're ready for it. I'm so ready, Like I said, Now, she's nowhere near a microphone. Producer. Oh, she's already screening calls. I'm looking down at the board here there are calls rolling in. Uh so, producer Keana is with us today. She's awesome. Happy to have her and my buddy Eileen Gonzalez at the news desk, so busy. Good morning, Eileen, Good morning. How are you doing today? I hit the wrong button. I was talking to myself. How's it going.

How's your week? It was good. I actually I worked all week. I picked up shifts for you know, other people so they could have the holiday off, and then did my usual regular job and now working again. It's

been a working week. Those of us who have not taken the holidays off, we have the right to just call everybody else lazy, cowards and no exactly right, because we're here, we're here getting it downe And by the way, if anybody I always get, even after we do the show on a holiday weekend, I always get, you know, emails and comments on social media, like you know where

you guys actually in this weekend, we're here. It's December. Wait, twenty eighth, it is December twenty eighth, twenty twenty four. Do we have a newspaper? Can we take a proof of life photo? What everybody's like, what's that newspaper? That definitely means you pre recorded this show like eight years ago, twenty five years ago. Yeah, I can hold up my phone. That's it. I can hold up my phone. See it says all right there, December twenty eighth, Saturday morning, a

few minutes after six. We're really here, and I will really be here tomorrow as well. And here you just heard her sitting across the table from me, my better half, my design partner, and my best buddy in all the world. Tina is here. So is that me? Somebody asked yesterday somebody somebody We ran into somebody at Costco and they're like, what's why is the what's what the elephant sound on the show. It's just say Teama's favorite animal. That's all. Yeah,

that's all there is. You don't have to read into it. There's nothing more than that. How you doing, I'm good? Yeah, your eyes aren't completely open? Well, I feel great. Okay. Good you and Sammy the beagle who is sitting next to you on the sofa, so his eyes aren't open at all. Yeah, No, he's very content, that little one.

All right, y'all, let's dive in. H here's the number one more time eight three three two Ask Dean A three three the numeral to ask Dean if you want to call in, and we'll talk about what's going on with your home. But we're going to dive into trends and predictions for YEP twenty twenty five. It's right around the corner.

you could see it glowing in the distance. You know what I mean, that glow that you get when there's like fog and mist in the air, was very, very beautiful. Still is the case. I don't know. I'm sure it's going to burn off later at some point, but I really like it. I like drippy, misty mornings. It's as close as we're getting to winter this year so far. So I'm down. I'm down. I'm glad you're here and we are talking about this next year ahead. Are you

ready for that? That's all right, you know what, it's not gonna be. I'm not taking you there too quickly. We're going to get there together, I promise. But I do want to talk about trends and predictions because it's fun, and also I want to issue some warnings to you along the way as you start to look around and you know, look at stuff on social media and Pinterest and articles that every designer and design influencer in the world.

And I am drawing a distinction between those and I'll clarify that in a second, but there's just so many articles out there right now, so many sources of saying, hey, this is what's going to happen. I want to give you as rational and sane approach as possible and help you navigate through all of that. Also taking your calls. The phone lines are open, the number to reach me.

You're going to be going to the phones in a bit eight three three two ask the A three three the numeral to ask Dean producer Keana standing by anything that's scott You scratching your head about your house, give me a call. We'll put our heads together and figure it out. And of course traffic is always light on Saturday mornings, so if you've ever been frustrated not being able to get through, it's good, good odds, better odds, I should say, all right. Home Trends and Predictions for

twenty twenty five. I've subtitled this topic for us this weekend, separating the brilliant from the bs. You know, as always there's a lot of great stuff happening in the world of home design. There really always is. There's always some really cool things happening. It's one of the reasons I love this field that I am in. But as always, there's a lot of bogus advice out there on what's

hot and what's not and so. And you know, for u A students, you may be sitting there saying, well, yeah, Dean and you're a designer, so why should we trust your list? Well, you don't have to, but I will tell you this. I'm here to help you, you know that. And I got nothing to sell you either, and so I'm going to try and give you as much you know, unvested commentary as possible as always. First of all, what's hot for you? Design advice that helped you tell your story?

Your story? Okay. One of the things that is a frustration to me every year is to see designers just take off and say, well, here's our here's our advice. And what they do is they start telling you what you should be doing with your home because of the fashion trends that are out there. To that, I say, nah, nanna uh. The most important thing as a custom home designer,

and that's all I do is custom homes. All right. Now, again, for those of you who aren't familiar with the program, maybe you're listening for the first time, let me make it really clear. That's not a conceit to say that, it's just something that I have been fortunate to be able to do a custom home and a luxury home. That's what most people think when they're like, oh, he's a custom home designer. He designs for the rich and famous. Well a little that is true. But the point is

a custom home and luxury homes totally different categories. Okay, they're not even in the same category. I will say it this way. It doesn't matter what your home is made at. Well, let's use the tailoring metaphor, because I think it works really well. It doesn't matter what fabric your clothing is made from. All right, you might be wearing burlap this morning. I hope you're not, but you

might might be. You might just be wearing one hundred percent cotton T shirt, right, or you could be wearing silk or you know, it doesn't matter how fancy the fabric is that you're wearing. The question of whether it's custom or not has to do with whether it's been fit to your body or not. That's tailoring, Okay, that's not necessarily luxurious versus inexpensive. So a custom home is simply a home, be it ever so humble like our little cottage here, that has been you know, tailored fit

to the story of its occupants. And that can be a condo, an apartment, it can be a mansion or anything in between. Okay, and Yeah, there are lots, especially these days, lots of mansionesque eight properties that are not custom in any way, shape or form. They're just speculatative, typical almost you know. We call them mic mansions because they're kind of mass produced, tracked, kind of big fancy houses. That's not what I want, That's not how I operate

with our clients. And so the very first bit of a divine design advice for you from me for twenty twenty five is keep it real, keep it authentic to you, because if you really are investing in your home, then your home needs to find a way to tell your story. And I don't care if your story is not on the front page of every design magazine for twenty twenty five. That is irrelevant. That means nothing. Your story is relevant to your life and that's what your home should be. Okay.

So that's the very first bit of advice. And I'll give you one warning and this is gonna I'm gonna set you up for where for my little rant next. But I'll tell you what is not what is not hot for twenty twenty five influencers I hate that word, who are encouraging you to buy into this year's trends who did that already and are now telling you that that stuff is so yesterday. It drives me crazy when I hear that kind of stuff, treating the home design

world as if it was the world of clothing fashion. Okay, and I've got nothing against the world of clothing fashion. And I understand that, you know, trends change whatever, Okay, but here's the thing, your home that you just spent I don't know, tens of thousands of dollars remodeling or you're planning on. Okay, that's not just like throwing away

al blause. No, no, no. And so to think that somebody drives you this year towards do this, this is what's hot and trending, and then in about eighteen months they're gonna tell you, no, that's so, that's so twenty twenty four. It really is. We just got to get away from that stuff all together, all right. So we're gonna take a step back from that. I've got no use for that. More on that.

anticipate twenty twenty five. Together, we're gonna be going to the phones in just a bit. The number to reach me eight three three two. Ask dean eight three three the numeral two, ask Dean. All right, back to it. So right before the break, I said, one of the things that drives me craziest about the whole subject of trends and predictions this time of year are influencers who encouraged you to buy into this year's trend but are now telling you that it is so yesterday. You're not

going to hear that from me, I promise. I want you to be aware of this. And it's not that you can't glean some interesting or maybe some inspiring ideas from trends and prediction lists that you might be reading or seeing online something like that. But just be aware that the same stuff gets said every year. I mean seriously, And there are filler words. And if you're reading an article that you find too many of these filler words in them, then just move away. You're not actually hearing

anything substantive, I promise you. And that's one of the problems. I said, I was going to draw a distinction between designers and design influencers. I wish this wasn't the case, but there is a huge difference. Tina, back me up on this. There's a huge difference between designers and design influencers generally speaking, real life design. Okay, And if you're reading an article, or you're looking at some or you know, watching somebody's YouTube or whatever the case, maybe TikTok, whatever

it is. If you're on Instagram and you're seeing somebody talking about twenty twenty five, find out if they are actually a home designer or if they're just a design influencer. Here's the problem. Design influencers need to feather their nest with stuff that in a little while now there now they tell you if this is in and in a little while they're going to tell you that it's out because they need to flip over their inventory and keep new,

fresh stuff coming your way. Designers don't work that way. Real designers with real clients, you know. Yeah, we take on new projects every year, and those projects will shift with trends, you know, the the the ebb and flow of the tides of cold design. Sure they do, but not for the same clients. Okay, And that's the That's the thing that get people all kind of get their

underwear all up in a bunch. Is that that you know, you're spending tens of thousands of dollars maybe remodeling or a few thousand dollars redecorating your home, only to find out that you know, pretty soon it's going to be oh so yesterday. So design influencers are a diamond dozen. There are thousands of them out there in social media and online in various places. They are just there to rehash what they think is going to be something to

you know, get your interest. Real designers who are posting information they work from a different perspective because we work in the real world and we know that what we're going to set up for a client has got to last. It has to last. Otherwise, Uh, you know, we're out of a job, honestly, or we're out of a reference at least. So look for these filler words when you're reading this kind of stuff. Words and phrases. I just I literally pulled up two or three this morning, and

I found the same words and phrases in several of them. Ah. When when it says, oh, this year we're going to be big on incorporating personal touches. What yeah, here, grab your well, pull your MinC closer, give me some feedback. Yeah, but they're everywhere. This phrase is everywhere in person, incorporating personal touches. Hello, it's your house. I would hope that that would always be the case. It's always the case

incorporating personal touch. Oh, isn't it lovely? If your designer has given you permission to have something of your own in the room. That's the most ridiculous phrase I've ever heard, incorporating personal touches. Your whole home should be a personal touch. All right? How about this, oh, very big this year in twenty twenty five. Classic charm and timelessness. Wow, classic charm and timelessness. Yeah, this is the exact article that in eleven months. People are gonna be like, oh, yeah,

that's so last year. Timelessness. The whole point is it's timeless. Yeah. Organic shapes and materials very big this year, Tina. Organic shapes and materials. What? All right, let's just think through this, let's break this do what What is an organic what's an inorganic shape? I guess something that highly geometric? Okay, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. All right. So they're saying triangles are out for you know, it's in very organic shapes and material When are organic shapes

and materials not in exactly? They're organic as in like nature, everything you need, everything you need is in nature. Tina likes to say nature not in in twenty twenty five. Apparently, Oh no, no it isn't. Oh I'm sorry. Nature will be thrilled to find out that it is in. Let me guess. Are they saying like bring the outside in? Is that kind of No? No, that's a that's a legitimate thing that we're going to be talking about here.

But that's not a trend. But that sounds like right, oh, it sounds so trending, which would be like, of course, yeah, of course, how about this very big in twenty twenty five. Approaches that create a sense of comfort. Well, I hope that all your design not like twenty twenty four. That was the year that being uncomfortable was in. Yes, being oddly uncomfortable in your home. All right, one more, maybe a couple, a couple more, we got to go to

a break. Uh. Bold patterns and color choices. Yeah, okay, great, Yeah, colors be bold. Uh and then uh, this is a word that's getting thrown around a lot, chicer, chic er, and it looks like cheeser. It's just bet Yeah, be more cheker showers, very big thing this year enlists cheeker showers. Cheeker So your shower isn't she How chic is your shower? Is it cheak enough? Do they do? They can be cheaper. They're just thrown out there for you to kind of

get a sense of what they mean. They're thrown out there to shame you on your existing shower. That's terrible, you see, because your shower obviously needs to be chicer. Right, all right, let's get into some actual real things that are coming your way that you might want to embrace. We'll do that.

against too much of this kind of stuff. It'll rot your teeth, as it were, just because so much of it is just fluff and influencer kind of respeak along the way, trying to separate the bs from the brilliant stuff. And there is some brilliant stuff that I want to draw your attention to. Next right after the next break, we are going to the phones as well. Here is the number to reach me, and we've got room on

the callboard for you. So if there's anything I'm talking design predictions, yes, but if there's anything that you've got scratching your head about your home, now is the time, anything at all you set the agenda design construction DIY eight three three two ask Dean eight three three The numeral two ask Dean eight three three two ask Dean producer Keana standing by, She'll tell you everything you need to know. Poppy into the queue and we'll put our

heads together and we'll figure it out. All right, Let's get back to it. Uh what did I say? I was going to talk about? What did I promise? And I haven't been Okay? Some agay, Yeah, I want to off the negative stuff. In other words, the stuff that I'm warning you about. Tell you about a real thing that I want you to be aware of if you're remodeling, especially making some changes and or you know, even down to the decor level. Let's talk about the word that.

One of the hottest words for twenty twenty five is going to be the word bio philia. Biophilia. Now, it sounds like a disease. It's not I promise, I am. I'm afraid I've been diagnosed with biophilia. Biophilia is an architectural term, a relatively new one. It means literally the love of nature. Okay, that's it, bio right, nature philia like brotherly love love, nature love, all right. Biophilic design

is all about bringing the power of nature inside your home. Okay, it doesn't just you know, it could be anything from I guess technically from a decore side bringing more plants, living plants inside the actual interior space of a of a room or a home. But on the larger scale, and it really, its real impact goes beyond potted plants. Its real impact on a larger scale is the actual architectural design of walls and spaces, more glass, more transitional

opening and vista between the outside and the inside. So let me be really clear about this. It's gonna be on ninety percent of the good trends lists that you might be perusing on Instagram or Pinterest. Okay, but I want you to understand it is not not a trend. It is trending, this is true. But biophilia and biophilic design is not a trend. And I say that because I don't want you to think in any way, shape

or form it is going away. For those of us in the architectural community, we know that biophilic design is not a trend. It is an evolution in architectural thinking. Okay, we have reached the point in our technological abilities to open up walls, to increase the surface area of glass and vista inside and outside a house. As a result, we are also learning in our modern culture, in this world that we live in, that most people from a

behavioral science perspective are desperately missing out on enough nature. Now, I've talked at length about this before. I'm just going to touch on for a couple of minutes here the longstanding health facts about this. We are creatures of this planet, creatures who for some two million years primarily lived their lives outside. It's part of our evolutionary shaping of our bodies,

of our mindscapes, of our emotional systems. We've talked in the past about the idea that, for instance, bird song in the morning is proven scientifically to be more relaxive

and peace inducing than total silence. And the only thing that explains that, the only thing that explains if we talk about piecing quiet, the only thing that explains that bird's song is more relaxing to a human mind than silence, is two million years of taking a queue from birds nearby that everything is okay, because if there are predators or danger or threats nearby, the very first thing that shuts up is a bird, okay, not wanting to alert

anything to its location. Okay, So to walk out, like if you go backpacking or camping or anything, to walk out into an open space and hear no bird song is actually a little bit of a tense It's like, you know, you've heard people say it's quiet to quiet. Yes, that's exactly where that comes from. So to hear the birds chirping is something that lowers blood pressure, as the

mind and so on. That's one tiny, tiny example of a whole universe of examples of the effect that nature has, the beneficial effect that nature has on the human psyche, the human body, the human emotional system. Therefore, in the world of architecture, we are catching up. We are catching up and embracing it as much as possible. It is not a trend, but it is trending, and it's a trending wave that if you're considering a remodel or changing the architectural bones of your house. Uh, it's a wave

that you should grab onto and incorporate into. I'm going to be We're working on a book right now. Biophilic design is a major part of that design guide that we're working on. The reason I'm putting it in there is because it is not going out of fashion. An ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, Okay, because your embrace of more nature, even though you're inside your home is nothing but a positive for all of us.

So there you go. First hot trend of twenty twenty five that you're gonna see a lot of, you can hear a lot of. I just want you to understand it is trending, but it's more than a trend. It's something you can count on to last a lifetime. Biophilic design,

whether it be just increasing green inside your space. You're an apartment and or a condo, and you don't have control over throwing open walls understood, whether it's that or whether you can really start opening up some critical vistas and bring what you're doing outside your house visually inside. It's all a good idea. All right, back to our list of trends and predictions for twenty twenty five when we return to this subject, but right after the news,

we're gonna go to the phones. This has been Home with Dean Sharp the House Whisper. Tune into the live broadcast on KFI AM six forty every Saturday morning from six to eight Pacific time, and every Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app,