“What I believe in is the timelessness of an attitude, the timelessness of style.” Ralph Lauren
The hardest home I ever had to decorate was a new build my husband and I bought years ago. It was new, it was builder basic, and it was built at the tail end of the Tuscan trend. The tiles were swirls of yellows and golds, the cabinets a warm reddish brown, and the walls were a particularly depressing shade of yellow beige. At first, I tried to lean into the trend – I added a travertine backsplash and painted deeper shades of brown and beige, all to settle the visual chaos the builder left behind. It wasn’t great, and you know what? I couldn’t change the big things.
What do you do when you have a house that’s stuck in a trend? The Tuscan trend, the gray trend, the modern farmhouse trend. Well, usually the thought is to remodel, to update the place as you can. People start looking to Pinterest, Instagram, and whatever everyone else is doing, so they can “update” their home – unfortunately, right back into the next trend cycle.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to remodel my house every ten years. I also don’t want to build a new home I won’t like in a few years. I want to design a home for my family that will serve us for years to come, and that I’ll still like ten or even twenty years from now. And to do that, you need to design with timelessness in mind. Classic, authentic, timeless interiors don’t date nearly as easily as trendy ones do. They allow you to decorate to your hearts content without a long-term commitment to a short trend cycle.
A timeless room is one that could’ve been photographed years ago but still looks and feels amazing today. There are elements that have been in style no matter where the trend cycle is at, and they will continue to be for years to come. Classic design is rooted in authenticity and longevity – timeless materials, strong proportions, and all the details that add warmth, character and style.
The problem is, when you walk into most home improvement stores to find new tile or flooring, you are looking mostly at what’s “on trend”. Designing timeless homes that are full of character, feel intentional, collected, classic and deeply personal takes time and a bit of a journey off the beaten path. It requires a deep dive into great houses of the past, a willingness to look past big retailers and to look for the unique qualities in homes and furnishings that have outstood the test of time.
As Nate Berkus put it, “trends exist to make people feel badly about what they don’t have.” They keep you buying, remodeling, and consuming, never fully satisfied. The number of times I have heard about someone spending six figures to remodel their home only to have it dated shortly thereafter truly saddens me. Westbury Design Co. was founded with the deep belief that when a home is designed around classic elements and principles, it will last forever. Create a timeless envelope by making the right material choices that will serve you for years to come. Trends come and go, classic is forever.
