Is 2026 the new 2016? How the past decade has shaped our interiors (and why)
If you are even remotely engaged with the internet, you will have picked up on the fact that, across all corners of it, people are turning back the clocks and taking a look at 2016. We are reexamining our use of colour, how we dressed, the music we listened to and, you guessed it, how we decorated our homes. All of these things are symptoms of the general global mood, which brings us on to why 2016 feels like a significant moment in time. The consensus seems to be that the first half of it was happy, fun, carefree. Leonardo DiCaprio finally won an Oscar, Beyoncé released Lemonade and the UK enjoyed one of the hottest summers on record. Summertime seems to have been the absolute peak of our collective happiness, which for many, began to unravel on June 23, with the news that Britain had voted to leave the EU. Political divisions deepened a few months later, with the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States.
Whatever the motivation behind reminiscing, it’s always fun to consider life in terms of how things have changed over the decades, and we certainly think this is true of interiors. A quick flip through the House & Garden archive throws up some rather wonderful gems, and its interesting to see how times have changed, or in some cases, haven't at all. The rooms below tend to fall into one of two categories: some are examples of trend-free design, where objects from different eras are combined to magnificent, timeless effect. Others, though still wonderful in their own way, can easily be identified as very 2016, darling.
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- this house in west London,</a> the owners enlisted the help of designer and architect Rabih Hage to reconfigure the layout and redecorate the rooms to reflect changes in their needs and aesthetic sensibility. The mushroom grey of the walls was without a doubt <em>the</em> shade to indicate up-to-date sophistication around that time, though we have to say we’re still impressed by its chic-ness. A sense of glamour is created by the brass table by the Haas Brothers.","contentType":"photo","credit":"Sharyn Cairns","segmentedSources":{"sm":[{"height":213,"width":320,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/618940c6f9cf3d171adad0b9/master/w_320,c_limit/2805827-house-15jan16_SharynCairns_b.jpg"},{"height":427,"width":640,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/618940c6f9cf3d171adad0b9/master/w_640,c_limit/2805827-house-15jan16_SharynCairns_b.jpg"}],"md":[{"height":427,"width":640,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/618940c6f9cf3d171adad0b9/master/w_640,c_limit/2805827-house-15jan16_SharynCairns_b.jpg"},{"height":853,"width":1280,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/618940c6f9cf3d171adad0b9/master/w_1280,c_limit/2805827-house-15jan16_SharynCairns_b.jpg"}],"lg":[{"height":683,"width":1024,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/618940c6f9cf3d171adad0b9/master/w_1024,c_limit/2805827-house-15jan16_SharynCairns_b.jpg"},{"height":1365,"width":2048,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/618940c6f9cf3d171adad0b9/master/w_2048,c_limit/2805827-house-15jan16_SharynCairns_b.jpg"}],"xl":[{"height":853,"width":1280,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/618940c6f9cf3d171adad0b9/master/w_1280,c_limit/2805827-house-15jan16_SharynCairns_b.jpg"}],"xxl":[{"height":853,"width":1280,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/618940c6f9cf3d171adad0b9/master/w_1280,c_limit/2805827-house-15jan16_SharynCairns_b.jpg"}]}}}" data-testid="GallerySlideWrapper">
Sharyn Cairns1/12January
After 10 years in this house in west London, the owners enlisted the help of designer and architect Rabih Hage to reconfigure the layout and redecorate the rooms to reflect changes in their needs and aesthetic sensibility. The mushroom grey of the walls was without a doubt the shade to indicate up-to-date sophistication around that time, though we have to say we’re still impressed by its chic-ness. A sense of glamour is created by the brass table by the Haas Brothers.
Davide Lovatti2/12February
Perhaps 2016 was the year of the statement rug, as evidenced by the gargantuan one in the drawing room of former owner of Farrow & Ball (and co-founder of Fermoie) Tom Helme’s Scottish retreat. Another very 2016 look is at play here: the grey sofa – this time it is a very smart example from B&B Italia, with cushions and lampshades by Fermoie.
Paul Massey3/12March
The flat pictured here will not be unfamiliar to loyal readers of House & Garden: it is, of course, the much-loved and much-imitated flat of interior designer Rita Konig. Rita has recently revamped the flat, combining it with the one upstairs and generally breathing new life into it. For Rita, the flat pictured above suited her life in 2016, with its fun, patterned fabrics, framed slogans and bijou kitchen. As she told our Houses Director, ‘I just got to the point where I needed it to grow into the next phase. I’d turned 50, I was a proper grown-up with proper clients and I wanted to be able to bring them to the flat and show them what I was talking about. I wanted it to represent where my business is now.’
Michael Sinclair4/12April
Some interiors can’t be dated and need no updates: such is the beauty of timeless design. This room, the sitting room of Lady Wakefield’s timeless Twickenham home, is a comfortable space with panelled walls and purposely unmatched furnishings that mix well with paintings and objects acquired over the previous three decades. Two rugs from Turkey demarcate separate sitting areas.
Montse Garriga Grau5/12May
Spanish architect and designer Isabel López-Quesada was brought in by the owners of this New York loft to soften the industrial architecture and create the perfect pied-à-terre. ‘We thought it would be fun if we tried something different, a leap from our other, more conventional homes,’ said the owner. ‘But while liking the idea of a loft, we wanted it to feel elegant.’ The resulting scheme epitomises a subtly glamorous aesthetic, with a streamlined chrome coffee table, plush rug and an Italian wolfskin throw on the concrete bed. We are now more likely to see owners of loft-style apartments embracing a more pared-back, lived-in look, with distressed leather furniture, mid-century finds and vintage textiles – something more in line with the ‘real home’ trend we’re seeing at the moment.
Paul Massey6/12June
This corner of a bedroom in a Richmond mansion flat immediately caught our eye. It is, in many ways, decidedly 2016 in its decoration, with a feature wall depicting a tropical scene, shiny grey carpet and a rich, jewel-toned colour scheme. However, teal is actually make a real comeback, as is the very 2010s combination of teal and orange, proving that nearly everything is cyclical. We also love the clever use of space in this room, which was reconfigured by architect Johnny Holland to allow for a walk-in wardrobe behind the new partition wall seen here – proof that good design really is timeless.
Simon Brown7/12July
It’s a decade since Princess Beatrice’s now husband, the property developer Edo Mapelli Mozzi, carved out this very smart bachelor pad for himself from just one large room of a Victorian house in west London. While some of the furniture and lighting choices might be suggestive of its time, the apartment as a whole has aged very well indeed, and we would quite happily move in today. He has made the most of every inch of space, managing to combine style with practicality throughout – and this mirrored alcove is still one of the the chicest ways we’ve seen to incorporate a dining table into your living room.
Sharyn Cairns8/12August
Ben Pentreath’s Dorset parsonage is definitely in the House & Garden canon of country classics, and we were all rather sad when the designer and his gardener husband Charlie McCormick bid it farewell and made the big move to the Scottish isles in 2024. However, it is a real joy to look back on its early incarnation in 2016, spotting all the changes the designer made during his tenure. As Ben wrote in his reflection on their time there, ‘Over the years the parsonage became a test-bed for my decorative experiments, as I tried out bolder colours and ideas.’ The walls of the kitchen, for instance, changed from the warm, earthy ochre we see here to a bolder and brighter egg-yolk yellow gloss. Next door, in the dining room, blue-painted walls were papered over in designs from Ben’s collaboration with Morris & Co. Who doesn’t love a before-and-after, especially when it allows us to see the creative workings of one of our best-known designers?
- country house in Somerset</a> has the perfect Georgian exterior but an interior that feels distinctly contemporary. ‘With a palette of greys and yellows, [the owner] set about lessening the house's formality,’ we said in our article, and here in the drawing room, citron yellow sofas pop against the muted walls, with a fabric-covered floor lamp by Squint Limited adding pattern and Poul Henningsen’s mid-century ‘PH Artichoke’ pendant light adding the final touch.","contentType":"photo","credit":"Line T Klein","segmentedSources":{"sm":[{"height":213,"width":320,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/6189379df4c358180440a80a/master/w_320,c_limit/IMG_0094-house-13sep16-Line-T-Klein_b.jpg"},{"height":427,"width":640,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/6189379df4c358180440a80a/master/w_640,c_limit/IMG_0094-house-13sep16-Line-T-Klein_b.jpg"}],"md":[{"height":427,"width":640,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/6189379df4c358180440a80a/master/w_640,c_limit/IMG_0094-house-13sep16-Line-T-Klein_b.jpg"},{"height":853,"width":1280,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/6189379df4c358180440a80a/master/w_1280,c_limit/IMG_0094-house-13sep16-Line-T-Klein_b.jpg"}],"lg":[{"height":683,"width":1024,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/6189379df4c358180440a80a/master/w_1024,c_limit/IMG_0094-house-13sep16-Line-T-Klein_b.jpg"},{"height":1365,"width":2048,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/6189379df4c358180440a80a/master/w_2048,c_limit/IMG_0094-house-13sep16-Line-T-Klein_b.jpg"}],"xl":[{"height":853,"width":1280,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/6189379df4c358180440a80a/master/w_1280,c_limit/IMG_0094-house-13sep16-Line-T-Klein_b.jpg"}],"xxl":[{"height":853,"width":1280,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/6189379df4c358180440a80a/master/w_1280,c_limit/IMG_0094-house-13sep16-Line-T-Klein_b.jpg"}]}}}" data-testid="GallerySlideWrapper">
Line T Klein9/12September
This dreamy country house in Somerset has the perfect Georgian exterior but an interior that feels distinctly contemporary. ‘With a palette of greys and yellows, [the owner] set about lessening the house's formality,’ we said in our article, and here in the drawing room, citron yellow sofas pop against the muted walls, with a fabric-covered floor lamp by Squint Limited adding pattern and Poul Henningsen’s mid-century ‘PH Artichoke’ pendant light adding the final touch.
- her own Victorian country house in Shropshire</a> is the perfect demonstration of her transatlantic style. ‘As an American, I had a vision in my head of the perfect English country house, but it came from films or from David Hicks' decoration books of the Sixties,’ she says. ‘I don’t do period houses, and I don't want to live the life of a country squire.’ Her style has proved remarkably timeless – you can see a more recent incarnation of it in <a href=https://www.houseandgarden.co.uk/"https://www.houseandgarden.co.uk/gallery/henri-fitzwilliam-lay-country-house/">the equally grand country house that won our Project of the Year award in 2023</a>.","contentType":"photo","credit":"Lucas Allen","segmentedSources":{"sm":[{"height":480,"width":320,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/618942fa7ec4df9dbbfec2ba/master/w_320,c_limit/HGUK_FitzwilliamLay_Downstairs_156-house-6oct16-Lucas-Allen_b.jpg"},{"height":960,"width":640,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/618942fa7ec4df9dbbfec2ba/master/w_640,c_limit/HGUK_FitzwilliamLay_Downstairs_156-house-6oct16-Lucas-Allen_b.jpg"}],"md":[{"height":960,"width":640,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/618942fa7ec4df9dbbfec2ba/master/w_640,c_limit/HGUK_FitzwilliamLay_Downstairs_156-house-6oct16-Lucas-Allen_b.jpg"},{"height":1920,"width":1280,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/618942fa7ec4df9dbbfec2ba/master/w_1280,c_limit/HGUK_FitzwilliamLay_Downstairs_156-house-6oct16-Lucas-Allen_b.jpg"}],"lg":[{"height":1536,"width":1024,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/618942fa7ec4df9dbbfec2ba/master/w_1024,c_limit/HGUK_FitzwilliamLay_Downstairs_156-house-6oct16-Lucas-Allen_b.jpg"},{"height":3072,"width":2048,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/618942fa7ec4df9dbbfec2ba/master/w_2048,c_limit/HGUK_FitzwilliamLay_Downstairs_156-house-6oct16-Lucas-Allen_b.jpg"}],"xl":[{"height":1920,"width":1280,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/618942fa7ec4df9dbbfec2ba/master/w_1280,c_limit/HGUK_FitzwilliamLay_Downstairs_156-house-6oct16-Lucas-Allen_b.jpg"}],"xxl":[{"height":1920,"width":1280,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/618942fa7ec4df9dbbfec2ba/master/w_1280,c_limit/HGUK_FitzwilliamLay_Downstairs_156-house-6oct16-Lucas-Allen_b.jpg"}]}}}" data-testid="GallerySlideWrapper">
Lucas Allen10/12October
Hailing from New York, Henri Fitzwilliam-Lay is a stalwart of our Top 100 Interior designers, and her own Victorian country house in Shropshire is the perfect demonstration of her transatlantic style. ‘As an American, I had a vision in my head of the perfect English country house, but it came from films or from David Hicks' decoration books of the Sixties,’ she says. ‘I don’t do period houses, and I don't want to live the life of a country squire.’ Her style has proved remarkably timeless – you can see a more recent incarnation of it in the equally grand country house that won our Project of the Year award in 2023.
- Flint House on the Waddesdon Manor estate</a> is one of the most striking pieces of contemporary architecture ever to feature in <em>House & Garden</em>, and indeed won the prestigious RIBA House of the Year award when it was completed. Commissioned by the Rothschild family and designed by architect Charlotte Skene Catling, it is made up of two wedge-shape flint buildings, the main house and an annex, 50 metres apart but facing each other and engaged in a dialogue. The interiors were done by David Mlinaric, who applied his usual philosophy: ‘The inside must be what the outside prepares you for; no velvets or silks here, but natural fabrics and warm colours that blend with the neutral shades of the flint and the meadows.’","contentType":"photo","credit":"Michael Sinclair","segmentedSources":{"sm":[{"height":480,"width":320,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/6189391162b737ababca0f00/master/w_320,c_limit/Flint-House-009-house-8nov16-Michael-Sinclair_b.jpg"},{"height":960,"width":640,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/6189391162b737ababca0f00/master/w_640,c_limit/Flint-House-009-house-8nov16-Michael-Sinclair_b.jpg"}],"md":[{"height":960,"width":640,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/6189391162b737ababca0f00/master/w_640,c_limit/Flint-House-009-house-8nov16-Michael-Sinclair_b.jpg"},{"height":1920,"width":1280,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/6189391162b737ababca0f00/master/w_1280,c_limit/Flint-House-009-house-8nov16-Michael-Sinclair_b.jpg"}],"lg":[{"height":1536,"width":1024,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/6189391162b737ababca0f00/master/w_1024,c_limit/Flint-House-009-house-8nov16-Michael-Sinclair_b.jpg"},{"height":3072,"width":2048,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/6189391162b737ababca0f00/master/w_2048,c_limit/Flint-House-009-house-8nov16-Michael-Sinclair_b.jpg"}],"xl":[{"height":1920,"width":1280,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/6189391162b737ababca0f00/master/w_1280,c_limit/Flint-House-009-house-8nov16-Michael-Sinclair_b.jpg"}],"xxl":[{"height":1920,"width":1280,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/6189391162b737ababca0f00/master/w_1280,c_limit/Flint-House-009-house-8nov16-Michael-Sinclair_b.jpg"}]}}}" data-testid="GallerySlideWrapper">
Michael Sinclair11/12November
Flint House on the Waddesdon Manor estate is one of the most striking pieces of contemporary architecture ever to feature in House & Garden, and indeed won the prestigious RIBA House of the Year award when it was completed. Commissioned by the Rothschild family and designed by architect Charlotte Skene Catling, it is made up of two wedge-shape flint buildings, the main house and an annex, 50 metres apart but facing each other and engaged in a dialogue. The interiors were done by David Mlinaric, who applied his usual philosophy: ‘The inside must be what the outside prepares you for; no velvets or silks here, but natural fabrics and warm colours that blend with the neutral shades of the flint and the meadows.’
- This classic west London townhouse</a> has a richly colourful interior that has stood the test of time, thanks to decorator Gavin Houghton. The owners' brief to him was to make the house traditional, featuring the best of classic English interior decoration, and as such there is little of 2016 to be seen in its elegant rooms. In the drawing room, vibrant green walls are the backdrop for a pedimented bookcase and floral curtains. A room should be like a vase of flowers, with lots of different things to look at,’ says Gavin.","contentType":"photo","credit":"Simon Brown","segmentedSources":{"sm":[{"height":480,"width":320,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/618948882b3485c01883912a/master/w_320,c_limit/West-London-Restored-Simon-Brown-16_b.jpg"},{"height":960,"width":640,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/618948882b3485c01883912a/master/w_640,c_limit/West-London-Restored-Simon-Brown-16_b.jpg"}],"md":[{"height":960,"width":640,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/618948882b3485c01883912a/master/w_640,c_limit/West-London-Restored-Simon-Brown-16_b.jpg"},{"height":1920,"width":1280,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/618948882b3485c01883912a/master/w_1280,c_limit/West-London-Restored-Simon-Brown-16_b.jpg"}],"lg":[{"height":1536,"width":1024,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/618948882b3485c01883912a/master/w_1024,c_limit/West-London-Restored-Simon-Brown-16_b.jpg"},{"height":3072,"width":2048,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/618948882b3485c01883912a/master/w_2048,c_limit/West-London-Restored-Simon-Brown-16_b.jpg"}],"xl":[{"height":1920,"width":1280,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/618948882b3485c01883912a/master/w_1280,c_limit/West-London-Restored-Simon-Brown-16_b.jpg"}],"xxl":[{"height":1920,"width":1280,"url":"https://media.houseandgarden.co.uk/photos/618948882b3485c01883912a/master/w_1280,c_limit/West-London-Restored-Simon-Brown-16_b.jpg"}]}}}" data-testid="GallerySlideWrapper">
Simon Brown12/12December
This classic west London townhouse has a richly colourful interior that has stood the test of time, thanks to decorator Gavin Houghton. The owners' brief to him was to make the house traditional, featuring the best of classic English interior decoration, and as such there is little of 2016 to be seen in its elegant rooms. In the drawing room, vibrant green walls are the backdrop for a pedimented bookcase and floral curtains. A room should be like a vase of flowers, with lots of different things to look at,’ says Gavin.
