2021 Home Trends
2021 Home Trends
This year, happiness at home tops our priority list as we continue to shelter in place and look for ways to curate comfy living spaces. It’s no surprise that the trends for 2021 focus on things like simplicity, serenity, organization and multi-use spaces. We’ve rounded up our favourite trends that you can incorporate into your new home in Sunset Ridge.
Colours of the Year
Colour institutions are releasing their Colours of the Year for 2021. Each year, home builders and interior designers look to these picks to draw inspiration for their designs.
One of the leading authorities on colour are the people at Pantone. They have declared Ultimate Gray and Illuminating, a sunny yellow, as their 2021 colour choices. According to the Pantone Colour Institute, “these colours reflect what is taking place in our global culture, expressing what people are looking for.”
The Color Guild, the paint world’s global color authority, has a more subtle pick for its colour of the year in Simple Serenity – a soft blue that it calls “the color of home, comfort and possibility in one heavenly hue.”
While paint brand Benjamin Moore is going with a bit bolder Aegean Teal. “Intriguing, balanced, and deeply soothing, Aegean Teal creates natural harmony.”
One thing’s for sure, the chosen colours will certainly inspire calm and serenity in any space.
For even more inspiration and complementary tones, check out this exceptional 2021 colour trends website by Behr:
Livable Luxury
Our homes have become our haven to organize, arrange, and decorate, more than ever. As we move indoors and take to our social channels to express ourselves, it’s no surprise that our attention has become more and more directed towards our living spaces. With that, the trend of livable luxury comes squarely into focus.
We don’t just need spaces that look good anymore (think formal living room with antique furnishings). We now require our beautiful spaces to function in new ways. In 2021, re-think your spaces and look for:
- Furniture that can play double duty
- Storage to put your work away at the end of a long day at your home office
- Accents, decor and furniture that are not only beautiful but versatile and durable
Indoor Plants
Indoor plants have been a staple in homes for many years, and 2021 will be no different. The benefits of growing plants in your home impacts both your physical and mental health. If you want to liven up your space (figuratively and literally), just add plants.
Growing plants indoors will improve air quality, ground you in nature even while indoors, and caring for them triggers many positive reactions in the brain. Not to mention, they are natural art!
Our top picks for low maintenance, indoor plants are:
- The Snake Plant
- Snake plants thrive in indirect light and require watering only when their soil is dry. Talk about low-maintenance!
- Air Plants & Succulents
- Possibly the easiest plants to maintain, air plants and succulents look great in a terrarium. But don’t forget about them completely! They do require spraying or soaking once in a while.
- Aloe Vera Plant
- We love that these plants play double duty by providing moisturizing and healing aloe from its juicy leaves. Place them in direct sunlight and water weekly.
- Rubber Plants
- Don’t let the name fool you… these plants are real and are one of the top air-cleaning plants available.
Talk to your local garden centre for more ideas and complete care instructions for any of your plant friends.
Multi-Purpose Spaces
In 2020, our living spaces transformed and performed in ways that they never had before, with rooms serving multiple purposes. Living rooms became offices, dining rooms and kitchens served as classrooms, and bedrooms suddenly became places to work out as well as sleep.
2021 is the year to get creative with your spaces and reimagine what each room can be. Our builder group in Sunset Ridge has taken an active role in evolving their floorplans to meet the needs of homeowners in this new normal. While we place more and more expectations on what our homes can be, our builder group will help you meet them. Find a showhome and speak with a sales representative to bring your dream home to life.
Preparing Your Garden For Spring
Spring Garden Preparations
Spring is here! The sun is up for longer, and life is returning to the garden after a long and cold winter. There's so much to do during these spring months, so we thought we'd compile a to-do list of everything you need to get your garden prepared for the summer. Here is your guide to preparing your garden and getting that yard in perfect condition for the summer to come.
Foundations First
Lawn
Start with the ground up. The lawn is usually the first eyesore after the snowmelt, so it’s probably the first thing you’ll want to tackle. The key is to resist the urge to strip it all away. A light fan brushing of the leaves is safe, but try to avoid any heave raking or scraping as the ground is still moist and you will risk exposing the lawn to more weeds and dead areas.
Soil
Now is the time to start brushing away the needles and debris from the soil. Over the winter, the garden dirt gets down packed by a heavy layer of snow, so dig around and get some air into it again. While the soil is still moist, pull up all the dandelions and weeds that survived the winter. While the soil is moist like this, you have a better chance of pulling the whole taproot to prevent weed regrowth and flowering.
Nutrients Nutrients Nutrients
When you think May, think mulch! Think fertilizer, and think compost. Winter tends to wash away all soil amendments, leaving your garden in much need of restoration. Apply mulch to the bases of your plants; this will protect the roots and retain soil moisture as you head into the hot summer months. You can also add fertilizer and compost to your soil and lawn for extra nutrients.
Prep The Plants
Now for the fun part, and the real reason why we need to prep the yard - the plants!
1) Prune it
It’s important to prune anything that has not begun budding or blossoming. Pruning for summer-blooming shrubs is best done earlier in the season, as pruning a tree or bush in its budding phase will risk killing it. Your spring-blooming shrubs can wait until they have fully blossomed for any trimming needs.
2) Plan it
The gardening process can be overwhelming at this time of year as you look over a lawn of bleak brown soil and half-alive grass. The key is to make a plan! Now is a great time to plan where you want to put plants in advance, making note of where the sunny spots and the shady spots are in your yard. Knowing the climate and soil quality will help you choose the right plants and put plants in places they will thrive. For example, if you have a spruce tree near a flower bed in your yard, that soil will be more acidic from the fallen needles than another spot in the yard. Check plant tags to find the right plant for the specific amount of sun and style of soil.
3) Plant it
Vegetables:
Although it’s early in the season, there are a few things you can begin planting to feed that gardening craving. Now is the time to seed your hardy vegetables: we’re talking about peas, lettuce, spinach, garlic, cilantro, onions, and beets. These vegetables will sow in colder soil and can withstand cool temperatures in the evening while growing.
Flowers:
Of course, a pop of color would be particularly lovely right now. Here are some cold-hardy annual flowers that will bring color and energy to your yard. Try planting a couple of pansies, snapdragons, violas, and primulas. These flowers can be put directly into the ground and they’re hardy enough to manage through colder temperatures. You can also use this time to transplant your perennial plants because large growth hasn’t started; splitting the root and replanting in other places will give it the proper time to re-grow and multiply the size of perennial plants.
Beware the Elements
Tuck them in
Calgary and area are zone 3b and 4 on the plant hardiness scale, meaning that May can still bring some unique and frosty weather. Some plants need to wait until the ground is just a little bit warmer to thrive properly. If there are frost warnings throughout the month, place a bedsheet or tarp over the top of surfaced plants, or make sure the plants are in a sheltered area for those colder evenings.
You Are Ready!
The sun is out and temperatures are rising, which makes us eager to get out and get started. Now is the time to tidy that yard, stain that fence, repair that deck and get that ground ready without risking damage to any plants. And when that green does begin to pop up, you’ll be able to sit back and watch the world in full bloom.
