Experts from companies within our NOVO Building Products family are anticipating a design trend swing that encompasses both wood and metal interior accents in 2020. Prepared to react to changing marketplace demands, our NOVO leaders are gearing up for a marriage of interior design elements.   

Millwork: Rustic Farmhouse Goes Modern

For mouldings and millwork, there’s a strong belief that the current “Rustic Farmhouse” design trend will evolve into a “Modern Farmhouse” trend in 2020. “Some of the more rustic elements, like unfinished barnwood, will give way to accent walls with more refined white oak and maple woods in the coming year,” says Keith Early, vice president of marketing and new product development at Ornamental Mouldings & Millwork. “These woods still boast natural aesthetics, but they’re a bit softer and cleaner in appearance.”

Early predicts that accent walls will remain a strong trend in 2020, but with less barnwood and shiplap. “We believe there will be more board and baton, darker paints and wallpaper used as accent walls in the home,” says Early. To meet those changing design desires, Ornamental Mouldings & Millwork will add new decorative boards to their product line-up in 2020. “These new boards can be used either as moulding or to create accent walls in a room,” says Early. “We’re introducing pre-stained gray and black hardwood boards along with Ambrosia Maple and White Oak. These are the on-trend wood pieces we see becoming design elements in the home in 2020.”

Make Room for Metals

Previously predicted by L.J. Smith President Craig Kurtz as the hottest trend for 2019, the mix of iron and wood continues going strong into 2020. “We’re seeing Craftsman stairways styles desired in many markets throughout the country,” says Kelly Miller,director of market development for L.J. Smith Stair Systems. “However, other markets are seeing modern styles, such as panels, cables and tubing that are being specified by many high-end builders. That sleekness on a stair system can be ‘softened’ in a room with wooden accents.”

Miller believes that the Linear Collection of panels, cable and tube systems, which feature stainless steel, will accelerate in the lower half of the United States. His counterpart in the upper half of the country, John Houskamp, relates that the shift from wood balusters to iron, plus stainless steel cable and metal panels, is very real in his geographic areas.

“My feeling is that our current top selling products --- box newels, iron balusters and square designs --- will continue to gain momentum in 2020 over traditional turned stair parts,” says Houskamp. “There are definitely ways that our stair systems compliment the varying wood millwork products offered by Ornamental.”

Ready for the Trends

To show how much interior design can change over time, consider the sweeping large stairways and ornate mouldings found in older movies, like Gone with the Wind. Today, top-selling balusters and millwork are less ornate.

“In 2019 our top selling wood balusters were square white primed wood in varying lengths,” says Houskamp. “Our top sellers for iron balusters were hollow plain styles. This is representative of a trend underway for minimalistic details in stairway designs.”

The experts at the six companies under the Novo Building Products umbrella will have a front-row seat to interior design trends as they evolve in 2020. “Novo Building Products is the industry leading manufacturer and distributor of mouldings, stair parts, doors and specialty building products,” says Early with Ornamental Mouldings & Millwork. “With the recent addition to the Novo team of L.J. Smith Stair Systems, we’ll be able to track and respond to consumer and builder needs quickly.

“Ornamental did this in 2019 with the launch of Rustic Ceiling Beams, Mouldings, Mantels Shelves, and Haute 2-in-1 Mouldings. We now look forward to 2020 with the launch of our new Decorative Boards, Stairway Risers and Wooden Brackets.”

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