I think it depends on how much you love said object. If I like it alot, but then I realize everyone has it, the urge to bypass is strong.... but if I fall madly in love at first sight? It's coming home with me come hell or high water :)

I like to consider myself someone who is an "early adopter," however, that comes with a price! I wince every time I look at my "Keep Calm" poster (almost 2 years old) because I see it everywhere I go. The other day at a bookstore I saw an entire display of it: tea cups, stationary, water bottles...
All in all it has put me off it.
I think I will have to move it out of my kitchen and into a another spot where I won't see it so much.

I'll admit I always tend to point out something as "trendy" and therefore unlikeable after I've already had something a few years and it catches on. It's like that now with the bus scrolls.. I've had mine for years and now I feel like it's too.... everywhere, you know? That said, I DO love it.

I'm with you, halfie. I'm not obsessed with having out-there, unusual stuff, but it does make a difference. It's part and parcel of the movement away from the mass-produced and cheaply made. I can understand the comment about "this year's 'Keep Calm' poster." It doesn't make the poster any less of a neat idea, but it does make me think I'll hold off until I find something else that strikes me.

If I love something, it works in my home, and is economical, I don't let the fact that it is a trend stop me from proudly displaying it then and probably long after the trend has passed. For me, it's about looking around my home and seeing things that make me happy, not what makes me look the best to my visitors. To each her own, trend or not.

when it comes to decorating I'd like to try to stick with classic rather than trendy. and by "classic" I mean "given to me by relatives and friends because I'm broke"

I never understand people who love something but decide not to want it because "everyone has it". It's like they're trying not to be like anyone else, all the while caring what everyone else thinks.. otherwise, why care that "everyone has it"? So no, I don't care if it's on trend or totally off, if I love it I'm gettin' it!

As for the Keep Calm thing, I think it's lost it's originality factor. Like a great underground band who all of a sudden pops up in a Mickey D's commercial.. kind of takes some cool points away. I was never that into it though.

I tend to ruminate over things that I want for looooong periods of time... usually saving up for something or just delaying gratification. However, this tends to be a good thing in that after looking at something for months and thinking about how it will fit into my design - my obsession can dissipate after I've seen something a million times in other people's homes. I thought about getting a "Keep Calm" poster and that "For, Like Ever" poster "for like" a year until I finally moved into my first house and by then, I realized they were ubiquitous and had lost it's charm. I am glad I waited on it!

missnic: just an observation but your second paragraph completely contradicts the first. which is it? mass and still cool? or mass and not cool?

(fwiw: i, unapologetically, support the second paragraph... imho, a piece has 2 factors: inherent draw and uniqueness -- which combines to create a certain covetability. when the latter is lost, it "looses points" overall...)

"If I love something, it works in my home, and is economical, I don't let the fact that it is a trend stop me from proudly displaying it then and probably long after the trend has passed. For me, it's about looking around my home and seeing things that make me happy, not what makes me look the best to my visitors. To each her own, trend or not."

I completely agree with sherbs.

BYPASS. I buy what I like anyway. I'm not concerned with being "on trend." I hate that term anyway.

I have a "keep calm" poster in my office. All my officemates like it.....it's pretty much exactly what grad students need to see...I don't care if it's trendy or not. :)

are these things really trends, or is it design sites like AT that just seem to feature the same "types" of homes over and over? i don't know anyone who has keep calm posters, bus scrolls, eames chairs, saarinen tables, or dwr pendants. i do see a lot of bad ikea furniture, mass produced art prints, yankee candles, and clutter. i'm lucky enough to have many great pieces handed down, and a boyfriend who likes thrifting even more than i do. i guess you could define some of our things as trendy, but most of what we have we loved it years ago, and we'll still love it years from now. if you buy what you love, really, who cares if it's trendy?

I have this amazing Pucci vintage dress that I hung my wall on a vintage satin hanger and I just thought this is silly and I felt the dress was mocking me because I can't fit into it.
So that trend did not work for me.

Beside the DIY chalkboard in my kitchen I don't think I have anything that is trendy. If I did I would not care one way or another its all about mixing it up and making it your own.

I'm embarassed by my Keep Calm poster it makes me cringe. It's currently hung in my landing strip but I think I'll move it to the spare room. It was cool when it came out but now it's over kill.

I am notoriously anti-trendy. I'm also redheaded, so I go for four or five years without buying new clothes because colors only trend for redheads about that often. It infuriates me for a color to be "in" or "out."

I agree with Sherbs, and that is the exact reason why I still want, and plan to obtain, the "Keep Calm" poster AND the "for like ever" poster. I can't answer this survey because my answer is "neither." I don't care if something is trendy or not; if I like it, I like it.

Plus, "Keep Calm and Carry On" is something I need to be constantly reminded of, in my kitchen, in my study area... I should get a desktop background, so I have it at school too.

I would never buy something singly because it's trendy. What happens when the trend is over? You have boxes full of stuff that you can't display anymore? Buy what you love and what you're going to want to keep for a long time.

I tend to avoid the idea of trends. If i see something I like, on AT perhaps, and I like it then I will buy it or DIY it. However I would never go buy something just for the sake of keeping up with trends.

However I think it is important to separate trends from classics. Things like eames chairs, to me, aren't trendy and will always be in style.

It's funny when you make a design choice because you got the idea from somewhere and you later realize that what you thought was just "an idea" is more like "a ubiquitous idea."

I of course knew I'd chosen to paint my bedroom charcoal gray because I'd seen it featured here a few times. It's not like I forgot where the idea came from. I even cribbed the paint color I ultimately chose from a comments section (Behr Dark Granite).

But then I was reading a comments section on AT asking what people were tired of. Someone said "a turquoise accent wall." And I thought: d'oh! *I* have a turquoise accent wall (Behr Peacock Feather). And add that to my a charcoal gray bedroom, which at that point I'd seen in numerous round-ups of gray walls, and all the other things one sees every day here:
- a repro white leather Eames lounge chair
- Eames shell chairs
- a sheepskin throw.

Oh no! It's all of a piece because I only started reading AT about 9 mos ago, and shortly thereafter moved, and started buying things... And the day I read the "turquoise accent wall" comment I thought, just what would my apartment look like if I hadn't started reading AT? I highly doubt I would've painted a wall in my living room turquoise!

Ha ha, I do love my color & decor choices.

But I find it funny that I became a cliche without even realizing it!

'everyone has it' is kind of a shrug issue. design fashionistas don't visit my house and i get odd looks when i refer to 'color of the year'. my keep calm poster goes with my lil toy london buses and will for a long time after people hide them in the closet for being dated.. again. (retro to begin with remember?)

allisonharris, i hope you don't think i was calling eames charis trendy. :)

Well, there's always the snarky response to the trend...
http://typetees.threadless.com/product/1466/Now_Panic_and_Freak_Out

not at all!

i was just pointing out that i don't care if everyone else has an eames, because to me it is such a classic. i am happy to be in that 'clique' :)

It's 100% possible to have something 'trendy' and still display it in a personal, non-trendy way. Who cares if 'everyone else' has it? If you like it, get it, and make it your own.

redneckmodern...I was going to point that out, too.

For me though, I think it all boils down to being drawn to something new that I've never seen before. I just get tired of looking at the same stuff all the time. So, some trends do appeal to me...but, when I see them over and over again (aka "everyone else has it"), I become bored with it.

To paraphrase Stephen Colbert: "I don't see trendiness."

in response to
80percent

even the
snarky response tee
is on sale

I most certainly would call the Eames chair and Nelson bubble lamp pretty near the epitome of trendy. Can you go a day without seeing one or both is at lease one AT post? Would any house be toured if it didn't have some homage to one of the MCM designers. Hardly!

But... and it's a strong but. But, being trendy would not stop me from getting what I like. 1,000 people can have it, and mine will still be special because it will reflect my aesthetic.

Avoiding the trendy is the opposite side of the same coin as following every trend.

Isn't there a quote along the lines of, "Only fill your home with things that you love and find to be beautiful"? I think that's a good rule of thumb.

----

In the meantime, to all of those that manage to get a House Tour, I am willing to make you a DIY a subway roll that says, "Keep Calm And Carry On, For Like, Ever" in Comic Sans font if you can get it featured on this site. Just for the lulz.

@quiltmaster, i think it's a lack of diversity on AT, more so than these items really being "trendy."

bepsf--where are you??!!

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." - Wm. Morris

@pippigirl

There we go!

To be a trendsetter is more fun than to follow the crowd.

Well, unless you are going to invite people over your home who have the SAME exact things, then to everyone else, your house is just beautiful with things that represent you. If AT only did 1 house tour a week, we wouldn't keep seeing the same things over and over again. But like the Beatles said, "There's nothing you can do that hasn't been done." Nobody is original and everybody has done the same thing a billion times. I just want people to walk into my home and say, yeah that is representative of me.

I am with sherbs and apf on this one. I like what I like and I don't care whether or not it is trendy. I actually got a keep calm poster long past their becoming cliche and like apf, I have mine in my office at work where, in the midst of the dysfunction there, it is very meaningful. After some kind of crazy event at work, I sigh and look over at the poster and laugh.

IMO, AT does showcase a particular aesthetic, but I don't see this as a flaw. Other sites display other aesthetics. As a reader, you find your niche. I see things that I like here and that I don't like, but on the balance, it is worth the time it takes for me to visit the site.

I think Eames chairs, while enjoying a popular resurgence right now, can't be dismissed completely as being only "trendy." Many of the designs have never completely gone out of style and at this point I think they are classic. They may cease to be 'trendy' to people who chase trends, but these designs have a loyal following of people who appreciate them for what they are.

Oh, someone beat me to the Morris quote: "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." I love that one.

As far as trends... I agree with what redneckmodern said about how specialness and rareness is sometimes part of something's charm. If I already have something I love, and it becomes trendy, of course I'm still going to love it. But if I'm thinking about acquiring something new, part of what might draw me to it is a feeling of uniqueness... that I haven't seen this before.

Like, my husband has a carved wooden owl statue that he grew up with. We use it as a doorstop. I love it... but I wouldn't go out and buy anything else owl-related, because it's so trendy most of it no longer looks special to me.

And yeah, of course it's all about defining ourselves, sometimes in relation/opposition to others. Sometimes in very personal ways. I think in anyone's house or closet there are a mix of reasons for owning things... sometimes we're trying to fit in, sometimes we're trying to be unique, sometimes we really are just being who we can't help but be. I think it's disingenuous to suggest otherwise and say you don't care AT ALL about trends one way or the other.

@burnttoast --

I'm right here - and in complete agreement with skidou...

When an item I own becomes trendy, it's time to sell it on Craigslist or eBay to help make up for those retirement-fund losses.
;-)

I think the part of me that enjoys an "outsider" identity is secretly thrilled when I can't see anything out there that is like what I own.

I think the part of me that wants to be part of the pack is secretly thrilled when I've done something that lots of other people are doing.

I think most of us are a little like this.

If I see one more: keep calm and carry on poster, rubber(?) dog statue thing, ugly white branch chandelier, or animal heads (real or faux) hanging on the wall, I am going to gouge out my eyes with a stupid MCM tchotchke.

When you read blogs daily it can influence your choices. Before you know it things go viral and become trends, which I find irritating because I'm anti-trend. I have loved birds all of my life and I have live ones inside and out of my apartment. Over the years I have also collected bird-themed art, along with other depictions and collections of natural objets. These "natural curiosities" are everywhere now and I'm bucking adding anything new because of it. But I'm not going to kick my birds out on the street or toss any of the things I love. Maybe it's helping me to not cross over the line into obsessed collector. I like the message of the keep calm poster but it doesn't have to be spelled out for me.

I literally laugh out loud at some of these posts. AT can feature the most beautiful house tour in the world, but if there's one "Keep Calm" poster anywhere in the home, 75% of the AT community is sure to go nuts. And my question is, Why????? So what if a lot of people have it? Unless you're getting paid to be a master class tastemaker, what do you care if you're on top of the latest trend? Are you hoping to have your home featured in Elle Decor? Or are you decorating for yourself? Or maybe the real question is, are you buying something because you think it's trendy? Or because you love it. If you love something, then who cares how many people have it. But if you're trying to stay one step ahead of the latest fashion (which just seems like such a futile pastime), then I can understand the anxiety. The fact is, if you're a really talented, creative person, you can make anything look fresh and original. And seriously, I'm really starting to crave the "Keep Calm" poster for my own home, sort of like reverse snobbery: "I am so anti-trend that I'm cool enough to display yesterday's mega trend which is now, ironically, and sort of by definition, no longer a trend."

I have no plans to liquidate my 8 years old transit scroll any time soon. It's a good one, too, with Coney Island and Times Square on it, ironically from West Coast vendor Blackman Cruz.

I will pick up on trends, but rarely have the money or desire to integrate them into my own home. If a trend has come about because it is good design or is a logical choice, then the trend makes sense and will most likely have a lasting presence. If the trend is more of a fad, then I think most people will move on.

For me, I try to find elegant and beautiful solutions to needs in my home. I framed some posters I had to give them a high dollar look on a low budget. I doubt it will become a trend, but it solved a problem I had and I love the results.

You can see what I did here, although I hope this isn't considered self promotion.
http://modsandends.com/?p=576
Also, some cable management on the cheap.
http://modsandends.com/?p=601

people who want to ditch something as soon as others get it are funny. they seem a bit too concerned with those other people. they allow those other people to change the way they feel about something they previously liked.

i don't care what's trendy or what other people think. i've got enough to worry about without looking around and wondering how others will see me or my chairs.

i got an Eames rocker after architecture school- after getting to know and love their work. only after i had decided i wanted it did i notice it is all over. so i didn't change my tastes or thinking about the Eames' and got it anyway.
i don't lose sleep over it, i don't care. there's more to me than what others see or think.

Everyone would like to believe that they're ahead of the game, or in their own world altogether, when it comes to design trends.

While there are definitely some trendy things that I love to hate (animal prints, groups of small photos, black and white graphic patterned prints, etc.), my design past is also littered with short love affairs that rose and fell with the trend waves (brown everything, light-colored wood, and Doc Martin sandals. Embarrassing, I know).

So where does that leave me? Obviously I don't love things just because they're trendy - I'm sure no AT reader does. And yet it's suspicious how I begin to dislike some of my things after similar items/colors/patterns have filtered through the retail stores and even my scrap-booking friends think they're cute.

Trends will come and go, UNCEASINGLY, and I'm not exactly sure how to avoid being swept up in the ones I like and eventually will probably dislike.

I guess my question is this: How do you guys know that the things you like (and will continue to like) are because YOU like them, and not because you saw them in the newest, coolest, cutest house tour ever?

Oh, and I still think the "Keep Calm" concept is brilliant.

Isn't it so very trendy to be obsessed with being considered trendy??

i think it depends on your style. i collect vintage typography, so i love the transit scroll posters. it is my style. i don't think i need to say you will never find typography from pottery barn that says 'love' above my bed. all typographers are freaking when people hang the letters wrong and they are badly spaced. horrible.

i have dead animal heads on my wall passed down from my husbands grandparents who had them. i love them.

you have to look at each object and ask yourself if you love it, regardless to what the rest of the world is doing.

Honestly, I don't follow trends. I've always liked vintage furniture and vintage anything... and the fact that it is fashionable now bugs me because it means that it's still unaffordable (unaffordable twenty years ago coz I was a student) and unaffordable now coz it's so damn trendy.

I have a predilection to not buying stuff that's fashionable... only to regret it later when it's not fashionable and NO LONGER AVAILABLE. A friend advised me that I should buy what I like when it's available and stock up and not to worry coz it will become unfashionable soon. I've taken her advice and it's served me well.

I especially find this the case with the colours I'm into. I've been into yellow for a few years now but it's only now become fashionable so I have to stock up before the turquoise thing saturates the market.

My advice to those of you who love your train station signs or Keep Calm posters - keep them, they'll be out of date soon and you'll be the only ones who will have them... and you'll be pleased.

@ gkm2004: totally. if you mean obsessed with being trendy because they think it's just SOOO beneath them and horrible! i was thinking the same thing.

I've been meaning to register as a commenter on AT -- this post has finally inspired me to do so!

The only thing sadder than the person who has to tell you that now that ____ is so popular, they are SO over it, is the person who feels insecure enough about the things they like that they have to protest their I-saw-it-first status. "Oh, I got the 'Keep Calm' poster three years ago, BEFORE it was popular." So you don't like it anymore? Changing with the tide is changing with the tide, whether you're jumping on the bandwagon or jumping off when the bandwagon gets crowded.

I say: Like what you like! There's a reason the "trendiest" items sometimes become the classics... right, Eames rockers / the Beatles / Warhol prints?

kersten29- Amen

If you love it buy it! I bought a few mid century classics ten years ago to furnish my first home. I still love them and admire them almost every day. I'm an Interior Designer so being on trend is part of my job. I enjoy seeing new things and will add them to my space if I like something. There are no rules! The only true judge of your space is you. If you are happy with it that is all that matters.

If I see one more: keep calm and carry on poster, rubber(?) dog statue thing, ugly white branch chandelier, or animal heads (real or faux) hanging on the wall, I am going to gouge out my eyes with a stupid MCM tchotchke. : HAHAHAHAHA!!! And I really do love that Now Panic and Freak Out shirt. Hilarious.

I get what I like. Trend or no trend.

At the end of the day...it's my space and should be about what make me feel good.

I do like the Keep Calm poster. It doesn't fit with my room (I live with my parents to save money while I get my degree). If it did, though, I would definitely get it. Then probably keep it way past it's prime. It's what I do. (:

lab director--exactly what I mean. I'd be exhausted by that sort of mindset.

If I like it, sometimes I buy it. And sometimes I don't buy it. Either way, life goes on.

To expand on if you love it get it...I'm a visual artist and there is much that pleases my eyes. What has worked for me is to have a decor plan, prioritize, and save up for major, quality items. If a trendy item you love is still around by the time you can spare the funds, consider it only if it fits with your plan. As for artwork and collections, wait until you find what has personal meaning for you and reflects your passions, something that you will appreciate for a long time. Mark a milestone accomplishment with something symbolic that will be a daily reminder of your efforts. Trends are generally impersonal, and I think your home environment should reflect what is unique about you. With that said, that can be done with the way you put things together, trend or no.

While I wouldn't "ditch something because somebody else has it", I don't want to jump on the Keep Calm etc. bandwagon. I'm just sick of seeing it. While it was cute and kitschy it's now obnoxious when it's in every house tour/post.

I bought my "Keep Calm" poster after my Dad passed away. It's in my bathroom, and every morning when I'm getting ready for work it reminds to just keep pushing through the sadness. Since I live in the wilds of Northern New York, in a town with fewer residents than there are cows, I have a feeling that no one will know that I'm "trendy". And who cares, anyway? Keep what you love. If it makes you feel good, what more is there to say? (Oh, and by the way, the poster is yellow, and it looks great against my fabulous grey bathroom walls ... I guess I really am trendy ... oh the horror!)

I buy things because I like them. Not because they are trendy. I hate when I get something and then I see everybody else posting the same thing in their interior photos!

Funny to me that someone with an Esty shop would be anti-trend.

Quote from creative license: 'I'm really starting to crave the "Keep Calm" poster for my own home, sort of like reverse snobbery: "I am so anti-trend that I'm cool enough to display yesterday's mega trend which is now, ironically, and sort of by definition, no longer a trend." '

I am the same! My friend calls me the snob of snobs. As soon as I hear someone dissing it for being "dated," I start to want it. What is wrong with me? I think it has something to do with growing up in the Midwest when we barely had cable, much less internet, so any trends we got were already dated. I think I nurse an ongoing low-grade resentment that we in the boondocks are somehow obligated to keep up with what is cool/not cool in major cities thousands of miles away.

I could care less if something is trendy as long as I enjoy it. That said, I think the reason things go out of trend is simply because we get tired of looking at the same thing on a constant basis and are just naturally drawn to new inspiring things. Isn't what makes a 'classic' piece so special the fact that it is one of the few things you just don't get tired of?

If "Keep Calm, Carry On" speaks to when you see it, keep it. If you've seen it a million times and it doesn't do anything for you, replace it with a new item of interest. I think it is just silly to buy something or get rid of something because you're primary concern is having objects for the purpose of self-validation. That is just silly to me.

Sorry, I hit submit before proofreading!

patrick (the other one)--- yes you are so right and I too have no plans to liquidate my eames chairs, eileen gray table, piet hein table, george nelson buffet, barcelona table, LC table, etc that I have had for 20 years.
Buy what you love and the rest just works, perhaps the Ghost chair will haunt us again in ten plus years.

I guess that by reading this blog and design magazines, I'm more exposed to the latest in trends...but, I just buy what I like. My home leans toward the country style, hopefully a cleaner more modern version of it..not cutesy. I'm drawn to folk art and rustic styles. Back in the 80's, country style was riding really high with the popularity of 'Country Living' and now defunct 'Country Home' magazines. Probably, people onto the latest trends would find my home boring and passe, but it's me and I still like it. It's what I'm always drawn to. If I liked something trendy, I might buy it sparingly and inexpensively...so when it wanes, I won't regret getting rid of it.