Is gold the bold choice of the year?

Cara Gold Wall Round Mirror

Black Dining Chair Rose Gold Frame

We regularly poll our followers on both Houzz and Instagram on the latest interior trends. It gives us an idea of what our customers really think of some of the trends and ideas coming our way.

Metallic accessories have long been the preferred choice for use in framing a room, the equivalent of the black lines and streaks in the art world for picking out detail in a painting or image. For a long time, silver was the default choice but 2017 shook things up a little with brass effect finishes.

2018 promises to be no less controversial when it comes to trends and ideas in interior design, but we wanted to know what you thought of the gold metallic finish.Arielle Navy Velvet Dining Chair

We Asked, You Answered

Gold has a yellower overall tone than the dark but golden hue of brass. But we wanted to know – do you love it or hate it? Is gold the bold metallic choice for 2018?

And the answer overwhelmingly was yes, with only a handful of votes on Houzz opting for stainless steel. All our fans on Instagram plumped for gold.

Let the love affair with gold accessories begin!

The two items we showed were the black dining chairs with rose gold frame and the navy velvet dining chair with stainless steel legs. Both are clearly stunning pieces but with the gold attracting the most attention, we thought we would look at how to use gold accessories to their best.

Gold is a fantastic colour to use across a range of styles, from the farmhouse to the modern, with many items of contemporary furniture glowing in its golden shine.

Gold works well with a variety of materials too. Velvet is a plush material that invites people to touch and enjoy it and, to a certain extent, the combination of velvet and gold is long steeped in tradition.

But it can be brassy and very yellow thus, using other colours and fabrics helps to even out its tone. Why not team this year’s must-have colours – the dark earthy greens and the delightful ultraviolet purple – with golden framed accessories?

Embla Floor Lamp

It is a colour that works beautifully with white too. If your penchant is for crisp, white walls, tone down the starkness with gold foiled artwork or gold colour bases to a pretty table and floor lamps.

Retain the classic feel with leather furniture sitting alongside gold too and for a traditional appealing living room, there is no compensation for the iconic shape of a leather Chesterfield sofa marrying with gold framed accessories, from lamps to decorative mirrors. As this gold-framed round wall mirror shows, gold doesn’t have to have a high polish finish to it either.

Cara Wall Round Mirror

Small gold details

Just like gold itself, the smallest nugget can have the most value. And with gold accessories, there doesn’t have to be an ostentatious display.

That means choosing dining chairs with rose gold metallic legs, or pretty framed mirrors or even a table lamp or two. It is also a metallic colour that will sit alongside other metal finishes too because it doesn’t say in the rule book that gold can’t be used with stainless steel.

How do you see using gold in your home? Will it be the bold accessory you’ll incorporate into the living room, the dining room and the bedroom?