Eleven trends for 2011: Go eclectic, lighten up and make it personal

Ready for your home to look oh-so 2011? It shouldn’t be too hard because the on-the-horizon trends are all about making it more optimistic, functional and personal. To help us discover what’s new on the home front, we talked to a few internationally recognized tastemakers. New York interior designer Vicente Wolf travels the world, linking the places he explores with the spaces he creates.

“People aren’t redoing rooms every four years anymore,” says Wolf, who wrote and photographed the instructive new book “Lifting the Curtain on Design” (Monacelli Press, $50). “People care about their personal point of view and what comforts them.”Sarah Richardson is a Canadian designer who got her start as a prop stylist and set decorator. Her show, “Sarah’s House” on HGTV, details home renovations room by room. She bounces ideas off sidekick Tommy Smythe, who accompanies her on jaunts to antique stores and salvage shops.

“Going for vintage ups the ante on what you can achieve,” Richardson says. “If you don’t mind the challenge of never knowing what you might find, the quality is typically better, and prices are lower than what you’d get new.”

Roni Jaco of Kansas City travels the globe looking for ethically made handicrafts and textiles for her online store, the Loaded Trunk ( www.loadedtrunk.com). Her itinerary next month: Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. She has left 10 days of wiggle room, so maybe Laos and Cambodia, too.

“Although we’re connected technologically, we’ve become so disconnected from where things for our home come from,” Jaco says. “Just as we’ve become more engaged in where our food comes from, we’re starting again to wonder about the people who make things for our home. We want to know their stories.”

Sizing up salon style
We’re referring to a method of hanging art, not hair salon art. “Salon” is the French term for drawing room.

Instead of restraining yourself to a gallery wall with coordinating frames, there’s something delightful about a confident floor-to-ceiling mishmash. It makes a room feel lived in and — here’s the word again — personal.

• Roni Jaco’s living room walls contain a mélange of pieces from her travels, antique prints and photographs. “When you like things, they just all seem to go together.”

Lightening up the kitchen
A streamlined kitchen will never go out of style. But “Ye Olde Kitchen,” as Vicente Wolf calls Old-World craftsmanship, has had its day.

“A kitchen shouldn’t look like it’s more than 150 years old when your home isn’t,” he says. “There’s fakery to it, and dark cabinets can be depressing. A kitchen is like an operating room: You want it to be clear and bright so you can see all the details.”In addition to good task lighting, Wolf prefers white cabinets or lighter woods.

•Wolf designed this modern yet timeless kitchen.

Toning down hardwoods
Although espresso and dark hardwood floors have been the norm for years, we’re noticing a little lighter look for the surface you walk on. “You’re starting to see two-tone and gray finishes,” Wolf says. “Like driftwood.”•A driftwood-like finish in flooring, Tudor Nostalgic by Bois Chamois Vintage Hardwood Flooring