Fashion is fickle. But so is interior design. This year, show that you can stay ahead of the curve with some of 2012’s biggest decorating hits for Atlanta new homes.

First and foremost, now is a great time to cultivate minimalism—get rid of your stuff! Of course, you say you’ll clean house every year. Make 2012 the year you follow through on your promises, and give away everything you don’t need to charity. Once you’ve made headway in clearing out excess stuff, you can play with minimal styles that showcase your home’s best features. Since the current trend in building is toward light and openness, accentuate whatever features in your own home let light in or keeps things beautifully simple.

“Minimal” doesn’t have to be a code word for “bland.” However, 2012 is the year to pull out your most cheerful yellows, most vibrant blues, and most scandalous reds, and redecorate.  It pays to use neutrals to accent your artistic bravery, but some people do manage to deploy all the most exciting colors at once and pull it off. It’s up to you to decide whether you have the kind of natural eye you’ll need for extreme color. It’s all about the details. If you’ve just moved into a new home, the worst thing you can do is passively accept the previous home owner’s questionable taste in decorating. A fresh coat of paint or two will go a long way toward making your new abode truly yours.

If you want to incorporate more color into your home, but aren’t sure what would really pop, think of your favorite fruit—bananas, apples, raspberries, and oranges—and steal those hues for your home.

Finally, texture may well be the word of the year. Mix it up. Woods are increasingly rustic, stripped down and bare. With an eye to conservationism, high-end floors and furniture are now often made from reclaimed wood. This year will reward those who take risks, so be bold and try out new textural combinations that tease the mind and tickle the fancy, such as metal and glass.

Natural is best, so draw inspiration from nature (you may have noticed there’s plenty of that here in Atlanta), and make your interiors echo the great exterior. Use leaves, trees, waves or other natural phenomena as motifs to unify and harmonize a tricky room. Bamboo is already a popular material, and in 2012 you can expect it will come into the homes of even the most traditional, anti-Zen decorators.

The options are endless. It’s a new year, and many of the year’s projected trends are brighter, more vibrant and more confident than ever. Isn’t it time for a change?

Katie McKenzie for New Home Source