Written on behalf of Timber Ridge Properties by Paramount Management & Realty.
In life, everything changes.
Some changes are inevitable; like discovering that eating veggies will not make you a superhero. Some changes are saddening; like your best friend moving out of town or experiencing your first breakup.
But there are a few changes that are completely unnecessary and it is hard to explain why they ever happened. Many home design trends from when we were kids fall in this last category.
As a child, you could not wait to grow up because growing up meant the freedom to do the things you could not do. But then, you grew up and found out that adulthood was seriously overrated.
That is when you start to look around for little things that can transport you back in time to a place where you can relive the careless joys of being a child. One of the things our minds return to is some of the quirky features of our childhood home that we barely paid any attention to back then.
Suddenly, as adults, we start to recall with nostalgia some of these home design trends and wonder why they went away. According to ParamountPMR.com, we may even go as far as to wonder if we can revive those features in our modern home.
Thankfully, we can. In this post, we list some of our favorite home design trends from the past that still make perfect sense in homes today.
1. Built-Ins
A built-in is the general term for a range of home design features. A built-in is a recessed space carved into the interior walls of the home. They serve as bookshelves, storage areas, or open displays. They let homeowners maximize space without using up floor space. They reduce the amount of clutter in a room while maximizing wall space.
2. Clawfoot tub
A claw foot bathtub used to be the quintessential luxury item for bathrooms in the past. These freestanding tubs are a lot deeper than modern ones and being unattached or close to a wall, they made the bathroom feel roomier. Their ornate designs also made a clear fashion statement. Original claw foot tubs are hard to find, but if you do find one, it will usually be worth its price. 
3. Infuse bright colors
Bright colors – a standard feature of older homes – are making a major comeback in modern homes. Previously this trend was restricted to wall paint. Now bold bright colors for kitchen and bathroom cabinetry are gaining popularity. At the same time, there is a growing preference for brightly colored tiles, along with tiles that mimic the natural look of marble, wire-brushed wood, concrete, terrazzo, or polished stone. 
4. Double pocket doors
Double pocket doors let you have the best of a closed floor plan and an open floor plan. These doors retract completely into the walls. When entertaining guests, they can be opened to transform the living room and kitchen into connecting space. Other times, they can be closed to confine access to just one area of the home.
5. Dutch doors
Dutch doors or stable doors are a door and window rolled into one. These doors have two sections – an upper and lower half – which can be opened independently. With a Dutch door, it is possible to keep the top half of the door open to let in light and air, while restricting pets and children indoors by leaving the lower half-closed.
6. Laundry chute
It is hard to understand why this old house trend went out of fashion. A laundry chute eliminates the ordeal of hauling dirty clothes from the upper levels of a home to the laundry room below. Dirty clothes just need to be chucked into the chute and they are delivered without fuss to the laundry room on the ground floor.
7. Mudroom
A mudroom is another highly functional feature of old homes that should be restored to modern homes ASAP. Vestibules or mudrooms are an ante-room just outside the living room, where visitors and the home’s occupants can shed their dirty clothes and shoes before entering the home. Apart from lightening the burden of cleaning the home, they also serve as a buffer to keep out the street noise.
8. Walk-in pantry
Our modern kitchen storage solutions do not even come close to the effectiveness of a walk-in pantry. This old house feature made it easy to store massive amounts of food and still be able to organize them in a way that made managing them extremely straightforward. A walk-in pantry lets you store food, linen, and other items without creating clutter.
9. Wrap-around porches
As the name suggests, these go right around the home, instead of being restricted to the front. A wrap-around porch is a cost-effective way to increase the home’s square footage. It gives all members of the home a chance to enjoy the outdoors without getting in each other’s way.
10. Wall niche
Wall niches are similar to built-ins. They are commonly used for recessed lighting, displaying art, or a prized collection. They may be used to break up expanses of a bare wall. If designed into the kitchen or bathroom, they offer a nifty way to store small items that are used often and therefore need to be accessed easily.
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