Sometimes, there’s no better way to move forward than to look back. The new granny chic, or grand millennial, decorating trend is a prime illustration of this. It remixes traditional elements from a typical grandmother’s home to create an aesthetic that stands out amidst the more minimalistic designs of today. In an era where nostalgia runs strong, whether it be in television shows, fashion, or music, the rise of granny chic in interior design makes sense. There’s something about it that’s simultaneously unpredictable and novel, yet comforting and familiar. Let’s take a closer look at granny chic—an old trend that is new again—here.

Ornate Antique Pieces

Antique pieces make up a major part of the grand millennial style, which shouldn’t be surprising. With their complex carvings, they make your interior spaces more varied and give them a layered dimensionality. You can intersperse your rooms with traditional light fixtures, chairs, tables, and lamps for this purpose. Wood, with its natural richness and variations, is the most prevalent material in this style, rather than plastic or smooth black or chrome metals. Wooden cabinets or shelves where you can put china sets on display embody the grandmotherly spirit exceptionally well with their marriage of functionality and form. Ornate gold picture frames and detailed frames of other materials are great for the walls and act as points of contrast.

Generous Pattern Mixing

A characteristic that sets granny chic apart from many other styles is its generous approach to pattern mixing. When you think about it, your grandma probably doesn’t meticulously limit her use of patterns to one or two pieces per room. So, when decorating this way, you can feel free to liberally juxtapose different designs through fabrics, wallpaper, and rugs. Rustic check, stripes in a range of thicknesses, and traditional kaleidoscope-like patterns are all fair game. But the most prominent motif in granny chic is the flower. You can find and utilize floral fabric for the upholstery in order to envelope pieces with a soft, delicate, and cheery look. Floral patterns also work well in drapes, bedsheets, pillows, and small accessories. There’s no strict color palette that you need to keep in mind either, though white is the underlying foundation that maintains levity in most grand millennial arrangements.

A Balance of New and Old

Thus far, we’ve talked about the “granny” portion of grand millennial decorating, but not the “chic” component. Granny chic is able to be an old trend that is new again by taking a degree of influence from contemporary sensibilities as well. You can keep your home from feeling overly chaotic by toning down certain aspects of your rooms. For instance, you could implement the idea of sticking to a neutral, unadorned base to ground the upbeat patterns that you have. If a couch and wall painting already feature bright blues and reds, you could paint your walls white or light beige to keep them from becoming dizzying. In addition, although grand millennial rooms don’t follow precise color schemes, you can develop a palette for each room that you largely stick to for a sense of cohesion. You might choose to have pink, white, and taupe for the core of one space, with hints of forest green, for example. Then in another room, you might make tea green, light blue, and medium brown the main hues that you build around.