Ooh, I’m not particularly well equipped to answer this (I don’t go out to all the ~hip new spots~ etc. much these days), but based on some things I’ve seen in Brooklyn, I would describe the next aesthetic wave after The Desert of Edison Bulbs we’ve been living in for 10+ years as: Scandi-meets-Victorian-greenhouse.
Still vaguely nostalgic but also still ~modern! Still oriented toward ~~~organic materials, but more emphasis on plants and curves, less on quasi-industrial metal and angles. Less brown, more white. (All the establishments that opened up in the previous wave can paint their metalwork white, tile their floors if not already tiled, beef up the lighting, throw in a skylight and probably be fine. I mean their acoustics will be even further fucked than they already were, but none of these people are thinking about anything that subtle.* I know this because of the years I have spent yelling to someone a foot away from me inside their businesses.) The sort of dumb quasi-multi-culti pub food served will be the same! Maybe an extra salad or a vegetable plate or something! But the look will be airier. Both more and less polished, depending where you look. Like an Apple store had a baby with Midsommar.
Oh! I just remembered you of course are familiar with the Joanna Gaines Special. Take that overall vibe, take about 70% of the fake country out of it and fill in the deficiency with like IKEA and an aviary and you’re there.
I could be 100% wrong though. Maybe it’s going to be some sort of late-90s goth redux and everything will be black and shiny again. Or else maybe it’s going to go the way a lot of hotel and private interior design seems to be going on television, which is kind of recycling a specific, Miami Vice part of the 80s–a lot of big, florid statements, a kind of lush feel. It seems like lemon and marigold yellows were big last year? (I know this because I set out to set up my new bedroom around a lamp I’ve had since 2008, and was shocked to find a lot of yellow things available.) What the fuck do I know, I spend most of my time reading in my apartment.
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*In 40 years, if there is still a human civilization that makes mass, recorded entertainment, I guarantee you there will be a biopic about a young upstart restaurateur who realizes that the industry is failing because of the bad acoustics after digging through Ancient Archives of like, basic architectural design from the 19th century or something and thereby takes over the world with his arcane magick of making his customers NOT want to die after being in his establishment for 15 minutes. He will be played by Jake Gyllenhaal’s clone-son.
I know I’m like, basically silent rn, I just have SO MANY thoughts about Abn.er but I’m still trying to figure out my s/i for suic.ide squ.ad and… man, I can’t get a grip on any thoughts to put them down .
