Design trends move quickly, and if you’re selling a property it’s important that it not feel stuck in the past. But what exactly are buyers looking for – and which trends offer the best bang for your buck when renovating to sell? Here are five trends to watch out for in 2020:

The live-in kitchen.

The convergence of open-plan family room and kitchen has progressively increased the focus on these rooms as a unified living space. If you’re renovating to sell, consider designing that kitchen with living-area features like rich colours and textures, furniture-like benches and cabinetry, comfortable seating, spaces for ornamental decorations, and the like. Cabinetry will increasingly hide appliances and other kitchen-esque touches – and even, Houzz recently predicted, the entire kitchen – when you’re not using them. It should be a place you want to be in even when you’re not cooking.

Soft curves.

Car designers recently began adding hard lines to previously curvaceous cars, but homes are going the other direction with more designers considering soft arches, rounded bannisters, round handles, curved benchtops, and the like. Because they have been relatively uncommon in recent squared-off modern builds, curves will be seen as a way of adding luxury and class as well as delineating living spaces.

Natural, organic and sustainable.

Growing environmental consciousness has increased the use of building materials such as recycled timber and glass, recyclable steel cladding or highlights, or machined floorboards made from sustainable bamboo or similar materials. Consider how your renovations might leverage these and other innovations to impress buyers with your property’s standout environmental credentials. This design ethic also extends to choices of colour which, Houzz says, are increasingly organic with beige, stone, “soft eucalypt greens”, and earthy browns that are associated with natural materials and overall personal wellbeing.

Terrazzo.

Design experts are excited about this material, a composite material that combines the hard-wearing appeal of granite with the ability to be poured into all kinds of shapes and designs. It has been used sparingly in the past, but its durability and distinctive look – as well as growing interest in terms of Google searches – have raised its profile as a design material of choice for 2020.

Wall panelling.

In line with the move away from stark, plain walls towards more distinctive, welcoming features, Realestate.com.au picked wall panelling as a key design trend for 2020. Adding panelling is inexpensive and easy, and it can be used as an accent or an overriding motif depending on your preferences.