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    time to redecorate

    Golf simulators and rooftop lounges top 2023 home design trends, says Houzz

    Amber Heckler
    Oct 12, 2023 | 1:40 pm

    Houston design enthusiasts, homeowners, and renters alike are all looking for the next big thing when it comes to home design. And today's hottest trends are all centered around improving a home for the current and future lifestyle of its inhabitants.

    A 2023 report by Houzz identified the top home design trends that have been emerging throughout the year, from indoor style revivals to rooftop living spaces. Data was aggregated using the top search results from Houzz's website and comparing it to the previous year's results.

    These are the big trends that have been emerging in homes, near and far, this year.

    Basement golf simulators
    Houzz's data said searches for "basement golf simulators" spiked a whopping 1,905 percent this year from 2022. Homeowners, in general, are looking for ways to finish basements, the report said. Texans would be hard-pressed to find a home with a basement, but golf simulators are certainly taking up space in other areas of the house. Even a regal estate in Houston went on the market boasting a private man cave big enough to host the popular sport simulator.

    Golf simulator
      

    Photo by Eric Lucero / Thomas Sattler Homes

    Practice your swing on the golf simulator.

    Rooftop living spaces
    Homes with outdoor rooftop terraces are also top-of-mind for many people, with searches spiking 1,555 percent year-over-year. Relaxing outdoors seems like a nice idea when it's not brutally hot in the summer.

    "People are increasingly utilizing their rooftops to expand livable space as well, particularly in metropolitan areas where outdoor space is a hot commodity," the Houzz report said.

    rooftop living spaceRelaxing outdoors seems like a nice idea when it's not brutally hot in the summer. Photo by MVCC Inc. and Jacob Lilley Architects / Greg Premru

    Accessible bathrooms
    In a similar study surveying owners about home renovations, Houzz experts learned that more people are choosing to renovate their spaces in preparation for their retirement years. One of the most important factors in achieving a retirement-ready home is improving the functionality of bathrooms.

    Dallas and its suburbs are well known for having some of the most attractive housing markets in the nation, so it's no wonder local homeowners want to hang on to their houses for as long as possible.

    'Industrial-style' and entertainment-centered kitchens
    With new construction homes focusing more on open-concept living spaces, kitchens are also getting chic facelifts to avoid looking like forgotten areas. Two important styles and characteristics have emerged from these improvements: an "industrial-style" kitchen that doubles as the perfect entertaining area.

    "Industrial-style kitchens appeal to many cooks, with their commercial vibe, easy-to-clean surfaces and high-traffic durability," the report said.

    Features that make these commercial kitchens stand out include pull-down kitchen faucets, stainless steel or concrete countertops, and brick walls. On the entertainment side, large islands and island ranges are the centerpieces for any social gathering by allowing hosts to face their guests while they cook.

    Room separation
    Even with the popularity of open-concept living spaces and kitchens, the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted some household needs to include temporary separation for remote work. Houzz says that searches for living room dividers, shoji screens, and partition walls have all grown in 2023 while workers are prioritizing flexible working environments.

    Ceiling design elements
    Houzz says a room's ceiling has "historically been an overlooked surface," but perhaps not for much longer. People are searching frequently for overhead design elements like "high-gloss" or "painted ceilings." Another rising popular search is for "tongue-and-groove" ceilings, which are made up of long wood planks installed side-to-side across the ceiling.

    Interior design, home and design trends, tongue and groove ceilingsThe tongue and groove paneling expands from the walls up into the ceilings.Photo courtesy of ATX Interior Design

    Spanish Colonial style revival
    Decorating a house can be daunting if you're unsure of what style to choose, but you can never go wrong with a classic revival of the Colonial style. Specifically, Colonial and Spanish Colonial style revivals are the most popular interior design themes in 2023, says Houzz.

    Adaptable amenities for the weather
    Dallas homes have the fifth-best "curb appeal" in the country according to one home services site, with homeowners willing to spend thousands to improve their yards. The most popular outdoor improvements being searched so far this year are all "small" summertime-focused features like plunge pools, pool houses, and outdoor kitchens, according to Houzz.

    Owners in mosquito-plagued Dallas might also be more interested in screened porches, which are on trend. Searches for "small screened-in porch ideas" grew 522 percent this year in comparison to last year, Houzz says.

    The full report can be found on houzz.com.

    trendshome-design
    news/home-design

    give me shelter

    Meet the Houston architects teaching refugees to build permanent homes

    Emily Cotton
    Jun 27, 2025 | 10:46 am
    Every Shelter refugee Africa
    Photo by Moses Sawasawa
    Every Shelter educates communities on how to build homes using brick molds and local, organic materials.

    Two Rice architecture alums, and former Gensler Houston interns, Sam Brisendine and Scott Key are utilizing their top-tier education and expertise to make serious waves on a global level — and Gensler wants everyone to know about it. June is Global Giveback Month at the international design and architecture firm, and Every Shelter, the charitable organization founded by Brisendine and Key, is getting the spotlight with a new exhibit in the lobby of Gensler’s office in downtown Houston titled “Why We Flee.”

    Photographed by 26-year-old war photojournalist Moses Sawasawa, “Why We Flee” shines a light on one of the world’s largest drivers of human displacement today: an endless conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, or DRC. Also on display are the common goods that Every Shelter helps to repurpose into supplies and tools that refugees can then use to design and build their own permanent homes themselves.

    Every Shelter focuses on designing, building, and supplying permanent shelter solutions for homeless and displaced war and natural disaster refugees. Based in Houston, TX, and Kampala, Uganda, Every Shelter works directly with newly-arriving refugees from the DRC in Nakivale Refugee Settlement in the southwest of the country.

    Every Shelter is unique in that they are “community led, expert supported,” and teach communities how to design and build for their own communities. Megan Mark, director of advancement at Every Shelter, tells CultureMap about a design studio that they are currently piloting at their Ugandan office.

    “We have a humanitarian aid architect there and a program manager. They work with the social innovation leads, who are typically refugees who we’ve employed to help us navigate refugees’ needs in the context of the environment that they are in,” she says. “A refugee who is in Turkey doesn’t have the same needs as a refugee in Uganda. Right now we have three architects who are still in school.”

    Humanitarian aid architects spend nine weeks leading an architecture and design curriculum for refugees between the ages of 18-30 years old. At the end of the nine weeks, the students will have designed a solution, or “intervention” as Every Shelter calls it, for a need that they have in the community.

    “We are really excited to see what they come up with,” says Lauren Hanson, community manager at Every Shelter. “We teach refugees how to make things, then certify them to be the teachers. Then they can go make their own, they can sell their own, they can even start their own business teaching others how to make these things. We want to give the power to them to take whatever intervention we come up with and utilize it. They can take any idea and scale it, and that’s what we want to happen.”

    The most coveted shelter solution by far has been the brick molds that Every Shelter supplies to the communities. While brick molds are nothing new, availability has been scarce. With high demand and low supply, local rental fees for these tools skyrocketed. The UN and the Ugandan government supply refugees with land, a UN tarp, a few poles, and a small amount of money to get settled. Refugees tend to spend 10-26 years in these settlements, far longer than the 3-6 month lifespan of a UN-supplied tarp.

    By supplying brick molds and an invaluable education in building and design — especially lessons on making bricks from local organic matter — Every Shelter can get families from living under a tarp to living in a brick home in about a year. The brick molds cost under $10 to make, and the savings from potential rental fees ($130) is the equivalent of three months of food per household, which is a huge savings for families who are trying to get their children into schools.

    Communities band together to share molds and can work together to allocate bricks in an efficient manner. One house requires approximately 1,500 bricks, and with lessons from Every Shelter, families can design and build homes that best fit their individual needs. Skylights are designed and built using recycled water bottles, and decommissioned billboards are treated and up-cycled into roofing and floor tiles, which have a lifespan of about eight years. Lessons in home repair are also instrumental for those who may need them down the line.

    The focus that Every Shelter places on design, architecture, and construction in underserved communities is something that resonates deeply with Gensler. Stephanie Burritt, managing director and principal at Gensler Houston, certainly feels a connection to the organization’s ethos.

    “When they came to us and told us what they are doing, it was just hand-in-glove in terms of how it fit with our global giveback and our focus on homelessness, and it just made a lot of sense,” Burritt tells CultureMap. “We have happy hours here with contractors, employees, vendors, and everyone who walks through here all the time asks us what this is that we are showcasing and how they can help.”

    Gensler’s summer intern class arrived the same week as the “Why We Flee” installation, and Burritt thinks it has been a good thing for them to see. “I think, for them, it was super exciting to see somebody who had been an intern — 12 years ago, or whatever it was — and go ‘Oh, wow! This is the kind of impact I can have at some point in my career that’s beyond what you see in our day-to-day work at Gensler.’ And I think that’s really special.”

    Every Shelter co-founder Scott Key enlisted college friend and curator Ben Rasmussen to oversee the installation of the exhibition. As for the subject matter, Rasmussen wants the show to be experienced in a fluid way. “Wherever you enter is how you experience it,” he says. “It can be moved through in whatever way people choose, and that sort of personal way of moving through the work kind of echoes the sort of chaotic way that people experience it on the ground. So we wanted for that to exist in a way that people can see it, without trying to force an education on a really long-running and complex conflict.”

    One benefit of the exhibition is the amount of exposure that Every Shelter is receiving from Gensler’s local contractors and vendors, with labor and materials contributions for the organization’s new Heights-area office already pouring in. “Why We Flee” hopes to find a new home after its time at Gensler comes to a close at the end of the summer, so check in with Every Shelter if a trip to Gensler this summer isn’t in the cards.

    -----

    See “Why We Flee" Monday-Friday from 9 am-5 pm at Gensler’s Houston office in 2 Houston Center (909 Fannin Street, Suite 200).


    Every Shelter refugee Africa
      

    Photo by Moses Sawasawa

    Every Shelter educates communities on how to build homes using brick molds and local, organic materials.

    home-designarchitectureevery sheltergensler
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