Ohou (Today's House), a one-stop interior design platform, has released its interior design trends for the first half of 2019, based on an analysis of its service data.
Ohou is Korea's largest interior information platform, with over 1 million monthly active app users and more than 920,000 interior design examples. An analysis of user data within the Ohou service from January 1 to May 31 of this year identified the interior keywords that gained strong momentum in the first half of 2019 as: △natural style △Home Ludens (the practice of enjoying leisure at home) and △active rest.
During that period, about 39% of users who uploaded interior photos to Ohou decorated their spaces in the natural style. In particular, more users sought out the warm colors and nature-friendly materials that are commonly used in natural-style interiors. Based on the online housewarming content posted on Ohou, the proportion of users who decorated their homes in beige and light brown rose from 16% to 23%—an increase of 7 percentage points compared to the same period last year.
By contrast, the share of users decorating their homes in gray—which had shown strong preference until last year—declined by 13 percentage points, from 28% to 17%. In addition, sales of rattan furniture and accessories increased ninefold (834%) compared to the same period last year.
The Home Ludens trend—creating leisure spaces within the home to enjoy small pleasures—also stood out. Among the interior photos registered on Ohou from January to May this year, the number of study/workroom photos and the number of home café/home bar photos rose fourfold (316%) and fivefold (412%), respectively, compared to the same period last year. Moreover, a home bar sponsorship event that Ohou ran in collaboration with Jeju Beer this past April drew more than 6,500 applicants.
In addition, a trend of investing in interior design for active rest emerged, with increases in both sales of rest-related products and related interior design examples. Compared to the same period last year, sales of the candle/diffuser product category grew fourfold (290%), while the pillow/body-pillow category grew sevenfold (607%). Ohou explained that, as more people come to regard resting well and sleeping well as true rest, sales of healing-related products have been steadily rising. Personally creating a nature-friendly environment is also popular. The number of interior photos featuring homes decorated with plants increased roughly threefold (190%) compared to the same period last year.
An Ohou official said, "As the trend of prioritizing comfort and practicality and actively decorating one's own space spreads, preferences for interiors related to natural style, hobbies, and rest have grown significantly," adding, "As Ohou holds the largest collection of interior design examples and the largest user base in Korea, we plan to periodically analyze these trends and actively apply them across a variety of services."