Trends from the Las Vegas Builder Convention

Hello 2023! We welcome a new season of building and remodeling by gathering experts in the industry, thousands of vendors with new products, exciting design, seasoned speakers and a whole lot of designer eye candy at the largest convention for our industry! Held in Florida the previous year I was happy to attend once again as it came back to Las Vegas. I enjoy the locale for its variety of free walk-able attractions and inexpensive hotel options in the heart of the original casino district. While I wasn’t too serious about snapping pictures of everything bright and shiny, I took a moment to capture a few repeat trends that kept appearing in different booths throughout the show. Here’s what caught my eye this go around!

Plumbing was revisiting the rainbow

Kohler always has a large and impressive presences at the show. Their booth was over the top as usual decked out with these insane floral arrangements. Nestled into this bed of buds was a throwback to their legacy as a leading plumbing manufacturer responsible for decades of famous colors that went on to define the brand’s clear hold on design. They were running a contest giving everyone a chance to vote one past color back into production.

In non-Kohler plumbing the colors may not have been legacy but they were still clear and present. I witnessed bright orange glass tubs and my favorite- this green soaker pictured below.

And while the tub itself isn’t necessarily a different color, the led lights coming from this alluring vessel can change the appearance of it, giving color the power to determine mood.

Everyone was making pizzas!

The trend around every corner of the show was the presence of pizza ovens. Both built-in wall style and exterior gas and wood, they came in every shape, style and color!

Fluting was appearing everywhere!

Once seen as a detail on wood pillars or door molding, fluting had gone by the wayside during the Craftsman and Modern Farmhouse design styles. And while you wouldn’t think of it for modern trends, it was showing up on everything from walls to island bases incorporated into a variety of styles.

The ribbed concrete wall in this bathroom vignette (below) is an industrial take on the same fluting that presents in wood on the navy island base (above). The previous pizza oven picture, mounted into a textured white wall, is another interpretation of fluting as a surface treatment.

Intricate Metal details added shine!

Cabinet doors styles have sort of run out of steam in the past couple of years. Most kitchens are going to have a shaker panel door, a modern flat full overlay door or a traditional raised panel door. Nothing really innovative has been around to shake up these styles so I knew when it did that it would not be a quiet design detail.

Intricately cut metal panels are frilly and delicate in this cabinet style (above) while reading a bit more modern and geometric (below).

And a touch of a metal cutout finds itself on the wood beam ceiling detail of this Tuscany inspired kitchen.

And that’s what I concluded were some of the most definitive trends at the Builder Show! Sure, there were plenty of other fun things that were bold and fun that I haven’t mentioned. I actually saw a magenta kitchen in an appliance display which I had just read about on a 2023 Trends To Watch list. I hesitated to photograph in the really congregated areas. Most of the photos I have are very quick moments between groups of people milling about. All of them were taken on my phone and not always the clearest. But the joy is in sharing what caught my eye and hopefully you have fun identifying what catches yours!