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| WHAT MAKES A HOME TIMELESS? | JOURNAL HOME |

What makes a home timeless?

What does Cameron Diaz’s sleek California home in The Holiday have in common with Kate Winslet’s wonderfully imperfect English cottage?

At first glance, not much.

One is polished and minimal, with espresso-stained wood floors, slim white baseboards, black metal windows, and rooms filled with cream.

The other has stone walls, worn wood, small windows, a brick fireplace, and the kind of rooms that appear to have collected their furnishings over generations.

They could hardly look more different.

And yet, more than twenty years later, both still feel inviting, complete, and entirely timeless.

I think Nancy Meyers understands something about timeless homes that can be difficult to explain.

Timelessness isn’t a particular style.

Styles fade in and out of popularity, sometimes returning with a new name and slightly different finishes.

Not timeless.

And a timeless home isn’t simply one that has remained frozen within the era in which it was built. A house from the 1970s does not need to remain entirely in the 1970s to keep what makes it special.

So, I spent some time thinking about what these very different homes have in common.

And what I found was that the same elements appear in homes from almost every era.

The colors change. The sizes change. The patterns and applications change.

But the elements themselves remain.

WOOD FLOORS

Let’s begin with what is underfoot.

Amanda’s California home has sleek, espresso-stained wood floors that suit its polished, minimal design.

In Iris’s English cottage, the wood appears older and more worn, as though it has been part of the house for generations.

They look nothing alike.

And yet, wood flooring belongs in both.

That is what I find so interesting about this material. Wood does not require every home to look the same. It changes with the era and takes on the personality of the house around it.

In a late-1800s farmhouse, you might find wide planks of pine or fir with knots, saw marks, and evidence that they were face-nailed into place.

In a 1970s ranch, you’re more likely to find narrow strips of smooth oak finished in a glossy golden-honey stain.

And in a home completed in 2026, the planks have become wide again, this time in white oak with a pale, natural stain and matte finish.

The species change. The widths change. The stains and finishes certainly change.

But the wood floor remains.

Apparently, homebuyers notice too. According to the National Association of Realtors’ 2022 Remodeling Impact Report, refinishing hardwood floors recovered an estimated 147 percent of the project cost, while installing new wood flooring recovered 118 percent.

Dark or natural. Narrow or wide. Polished or matte.

Wood continues to find a place in the home.

Timeless.

TRIMWORK

You can find trimwork in homes from nearly every era.

No one wants a wall to run directly into the floor where you’ll see gaps from expansion and contraction throughout the year.

Even the most modern, sleek home has at least the slimmest of baseboards.

My favorite era?

The 90s, when trim was stacked as high as it could go and Tuscan-esque kitchens were in their glory days, with plastic grapes and wine-colored walls, sponge-painted or lime-washed.

Wealth was declared in the amount of detail in your trim, where pillars stood grandly around dining rooms, and a staircase newel post could require a moment to appreciate every carved turn.

That era was promptly followed, understandably, by the removal of many of those wooden details, and minimalism became the mark of the early 2000s.

Slim baseboards, windows with minimal casing, metal stair railings, clean walls … warmth was no longer brought into the home through woodwork, but through cohesive color palettes and the fabrics used in rugs and furniture.

And these homes are just as beautiful and communicate timelessness.

Today, you will find a mix of everything. It completely depends on your personality because anything goes now. You'll find houses with simple 1x4 baseboards and crown molding, and trimwork with carved details and vines; it's all come back.

Timeless.

BRICK FIREPLACES

Brick fireplaces have warmed homes for centuries.

While most homes no longer rely on a fireplace as their sole or primary source of heat…, we certainly haven’t stopped wanting one.

A brick fireplace may seem too basic to change much from one home style to another, but have you seen House Hunters?

No matter the episode; someone is hoping for a fireplace, objecting to a fireplace, or already imagining what they would hang above it.

And as they walk through homes of different styles and eras, you see every possible version.

Fireboxes grow taller, smaller, wider, and deeper. Hearths are raised or set level with the floor. Mantels become ornate and then disappear altogether. Brick changes color and pattern, sometimes surrounding only the firebox and sometimes taking up an entire wall.

I have seen some beautiful ones.

And I have seen some quirky ones.

Today, the fire may come from wood, gas, or even an electric insert, but there is still something about a wood-burning fireplace that crackles, warms the room, and carries that unmistakable smell of burning wood.

The fireplace changes with the house.

The brick remains.

Timeless.

TILE

Tile probably dates a home more than almost any other material, but it’s also one of my favorite parts of a house.

I love seeing the tile choices people make because they offer a peek into their personality.

Color, texture, pattern, grout … there are so many ways to make the space between the kitchen cabinets or the floor of a bathroom feel considered.

And for me, the room I think about most when it comes to tile is the bathroom.

Do you remember the pink and blue bathrooms of the 1950s? The burnt-orange square tile of the 1970s? And then the accent tiles paired with cream-colored tile throughout the 1980s and ’90s?

Bathroom tile can certainly date a house, but it’s also one of the main things you’re waiting to see as you scroll through Zillow.

Is it going to be beautifully neutral?

Or wild enough that you need to show someone else?

The colors, sizes, and patterns change, but tile itself appears in every era.

A small hexagon can belong in a 1920s bathroom or one completed last week. Some tile crosses eras with ease, while others tell you exactly when the room was designed.

But tile keeps finding its place.

Timeless.

QUALITY HARDWARE

Quality hardware is something every era has used, and no particular era gets to claim it.

Yes, every home uses hardware, but hear me out.

When chosen purposefully, hardware helps establish the style and overall feeling of a home. It appears in nearly every room, from doorknobs to cabinet pulls.

Hardware can be simple, ornate, casual, grand, glass, brass, nickel, etc. Its finish may be polished, brushed, darkened, or left to develop a patina. It can stand out as decoration or nearly disappear into the cabinetry.

We touch hardware more than almost any other detail in our homes. We reach for it to open the front door, pull out a kitchen drawer, turn on the water, or find a clean towel in the bathroom cabinet.

And because metal is durable, good hardware can remain long after other finishes have been replaced. Brass softens with age. Bronze deepens. Iron carries small signs of every hand that has reached for it.

You gather the house's personality from the hardware.

A Taj Mahal quartzite countertop on an island painted Sherwin-Williams Oyster Bay provides a clue, but the hardware can steer the room toward modern with a sleek matte-black bar pull or toward traditional with an aged-brass cup pull.

It simply changes with the house.

Timeless.

I think a home begins to feel timeless when quality materials meet intentional design, and every room feels connected to the next.

Nothing must remain frozen within the decade in which it was chosen. But the materials, proportions, colors, and details should feel intentionally chosen as part of the same home.

This is why I like to begin with a deliberate plan when designing a home or even a single room.

If I’m remodeling a kitchen, I’m not thinking only about the kitchen. I’m thinking about how the cabinetry, flooring, tile, and hardware will connect to the rooms around it. And if the rest of the home will be updated later, we can create a palette that can be introduced in phases.

I think timelessness is ultimately about cohesion.

It’s chosen.

Deliberate.

You begin to understand the home’s personality and make decisions that belong to it.

The warmth of wood, the presence or absence of trimwork, a brick fireplace, tile, and quality hardware aren’t simply boxes to check off a list. They are materials and details that, when thoughtfully chosen, give a home its personality and give future updates something to build upon.

When those choices relate to one another, the home feels personal and inviting without becoming fixed within a single moment in time.

That is the kind of timelessness I think we’re after.

Not a home that never changes style, but one that can change and still feel like itself.