Ready for your home to look oh-so 2011? It shouldn't be too hard, because the on-the-horizon trends are all about making it more optimistic, functional and personal. Here's what's new on the home front:1. Size up salon style. Instead of restraining yourself to a gallery wall with coordinating frames, there's something delightful about a confident floor-to-ceiling mishmash. It makes a room feel lived in and personal. Roni Jaco, who trots the globe looking for ethically made handicrafts for her online store, the Loaded Trunk, uses a melange of pieces from her travels on her walls, including antique prints and photos. "When you like things, they just all seem to go together."

2. Lighten up the kitchen. "A kitchen is like an operating room: You want it to be clear and bright so you can see all the details," says New York interior designer Vicente Wolf. In addition to good task lighting, the author of "Lifting the Curtain on Design" prefers white cabinets or lighter woods.

3. Tone down hardwoods. Although espresso and dark hardwood floors have been the norm for years, we're noticing a little lighter look for the surface you walk on. "You're starting to see two-tone and gray finishes," Wolf says. "Like driftwood."

4. Get back to bulb basics. Victorian, Edison-style and squirrel-cage lightbulbs are surprisingly hot little numbers despite the shift toward CFLs and LEDs. No, not for all your lighting needs but perhaps for your decorative clear-glass and bare-bulb fixtures so that you can really see the filament.

5. Go country. No, we're not talking 1980s geese in bonnets. We're seeing casual, toned-down finishes on furniture. "Whitewash instead of pure white," says Sarah Richardson, a Canadian designer and HGTV host. Look for the grayed-out Gustavian and Belgian furniture available in catalogs such as Restoration Hardware and Wisteria. Well-worn woods vs. exotic ones create a rustic elegance, Richardson says, and will stay around a while.

6. Think pink. The color of 2011 is an optimistic pinkish-red called Honeysuckle, according to Pantone, which provides color services for design professionals. It can go Barbie in a hurry, but small doses could go a long way: accent pillows, a Moroccan pouf, a dish towel or one wall of a bedroom.

Vetrazzo, Star Tribune
Look for more recycled content countertops such as Vetrazzo's Margarita Flint, which uses flint glass.

7. Dig gold. Look for more golden upholstery fabrics and furniture finishes, even a little brass.

8. Reimagine materials. The "who knew?" factor of upcycled house goods will be even bigger in 2011, according to those at Etsy, the online marketplace for handcrafts. Look for plastic bags turned into bowls and bike parts into clocks. Richardson is seeing more recycled-content countertops.

9. Let it slide. Sliding doors have gotten a stylish makeover, thanks to offices and hip urban lofts. More barn-style wooden doors will make their way to basements, closets and bedrooms. They can save space or conceal a large area for privacy.

10. Mix it up. We like Richardson's recipe: "Masculine and feminine in equal parts. You don't want to alienate anyone. Light and dark, and old with new, also both in the same amounts. That way the room is not a time capsule, but then it's not trying too hard to be cutting-edge."