It's official: Home decorating isn't just a national hobby - it's an obsession.

Certainly the obsession shows no signs of a letup in Tucson, a city that draws an estimated 25,000 new residents every year.

But it's not just growing communities and growing families that are driving the design fever. The increased interest in home decorating is partly explained by what's happening in the world, experts and style watchers say.

After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, there was a distinct change in spending and leisure habits, with fewer people traveling and more people focused on their home environments.

Considering the ongoing war in Iraq and last month's tsunami in the Indian Ocean, we could see similar "cocooning" in 2005.

Maurice Brantley, interior designer with Copenhagen Imports, recalls a surge in business after Sept. 11.

"Instead of taking that vacation, people decided to put money into redesigning a kitchen or a new living room," he says. "It's still ongoing. I think people are thinking it's safe at home."

The nesting urge resulted in brighter, happier habitats.

Tucson's interior designers say they saw more color in our décor, a hot trend that's not expected to cool in 2005.

Until just a few years ago, real estate agents warned homeowners that painting interior walls with even the most pale colors might bring down the property's value.

"I think that has changed," says Linda Lou Duddeck, an agent with Long Realty's Foothills office. "You always run the risk that even if it's tastefully done it may not be everyone's taste. But it's not the issue it used to be.

"As long as it's done tastefully, it's not a negative to market it," she says.

Perhaps encouraged by the energetic Ty Penningtons on the tube, or maybe because they just got bored of white and beige, homeowners here are not just picking up paint brushes, they're brandishing them with bold color choices.

"I'm doing a lot of reds in walls," says interior designer Barbara Schaefer of Schaefer Design Group. "I've just finished a whole living room and dining room in red, and I've completed an entire kitchen in an eggplant color. People have come to love color. They're finding it makes them happy. And to me it's one of the least expensive ways of dressing up your house. I hope the days of white walls are gone."

"I'm seeing a fearless use of color," says Brantley, of Copenhagen. "We've got these programs on TV that are reassuring customers that it's all right to take risks. I'm seeing not only brighter color but darker colors for accent walls - chocolate brown and very dark gray."

Wallpaper is another national trend that's starting to emerge in Tucson. But the new wallpaper is textured, with raised patterns - some in subtle browns to give an Asian theme, others darker and more fancy.

"It's certainly something we're going to be seeing more of as we start to get more comfortable with (painting) walls," says Brantley. "We'll start seeing more wallpaper in places like powder rooms."

Both Brantley and Schaefer are also seeing homeowners taking risks with their furniture - mixing it up rather than buying everything from one collection or genre. They're crossing different time periods as well, placing antiques alongside contemporary pieces.

This eclectic trend isn't going away, Brantley says. "You can have a dining table in one style and mix it with chairs in another. It's perfectly acceptable to have a very contemporary sofa and then have something near it that's from the past."

Americans are more and more mashing the modern and traditional together with no harm done, says Marité Acosta, a design account manager with the Style Council, a surface design and textile studio in New York.

"If you have a country cottage look, for example, things aren't as cluttered as they used to be. There are cleaner lines, there may be black finishes. Everything isn't gingham and chintz and floral anymore."

Interiors, in fact, are becoming more streamlined, Acosta says. The traditional is being tweaked to match all the sleek, high-tech items like iPods and flat-screen TVs and heavy-duty espresso machines that are becoming fixtures in our homes.

"We might have a traditional leather chair, but now it's in green or orange," she says.

If homes are becoming fashion statements, it's no wonder that teenagers are one of the driving demographics.

Teens are paying as much attention to the look of their bedrooms as to what they're wearing, says Acosta. "Teenagers have been a huge market - 12 to 14-year-olds who're saying, 'This is how I want my bedroom to look.' The kids are deciding, and a lot of (merchandise) is geared toward them."

Manufacturers are heeding the trend. A national leader, Pottery Barn, has its own teen line and a dedicated Web site (www.pbteen.com).

And while we're on the subject of bedrooms, bedding is one of the hot new areas of the home, say those in the know. Beading, embroidery and brocades are all over the catwalks and spilling over into linens and pillows, says Acosta. People are designing rooms to match their bedding.

Tucsonans aren't necessarily slaves to fashion, of course. In fact, designers here say that when it comes to interiors, we tend to set our own rules.

"Tucsonans want a look that depicts Tucson, not San Diego or even Phoenix," says Bednar. And, inevitably, we're still taking a lot of our inspiration from Mexico and Spanish/Mediterranean looks.

Bednar is seeing large rooms being softened with wood in ceilings, and "big and chunky" hardware around windows.

And while the national trend is toward retro flooring like linoleum and carpet tiles, Tucsonans still favor wood, tile and concrete floors.

Poured concrete, custom colored and scored to look like tiles, is being used as flooring in many new and remodeled homes. "It's a less expensive floor covering than tiles, and with concrete you don't have the grout," says Duddeck.

Schaefer expects to see homeowners experimenting more with stone, slate and wood floors, larger tiles, and new materials like porcelain, which is said to be harder than granite or marble, yet resembles glass underfoot.

And what of the houses themselves? We still favor large spaces here, and windows and window coverings are getting bigger and more dramatic.

But there's evidence we're consolidating a little with our living space.

Schaefer sees more homeowners ditching the idea of two living areas, one formal and one day-to-day, in favor of a great room.

"People are finding out they really don't need (an extra) living room, but they need an office or a media room. They have a great room, and that's their living space. That's where the TV set is and the fireplace is."

It all comes back to the cocooning thing, she says. "People are staying home, and their home is very important to them."