Design Trends

Top 9 Interior Design Trends for 2022

Out: Fancy Tile

While hand-painted floor tiles may not have looked flashy long ago, colorful quadrangle finishes won’t be a big part of the arsenal in 2022, predicts Charlotte, NC, interior designer Gray Walker. “The line between inside and outside will continue to blur,” and such embellishments are too busy to juxtapose with the simplicity of the natural world, she said. Mosaic floors, too, had their moment, said Brooklyn-based architect Adam Meshberg, “until people started spending more time at home and choosing quieter spaces that were easy on the eyes.”

In: Patterned Wood Laid

Classic, ornate herringbone wood floors are zigzagging in interiors, even in contemporary ones. The look “adds a timeless, textured touch to modern rooms,” said lead designer Sarah Cukorbaum of Austin, Texas, firm SLIC Design, who most recently employed herringbone in white oak and ebony-stained oak. Ms. Walker appreciates the dual contribution of herringbone: “You get the beauty of a pattern and the warmth of wood.”

Out: Big-Stitch Blanket

Throws made from extremely thick threads are so common that they are aesthetically pleasing. “Machine-made, chunky-yarn blankets are more suited for a football stadium than one’s home,” said Washington, D.C., designer Josh Hildreth, who adds that mass-produced items would have felt a space rather than lived in. Is.

In: Well Knit Wrap

“Hand-covered blankets are due to their organic, natural flaws,” said Mr. Hildreth. “The threads are usually hand-dyed and have plenty of color.” And those tossed coverlets make for an effect. “When you think of a room in layers, the outermost layers are what you see first, creating an immediate impression,” he said. Los Angeles design pro Susan Taylor, of Davis Taylor Design, often reaches for the Scottish sheepskin wool knits of Paulette Rollo (shown), “because they look more artisanal and handmade.”

OUT: Teensy Pendant Lights

Small hanging lights in large rooms, even manifolds of them, have lost their luster for Newport Beach, Calif., designer Reilly Klassen. “In spaces with huge ceilings, small light fixtures get swallowed up,” she said. Ms. Klaasen weaves pendants in cluster powder rooms, but fixtures less than 36 inches in most spaces no longer attract her. Interior designer Shannon Palmer in Rancho Mirage, Calif., said she still interestingly welcomes small pendants made of blown glass or even rope or raffia, but “clients use simple, ‘techno’ frosted Glass and cables are leaving the pendant behind.”

In: Titanic Fixtures

Lights are no longer the only reason to have a chandelier. Designers bring the drama with pieces like the Mooi Random Light II (shown), a fiberglass orb available in diameters of up to 41.3 inches. ,[Oversized fixtures] become a major art piece and define the personality of the space,” said Ms. Klassen. In the room from which this story begins, the Kiev, Ukraine, architect Sergei Makhno grouped the Khamara ceramic pendants he designed In addition to the direct function of the fixtures, the largest of which are about 50 inches, he said, they create “a wow faOUT: Boxy Blackned-Steel Frames

In the 2021 trend report, we confidently sent modern farmhouse style to pasture with its white clapboards and dark window frames. Its trademark blacked-steel details still persist in many variations of the design, but Kim Armstrong, a designer in Rockwall, Texas, predicts that their inappropriate application will end. “In my area of ​​Dallas I see a lot of people installing windows with black frames in brick houses from the 1960s-1980s,” she said. “It should not be used in every renovation or new construction on the block.”

In: Bendy Lines

“Archs in both cabinetry and architecture” are turning the corner to meet our need for “softer lines and more comfortable designs,” said Ms. Armstrong. In the Winnetka, Ill., home shown above, designer Mark Lavender emphasized broad hallway arches, which he said give a “great sense of space” by decorating the surrounding walls in a strict, contrasting grid of plaid. Even in a comparatively calm and simple interior, arches make a statement, said designer Linde Galloway of Costa Mesa, Calif., who recently fitted a vaulted space into a client’s tiled shower wall.

Out: Reign of the Cane

Although Ms Taylor sometimes likes the lightness of hand-woven cabinet-fronts on vintage furniture, island-time materials “appeared everywhere to be crammed during the pandemic.” A little goes a long way. Erin Gates in Wellesley, Mass., still prefers a traditional rattan accent piece here and there, but finds the boho “all rattan all the time” approach as faded as vintage Hawaiian shirts. “It’s also uncomfortable,” he said of canned seating, and that 2022 is about finding a mix between comfort and fashion.

In: Ribs and Flute

Those professionals who design luxury residences are adding ribbed-wood detailing to walls, kitchen cabinetry, bathrooms and more, Mr. Meshberg said. also to be a revival: likewise linear fluting, a descendant of the vertical grooves that characterized the columns in the better homes and gardens of Ancient Rome. Today, fluting introduces visual intrigue, “without adding true pattern,” said designer Letitia Laurent of Laure Nail Interiors in Boca Raton, Fla. It strikes a balance of “simple but interesting.”

OUT: Regular mass-produced wallpaper

While design experts largely agreed that wallcoverings are still marketable, papering rooms with typical “fast fashion” iterations—especially dull graphic patterns—will turn no heads, said designer Kristen Pea of ​​K Interiors in San Francisco. . “Wallpaper is no longer the only alternative to paint,” said Batya Stapleman, consultant and owner of WallTalk in Denver. “Everyone I work with sees it as large-format art, and they don’t want the same piece as their neighbor.”

IN: Walls you want to touch

Our yen has got the ability to climb walls for contact and cocooning. Plastered surfaces, contrast two seemingly opposite aesthetics: The plaster is “too organic, yet rich.” New York designer Lauren Behfarin predicts we’ll see a lot of chocolate lime wash with its subtle texture and intrigue. Galloway said, plaster paint can supply speckle optics without the cost of the actual trowel-it-on stuff.

OUT: Made-to-Order Furniture

Supply-chain disruptions are causing extreme delays when it comes to delivering anything other than goods in stock. “Large furniture pieces in general have the longest lead times,” said San Antonio, Texas, designer Alison Giese, who has encountered 28-week lead times when ordering upholstered sofas and chairs for clients “I personally ordered some patio chairs last April, and I just got word that the new expected delivery date is March 2022.”

IN: Ye Olde Goodes

“Antiques are available and sold right below the floor,” said excited Sheldon Hurt of interior design firm Hart Brownlee in Laguna Beach, Calif., one of the many design professionals we selected, who said the shipping associated with the new furniture crisis has raised his admiration of vintage pieces. The attic also finds it worthy. “Many clients are exploring family heirlooms and choosing to use them in interesting ways,” said New York City-based designer Tina Ramchandani. “People are craving connection and history.” Alessandra Wood, design historian and VP of style at online design firm Modsy, called the early American examples and their simple forms particularly resurgent.

Out: Banana Blues

The cool color found in dentists’ reception rooms everywhere is “no longer with our clients”, Ms Ramchandani said. “Many of my clients are nervous about using color and were leaning into blues as their way of adding interest to spaces,” she said of the sometimes gloomy, now overly pervasive hue. Designers are also moving away from blue-based grays and whites.

In: Mixed Greens

“The one color our customers have been asking for lately is green,” said Betty Brandolino of Fresh Twist Studio in Elmhurst, Ill. Warm greens like olive won the slot in our recent trend report, but the palette has expanded to include emerald, eucalyptus, jade. And teal. “Rich mid-spectrum shades of green bring the outside in,” said Denise Guadeloupe Rojas, Interiors by Design in Silver Spring, MD, who singled out shades like Benjamin Moore’s October Mist,], Garden Flower of Valspar and Behr’s Sage. How else to combine nature and design? “Not only more indoor plants but larger windows and plant-inspired prints,” said New York City-based designer Lawrence Carr.

OUT: Glass Tabletops and Buildings

We don’t usually debate architectural trends in our annual design trend reports, but anyone who finds the glass-walled world of HBO’s “succession” happy to hear it from New Yorker David West, founding fellow of Hill West Architects Might be possible. “We have crossed the top of all the glass masks,” he said. Clever glazing “has become synonymous with mass production and oblivion.” The same thing happens indoors, said Ms Taylor, due to how easily glass can break or tarnish. And there’s the smudge factor, because a sticky-fingered kid or anyone with a spouse will moan “Oh,” she said.

IN: Travertine Tablets

Sandy limestone plays well with other, brighter colors. Using travertine, with its naturally irregular color pattern, is a bit like living indoors in the countryside, reports interior designer Lauren Lerner, founder of Living With Lolo in Cave Creek, Ariz. Stone was an intermediate mainstay that popped up again in the 1980s, Ms Taylor said. “Its comeback now is largely due to its creamy color, warm feel, and organic surface.” In short: it’s back to nature.