The Best Interior Design Trends For 2026

The interior design trends you'll see everywhere this year. Hi, I'm Lucy, I'm an interior designer and these are 10 interior design trends that will dominate in 2026. When I spoke about the interior design trends for 2025, I spoke about color drenching, but this year it's all about color capping. So it's taking that concept just one step further, but instead of using one color to drench a room, you're bringing in two colors, sometimes even three colors, and essentially you're creating this gradient effect within the room. And generally speaking, the color darkens the higher that you go. So having a darker tone on your ceiling really helps to bring your eye down and so it centers you in the space. It helps to create a far more comforting aesthetic. A really simple way to achieve color capping is just by using two colors, so going a darker shade within the same tonal palette on your ceiling. However, you can also introduce a third color which really kind of brings to effect to that gradient and you can bring in that third color through the trims, your cornices, your skirting, that sort of thing. I'm also seeing a play on this where it's not this kind of tonal gradient, but instead it's actually pairing two hero colors together. This is a little bit trickier to pull off because you do need to make sure that the colors you are choosing are very complementary and they still work well within the same palette. But when it is done well, gosh, it brings so much fun, personality, and energy into a space and I absolutely love it. The 90s were daggy, but they were also kind of cool. So I'm going to call this Daggy Cool, okay? So this resurgence of the 90s, it's been brought around by this new generation discovering things like Friends and Will & Grace, you know, all those classic sitcoms that are now streaming on all the streaming platforms and the interiors in those shows, they were always so busy, they were full of color and life and personality. 90s interior styling was very relaxed, you know, it wasn't trying to be too perfect. We weren't trying to create this perfect Instagram vignette because Instagram didn't exist yet. It was a much simpler time back then. So here are some 90s interior design trends that are going to be making a comeback. High contrast colors, so being bold when bringing color into your home, such as color capping, like I mentioned before, and also really high contrast styling. So think Monica and Rachel's living room in Friends, that's such a good example, mixing and matching bold colors within the same space. Pattern stacking, so mixing and matching different patterns on top of one another. It's a kind of grandpa chic look, it's a little bit vintage, and it creates a very eclectic look. Actually, a really great reference for this is interior designer Heidi Kalia, so she designed Kendall Jenner's home, which we saw recently on AD. So this, for me, felt very 90s with a touch of grammar. Decorative detail, so opting for ornate detailing rather than minimalist designs. Decorative hardware, decorative embroidery, tassels, fringing, more is more. Floral patterns, so the 90s served them up on a platter. Puffy roll-arm sofas, very 90s, and in fact a double whammy would be the puffy roll-arm sofa plus floral upholstery. That would be the mothership, and I'm going to talk about trending furniture a little bit later. There's been a big move away from gold into silver. It's been happening a while now, but silver definitely is the it metal. This is really a hard one for me because I am very much a gold gal. The last time I wore silver was when I was a teenager, and when was that? You guessed it, the 90s, the circle of life. So yes, silver is in in a big way. In interiors, we're seeing it a lot more now. You're going to be noticing silver accents in furniture, lighting, even those smaller items like your vases, photo frames. Also, obviously, seeing this show up a lot in the hardware selection across say kitchens and bathrooms, so things like stainless steel and chrome. I'm not a massive fan of chrome, I must admit. I kind of shy away from it a bit, and if you're not really that into silver either, a really good option is nickel. You can go polished nickel for a really high shine, but personally, I prefer brushed nickel, tumbled nickel. It offers you that silver look and feel, but it's a bit more dulled down and a bit more chill. I'm sorry, but the color of the year is not off-white. I don't know if Pantone were high when they made that decision. Like I understand the concept that they were going with, but white is just, it's just not it, okay? There's so much color going on in interiors right now, they could have chosen any color, literally ruby, plum, caramel, a delicious brown or a lush blue. In fact, blue is definitely making a comeback. Is that another 90s throwback? I don't know, maybe. Is that the 90s? Hold please. I feel 65, blue, 1999. Yes! So yes, blue is definitely more in favor. I'm not talking about baby blue. I'm not talking about royal blue. I'm talking about this cornflower blue, like a beautiful medium tone that's still got a lot of depth to it, but it's also quite soft and light. Duel Lux have a really great color actually, that's in their 2026 color forecast. It's called Wink. I'm kind of obsessed with it, looking at using it in a new project coming up soon. Watch this space. And as for green, look, it was all about green for a while there. And if you're like me, green is always going to be trending. However, we're starting to shift away from green into a sort of dirtier olive now. So think more like a mossy gray. Yeah, shall we move on? Let's. Gray is making a comeback, kind of. Okay, so there is a caveat there. Okay, I do want to point that out. So it's still all about warm and earthy tones, but gray is starting to sneak its tiny little toe back in there. It is being layered into these warm color schemes and being used more like a accent color more than a feature. So, you know, if you're at a show, all the warm and earthy tones, they're still up on the main stage. And gray, gray is like the usher showing you to your seats. Materials like concrete, micro cement, stone, tiles, marble, those are really great ways to introduce gray subtly into, say, a warm color palette. And bringing gray into a warm color palette can bring a lot of depth as well. So if you love gray and you've been waiting for it to come back, I'm very happy for you. Just don't overdo it and make sure you keep it nice and warm still and use it just as an accent. So I spoke about sensory texture a lot in 2025 trends. That continues into 2026. But like I mentioned, you know, we can't all have these beautiful concrete, brick, sandstone walls that exist within our home. So a really great way that I've been seeing people apply the texture is through micro cement. It's a really good way to bring texture to flat walls, especially within an established home. I'm seeing a lot in bathrooms, especially literally coating the whole bathroom floor walls instead of actually opting for tiles. It's seamless, it's subtle, and it's a really great way to bring just really soft depth to your space. It is a bit of a process to get a really good finish with micro cement. So you might want to use a professional. But if you are wanting to DIY it, do look into it. Otherwise, check out some texture paint options that could be the easiest solution to bring a bit more movement to your flat walls. Big sculptural furniture forms that are made from materials like steel, concrete, timber, you know, brutalist furniture is very much having a moment. Those heavy geometric forms really create a sense of weight and durability and permanence. It's all about trying to create this sense of grounding, you know, trying to bring some more stability into your home and hopefully your life as well. You know, that's a dream. You're also going to start to see more floral patterns applied to upholstery. The old sofa skirt is making a comeback. Silver trim is definitely in. And anything that feels lived in. So anything with recycled materials or, you know, materials that are going to age and patina, pre-loved furniture, anything that has that energy to it and doesn't feel like it's just been made in a very large mass-produced factory. We're also seeing a shift towards styling different furniture pieces within a space rather than, say, a more streamlined built-in seating. So it's just kind of pushing back against that minimalist look and bringing in a bit more of an eclectic feel with different pieces of furniture. I'm mainly talking about bathrooms here, but I'm seeing more and more designs that are using just one tile. So that is using the same tile on the floor and the walls. It helps to create a really seamless effect. It completely envelops you into the space. So it's very calming. It's very grounded. And I think this is just a response to everything going on right now. There's probably too much choice. And so people are kind of pushing back on that and saying, you know what, one tile, that's it. That's what we're going to do. It's okay to mix and match your timber finishes. In it's going to feel forced. It's going to look like you tried too hard because honestly, you did. You did try really hard to make sure everything was matching. So we're pushing back against that and it's all about mixing and matching different timber tones. You're also going to be seeing a lot more darker woods as well. Again, I think this is a little bit more of the 90s feel, those vintage one-off pieces. It wasn't about kind of light birch ply. My god, light birch ply was just everywhere for a while there. We're pushing back against that. We're going for richer depth. So think cherry oaks, walnuts, those darker stains with that natural grain coming through. A minimalist room in 2026. It's a no. A perfectly styled, not lived interior. That is also a no. We are all about real this year. Thank goodness. We want authenticity. We want to see personality. We want energy. We want to see you. We want to see a reflection of who you are in your interiors. Thank goodness. We want positivity. We want character. We want life because let's be honest, there's a bit going on in the world right now and we're really seeking comfort from our home more than we have ever before. That started earlier with that trend towards warm and earthy tones to really help us feel comfort and grounded within our space. But now it's extending further than that because we actually want to show who we are. We're bringing to the forefront things that actually bring us joy. This is something that I wholeheartedly agree with because honestly, if I walk into a home and to be honest with you, I have walked into homes before where I felt like I couldn't sit down. You know, everything's either too perfect or too sterile that I can't like collapse on the sofa naturally. So if I can't come and sit down in your home, it is not a good interior. You want to make sure it's comfortable and you want to make sure it's inviting. So that, my friends, are the interior design trends that will dominate in 2026. I hope you found some inspiration. If there's any trends that you've also been noticing that I didn't mention here, let me know in the comments below. And like always, trends are just trends, guys. So don't worry. They come and they go. My advice to anyone styling their home is to really trust your gut. All about the instinct, guys. Just feel your homes and the things that you love because at the end of the day, you need to love living there. For more interior design and home styling advice, you can check out our Let Us In Home Tour series and also our Reno Goals Home Renovation series. And if you want to do us a solid, like and subscribe, maybe even tell a friend. I'll see you soon.