The Design Trends That Will Shape Our Homes in 2025
Perfection is passé and smart homes are out. In the new year, designers are eschewing the shiny and excessively chic in favor of spaces with a human touch.
Perfection is passé and smart homes are out. In the new year, designers are eschewing the shiny and excessively chic in favor of spaces with a human touch.
There was a lot to love in 2024. Some designers experimented with radically vibrant palettes, while others made strides implementing sustainable materials like cork and bamboo. Another set made idiosyncratic homes in unlikely spaces, turning a church or a factory into artful sanctuaries.
As we step into 2025, designers and architects we spoke with say warm, human-centric spaces will be underscored by sustainability. They want to continue examining the carbon footprint of materials, favoring locally sourced, nontoxic, and plant-based options that, in many ways, are a better alternative to excessive marble or faux finishes—what one architect calls "junk food." Mass-timber construction and bio-innovations, too, will lend to shaping a new era of design.
Cover Architecture restored a home originally designed by Buff & Hensman to create a stunning retreat that prioritizes sustainable materials. La Pietra Compattata Cromie brick tiles upcycled from waste of stone quarry productions, for example, have been used to clad the hearth and frame the timber-clad chimney breast.
Photo by Leonid Furmansky
There was a lot to let go of in 2024, too. Some are certain the smart home has had its due. Our lives are already too online, so where we reside should offer respite from cold digitalia, not further expose us to it. Instead of sterile, automated environments, 2025’s interiors will lose the built-in tech and instead focus on earthy materials like terra-cotta, warm woods, and finding ways to better connect with the outdoors. Spaces will feel like a "visual hug," says one designer. Handmade homes with textured, imperfect materials will help.
That’s not to say that the places we live will be bereft of the kind of color we saw in 2024; on the contrary, hues will ascend with vibrancy and wit—think bold yellows, rich burgundies, and surprising accents that add unique character.
Here’s what six design experts say they loved about 2024, what we can leave behind, and what we should expect from our spaces in the new year.
Elle Gerdeman—CO-G
Loved It: Playful Imperfection
According to Elle Gerdeman, principal of Boston architecture firm CO-G and a critic at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, playful ideas offer an antidote to the pressures of modern life. "As a practice, we lean heavily toward imperfect textures and materials that lead to playful forms," she says.
The Porter Loft apartment by Boston architecture firm CO-G is a celebration of mundane construction materials—plywood, plaster, polycarbonate, and steel—used in a way that elevates them without seeming precious. Custom furniture by the firm includes polished stainless steel mirrors that are warped in surprising ways.
Photo by Samuel Balukonis
"Droopy, puffy, smudged...we are often affecting materials and objects that would be otherwise normal or familiar," she continues. "Can a stone wall texture appear inflated? An aluminum table appear dripping? Following the seriousness of the last few years, we have been excited by the nostalgia and softness design can elicit."
This Swedish prefab cabin by Atelier–Heyman Hamilton features a playful mix of "perfectly imperfect" finishes, including custom plywood cladding and plaster.
Photo by Andy Liffner
See the full story on Dwell.com: The Design Trends That Will Shape Our Homes in 2025
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