I’m sat here writing about Interior trends whilst looking out of my patio doors seeing Storm Barra battering the sea and everything around us and it pretty much sums up 2021 to be honest. It’s been a stormy and unsettled year, a bit like the weather.

We’ve seen glimmers of light when the country slowly started opening up again, the vaccines a big success and people gingerly returning to normal life. But then, a violent storm will rear its ugly head (mainly disguised as a Covid variant) and we’re all thrown into turbulent times again.

I always like to walk into a new year with hope and optimism and this year will be no exception! I love reading past Interior Trends (like this one for 2021) to see how I thought the upcoming year would turn out. But I guess, as the past 2 years have shown, we just have to keep taking it one day at a time.

Anyway, where am I going with this? And how does it effect Interior Trends? You only have to look at past decades to see how current affairs and the general mood of a nation can effect how we decorate and live.

The 60s was an age of space and rebellion and that was reflected in pod chairs, lava lamps and unconventional bright colours. The 00s saw a huge increase in people recycling, upcycling and repurposing due to the recession and crafting became cool, mainly in part to Etsy’s launch in 2005.

So, what will we see in 2022? New beginnings, nature and a feeling of calm….

Colour Interior Trends

Earthy and warm neutrals seem to be sticking around with green still playing a dominant part in home décor. We’ve seen green in many forms this year, from sage to olive and Farrow & Ball have named Breakfast Room Green as one of its colours to look out for in 2022.

After a few years of being in lockdown or confined to our homes, green really promotes a sense of wellbeing in the home and helps us to connect to nature. Emerald green is set to be an extremely popular interior trend in 2022!

It seems that people are becoming braver when it comes to decorating their homes. I recently popped to B&Q to pick up some Valspar paint and had a good chat with the Valspar paint mixer. She said that over the years of mixing, 9 times out of 10, people would ask for a white or grey colour.

However, in the last year or so, she has had a lot more requests for green and blue and even mixed her first Fuchsia like colour recently.

Neutrals are still prevalent, but have evolved from white and beige to more daring colours like taupe and camel. 2022 will see these neutrals being mixed with more earthy reds like rust, burnt red and brick tones.

Black accents

All this talk of colour, but there’s no denying that monochrome homes are huge on Instagram and show no signs of abating. Neutral décor can be the perfect base to add black accents into your home, adding depth and contrast. Adding black lamps, handles, industrial style furniture with black legs or even just black mirror or frames will help lift a neutral and minimalist space.

Black (or anthracite grey) has also become the go to frame colour when installing doors, windows or even shower cubicles. Swapping your white UPVC windows for steel or anthracite grey frames or even better, painting them, really helps frame the view from outside and instantly modernises your home.

Colourful kitchens

Painting our kitchens and kitchen cabinetry has seen a huge boom in the last few years and has become a firm interior trend favourite. It’s amazing what a lick of paint can do to breathe new life into a space and completely modernise it, for little fuss (ok, nearly little fuss) and cost.

Homeowners are becoming increasingly conscious about waste and their impact on the environment and painting your kitchen cupboard doors is the perfect way to update a kitchen that is still in good nick.

Floor and tile trends

Terrazzo will be a big interior trend in 2022 and not just because I’ve had terrazzo tiles put in my bathroom! Terrazzo is versatile, visually pleasing and have come a long way from the Terrazzo of supermarket floors.

Originally, Terrazzo was made from discarded pieces of marble which Italian construction workers would take home and press into clay to make unusual designs. Terrazzo in Italian means terrace or balcony and this is where a lot of the designs ended up. 

You can now get Terrazzo in a huge range of colours and designs to suit all corners of your home, from the bathroom flooring to a fabulous statement splashback in the kitchen.

Industrial style décor is also hugely popular at the moment with steel beams in the kitchen left exposed and people deciding to keep their brick walls on display. However, don’t get that hammer and chisel out just yet! Brick slips are a quicker and easier way to add that rustic look to a room and come in all sorts of colours and textures.

Finally, it doesn’t look like the metro tile is going anywhere, but we are starting to see a variation on the plain white gloss look. Glazed, rustic and zellige tiles have an irregular surface that help add texture to a wall and reflect light around the room.  

Texture

Which leads me on to texture! We’ve seen it all on Instagram this year; boucle, fluted glass and ribbed furniture to name but a few. Instagrammers have been falling over themselves upcycling and repurposing old pieces of furniture by adding reeded glass film to wardrobe doors, boucle’ing their old dining chairs and adding decorative panels to sideboards.

I can’t see this interior trend disappearing in 2022. In fact, I’m sure we will see even more inventive ways to add pattern and texture to our homes in the least unexpected places.

Nature and biophilic design

I don’t think this is really an “interior trend” as such anymore as year after year, bringing nature into the home has become an integral part of our décor. Biophilic design is also growing from strength to strength every year as we look at ways to bring more natural light into the home and gently blend the home and garden together.

The best way to do this is to add more plants to your home. Plants have a calming effect and help soften the edges of our standard “box-like” homes. Plants are also becoming super-sized with fiddle leaf fig trees, olive trees and oversized Bird of Paradise plants making a real statement in the home.

Entangled design

Continuing the conversation about biophilic design leads us nicely onto entangled design. We have often talked about bringing the outside in, but increasingly we are looking at actually blurring the lines between our home and garden, creating a seamless transition from indoors to outdoors. Entangled design takes biophilia one step further. 

The best way to describe it is; think of a house with huge bifold doors, that open out onto a decking area or patio. Plants and natural materials surround the bifold doors which lead out onto a patio adorned with rugs, seating areas and more plants. If cleverly done, you won’t know where the house stops and the garden begins! Your home and garden become an extension of each other.

Earth inspired prints

Geometric is out and earth inspired prints are in. Think chinoiserie inspired by Chinese and Japanese art, floral design and whimsical foliage prints. Chinoiserie is the perfect fit for the biophilic craze that seems to become an ever popular interior trend year after year. 

Nature-inspired décor will definitely be the dominant trend in 2022 and wallpaper and fabric designs that include flora and fauna prints will have a huge influence.

DIY, Crafting and upcycling

DIY and upcycling have always been something that I am interested in and again, doesn’t really feel like an interior trend as such. I think it will just grow in popularity as people look to being more sustainable in the home.  Instagram and TikTok have become almost saturated with people doing it for themselves, from simple IKEA hacks to larger kitchen revamps.

Lockdown also helped us to rediscover our creative sides and the crafters among us dug out our glue guns and dusted down our sewing kit. Crafting has become our outlet for personal expression, good for our mental health by reducing anxiety and improving our moods and helping us to live more sustainably.

Our homes will become full of our wares like wall hangings and painted plant pots. One of the first things I made for our home was a spring floral wreath, you can see the blog post here. 

Home offices & multifunctional spaces

And finally, something I think most of us will be pleased to see continuing, working from home! We all quickly turned a corner of a room into an office when the first lockdown happened in March 2020, but we never realised how much of a permanent feature this would become.

We are now looking at ways to create a permanent office in our home and move the laptop from the dining table. We will be completely reimagining rooms by incorporating a more permanent desk space and, if possible, erecting purpose-built sheds in the garden or converting our lofts or garages.

If you are not sure what to do with a space, it’s always a good idea to hire an Interior Design to give you a vision. Someone who specialises in colour and material choices, like Olive and Oak Interiors is a good place to start!

And a final note….

Pantone has released its Colour of the Year 2022 and it’s Very Peri! Described as a vibrant blue-purple, this is the first time in Pantone’s history that they have created a brand-new colour for COTY.

“As we move into a world of unprecedented change, the selection of Pantone Very Peri brings a novel perspective and vision of the trusted and beloved blue colour family” says Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director, Pantone Colour Institute.

We have definitely seen more use of softer purples in interior trends this year, lilac and violet being some of the favoured tones. However, I can’t really see Very Peri becoming popular within the home décor world. It is described as a dynamic lavender and will take over pink, but I find this shade is more of an angrier sister of pink! 🙂 I could be proved wrong…

It will be interesting to see what interior trends emerge over the next 12 months. This is my last blog post of the year so I hope you all have a fabulous Christmas and a happy new year.

Mel x