1stDibs Reveals 2024 Trends from its Annual Designer Survey
What’s IN and What’s OUT for Colour, Motifs, Design, and More
13 November 2023
Sage green puts an end to emerald’s three-year streak and disco balls and checkprint are officially on the wane
1stDibs, a leading marketplace for extraordinary design, has announced the results of its seventh annual Interior Designer Trends Survey, taken by 624 interior designers from around the world. The highly anticipated insights from the data help to predict and define the hottest trends of the upcoming year, as well as year-over-year change and design trends that are falling out of favour.
“As we head into 2024, it’s interesting to see the aesthetic shifts anticipated by interior designers, those discerning friends of ours who reliably lead the way in matters of style and taste,” said Anthony Barzilay Freund, Editorial Director, 1stDibs. “The results from our annual survey are in, and the experts have spoken: colour preferences are changing, pattern affinity has evolved and much of what we saw trending on social media last year may no longer be embraced. We're forever grateful to our esteemed designer colleagues for sharing their insights with 1stDibs.”
Here’s what the interior designers had to say:
PART 1: WHAT'S IN FOR 2024
Colour Trends: Earthy sage rises in the ranks against jewel tones
As evidenced by social media and the prevalence of emerald tones in home design, emerald has topped the charts for three years in a row. However, this reign as designers’ top prediction for popular colours has come to an end in 2024, with sage green taking the lead (by three percentage points) as the colour that’s predicted to be most popular in 2024, garnering 26 percentage points versus emerald green’s 23%. The next top colour contender is dark brown/chocolate at 21%, which moved up from sixth to third place year-over-year. It’s followed by burnt/dusty orange (19%), dark yellow/mustard (19%) and light brown/tan (17%), for an earthy 1970s inspired palette.
Colour Trends: Blue Hues Rank High and Lavender Loses its Luster
Ranking just behind the earthy greens, tans, and oranges, are hues of blue, with light blue/robin’s egg blue trending upward in popularity and cobalt blue trending downward from the previous year. When asked to directly compare various hues of blue, cobalt still slightly bests light blue/robin’s egg blue, as 25% of designers expect this to be most popular in the colour family followed by light blue/robin’s egg at 24% and navy at 23%. The purple colour family is not predicted to be popular next year; lavender saw the most dramatic decrease, as its popularity dropped by half.
Decades Through the Years and 1970s Bohemianism
While the aesthetics of the 1920s and 1930s have been consistently on the rise since 2021 (from 13% expected in 2021 to 25% for 2024), the 1950s have been slowly declining. Also trending lower are the modern shapes of the 1960s that reigned in 2020-2021 (from 36% expected for 2021 to just 14% in 2024), with designers globally moving to 1970s bohemianism in 2024 (from 13% in 2020 to 27% in 2024).
Patterns in Patterns and All About Aesthetics
When asked what one pattern or motif will be popular in 2024, organic designs, bold/large scale prints and florals are expected to become the most popular looks, although bold scale has declined slightly since 2022. The top design aesthetics that will remain popular for 2024 include mid-century modernism, Scandinavian modernism, minimalism, maximalism and monochromatic schemes (all at 30%+). Meanwhile, rustic themes, brutalism, cottage core and Neoclassicism are trending downward, all at about 20% or less.
Icons of Seating and Lighting
The most iconic seating included Vladimir Kagan Serpentine Sofas and Hans Wegner Wishbone Chairs. Interestingly, while they still top the charts, their popularity has been slightly decreasing since 2021. Meanwhile, the next three in line are Eames Chairs, De Sede DS-600 'Snake’ Sofas and Afra and Tobia Scarpa Soriana Seating — interestingly, the latter two have both increased in popularity from the previous year, whilst Eames Chairs dropped slightly.
The most iconic lighting styles/designs include Murano Glass Pendants and Chandeliers, the Noguchi Akari Lamp, the Venini-Style Mushroom Lamp and the Ingo Maurer White Paper Lamp.
The Likelihood of Limewash
When asked which materials and finishes will become popular in 2024, the highest percentage of designers chose limewash (24%), followed by ceramic/terra cotta (21%) and blonde wood (19%). When it comes to popular objects and features expected to be popular in 2024, walls with limewash or plaster and ceilings decorated with wallpaper or paint are rated as most likely by 35% of designers. Not far behind are curvy and irregular shapes (32%), and patterned wallpaper (29%).
PART 2: WHAT'S OUT
The Death of “Dormcore”
The “dorm room-esque” combination of checkprint rugs, DIY disco ball decor and custom neon signs that have been adorning homes all over social media are trending downward this year. Specifically, checkprint lost over half its expected popularity, dropping from 10% to 4%, and both disco balls and neon signs are fading into the background as the least likely objects to be featured in 2024, with the percentage of designers expecting to see checkprint in 2024 decreasing by over half of their 2023 expectations, from 10% to 4%.
Goodbye to Gingham, Geometric Shapes and Pesky Insects
Geometric shapes have taken an extreme downward spike in popularity since 2021, dropping 18 percentage points. Gingham also saw a sharp decrease from 8% of designers expecting it to be popular in 2023 to a mere 1% for this upcoming year. Interestingly, while florals and plant motifs rose to the top of the charts, butterfly and insect motifs dropped from a consistent 16% of designers expecting popularity in 2022 and 2023 to only 4% in 2024.
NFTs and Digital Art
While NFTs have been a hot topic in the news the past couple of years, they didn’t quite translate to interior design. A full two-thirds (67%) of respondents have no plans to use NFTs or digital art in 2024, and while 19% of designers expected NFTs and digital art to be popular in 2023, only 9% have maintained this belief for 2024.
Brightest Colours Fare the Worst
Bright red, neon yellow and bright orange are at the bottom of the list for trending colours for 2024 at 3%, 1% and 4% respectively. For now, the design world seems to have forgone these fiery hues in favour of more grounding earth tones.
PART 3: Room by Room Design Requests
The Number One Room Designers Recommend
Over half of designers expect kitchens to be the most requested room design in 2024, holding steady from last year at 56%, with living rooms trailing closely behind at 48%. The biggest dip is in home offices, which has seen a drastic decline, from 66% in 2020 to just 23% expected in 2024 (-43 points).
Taking a position in the top three are bathrooms, which have been consistently rising since 2020 from 22% to the current 37%. Also overtaking home offices are transitional indoor/outdoor spaces, which are expected by 29% of designers, on par from last year’s 31%.
Dream Projects
If project budgets had no cap, storage and fashion seemed to be top-of-mind for interior designers. The number one project that designers would recommend incorporating into a home is an extra spacious walk-in wardrobe (noted by 57%). Next comes more space for entertaining, with 53% recommending guest suites and 43% favouring outdoor kitchens.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
Methodology
1stDibs commissioned researchers with Surveys & Forecasts, LLC, a full-service strategic research consultancy based in South Norwalk, CT, to conduct 624 online interviews between August and September, 2023. The interior designers who were interviewed are part of the 1stDibs Trade 1st Program.
About 1stDibs
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