Experts predict the year’s top interior design trends
The end of minimalism and all-white everything? From paint colours to personalised spaces, four interior designer and architects weigh in on the trends to embrace in 2024.
Before social media, the interior design trend cycle turned fairly slowly. Investing in high end, top quality furniture and fixtures was the norm given it would be years, sometimes decades, before they were considered passé. But with Instagram and TikTok giving us the ability to peek inside strangers’ homes without so much as a casual invitation, this cycle is getting faster and faster.
So if you’re itching to know which trends which have true staying power, we suggest asking an expert. Namely, an interior designer or architect, whose job it is to craft moodboards, pull swatches and consult with clients on the daily. Here, we asked four design professionals to gaze into their crystal balls and predict the trends to embrace in 2024 and beyond.
Plain Jane
“In 2023, we bid farewell to the subdued and plain design choices of beige finishes, especially in flooring,” says Alexandra Donohoe Church, founder and managing director of Decus. “The trend of patterned stone and marble flooring is taking the driver’s seat, as clients burn rubber speeding away from the restrained aesthetics of plain selections.” Instead, Donohoe Church predicts the embrace of diverse and interesting bespoke finishes. “The shift is evident in the growing preference for custom set outs featuring slabs of stone and marble carefully chosen to craft a vibrant cosmos of colours and textures,” she explains.
Donohoe Church argus the pivot from simplistic forms and finishes has historical roots. “The resurgence of patterns draws inspiration from the Italian Rationalist design movement, exemplified by iconic structures like Villa Necchi in Milan,” she explains. “This departure signifies a move towards the unexpected and dynamic, rejecting the conventional in favour of making bold statements on surfaces.” As she states, “2024 is for the bold and the beautiful in stone floors.”
Bye bye brown
Neutrals have remained a dominant force in interiors for the past few years, and while minimalism has its place in the design world, not all experts are a fan. Just ask colour guru and interior designer Rayman Boozer of New York-based studio Apartment 48, who suggests we forgo two particular shades in 2024. “Ideally, I’d like to see a departure from the ubiquitous use of brown in interiors, as I find it somewhat drab,” he says.
He’s also predicting a shift from another popular design flourish. “Additionally, I sense a collective fatigue with the prevalence of white kitchens, leading people to gravitate towards more diverse and nuanced neutral palettes for their living areas.” Indeed, coloured kitchen cabinets and benchtops are having a major resurgence, perhaps spelling the end of the stark white kitchens popularised in the noughties.
Colour me happy
Monochrome and mono-colour have been popular for some time, but even this timeless application of colour and tone has its limits, argues Sally Knibbs, founder and director of Melbourne-based design studio Sally Caroline. “We’re seeing our clients embracing more colour, moving away from the minimalist aesthetic where one material or one colour-tone is used throughout a space,” she says. “Instead, there’s more appetite for using bold colours, rich layers, and varying textures.”
In terms of colour palettes, Knibbs says to turn your attention away from anything on the cooler spectrum. “People are still looking to create homes that are calm and peaceful however, we’re shifting away from cooler tones and embracing warm and earthy hues that have layers to them,” she explains. So what colours does Knibbs recommend? “Shades of brown, pink, and orange, that previously people may have found challenging to bring into the home,” she suggests. “These tones create a calm feeling while still being bold.”
Lights out
It may be one of the most ubiquitous design choices in a modern Australian home, but according to Phillip Mathieson, founder and design director of Mathieson, kitchen lighting is getting a major makeover, or rather, makeunder for next year. “In 2024, we’re gracefully parting ways with pendant lights over kitchen islands, allowing the spotlight to shift seamlessly to the brilliance of joinery in kitchen design,” says Mathieson.
The Surry Hills-based architect is sensing a turn towards more understated kitchen lighting solutions that put the spotlight back on other areas. “Embracing the beauty of hidden illumination, we’re sculpting spaces where light gracefully disappears, letting the artistry of cabinetry and seamless design take centre stage in our culinary sanctuaries.”
Minimal no more
Not everyone is as enamoured with the uber-stripped back, neutral-hued home as Instagram may suggest. Knibbs is certainly forecasting a movement back towards homes with character. “In 2024 we’re seeing a shift away from the monastery feel — homes that feel overly sleek and matching,” she states. “Instead, we’re leaving things intentionally a little undone — mixing metal accents, creating finishes that are refined but not too identical or perfect.” She’s sensing a return to a more idiosyncratic approach, one where everything doesn’t have to match perfectly. She recommends “adding interest with unique finishes, such as different floor patterns throughout the home, but using the same timbers [to bring it together].”
No more cookie cutter
Furthermore, Knibbs is foreseeing the end of matchy-matchy furniture pieces. “This includes sourcing one-off loose furniture pieces over large matching families of furniture and similar built-in joinery,” she says. Melbourne-based interior designer Brahman Perera, who most recently outfitted the Dissh Bondi boutique in a range of textures and unique furniture pieces, echoes this sentiment. “I think it’s time to wave goodbye to the straight out of the box interior design whereby a space is completely kitted-out in all-new, all top-of-the-range pieces,” he says.
Brahman’s approach is always highly specific to the space and the individual he’s designing for, and he sees this continuing well into the future. “I want to see and work with pieces that are individual to the client: vintage, flea-market, heirlooms,” he explains. He’s also keen to see more people embrace what they already own — an angle that’s both sensitive to rising interest rates and inflation, as well as kind to the environment. “Eclecticism and authenticity come when a designer works with a clients’ pre-existing pieces to recontextualise them in a new setting, and ultimately that is what makes an incredible space.”
Everything in its place
Australians have long been proponents of seamless indoor-outdoor living, and as a result, have wholly embraced open-plan house layouts. But Mathieson senses a mood change, as more people add highly specific and functional spaces like a butler’s pantry or dining room to their home. “After years of accepting open-plan living and entertainment spaces as the norm, we’re starting to see a shift towards creating more defined spaces, particularly in apartments, that allow our clients to create more intimate moments that are unique to their specific home,” he says. While this doesn’t necessarily mean a return to the boxed-in layouts of our grandparents’ homes, it does suggest a more thoughtful approach to designing our interiors — not everyone wants a study in their bedroom, for example.