The Trends Designers Are Leaving Behind in 2025
Spend enough time on any of your social media feeds and you’ll start seeing some of the same pieces of furniture, paint colors, and textiles dotting the photos from your favorite follows. Curvy sofas, color-blocked storage, that platform bedframe everyone seems to have. Whether the ideas are new or old, these design moments can easily toe the line of “timeless” and “trend.” And if you care about steering clear of the second category, it can be hard to decipher where things land.
And with that in mind, there are some things designers are (really) excited to leave behind as we head into a new year. And while we’re not saying you have to agree, it’s a good way to figure out where you may want to spend your time—and design energy—in the year to come.
So Long, Safe Design
“Safe, unoriginal lighting has had its time to shine,” says Beauty Is Abundant founder and HGTV Designer of the Year Leah Alexander. “I'm obsessed with risk-taking.” Thankfully, we can help with that, wink wink.
Skip the Recessed Lighting
Designer Tara McCauley and Alexander are on the same page on this one, in case you’re really looking for a reason to make a change: “I would love to say goodbye to recessed lighting. Decorative fixtures add more personality and ambiance,” she says.
Ditch the Dupes
“I am so ready for design enthusiasts to throw the celebration of ‘dupes’ away,” says designer Noz Nozawa. “It's just not realistic to find amazing design pieces at too-good-to-be-true prices without a compromise in quality or ethics—and usually, that means an original idea is being knocked off—which reduces the value of a design to the cost of manufacturing it, instead of valuing the OG designer's creativity.”
Bye, Bye Bouclé
“Hopefully, this is really the year the white bouclé trend ends,” says Studio Roene founder Julia Sobrepeña King. “It goes hand in hand with the minimalist all-white oak and oatmeal linen room, which I am so tired of. I think people should try to have just a little more fun—add a tiny bit of color and individual character (or a lot). We don't want our home to look like it was designed by AI.”
On the Flip Side…
“We honestly hate to wave goodbye to anything,” say Robin Heller and Jen Levy of Surrounded By Color. “There’s something for everyone and if you have colors in your house that make you happy then don’t change a thing!”
