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Style So Simple is a practical, no-fluff interior design podcast that helps you create a home you love—without overcomplicating the process.
Each episode breaks down real design decisions, styling tips, and behind-the-scenes insights to make decorating feel simple, doable, and actually enjoyable. Whether you're refreshing a room or starting from scratch, you’ll walk away with ideas you can use right away.
These are the interior design trends for 2026 and this is part two. So if you haven't seen part one, I really would suggest you go watch that because they kinda go hand in hand. These are the trends you're gonna see everywhere in 2026 and you may have already seen ripples of them. And I'm gonna give you as always my very honest opinion on them. The ones I think will work, the ones that don't work, and the ones that I can see people absolutely butchering if they don't do them right.
Speaker 1:So let's get into it. Okay, guys. First up is dark wood tones or dark wood stains. People are steering away from the all white interiors, the sterile interiors, the light oaks, the gray oaks, people have moved on. But I personally don't think that a light oak or an all white interior is out.
Speaker 1:I think they are perfect in certain settings and in certain homes and for certain clients. Interiors are so personal, so I really don't believe in this in and out thing. Light oaks and white interiors, they just suit a certain client and a certain home. I just wanna make that clear because I have designed a lot of all white interiors and I still love them. But for this trend of dark woods and rich wood tones, this design feature is definitely having a huge moment because people want richer interiors with more character.
Speaker 1:But what I will say is dark wood tones are not just a fad or a trend. They're a beautiful design element. Your walnuts, your mahogany, your smoked oak, they add richness, weight and warmth into any space and that is absolutely what homeowners are craving at the moment. Even myself, I love a space that I can walk in and it already feels warm, cozy, and lived in and these rich wood tones can help create that. And not only that, they can feel expensive while feeling grounded.
Speaker 1:Warm wood tones is not just for flooring. I love to see this in a kitchen island, think a warm, dark, mahogany kitchen island paired with a green kitchen. Now I'm literally thinking that because it is a design that we created here in the studio. I'll put up the sketch here somewhere, but there's so many other examples of this style and it's such a beautiful design feature. I think dark wood tones are gorgeous in kitchens, especially in a contrasting island and a singular piece of furniture, so a coffee table or a side table and it can be really nice in both a more vintage style piece of furniture or a more sculptural piece of furniture.
Speaker 1:And don't forget, everyone is saying light wood is gone, but a lot of the interiors I'm sure that you're loving have paired a light wood and a dark wood in the interior. They actually work so well together. So I'm just pushing on that point that light wood is not out. So don't shy away from mixing them. And my final view on this trend is that this one is gonna last.
Speaker 1:It's having a moment in 2026, but it's not gonna die out. This is a beautiful design element that is just having its time to shine, and it will have longevity in your home. Trend number two, wallpaper everywhere. Yes. You are gonna see wallpaper even more in 2026.
Speaker 1:And I absolutely agree with this one. Wallpaper is fully back. It's actually so funny because I heard my aunt and my mom speaking about this a few weeks ago. They're both doing mini revamps on their home, and they were talking about either getting wallpaper or paint and they mentioned about how it was funny that their mother, my grandmother, always wallpapered. It was only wallpaper that they ever used.
Speaker 1:And this is back in like nineteen seventies, nineteen seventies Ireland, guess it would have been nineteen seventies, nineteen eighties. And now they are just seeing it everywhere again and it's actually giving them kind of nostalgic feels for when they were young, which I just think is so nice and I kind of just love to think of my granny wallpapering her old farmhouse in the back hours of nowhere in Ireland. It's just, it's nice. But anyway, I digress. Wallpaper is absolutely fully back.
Speaker 1:People have really found a new love and appreciation for it. So we're seeing wallpaper in both a big and a small way. You're gonna see everything on wallpaper from large botanical prints, large landscapes and scenic views to tiny prints. And we're gonna be seeing a lot of warm neutrals, think espresso browns and red. Red is said to be huge in wallpaper for 2026.
Speaker 1:I think it's very easy to say like, do agree that wallpaper is in for 2026, but I think it's really easy to say that it's just wallpaper that's trending. I think this is kind of a micro detail on a macro design trend that we've been seeing. If you've come from the part one trends video, if you haven't, you should go back and watch that. I was talking about design details. People really want to have those beautiful design details in their home because homeowners are actually more educated than ever and know more than ever what they want in their home and they want those design details.
Speaker 1:So I think that wallpaper is having a moment on a huge scale of people wanting their home to feel more comfortable, one. And two, people want to have design details in their home and wallpaper is a great way to add that. And you're also gonna see that in curtain trims, piping, which again I mentioned in part one, and borders. All of these beautiful design details really do make up an interior with a lot of character and that's, I think that's what people are looking for. They just add warmth and richness to a space, which I feel like we're all craving.
Speaker 1:And that is where the shift from the all white interior went. It was that lack of richness people were feeling in those spaces. So this is all on the back of people want warmth, texture, depth and something that feels so personal and definitely not flat and minimal just for the sake of being minimal. Except my husband. Oh my god.
Speaker 1:He would love a minimal house. It's not happening. Wallpaper does all that. It instantly can change the mood in a space and it adds a richness. The paint color alone just can't add.
Speaker 1:Remember, wallpaper isn't just for the walls. It's also for the fifth wall, your ceiling. I love wallpaper on a ceiling. It's great on joinery, whether it's with a pattern or with texture. It adds this unexpected element that can just be so beautiful in an interior.
Speaker 1:So yes, wallpaper is fully back. It's not just on the accent wall, it's not just in our granny's homes even though how cute. It's everywhere and honestly, it's gorgeous. So trend number three is warmth and comfort. I think this is again on the back of the perfectly white interiors that people felt were starting to feel a little sterile or interiors in magazines that were more like show homes as opposed to homes that we live in.
Speaker 1:If you picked up an interior magazine, let's say in 2015, you would have seen an interior that was picture perfect on a mag interior magazine cover. Whereas now, you'll often see an interior that's not picture perfect. People want spaces to feel instantly lived in. They want them to feel cozy, comforting, and above all, real. So we're seeing lots of colored glass, especially in lighting fixtures, deep but earthy shades, a lot more texture in furniture and accessories, or even artwork and tapestries.
Speaker 1:Like, you ever seen as many tapestries that you've seen in the last few years? If not, this is a tapestry. Have you seen it? They're everywhere at the moment. Whereas half a decade ago, this is what we were working with.
Speaker 1:So there's definitely a shift. We're seeing lots of warm tones in upholstery and pieces that feel grounded. I feel like this trend works when it's done with an intention, but if you go into, let's say, a store like Soho Home or Nordic Notes and you just buy everything in store to create basically a Pinterest board or a Trend board in your home, that's gonna feel as dated as you feel the all white interior is today. That's why we see some all white interiors and we're like, wow, they're so What? Why do people dislike this so much?
Speaker 1:Because things that were purchased were purchased with intention. And how do you do that? You choose pieces that you genuinely love. You do not buy everything from the one store. Don't get me wrong, I love Soho Home and I love Nordic Notes.
Speaker 1:I buy pieces from them both for myself and for clients. But do I buy all of my furniture for clients or myself from one store? Absolutely not. Because that's when you're creating a Pinterest board, you're not creating a bespoke personal interior. One thing that makes these interiors so beautiful is layering items over time, not layering them in one shopping haul.
Speaker 1:So yes, to warmth and comfort for 2026 when it's done with intention, not when it's copy and paste from one Pinterest board or store. Trend number four, moody color palettes. We are fully stepping in to a deeper, more saturated color palette for 2026. People are moving away from quite pale walls and leaning into much richer tones. You're probably thinking, Aoife, what are you talking about moody interiors have been in already.
Speaker 1:We've seen this in 2024 and 2025. But what we actually saw more so in 2024 was the deeper navies, the deeper greens, a lot of the deeper charcoals. So they were much more on the cool shades of the darker moodier tones. Now what we would have seen rippling in in 2025 was much more earthy deep shades, which is what we're gonna see in full swing in 2026. Well, that's my prediction anyway.
Speaker 1:So think aubergine, burgundy, a deep olive. Oh my god. I cannot tell you how much I love a deep olive shade. I love it in a kitchen. I love it in a living room.
Speaker 1:It's just so cozy, warm, sophisticated, rich. I could go on. Tobacco's, deep greens, all those warm layered shades. That's a lot different to your deep neevees or your dark greens. What I love about this trend is that richer shades can work really nice in really large spaces and really small spaces.
Speaker 1:If you pick the right shade, again, if you've watched my part one, I was talking about how brown is having a huge moment in 2026, but you need to select the right brown, especially for rooms with low lighting. A darker shade in a low lit room can be gorgeous as long as it has the right undertones. So that's one of the things that I love about a moody rich color is they're actually very very versatile. Maybe it's because I live in Ireland, I just know the effect that a moody warm rich shade can have when it's like dark at four in the evening and you go into your space and it just feels like it's cocooning you, it's warm, it's cozy, like that feeling that is what interior design is about is creating those feelings in different rooms in your home. So, yeah, Moody having more of a moment in 2026, I'm all here for it.
Speaker 1:Okay, guys. Last but not least, let's talk furniture. And I said I would do one specifically on furniture because I know a lot of people, if they're not completely revamping their whole home, but they may have some specific furniture that they want to get throughout the year, they might want to incorporate this in a trend that they've been seeing and they also might be seeing a lot of trending items in the showrooms that they want to know does this have longevity or not, is it worth purchasing, if I purchase it today is it gonna be out tomorrow. So I think it is important to look at furniture trends that are gonna be in for 2026. I'm gonna briefly go over this because I could talk about furniture trends all day and if you want me to deep dive into that I absolutely can.
Speaker 1:So that I don't drag this video out, I'm going to briefly go over some furniture trends and what I think about them and which ones to avoid or how to make them work in your home. Sculptural furniture is still going strong. I if you've watched on any of my other social platforms, you know that I do love a sculptural piece of furniture, but what I will say is it needs to work in this space. Now when I say sculptural furniture and I'm thinking just of the standard curved sofa, love that, very very cute, but again it needs to work in the space. A curved sofa works very well in a large room, works very well in an open plan room.
Speaker 1:Let's say in your standard four meter by four meter room or 3.5 by 3.5, I'll have the text down to translate for my American friends. A curved sofa can look very out of place because in that size room, you usually want a sofa that works functionally in the space. It's not a massive room, it's not a tiny room. Want the sofa to sit nicely in the space and work with the proportions of the space. A standard three seater sofa or even a sofa with a chaise or a corner sofa can do that.
Speaker 1:Whereas a curved sofa, there's a lot of unusable space, which again works great in an open plan setting, but in a smaller room, I feel like it can just look a little bit out of place and it looks like it's been put in there purely just for a trend. So that's where I would steer away from them. It's the same for sculptural furniture. Now there are so many interior designers that are doing sculptural furniture. Oh my god, amazing.
Speaker 1:Like it's so beautiful, but usually those pieces of furniture are purely designed for those spaces so they work absolutely perfectly in them. If you're getting a sculptural piece of furniture, now let's say if it's an accent table or something like that, that usually works quite well and can add a little bit of form or difference to a space that's really pretty, but if you're going for one of these larger sculptural accent chairs or something like that, would just be careful and make sure that it really does work with the space and again work with the proportions of the space because if it looks out of place or looks like you just dropped it in there because you're into this trend, it just doesn't look right. So yeah, that's what I would say about sculptural furniture. Yes, in the right setting. Oh, and another thing on sculptural furniture that I am not a fan of, I am not a fan of seeing sculptural furniture everywhere, but I love a curved sofa with a normal clean lined accent chairs or curved coffee table, sculptural coffee table or sculptural side table, but more clean line furniture.
Speaker 1:I do not like when it's all sculptural like something like this because again, this looks like you've gone into one showroom or one supplier and just bought everything in one hall, which then shows us that you haven't thought about it a lot. You've seen one Pinterest image, you're like, oh I like that. Okay, that's kind of similar. I'm just gonna put all that in my home. That never works.
Speaker 1:No, no. Where you can have some fun with sculptural furniture. Okay, I will move up sculptural furniture in a minute is asymmetrical rugs. I am loving this trend because it is one way where you can add in a bit of a difference to your interior without it actually changing the functional walkway or the proportions in a space. So I think when done right, this is really, really nice.
Speaker 1:So I'm looking forward to seeing how people incorporate this year and if it is going to be a big trend or not. I've heard it is, which is exciting. This is one I'm excited for. Some other pieces of furniture that I want to mention that I think are still gonna be huge for 2026, I actually don't think that they're trending, is vintage furniture. Vintage finds and good vintage finds are still huge for 2026 and I think the reason there is such longevity in this is because they are so personal to people.
Speaker 1:People are going in and they're rooting around to find them and then even that in itself has this, you're proud when you've found something so beautiful in a vintage store. So this is one that's definitely going into 2026 and if you find the perfect vintage piece for your home, fair play to you. This also links back to the dark wood trend that we're seeing. A lot of vintage finds do have those beautiful mahogany's. So I think that this is kind of a circular thing where we're seeing all these little trends linking together which is which is quite nice.
Speaker 1:Now one that I am personally predicting for 2026. So in 2025, we were told we are gonna see high gloss interiors everywhere and we did see a lot of them. Definitely as an interior designer, I would have seen them a lot, but did I see them a lot on the mainstream furniture stores? No, I didn't. But I think that this is one that people are kind of sleeping on because a lacquered high shine dining table, I'm gonna get an image here that I know that we suggested to a client this year.
Speaker 1:Something like this can change the whole look of your interior. It's fun, it's beautiful, it's just different and if you're ready to take the risk on something like this, I think go for it. I love a high shine piece of furniture and I would love to see it more in 2026. It doesn't have to be a dining table, it could be a nice accent table, it could be a coffee table, I just think it's it's been missed. Now I know last year was more the lacquered interior and wall finishes which are also beautiful, but I think it's one I haven't seen it a lot in furniture and I would like to see a little bit more of it because I love it.
Speaker 1:Okay guys, those are my interior design trend predictions for 2026. That 10 of them, true both parts. That took me a very long time to record. But I actually had so much fun doing it, I love looking into interior trends, I love seeing what's coming up and what other people are saying about them, I really wanna know what you guys think of them. Please let me know in the comments below, do you agree with any of these trends, do you think it's all faff and you don't like interior trends or are you like me and you love an interior trend?
Speaker 1:I'm just kind of like, it's like interior gossip, you know what's going on, what's going on, what interior trend is happening, blush. I'm also gonna do a little bit of a deep dive into trends that are out for 2026 which is always fun. And if you found this entertaining or informative, please hit the subscribe button. See you in the next one.