2025 is retiring these done-to-death design aesthetics
These AREN'T making the cut for 2026
2025 will be gone forever, in just over 10 days.
Word to the wise? So should these decor trends. And this PSA is Forbes-approved.
#1
Cottage-core this, dopamine decor that — long story short, it's not on-trend, to be on-trend anymore. The point of a personal space, even if you're a part-time corporate employee and full-time passionate host, is not performance. In 2026, decor will increasingly become about elementally borrowing from whatever is 'in vogue', and reinterpreting it to reflect personally curated style. So basically, it's time to get original.
#2
Decor must always feel and be intentional. But there's a fine line between coordination and manic repetition. Actually scrap that, it's painfully evident and that's what you're supposed to weed out of your common spaces. Though this tends to be more assertive with the beige epidemic, even pigment heavy rooms often cross the line into Mad Hatter territory. Balance baby.
{{/usCountry}}Decor must always feel and be intentional. But there's a fine line between coordination and manic repetition. Actually scrap that, it's painfully evident and that's what you're supposed to weed out of your common spaces. Though this tends to be more assertive with the beige epidemic, even pigment heavy rooms often cross the line into Mad Hatter territory. Balance baby.
{{/usCountry}}#3
{{/usCountry}}#3
{{/usCountry}}We don't know if you heard, but it's truly been a bit since accent walls have been...well, accent. Adding a splash of bold colour on a quarter of a room's wall space may seem like the most fool-proof way to break the monotony without going overboard, but the truth is, you're not surprising anyone anymore. But you know what will surprise people? If you take that one accent wall colour and commit it to the whole room. That's hot.
#4
Done to death, a huge space, visually compartmentalised is efficient, sure. And not to say there aren't objectively tasteful ways of doing it, but without the right kind of vision and effort, it can give off very kindergarten energy. Our take? Go crazy — break the space, commit to erecting a wall, build or invest in a wall-to-floor shelf. Multi-spaces aren't the blueprint anymore, treat them like a blank canvas.
#5
The shift from maximalism to minimalism gave us organic modern design, which at a time, felt truly cutting-edge and wildly refreshing. But everything runs its course and it feels like so has this. The issue isn't with its tenets per se, but how much of a bland overlap exists between the aforementioned beige epidemic and its own clean cut rusticity. And now that we've pointed it out, you can't unsee it either.
Which of these is going to be a hard pass for you?
