Listicle: 10 global décor trends showing up in Indian design

Even as pared-back styles trend, there’s a clear preference for “more is more”. Go big on colours, prints, and textures. Make it larger than life, just find a common theme or palette that will hold it all together — like a Sabyasachi store. “I wish people used less shiny stuff like metals and brass in their homes,” sighs Gowda, not a fan of the over-the-top style.

“Terrazzo is clearly having a moment,” says Das. The colourful mosaic tiles look like they’re made of specks of stardust. What they really are, are chips of marble, quartz, granite, glass cast into concrete or a polymer binder. Buildings from the 1930s to the 1950s in Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi have them on floors. In modern spaces, they’re on every surface imaginable.

Minimalist, heavy, with no patience for frills and fuss. The post-war style points to “a nostalgia for early Socialist architecture, which alludes to certain values people believed in, say those of equality,” says architect Soumitro Ghosh of firm Mathew and Ghosh Architects, which designed Bengaluru’s Museum of Art and Photography. See its modern avatar in Kanye’s Calabasas Yeezy studio.

The memes glorify ruins. But the Japanese philosophy goes deeper, celebrating the beauty of things in their simple, imperfect, and impermanent forms. The quality of “lived-inness,” as Arun Shekhar Gowda of Kozhikode-based design firm Humming Tree terms it, is showing up in interiors and architecture at the moment. “Think earthy tones and softer textures. I am done with everything looking new and plasticky.”

Those chalky, matte, grainy walls that look like they should be on a compound wall in Greece, but are showing up in restaurants, showrooms, and celebrity homes. The texture softens the glossy, synthetic finish of regular paints, it’s antibacterial and mould-resistant. “People are moving towards materials that feel more organic than factory-made,” says Puru Das of Delhi-based design firm DeMuro Das.

An ancient technique of adding a series of shallow grooves across a surface has had a revival and is showing up on of everything you can think of. Pillars? Of course. Walls and ceilings? No problem! Even doors and vases? Err… duh! It adds that perfect dash of playfulness, and catches the light beautifully (even if dusting is a nightmare).

Japanese style, blended with Scandinavian aesthetics. Think wood, muted colour palettes, warmth and an abundance of natural light and plants. Brian DeMuro, the other half DeMuro Das, has seen a shift towards choosing “tactile materials”. It’s what creates the calming, welcoming mood everyone craves.

Fixtures that are embedded in ceilings and walls rather than externally attached. DeMuro and Das hate it. “People now treat lamps as sculptures, rather than actual sources of light because they think all the light is coming from the ones in the ceiling,” Das says. Still, it’s high utility. “It’s been around for long now and it’s not going anywhere,” DeMuro says.

A fancy word for nature incorporated into built spaces. The Greek term refers to the love of living things. It’s more than that potted monstera in the corner. Imagine a home that lets sunlight and breeze in, has seating made from rock, and water paths along the walls. Best for spacious rooms and homes with pets.

Alexa might run the household. But humans still show a clear preference for small-batch handcrafted items — art, ceramics, handicrafts — for the home. “People own art for several reasons, but a big reason why they own one today is because someone has woven it, carved it, or crafted it with their own hands,” says DeMuro. It’s fast becoming the new definition of luxury.