NEW YORK – What’s in and what’s out for 2022? Green seems to be the operative word. Pink, not so much.

1stDibs, an online marketplace, conducted its fifth annual Interior Designer Trends Survey, in which it surveyed more than 750 interior designers from around the world. 

According to 1stDibs, this year’s survey suggests that designers are going green. Not only green, the color, which is slated to be extremely popular in the year ahead, but biophilic design trends continue to come out on top. Conversely, primary and secondary colors and the grand millennial trend, which found millennials enjoying trends from their parents and grandparents, are falling out of vogue. 

“The design industry is always changing--new trends emerge, old trends are reinterpreted and our perception of beauty continually evolves. Additionally, the last two years have been unlike anything we’ve ever experienced, with our homes and corporate offices taking on new meaning,” said Anthony Barzilay Freund, editorial director at 1stDibs. 

Color trends
Many paint brands declared shades of green as their Color of the Year for 2022, and the designers of the 1stDibs survey seem to agree. Both dark greens, like emerald, and lighter shades, like sage, were noted by respondents to be popular in the coming year. Emerald is the number one color of choice for designers at 24% of the vote.

In general, warmer earth tones like burnt orange and tan continue to feature prominently in interiors and are slated to remain popular. 

Another haute hue to capture a top ranking is cobalt, which is trending up and falls right behind the earth tones. As the most popular blue this year, cobalt bested navy, which had the most dramatic decline in responses out of all the hues compared to last year, dropping a whopping 43% in interest.

Design trends 
For designers, next year, going green extends beyond color trends and into green thumbs and green living. When asked what design trends will remain popular in 2022, almost all designers selected sustainable materials (nearly universal at 97%) and plants (93%), which both reflect a desire to remain in harmony with the environment. 

Top patterns and finishes for 2022 extend this ethos, with organic motifs, bold and large-scale prints, and plant patterns as the top three choices for designers. 

Materials slated to become popular are all options that are either derived from nature or have a tactile finish, including wood, plaster, natural materials, bronze, and leather. 

From a list of 11 iconic seating options, 20% of designers dubbed the Eames Chair as the top trending piece, followed closely by the Mario Bellini Camaleonda sofa at 18%. At a third place in seating is the Hans Wegner Wishbone Chair at 11%. Tied for fourth at 10% each are two options in ultra-plush seating: the Afra and Tobias Scarpa Siriana sofa and Ligne Roset’s beloved Togo design. Unsurprisingly, survey results indicate that the 1970s trend remains strong, with 36% of respondents noting that the decade would be most likely to make a comeback.

In the lighting category, over a quarter of designers named Noguchi lamps as the most iconic design, capturing 26% of the vote. The second highest lighting options were Louis Paulsen pendants and chandeliers at 19%. 

In general, designers reported that the styles of furniture they plan to use more or the same are contemporary, followed by Brutalist, Art Deco, and Mid-century Modern.

What’s out for 2022
The least popular colors for 2022 are millennial pink, tangerine, light yellow, violet, and bright red. Each of these hues captured less than 5% of designer votes, with red earning just 1%. 

In addition to declining interest in navy (down 43%), mustard yellow saw its numbers slide (down 27%), as did light grey (down 25%).  

Designers are passing on several trends made popular through social media in recent years. Specifically, neon signs received the lowest votes when asked about design trends expected to remain popular in 2022, with only 13% of the vote. Also at the bottom of the list were black interiors, grand millenial, cane seating, and arches. 

With everyone spending so much time at home, it seems that any sofa or chair beyond the plushest, comfortable options is out of favor. When polled on preferred iconic seating designs, Marcel Breuer’s Cesca Chair and Wassily Chair each earned just 3% of the vote, while the Panton Chair, a 1960s Danish design iconic for being the first S-shaped plastic chair, earned just 1% of votes.