In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic enrolled us all in a curious domestic experiment: working and learning from home and deprived of the opportunity to travel or dine out, our homes became our entire worlds. And we’ve asked a lot of them: living spaces have become ad hoc offices, and we’ve learned to curate appealing backdrops for all our digital meetings, arranging plants and objects just-so. Because we’re out in the world less, our homes have taken an unexpected star turn. All of this nesting, from cooking and gardening to the resurgence of needlepointing and cross-stitch, has steered the entire design world in a very domestic direction, and its impact on trends, taste, and the marketplace will be felt for the foreseeable future. We asked a group of experts for their insights about what we can expect from 2021 and beyond. Even after a post-pandemic return to “normal,” how will our experience of this time shape our built environment and behavior?

 Color Stories

The mood of the moment can often be discerned from color trends, and few know this better than Laurie Pressman, vice president at the Pantone Color Institute. Each year Pantone announces its picks for color of the year (sometimes there are two), linking a specific hue to the zeitgeist and influencing everything from fashion to paint colors. Pressman points to two key color families that will likely turn up in every corner of the design world in the 2020s: terracotta and warm neutrals. The terracotta family—like its name, which literally means “baked earth,” from Italian—is vital and grounded, evocative of primal elements, rootedness, and the ground we walk on. “Terracotta’s primal and material connection to the earth displays a contemporary artisanal presence while also sending a message of comfort and reassurance,” Pressman says. The warm neutral group is similarly calming and timeless, offering what Pressman describes as “composure and investment value,” a sense of peacefulness that resonates for men and women, and across the generations. 

 Philip Fimmano, creative director of Trend Union, a trend forecasting firm based in the Netherlands, says a focus on color is a natural consequence of our pandemic experience and the way we’ve come to focus intensely on our surroundings. “This taste for color is just beginning and will grow in the next decade, influencing consumers to become happier,” Fimmano says. “The innate fear people have for using color is gradually giving way to the joy of manipulating it to transform materials and bring life to otherwise forgotten spaces and objects.”

Nature Inside and Out

Danielle​ Kanak, a LEED Green Associate at the design firm Ewing Cole notes that even before the pandemic we spent as much as 90% of our time indoors, and now more than ever, people are craving connection to nature. “In 2021 there is an even greater trend towards biophilic design, connecting us to nature and blurring the lines between inside and outside. Use of natural materials, textures, forms, and color palettes remind us of the natural environment and can bring about a sense of familiarity, peace, and joy. Every piece of wood, stone, and color in the landscape is unique and the use of these natural elements can provide for a variety of truly diverse interior spaces.”

Adventure Without Leaving Home

Allison Arieff, senior editor of City Monitor and former editor in chief of Dwell says small, distinctive luxuries are becoming a key ingredient in domestic bliss, as are bold paint colors and unusual wallpapers. “We’re no longer able to drop into a cafe or visit a friend or go to a museum. Absent any new colors, textures and experiences, we’re all trying to make our homes not just cozier but more special, more interesting. Things we use frequently — tableware, towels, sheets, small appliances — these are being upgraded so at least the daily experience is enhanced,” she says. 

For Coren Sharples, a founding principal at SHoP Architects, collecting textiles from different parts of the world is an inspiring reminder of travels abroad while staying close to home. “We’re craving adventure—a taste of the forbidden world that lies outside our walls. I personally find myself turning to richer, layered palettes, mixing traditional long-established elements with vintage, handmade, and funky finds. I'm leaning heavily on furniture and textiles to transform spaces, offer a change of scenery.” She’s been putting gems from her stash of vintage textiles into rotation, from indigo batiks from Vietnam and recycled saris from India, to American homespun ticking. “[These are] things I was always "going to use someday,” and now that day has apparently come,” she says.

In the Kitchen With Style

For Philip Fimmano, color, texture, and mood all converge at the most important place in any home: the dinner table. “The largest megatrend on our planet today must be people’s fascination with food, which is taking over our spending and inspiring all other interests,” he says, noting that this was already the case before the pandemic turned us all into sourdough experts. He predicts that kitchens will become larger and accommodating, with stylish tools and vessels meant to be brought straight to the table for a dining experience that’s nomadic and authentic. “All this adds up to new shapes for furniture,” he says: “new tactility for materials, new needs for architecture, and new adventures for the great outdoors, all impacted by the textures, flavors and colors that define what we eat.” 

STORY BY SARAH ARCHER