2016 interior design trends: upholstered TVs, Wi-fi-free rooms, and more

Out with the old, in with the new is the wisdom for an orderly life. So before exploring what interior designers consider as trends for the year, it’s worth knowing the looks that have had their day.

Of course, there will be dissent. Faith Popcorn, the American futurist author who talked about the term “cocooning” long before the current homemaking revival, has called an end to recycled wood this year. But it’s all a bit of fun, and maybe even a conversation starter, as we begin 2016.

Still, it;s hard to resist asking Popcorn, founder of New York marketing firm BrainReserve, what she has against recycled wood? “It just feels like lip service to the eco movement now,” she argues. “What matters more is actually giving your time or money or creativity to improve our world.”

Popcorn also thinks we’re ready to move on from mid-century modern (aka the retro or vintage look). “I have nothing against it,” she adds, “but people took it too far and had their homes look like time capsules where Don Draper [of TV show Mad Men] would be lounging next to his bar cart.”

Ed Ng, co-founder of Hong Kong design firm AB Concept, might also find he’s courting controversy with his prediction that the whole “Scandi-minimal thing” – a look he describes as “hyper clean and neutral spaces paired with mid-century shapes, lacking punch and layering” – is so yesterday. “I think this type of interior was overdone a long time ago but somehow I keep seeing it,” Ng says. “No more in 2016, please.”

He’s also over industrial – despite its relatively new appearance on the Hong Kong scene. “When the industrial trend became chic it was because it was authentic – lofts in New York with beautiful ceiling heights and stories that gave character to the space,” Ng explains. “As a facade, a pretend effect, however, industrial is very much over.”

Geoffrey Bradfield, a New York-based interior designer behind high-end projects in China, wants order to return. “I am tired of the rumpled, lived-in look,” he says. “It is such a cop-out, and shows an evident lack of personality. I believe we are ready to move beyond playing it safe, and to re-embrace glamour.”

Lisa White, head of lifestyle and interiors at London-based trend forecaster WGSN, says bright fluorescents and neons are out. “Since we often feel so inundated with screen colours, in interiors we are starting to reject them, preferring more subtle colour choices and sophisticated palettes that catch our eye and soothe our souls in new ways,” she said.