Written by Breck Hapner
With the coming of autumn this year, property owners are displaying interest in fall home design trends that focus on essential colors, looks, and styles that incite warm feelings of comfort, nostalgia, and stability. This year, we will see a drive toward adding décor layered through earthy hues, natural accents, playful patterns, textured fabrics, and vintage detailing. Deep, luxe tones will join with rich materials and surfaces to evoke an interior design aesthetic to compliment the essence of fall.
There is a strong drive and purposeful need to bring nature indoors during the unfolding fall months. So far, 2022 interior design trends have favored strong retro references tapping the fun and optimism prevalent during the 1970s. This is seen (and felt) from recent Barbiecore to Cottagecore to Coastal Grandmother styling, seeking to repurpose elements from the past. Bubble-gum pink has morphed into an earthy, organic, and vibrant design palette, from dark cherry wood furnishings to checkered, textured décor.
So what should you expect from current fall home design trends? Here is some insight into the major aesthetic constituents and innovative décor items required to create an ideal reinvention of your autumnal space.
Using Fall Design Colors
More than any other element, the choice and use of color will be paramount when designing to commemorate the season. Warm, walnut wood tones and lighter, caramel Saddle Stitch tans will be used this fall on walls, furniture, cabinetry, and accent pieces to generate a relaxing ambient home atmosphere. This year’s hues will contain splashes of Barbiecore fuchsia, but modern organic earth tones will reign, incorporating a “calming” palette of turmeric, ginger, ochre, warm brown, terracotta, and taupe. Although neutral, these colors still have character without being overpowering. These “earthy” colors pair elegantly with natural materials and fabrics. They are also easily layered and adaptable to mixed textures while retaining cohesiveness.
It is no surprise that earth colors are trending this fall. This is, perhaps, a purposeful resurgence after the glowing, scintillating pastel colors emblematic of boho styling that have held sway during previous months. These have given rise to inky, moody hues containing textures made with juicy merlots and pungent teal tones. Brown hues are aligned with perceptions of comfort and safety, and designer colors are now gravitating toward cinnamon, rust, sand, and other neutral tans. Important foundational monochromatic shades will include camel, chocolate, and peach, with original accents and layered textures possessing a balance of jewel tones, royal blues, and piquant greens.
And don’t forget the 70s wave of influence. In addition to the brown palette, you’ll find that the overall 2022 shift toward green fits in nicely, with olive and the muted sage variations favored for walls, sofas, and materials like rattan and bamboo, kitchen cabinets, and bathroom vanities.
Used as a sophisticated accent color, sage greens create a custom home design aesthetic featuring cozier textures, making your space feel inviting and cocooning by introducing a sense of calm and tranquility.
Designing with Natural Materials
In keeping with the current Organic Modern trend, the use of natural finishes and sustainable materials has been a mainstay in design circles for a considerable time now, as it certainly will remain important for the fall. Wood tones from dark walnut to chestnut to lighter oak finishes, all part of the seasonal brown palette, will predominate. Textures will be important, from tactile objets d’art to luxurious woven fabrics, building the sensations of inspiration and refreshment.
Along with its natural affiliations, wood enhances surrounding textures while grounding open interior spaces, introducing a sense of ease, peace, and respite. As a finishing accent, wood brings the outdoors inside, fitting well with other organic elements like terracotta, travertine, and porous stones, magnifying natural connections while amplifying the pure, raw, sanctuary qualities of the home.
The power of organic materials and finishes to provoke soothing sensations of contentment should not be underestimated. This, in turn, has provoked the sustainability trend, where designers are removing painted, faux finishings and embracing real materials that are constructed with purpose, adding form and function to sustainability. Every homeowner retains a deep psychological connection to nature through essential architectural and interior design elements such as the use of colors, contrasts, shapes, and textures that bring a calming feel to the environment.
Adding Layered Fabrics & Textured Accents
Accent-wise, designers are moving away from gray and white interiors, using existing cooler neutral elements, adding warm woods and splashes of soft but vivid color in combination with incorporated textures, fabrics, and other accessories such as boucle fabrics, chunky pillows and voluptuous bedding.
Thicker textured fabrics and intricate textile-knits such as velvet, linen, boucle, shearling, and sisal will replace lightweight throws, bedding, blankets, and rugs, to create layering evocative of comfort and warmth in the home. Checkerboard patterning is popular for fabrics and wall coverings, many using brown hues mixed with moodier graphic print shades to enhance spatial layering. Layer on the texture to augment relaxed interior beauty, which draws the natural world indoors.
Woven elements like weathered wicker chairs, baskets, natural fiber rugs, counter stools, and cane/rattan furniture endow rooms with textured organic highlights that compliment living spaces. A designer choice is wooden furniture built using rattan or caning endowed with light, neutral hues.
From the accents standpoint, 70s décor will feature a lot of fringes to work with your fall decorative elements. This retro styling also focuses on home comfort, and you can expect a lush mix of fabrics, layers, and materials like velvet, rugs, carpets, blankets, pillows, and semi-exotic woods.
Designing with Nature-Inspired Materials
Fall home design trends call for an emphasis on natural materials, and the concept of cyclical revival. All of it is nature-inspired curves, shapes, and textures. This can be seen in the proliferation of organically-inspired patterns such as checkerboard, combined with more fashionable elements such as printed chic wallpaper and plush upholstery.
We’ve spoken about how fall home décor trends call for natural embroidered fabrics sporting bold designs. The antithesis of minimalist home design, maximalism design calls for detailed accenting, cozy layering, rich texturing, jewel tonalities, and patterned fabrics. Also known as grandmillennial style, this includes bold wallpaper, and the reigning use of modern and vintage patterns to create a playful nesting area inviting comfort, from drapery to pillows to upholstery to furniture.
In fresh 70s-influenced form, playful prints, scalloped colors, and contrast piping details bring new life to upholstery and wallpaper while adding an organic sense of whimsy to the home. Opulent velvet textiles mesh with hunter green hues to make balanced statements amidst a largely neutral fall color scheme.
Get Your Home Ready For Fall Interior Design
According to home décor experts, we should incorporate elements into our spaces in a sustainable manner geared to maintain appeal, capable of outlasting ephemeral trends. The result should be refreshing, and the emotion should be inspiring. This is what good design (and more importantly, feeling good) is all about. Today’s influencers laud current fall home design trends, using the term “timeless” with great brevity. Plush is in, and lightweight has been shown the door.
As always, stay tuned to Haven for further home design & furnishing articles and insights.
