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Comfort & Joy: Home Remodeling Trends for 2025
No more grey, no more barn doors, no more boring spaces for doing chores. It’s 2025! And as each new year urges, we’re taking a moment to reflect on what’s in and what’s out in the world of home design and remodeling.
These days, homeowners are looking to add comfort and joy to every corner of their dwellings. With all that’s going on out in the world, we want our homes to be a refuge where we can focus on our emotional and physical well-being. Therefore, warmth, relaxation, and personal touches have become top priorities when remodeling our homes.
With that being said, here are the top 10 home remodeling trends that we expect to see more of in 2025.
1. Timelessness
We see the irony in saying this as part of a trends post, but: are we all sensing a bit of trend fatigue? We are rejoicing in the fact that timelessness is becoming popular again and giving us a reprieve from the break-neck pace trends have been changing with in recent years. Right now, homeowners are leaning more toward traditional (or at least transitional) home design with classic elements that aren’t a herald of the era.
Timeless design has so many benefits. Ignoring flash-in-the-pan trends means we won’t feel like we need to remodel every five or ten years when things go out of style. It makes homeownership easier, less expensive, and kinder to the planet.
Opting for a timeless design might mean undoing some trendy or overly mainstream home updates done previously, which the industry has coined “the unflip.” Unflipping your house typically involves remodeling your home with the look, feel, and era in which the house was built, but with a fresh take (obviously). “People are more interested in listening to their home,” says NK Portland designer Katie Weber. “[They’re] adding wainscot back in, small basket weave tiles back in, rather than being afraid of these elements and removing them in favor of what is trendy and generally accepted.”
In its annual report, the National Kitchen and Bath Association shared that 69% of home designers surveyed expect Transitional/Timeless design styles to be popular over the next three years.
2. Personalization
One of the most exciting trends is the return of a highly personalized home. Over the years, internet algorithms have driven us to adopt a few mainstream styles (sad beige anyone?). Now, many homeowners are reacting to that by curating deeply unique homes according to their own personal style and way of life.
“People are happiest when surrounded by things THEY perceive to be beautiful,” says Barbara Miller, Neil Kelly’s VP of Design. “It’s most important that each homeowner has exactly what they love to look at and what brings back happy memories for them in their surroundings rather than a room that is magazine-worthy.”
We are blending design concepts and functionalities of the home based on the client’s specific wants and needs, whether that be health and wellness, technology, or arts and culture. And we’re doing that with multifunctional spaces, custom storage solutions, integrated smart home systems, and layers of color, pattern, texture, and lighting. “I always look forward to mixing lived-in antiques into a design to bring warmth, history, and texture,” says NK Portland designer Katie Weber.
Among designers surveyed by the NKBA, 75% agree that homeowners want a design that is personal and just for them.
Trending ways to personalize your home include:
- Dramatic wallpaper
- Patterned and/or artisan tile
- Paneling, slat walls, and fluted surfaces
- The 2025 Paint Colors of the Year
- Retro and nostalgia-inspired décor
- Statement lighting
- Stained and/or reclaimed glass
- Integrating antique or vintage finds
3. Nature Inspired
Many homeowners are seeking a nature-inspired yet refined interior design style. The presence of nature is essential to our wellbeing and as we learn to embrace this we find new —and rediscover old —ways to incorporate nature into our homes.
One of the nature-inspired home design trends we love blends two corners of the world and their ideologies for creating a calm and happy home. “Japandi,” blends the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi with the Scandinavian practice of hygge. This design concept originated in the late 1800s, but has been gaining popularity in recent years. It calls for earthy neutral colors, natural and tactile materials (like wood, stone, cotton and rattan), organic shapes, lots of natural light, and intentional home décor. It’s clean, cozy, and peaceful.
If you’re looking to embrace nature in your next home remodel, we recommend looking beyond indoor plants and asking for large windows to maximize natural light (especially if the view is worthy), a balance of curves and straight lines, lots of natural wood and stone, and calming neutral colors.
Find more tips for creating nature-inspired interiors in our blog post: 14 Ways to Bring the Outside In with Biophilic Design.
4. Dark & Moody
Light and bright certainly has its appeal, but many homeowners are currently drawn to the opposite: dark and moody spaces with deeply saturated color, low lighting, and an evocative ambiance. We’re most often going dark and moody in lounging spaces like a living room, bedroom, or reading nook, but more and more homeowners are opting for this vibe in their bathrooms and kitchens as well.
According to Homes & Gardens, this year’s dark and moody trend “will be all about rich and jewel-like shades that encompass both warmth and drama,” like deep reds, dark browns, and earthy forest greens. And according to the National Association of Realtors, many homeowners are inspired by specific dark and moody looks like “Western Gothic” and “Dark Academia.”
When planning to create a dark and moody space in your home, we do suggest incorporating the option for brighter lighting, whether it’s natural or artificial, so that when you do need it you’re not stuck in the dark. This is especially important in kitchens and bathrooms where we often need lots of light to accomplish a task.
5. Color Drenching
Most dark and moody spaces are color-drenched, but not all color-drenched spaces are dark and moody. No matter which color you choose—light or dark, muted or bold—you can create a very trendy space in your home (with a relatively low budget) by painting the walls, built-ins, trim, door(s), and ceiling in the same or very similar hue.
Color drenching brings calm and serenity to your home environment by minimizing visual disruption and allowing your eyes to easily drift across the room. This makes it a smart design decision for areas of your home where you’d like there to be a relaxing atmosphere like an office, bedroom, or especially a nursery.
6. Quiet Luxury
It’s not uncommon for fashion trends to find their way into interior design and vice-versa. “Coastal Grandmother” is an example of a trend that crossed over in recent years. In 2025, we’re expecting “Quiet Luxury”—a fashion trend that sparked mid-2023—to be a hot topic in home design.
Sometimes also called “Stealth Wealth” or “Old Money Aesthetic,” Quiet Luxury is characterized by understated elegance, timelessness, and high-quality, long-lasting materials without flashy branding or other overt displays of wealth. Think of it as elevated basics. In fashion, a high-end neutral-colored wool overcoat is a staple of Quiet Luxury. In your home, it might be custom white oak kitchen cabinets, an artisan-made bathtub, or a timeless aged brass faucet as part of an overall design that is simple, sophisticated, and built to last a lifetime.
This bathroom design by NK Portland designer Janel Campbell exemplifies the Quiet Luxury trend with simple yet high-end materials; Handmade tile, a custom walnut vanity, and timeless brass plumbing fixtures that will patina with age. The design is also a deeply personal one, inspired by the owner’s travels in China and holding space for their collection of artwork. See more of this project here.
7. Designer Laundry Rooms
Homeowners are seeking joy in every room in their homes and the laundry room is no exception. We’re no longer accepting boring, utilitarian laundry rooms with bare minimum functionality and (gasp) visible plumbing. We want ample storage for detergents and such, some way to hang dry (that isn’t awkwardly in the way), a countertop for folding, and a wash sink. And, these days we want it to be beautiful as well. Think of the unexpected design qualities you might find in a powder room—wallpaper, tile, decorative lighting, color drenching—and envision a laundry room that actually makes you want to do laundry.
“When homeowners need to complete a task like laundry, it’s a little easier in a space that feels joyful and bright,” says Miller. “Adding a little whimsey or some fun, bright colors into your home in unexpected ways will create space for delight.”
8. Kitchen Trend: Natural Materials
The most important and still unwavering kitchen design trend of the decade is the preference for natural wood cabinets. It’s a trend within a trend, as it’s one of the most sought after and impactful elements of a nature-inspired home design.
Light-to-mid tone cabinets with a soft, not glossy, finish have been leading the trend for a few years now, while darker wood cabinets are rising in popularity along with more timeless and traditional kitchen designs.
Among the NKBA’s surveyed designers, 61% expect wood grain cabinets to be popular over the next 3 years, and 59% expect white oak to be the most popular wood species.
So, are white kitchens out? Absolutely not. White kitchens are timeless. But at the moment, the most inviting white kitchens have a warmer, creamier tone. Many timeless white kitchens also display a thoughtful balance of white cabinets with enriching natural materials like a small section of wood cabinets (maybe the island), a stone countertop, and/or metal hardware and fixtures.
Natural materials are on full display in this remodeled kitchen with ever-so-trendy white oak cabinets, a timeless marble checkerboard tile floor, and marble tile backsplash.
9. Kitchen Trend: Concealed Storage
Good organization never goes out of style. Hidden pantries, small appliance garages, trash pull-outs, and convenient utensil storage are still very common requests when planning a kitchen remodel.
In fact, 97% of designers surveyed by the NKBA agree that homeowners are looking for improved usability in their cabinets (e.g., storage, organization, more interior functional hardware, interior lighting).
One of the latest trends in kitchen storage is to add a narrow void in the full length of your kitchen island for storing long folding tables that you might pull out for entertaining.
It’s not enough to be organized, though. All these storage options should be hidden as well. We want our kitchen stuff to be out of sight (yet easily accessible) so that our countertops are clear and our kitchens aren’t a stressful or dysfunctional place to be.
This means open shelving is falling out of favor for many. It also means more homeowners are electing to hide their appliances with panel-ready models that blend in with cabinets.
10. Bathroom Trend: Spa-Inspired
Spa-inspired bathroom designs have been popular for many, many years, and they’re being requested now more than ever before. Who wouldn’t want a bathroom that encourages relaxation and rejuvenation? Many homeowners are looking unwind and perform their everyday rituals in a personalized space that feels luxurious and is comfortable to linger in.
This design style calls for large walk-in showers, which have also been popular for several years. We’re swapping out tub/shower combos for curbless showers with floor-to-ceiling tile in nearly every bathroom remodeling project these days–especially in primary bathrooms. In some cases (and with enough square footage) homeowners are electing to put a freestanding tub back in separately. 79% of designers who responded to the NKBA survey agree that homeowners prefer showers rather than tubs in a primary bathroom. 89% agree that a freestanding tub makes a bathroom look and feel luxurious.
If you’re dreaming of designing a spa-inspired bathroom in your home, think about incorporating these key features:
- Heated floors
- Layered lighting with lots of natural light, if possible
- Seating: A shower bench and a chair at your vanity where you can relax while applying makeup or pampering yourself with skin treatments.
- A rain and/or steam showerhead
- Natural materials like wood and stone
- Lots of storage to keep stress-inducing clutter out of sight
We are very excited to incorporate this year’s design trends into our clients’ homes. Whether your style is trendy or timeless, we’re looking forward to helping you bring your vision to life. Talk to one of Neil Kelly’s experienced designers about your next remodeling project. Consultations are complimentary! Schedule one today.