If you’re planning on listing your home next year, it’s time to think about getting cozy.
Minimalist interiors with gray laminate flooring, shiny silver fixtures, and aggressively neutral paint colors that dominated interior design in the 2010s and early 2020s are no longer drawing in prospective home buyers.
What’s working instead, real estate agents and home stagers say: warmer-toned hues, textured elements, and dollops of character like accent walls.
“Buyers no longer really want that modern box that was so popular back in 2015 or 2016,” said Walter Franco Jr., a real estate agent in Los Angeles.
Ricci Taylor, owner of Atlanta-based staging and furniture leasing company Everly Design Co., said she’s noticed earthy shades of brown and accent colors like cinnamon and evergreen catching on with clients, along with more rounded furniture silhouettes and textured metals. After spending pandemic lockdowns cooped up in stark spaces, many buyers are now seeking designs that remind them of nature.
“It’s all about that feng shui — bringing the outside in,” Taylor said. “I think you’re going to be seeing more bedrooms, offices, and accent walls being done with these warmer colors.”
Case in point: Paint giant Pantone declared “Mocha Mousse” its 2025 color of the year. The shade is described as “a warming, brown hue imbued with richness” and “answering our desire for comfort.”
Jennifer Roberts, a real estate broker at Coldwell Banker Warburg in New York, said her clients are increasingly prioritizing calming, muted wall colors and subtle pops of color that make their homes feel like oases.
“They want to walk into the apartment and shut out the world,” said Roberts, who does most of her business in Manhattan’s Upper East and Upper West Side neighborhoods.
Another shift: After years of open-concept floorplans dominating, she’s noticed more buyers once again seeking walls. In some cases, apartments with formal dining rooms are winning out over layouts with more casual options like kitchen islands.
“They want distinct rooms,” Roberts said. “It provides more cozy spaces.”
If you do live in a minimalist box, however, there’s no reason to fear that your home will never sell. Whites and neutrals remain popular in living areas, and simple upgrades like swapping out light fixtures and painting cabinets can enhance a home’s look at a fraction of the cost of a gut renovation, Taylor said.
Hanny Jahns, founder and CEO of staging and interior design company Stageasily, said airy, open homes are still sought after in her Las Vegas market. There, many people are favoring modern designs with character, like the work of potter and designer Jonathan Adler, that can be “a little bit fun and a little bit retro,” she said.