2026 Design Trends to Keep

Dear Alice | Interior Design

In this episode of Dear Alice Interior Design, hosts Sue and Corey break down the most enduring interior design trends expected to shape hom

Key takeaways

• Color drenching—painting entire rooms in saturated hues with varied textures and gloss levels—is becoming a signature of intentional design, replacing sterile neutral palettes.
• Warm, deep wood tones like burl oak, walnut, and hickory are making a comeback, especially when paired with high-gloss finishes to enhance grain and depth.

Main topics

• Color drenching
• Warm deep woods and exotic veneers

Notable quotes

"Color drenching is not just a trend—it's a signature of interior designer confidence. It says, 'Someone with taste has touched this.'"

"We're not leaving our ceilings white anymore. Someone with tastes has touched this."

Conclusion

As design evolves beyond fleeting aesthetics, the focus shifts to enduring personal

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) Hello everyone. Welcome to Dear Alice. Today we are talking about 2026 design trends to keep. Oh my Speaker 3 (0:06) gosh. So many people have asked us about these things. They have. And I feel like we're Speaker 2 (0:09) far enough into the year that we can definitively give them a list. I always hate it at the beginning of the year when they're saying, these are the trends. How do you know? I think we've been in far enough into the year. We've been working on projects. These are legit the things that we're experiencing and we can confidently. record a podcast about this today. And Speaker 3 (0:27) why it's important too, we're talking about the home. This isn't fast fashion. This is stuff for your home. So when it comes to... doing things to your walls, to your cabinets, to stone, all those things. It's important to know what is actually sticking and we're here to talk about it. Speaker 2 (0:40) And I hate putting a date on it like 2026 because this will be continuous into the next, I would call it five years or so, that these are the things that we've really experienced that feel fresh and new but are really everlasting and I have to say look so much better than what we've done in the past. I'm so Speaker 3 (0:55) excited. I am too. As we've reviewed these things, they have a point of view. Some of them you'll like personally, some of them you might not like and pay attention to. that because that will obviously be the most everlasting is developing your taste and understanding what you like for the long term. So if Speaker 2 (1:10) anybody's new here, thank you for joining us. We are the designers behind Alice Lane. We've been doing this for about 20 years now. Custom homes, remodels, interiors. Each week, we're just sharing the design principles, mistakes, insider knowledge that we're using every day with our own Speaker 3 (1:25) clients. Okay, Speaker 2 (1:25) so let's get into it. These are our 2026 design trends that are here to stay. Number one. Speaker 3 (1:31) Color drenching, guys. You know how I feel. I love a color drench. And long have I said, I feel nothing in a neutral space. You've Speaker 2 (1:37) been saying it forever, Sue. Speaker 3 (1:38) Forever. Thank you. But the fact that we get to be surrounded by a color and a mood, top to bottom, side to side, in different textures and glosses and all the things, it's so enveloping. Maybe it's not for the whole house, but it is for certain environments. Speaker 2 (1:52) Love it. And I love when you speak of different textures. I particularly want to say color drenching in high gloss. Speaker 3 (1:59) High five. Speaker 2 (1:59) It just completes the whole experience. I love this look so much. This look is just so holistic. It's so considered. It's so all in. And I really feel like this is just going to be here to stay for a long time. When Speaker 3 (2:12) I was going to school, I heard of the great Jamie Drake, right? King of color. And I was learning about how saturated he loves his environments. He was doing this. Color drenching. It's not a new something, but it's something that we all have just been craving since the days of beige and gray and black and white. It Speaker 2 (2:29) also, to me, is a signature of interior designer. To me, it says I hired a designer because there's confidence about it because it is all in color. It's not like they went neutral on the walls and maybe did a little bit of a pattern on the sofa. It's that the entire room is considered. Right down to the ceiling and being included in this colorway. We're not leaving our ceilings white anymore. Someone with Speaker 3 (2:52) tastes has touched this. Yeah. That's what this means. I Speaker 1 (2:54) think it's also leading the charge a little bit. It's the biggest departure from where we were, let's say, eight years ago. I also love it because it's not tearing everything down and starting from scratch. It's something you can apply to your home now. Speaker 2 (3:06) Okay. Another one that we're loving. Go ahead, Speaker 3 (3:09) Sue. It's warm, deep woods. When you're talking about... We work on homes every day, so we're picking out the flooring. We're looking at cabinetry. We're looking at, again, just different textures to just bring a feeling in. And we're feeling warmth. We're not feeling gray. We're not feeling whitewashed. We're not feeling dry. We want to feel something that's giving back that feels historic. We're loving Burlwoods. The way it contrasts against other materials, also kind of the high lacquer. When you put a warm wood in conjunction with all that, you just get the gooiest sandwich ever. house sandwich is that a thing yeah Speaker 2 (3:41) house sandwich 100 we're gonna make it a thing okay you heard it here first everybody applying Speaker 1 (3:46) a dark stain to wood too brings out things in it that when you try to neutralize that same wood it isn't there so again it's a departure from the blondes the neutralized blondes adding a darker stain to it and it's giving you more grain it's on burl it's accenting that it's Yeah, more of the fiddleback or the texture that's in wood. It's pulling all that out. It's really Speaker 3 (4:08) celebrating the grain because we're still using oaks, but you're seeing more of that quarter sun and you're seeing more caramels and just these warm cognacs and down to even some of the deeper, richer woods like in the furnishings. I still think that we're on teen medium, stained for the floor, a mid-tone for the floor, but I think there's so much available saturation we had in your cabinetry. and in your furniture. And I think just all those layers of those warm woods give so much back to a space and it makes it feel historic. Speaker 2 (4:35) This is the most shocking to most people when I talk to them because we have been in this white oak land for so, so long that when we say that the woods, your wood floors, your wood paneling, like we did in our desert oaks project, your cabinetry for primary bathrooms or your islands, the island's not a surprise. I think kitchen island, they're used to doing that in Walnut. But something about their primary space, also people are shocked. They're like, wait, what? Dark wood, no what? They can't wrap their brain around Speaker 1 (5:03) it? Speaker 2 (5:03) Just tore it out. Speaker 1 (5:03) Yeah, exactly. Speaker 2 (5:04) We just want to say it now because if you're making decisions and you're going to be remodeling, you're going to want to know what's happening and what's coming because you don't want to make a decision on the clotting edge. You want to make that on the cutting edge so that this decision is going to last with you for the next. decade, 15 years, that you're going to be really happy about this. And this is what we're seeing is that everybody's really going that direction. Some Speaker 1 (5:26) people are having a hard time with it because the last time dark woods were in, it was alder. And so I would say warm woods, but also warm, fine woods, oaks, walnuts, even ash, or in some cases, hickory. But just to be honest with you, alder is a pretty bottom of the barrel wood. There's a lot of imperfections in it. When you put a dark stain on that, it... highlights all those imperfections. And so that's kind of not what we want now. That's where it's a departure from what was kind of going on in the early 2000s. I Speaker 3 (5:54) have seen some premium alders stained as a walnut, which I think that that is something that you can do when you are looking at the spectrum of prices and things. So I have done that. Not knotty. But the premium alder, I think, is a good one. It's a level of richness. And it's not to say that we're not introducing medium. And there might be some light-toned woods. In certain spaces, we don't want it to feel flat and all feel light. We want dimension. We want warmth. And that's what we're feeling. Speaker 2 (6:16) Corey, how do you feel about the swirl-off crotch mahogany? A lot. I feel like what you're saying, though, is the exotic woods are what is so, so. It's like fine furniture is a thing where the early 2000s, it was more casual, if you will. People were adding timbers to their out. Their exterior structure. Rustic. Tuscany, it was rustic. Speaker 1 (6:35) Where Speaker 2 (6:35) today we're a more refined, more sophisticated, more these hard to get wood grains, which are veneers. A lot of the time, if we're using those really exotic woods, which I'm loving. Speaker 1 (6:46) Squirrel crotch mahogany. Now I know what he's mean. It's a burl that's in mahogany. Mahogany is always a little bit more red. So that's not 100 % my thing. But if you can put even darker stain, like an ebony. On mahogany, it kind of dilutes those reds a little bit and does pull a little bit more brown. I love that. Mahogany's great. Speaker 3 (7:05) Also, birds eye maple. And that's a lighter one, but there's still such history. I feel like a lot of mid-century furniture wasn't even that. It was made of walnut. And so it's just, it's interesting. One Speaker 2 (7:13) of the prettiest I've ever seen is your vanity. Oh, thank you. Sue has a burled walnut vanity in her bathroom that is so handsome and textured. The veneer he uses is just beautiful. I asked him, I'm like, where Speaker 3 (7:27) did you find these things? He just took a long time. So he's not giving the source. It's so pretty. Speaker 2 (7:33) It's really pretty. Anyway, these are your warm, deep woods, guys. They are here to stay. And we're getting on board. Everybody's getting on board. So excited. We obviously have some projects that are already shot. So we've been doing this for a few years. But everything going forward, everybody's really. really adopted this. So it's here. Again, a celebration of the mix. And I think as Speaker 3 (7:52) you're developing your style, really trying to attach to what trends are going to stay in your house, make sure that you're introducing some of these things that you love because it will add dimension and character and a really great soulful story. A Speaker 1 (8:03) richness too. It's likening to when things were built well and thoughtful. Furniture was built with thoughtful design to that less of, like I said, the early 2000s. I thought Speaker 3 (8:13) you were going to compare it to a song. Oh. And adding instruments. Yeah. Speaker 1 (8:18) That Speaker 2 (8:18) too. John Denver, everybody. Yeah, exactly. Speaker 3 (8:21) Next on our trends to keep for 2026 is statement tiles. Statement colored tiles. I love this trick. Yeah, where are you doing it at, Speaker 2 (8:29) Sue? Where are we doing statement colored tiles at? A Speaker 3 (8:31) lot of bathrooms, kitchens. I think there's just that integration. For the last decade plus, we've had slabs in the kitchen and then slab backsplashes, which is still really beautiful, but we're adding. additional tile to it to make it more interesting. If not omitting the slab and doing just tile, we're seeing it a lot on floors too. We're doing a lot of more interesting floors and adding tile wherever we can. And not just in the entry, in your pantry, in cute little powder bathroom. Anyway, any time you can get tile in space, it's just going to give so much credit back to the space. Shower walls. Speaker 2 (9:04) Yeah. Speaker 3 (9:04) is a really fun one to do. We did a cabin and we did a lot of really fun tricks there because it is in the mountains. And so you want to fill these rich textures. She's like, let's be artistic about this. And so we did a lot of really clever applications with colored tile. Those are some of my favorite installations that we've ever done though. I Speaker 1 (9:21) would say as important as the tile itself