2025 Interior Design Trends Seen at High Point Market : Annie Elliott Design

It’s that time of year, Gentle Readers! The fall edition of High Point Furniture Market, a 5-day extravaganza during during which 75,000 interior designers from around the world visit 2,000 exhibitors in a small town in North Carolina. It’s nuts.

High Point makes it easy to spot interior design trends for the coming year. Here’s what’s around the corner.

Lighter shades of wood. I noted several manufacturers have re-released existing pieces in lighter shades.

This console table (big enough to be a desk!) is from Port Eliot, which I love. The tortoiseshell was the original, then came the blue, and the light stain is new this year.

Why the light wood, I wonder? Is there a renewed obsession with California or the Southwest? Or Scandinavia?

Rustic white painted double dresser — Century Furniture

Open bookshelf with light wood shelves and brass details — Highland House

Gray console table on top of wide white painted dresser — Phillips Scott

Room with light upholstered and light wood furniture — Century Furniture

Century Furniture (longest-standing favorite!) has a new collaboration with Tara Shaw, a New Orleans-based designer. All of her furniture — her whole look, actually — is light. It’s quite beautiful.

Room scene of light-colored wood furniture — From Tara Shaw’s website

Next trend: Plaid! On furniture. Just one piece in a room, perhaps. *I* am delighted, of course, since I have a plaid-ish chair coming for my living room. (Windowpane, really, but let’s not quibble.)

Plaid wingback chair — Century Furniture

Waterfall skirts on chairs. I love this look, especially on dining chairs. Dining rooms can get awfully leggy, and skirted chairs make the whole scene less frenetic.

Skirted chair at a desk — Highland House

Round-back ivory linen chairs sith skirts — Highland House

Round-back gray and white chair with skirt — Century Furniture

Barrel-back chair with skirt — Highland House

This next skirted chair kills me: it’s SUEDE! And check out the slouchy pleat on the back! I love it. And the suede is sooooo soft.

Gray suede chair with skirt — Century Furniture

Back of dark gray suede skirted chair — Century Furniture

Small square back armchair with skirt — Century Furniture

The next interior design trend: “Cinnamon Slate.” On the color front, muted tones were everywhere. I don’t usually pay much attention to Benjamin Moore’s Color of the Year, but its 2025 winner, Cinnamon Slate, was everywhere.

Sign for Benjamin Moore's color of the year 2025 — From Benjamin Moore

Room with mauve lavender walls and gray sofa — From Benjamin Moore

Bathroom with marble tub and gray and lavender wallpaper — From Tempaper

There also was a lot of orangey “cinnamon” without the “slate.” Blech.

Room with cinnamon colored sofa — Jessica Charles

Patterned fabric against wallpaper in the same pattern — Kravet

Room with curved sofa and terra-cotta colored tables and walls — Highland House

Luckily for me, both colors looks good with green, which is still very popular, especially in furniture.

Room with light terra-cotta walls and green leather ottoman — Highland House

Maybe the muted colors had something to do with the muted tone of Market this year?

There were fewer people, for sure, and the vibe was…subdued. I didn’t feel like there were a zillion new items, for one thing (there sure weren’t a zillion parties, which there usually are), and I overheard several designers say that they felt that business is on hold until after the election. (Thank you, AED clients, for forging ahead with your projects! I can handle only so much uncertainty.)

That said, I always learn stuff at High Point. And I’m happy to pass that knowledge along to you ;)

Is your home ready for a new look? Are you? Annie Elliott Design is now considering projects for January! If redecorating joyfully is on your to-do list for 2025, we look forward to speaking with you.