Most design trend lists are useless because they describe surfaces. A colour, a shape, a finish that will look dated in eighteen months. The trends worth paying attention to are the ones changing how villas are planned, because those decisions are expensive to reverse.
These are the shifts the studio is actually seeing in briefs, and an honest note on which of them will last.
1. The lower ground floor becomes the best floor
Basements were storage, plant rooms and occasionally a cinema nobody used. Increasingly they are the most considered floor in the house: pools, spas, gyms, bars and family rooms, planned as destinations rather than leftovers.
It works because a windowless floor forces the lighting to be designed properly, and a properly lit room without daylight can be more atmospheric than a bright one. The requirement is real investment in ventilation, humidity control and layered light. Done cheaply it feels exactly like a basement.
Will it last? Yes. This is a change in how floor area is valued, not a look.
2. Quiet material luxury over visible ornament
The high-gloss, heavily gilded villa interior is receding. What is replacing it is quieter and, done properly, more expensive: honed stone rather than polished, matt lacquers, plaster finishes, solid timber with visible grain, and metalwork that patinates rather than plating that chips.
The trap is that restraint has nowhere to hide. When there is no ornament to distract the eye, every junction, shadow gap and reveal has to be right.
Will it last? The materials will. The specific palette will move.
Restraint is not cheaper. It just moves the cost from decoration into detailing.
3. Zoned open plans, not undivided ones
The reaction against fully open ground floors is well underway. Nobody wants the walls back, but the appetite for one enormous undifferentiated room has gone.
What is being asked for instead is a plan that is open in sightline but zoned in use: a broken-plan kitchen with a pantry behind it, a snug that can be closed, a dining area defined by ceiling and light rather than partition. Acoustics are finally part of the brief.
Will it last? Yes. It is a correction, not a fashion.
4. The home office stopped being temporary
The corner of the bedroom with a laptop on it has become a properly planned room: acoustic separation, a considered background for calls, real task lighting, storage designed for the equipment, and a door that closes.
The detail most often missed is what is behind the chair. It is on camera for several hours a day and deserves the same attention as a fireplace wall.
Will it last? Yes, and it now affects resale.
Before adopting anything from a trend list, ask whether it changes the plan or only the surface. Plan changes are worth committing to. Surface changes can wait until you are certain.
5. Curves, used structurally
Arched openings, curved joinery and rounded seating are everywhere. Used as architecture, an arched opening between two rooms softens circulation and will still read well in twenty years. Used as decoration, an arch-shaped mirror above a curved sideboard beside a rounded rug will date precisely as fast as it arrived.
Will it last? The structural version will. The decorative version will not.
6. Integrated rather than visible technology
Scene lighting, motorised shading, concealed speakers and hidden charging are now expected rather than exceptional. The design consequence is that first-fix coordination matters more than ever, because almost all of it is invisible and therefore has to be exactly right before the ceilings close.
Will it last? The infrastructure will. The interfaces will be replaced twice.
7. Outdoor rooms, not outdoor furniture
Terraces are being designed as rooms: shaded, lit for evening use, with outdoor kitchens, proper seating and materials that continue the interior palette rather than switching to a separate garden vocabulary.
The decision that matters is lighting. A terrace without a designed evening scheme is used for a few hours a day. With one, it is used every night.
Will it last? Yes.
What we would ignore
- Colour of the year announcements. Paint is the cheapest thing to change, so there is no need to predict it.
- Full-height fluted panelling on every wall. It is already saturated.
- Anything requiring a specific proprietary product to be available in five years.
Planning a villa?
If you are at the planning stage, the items on this list that affect the plan are the ones worth deciding now. Send the drawings and we will tell you which of them your house is already set up for.
