Monastic luxe
There are a few houses we have published this year that espouse a kind of warm serenity in their interiors – not exactly minimalist, but certainly not maximalist. It's a look that's very much influenced by the work of Rose Uniacke, and indeed some of the designers creating it have emerged from her studio. We're calling it ‘monastic luxe’, if that's not too pretentious of us. Think lots of organic materials – linen, natural fibre carpets, muted colours and characterful antiques (but not too many of them). The above bedroom in a London house by Jessica Summer is a lovely example, dominated by the simple, elegant structure of the hand-forged iron bed, made by blacksmith James Price. The atmosphere is restful, with walls in Atelier Ellis's ‘Garden Party Green’ and the bed draped in Waris Vianni's ‘Fournier’ linen. This kind of interior can take an understated pattern – the headboard is in ‘Adhira’ by Alison Gee and the chair has a soft Arts & Crafts design – but overall, less is more. Other houses in this mode include the founder of Atelier Ellis' house in Bath, and a serene north London house by Rachel Aisling Walker.
Pretty pantries
Our appetite for attractive pantries knows no limits at the moment. There is something incredibly satisfying about a perfectly organised space where all of the bits and bobs of a kitchen can be stowed away, and if they're charmingly decorated, so much the better. The trend these days is to build a pantry that is sort of part of the kitchen but sort of separated from it, usually by a half glazed door. The above version can be found in a Cornish cottage by HÁM Interiors, and has all the components we love in this kind of space. from the half-door that gives a sense of separation without closing it off, to the cabinet curtain without which no country kitchen would be complete these days. An eye-catching paint colour defines the cabinetry and open shelving, and the space is further decorated by pretty lights and a picture on the wall. We rather like the pared-back aesthetic of this example, but lots of designers use the opportunity of a small space like this to go very bold with colours, fabrics and tiles (take a look at the pantry in this coastal house by Isabella Worsley for a great example), and this can be super fun too.
Hand-painted murals
It may sound like a contradiction in terms to say that embracing a trend can make your house unique, but that is what a hand-painted wall can do, and it's why we're particularly happy to see them popping up more and more on our pages. Although there are so many ways to incorporate hand-painted details into your house, we're especially drawn to large-scale forms of decoration that recall the outside world. This delightful mural in the loo of a reconfigured barn in Connecticut was painted by specialist decorator Mark Uriu of Uriu Nuance, under the direction of interior designer Hugh Leslie. The pretty flowers remind us of decorative painter Tess Newall's work, and if you want something similar without getting the paintbrush out yourself, her sweet ‘Herbarium’ wallpaper might do the trick. We're also very much enamoured with scenic murals like the one in the dining room of botanical artist Tattie Isles' Dorset house – we can't imagine anything more effective at bringing soul and personality to a house.
Tonal woodwork
This room in designer Russell Loughlan's Deal house has a lot to love, first and foremost the way that the walls and woodwork are painted in tonal shades of blue, with the darker colour drawing attention to the doors and fireplace. The walls are painted in Farrow & Ball's ‘Oval Room Blue’, while the woodwork is in ‘Sloe Blue’. It's a smart, modern paint idea, and one we're seeing in a lot of houses this year.I t's a way of making a room look "elegant and designed, but without having to use an interior designer,” explains Tash Bradley, Director of Interior Design and Colour Psychologist at Lick, and is brilliant for highlighting particularly lovely period features. It's not the only thing we like in here, however: the patchwork quilt on the bed is also a design feature we're really into at the moment, and can we just note the lovely multi-coloured stripe on the armchair – we're all about sophisticated stripes these days.
Yellow rooms (especially kitchens)
Yellow is one of the inescapable colours of 2025, and is popping up in various shades, from butter to mustard, all over our pages. Kitchens and sitting rooms seem to be particularly strong candidates for a lick of yellow paint, and this charming kitchen designed by Artichoke for a cottage in Hampshire is one of our favourites. The joinery is painted in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Sudbury Yellow’, a sunny shade named for Sudbury Hall, where legendary decorator John Fowler famously used a similar hue. It looks just lovely on the traditional country kitchen woodwork, playing nicely with a terracotta chequerboard floor and black countertops. The whole thing really speaks to our obsession with properly decorative, traditional-feeling kitchens, with lots of tongue-and-groove panelling to add texture and plenty of objects and pictures on display for character.
Tobacco browns
Another colour that has been everywhere lately? Brown. Improbable as it may have seemed a few years ago, brown is really showing off what it can do at the moment. There are lots of different hues we love, from cowpat greeny-browns to biscuit and coffee shades, but the kind of rich tobacco colour on display in the above London house by Brandon Schubert is especially lustworthy. It's warm and enveloping, and artwork really sings against it. It can be paired with lots of different colours – pinky-reds as Brandon has done, or blues and greens can work very well too. Brandon has used grasscloth ('Manila Hemp' in the camel colourway from Philip Jeffries) here for texture, which looks fantastic (and is also something we're seeing in plenty of houses these days), but there are some great paint colours out there to try out. Edward Bulmer's ‘Wainscoat’ and Little Greene's ‘Affogato’ are lovely options.
Internal windows and ‘broken-plan’ layouts
While the last few decades have seen us all hurtling enthusiastically at open-plan layouts at home, the fashion for them is decidedly slowing down, and more closed-off spaces are coming back. Sometimes, after all, we just need places to be private and keep stuff out of sight. But still, we want to keep light and air flowing around our interiors and not go back to the full Victorian rabbit warren of rooms, and that's where the ‘broken plan’ layout comes in. Internal windows, glazed doors, sliding doors and curtains are super helpful for this kind of layout, which can lean more towards open plan when doors and windows are open, but can also be closed off when preferable. The sorts of half-glazed pantries and sculleries we saw above are one example, and above there's another very appealing one, a study with a glazed window and door in a London apartment by Artichoke. The study is very much visible from the the dining and sitting areas and can feel like part of the main space, but the sliding door and blinds on the window mean it can be private when necessary.
