Design Trends Spotted at High Point Market: Part One

Ah, High Point Market. What an extravaganza.

As the second largest home furnishings industry trade show in the world, it certainly brings all the high points in interior home design — no pun intended. And, at our luxury interior design firm, we love to traverse this ultimate extravaganza of eye candy, endless product options, and unexpected moments of joy (exhausting as it may be!).

While there, we are looking at trends — what’s up and coming and what’s fading; we’re diving deep into current and new resources; we’re hugging people we deal with virtually all year long. It’s all in service of bringing the best of the best to our clients.

When we left the most recent High Point Market late October – the foretelling of what’s on tap for 2025, we were just buzzing with inspo and insight: To recap just a fraction of the experience, I’m bringing to you a two-part series highlighting some of the biggest statements and trends we spotted.

Let’s get started with Part One!

Earthy Palettes are on Point.

At High Point, the whole color story revolved around so many rich earth tonesYes, the browning story remains a big push but in total there’s a steady leaning towards  “color warmth.”

So much green! Hunter green, olive green, mossy green, the list goes on. But also think of other saturated, nature-inspired hues in the form of cinnamons and butternuts, marigolds and golden oranges, rich berries and plums, and more. They are at once inviting and energizing – and warm.

By now, you may have also heard that the Pantone Color of the Year for 2025 is Mocha Mousse — and those cozy, nurturing, and warming brown hues were out to play in this earth tone palette, too.

To that end, gray has transformed into a far warmer greige that is just shy of that brown. But all these colors all marry well with the grays that were so long the darling of the design world, so don’t panic.

Black and white, too, are a forever classic and still very much in the palette zeitgeist — as are creams – all remains strong and dosed correctly can be a solid complement to the earthier hues.

These delectable colors answer a desire for comfort and elegance in interior room design. There is a distinct move away from cooler tones and into the warmth.

Wood Color Trending: Caramels and Nuts

Caramel and its derivatives were solidly on the scene. This is much in keeping with our delicious warmer, cozy palette.

Caramel as a color is big, but it’s even more of a player in the scope of lighter woods that have emerged accompanied by honey, cashew, and almond tones.

Cerused Woods Turn the Corner:

Cerused woods – meaning when you see an obvious white grain pattern in wood, is still present, but rather than dominating every piece of furniture as it has in a few markets past, it’s now morphing to be an accent: For example, we saw incredible pieces of wood furniture – such as dining tables that alternated caramel cerused wood with caramel stained wood in a cashmere finish. It was a tone-on-tone win.

Full Curves Ahead in Furniture

When it comes to furniture shapes, it’s full curves ahead! We’re seeing an abundance of rounded edges, flowing contours, and graceful shapes take hold —the look ranges from sophisticated to too-cool-for-school.

We also saw what happens when this trend goes too far in a literal direction with an overly blown-up, rounded look in upholstered pieces. Let’s take off the gloves here – done poorly it looks like Flintstones furniture.

Another trend spot where upholstered softness and curves took shape got innovative:  upholstered headboards. From pillowy interpretations to pattern-happy geometry, to larger and larger heights, the upholstered headboard continue to be explored more and more by the interior home design community.

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Alright, design darlings. That does it for Part One. Come back for Part Two, when we recap a few more 2025 trends that took over the High Point scene.

And, in the meantime, if you’re feeling inspired to indulge your design fancy and create a space that’s inspired by trends but guided and personalized by your unique design fingerprint, let’s begin! This is precisely what we specialize in at our luxury interior design firm. Contact us to learn more.