Discover the must-have floral print and pattern textile trends for interiors, including granny influences, charming Toile de Jouy, paradisiac gardens and maximalist looks.
With an abundance of flower species, real and fantastical, to choose from, experiment with botanicals, chinoiserie or eclectic versions to find a direction that mirrors your brand’s ethos.
Custom printed floral ranges offer brands an opportunity to distinguish themselves from competitors.
Due to the rise of thrift and vintage homewares, brands and designers are exploring Grand millennial style, leading with all-over patterns and grounded in nostalgia. This is gaining traction across the US, Middle East, Singapore and Australia.
Emerging trends see designers and brands bringing an element of nature to residential and commercial interiors.
Floral artwork a key trend for 2021 and beyond
Post lockdown social media trends show “floral pattern” is a highly associated term in connection with maximalist interiors and “flower” is growing among minimalist posts, showing there is space to develop busy designs and more considered options for surface decoration.
Reported as a key trend for 2021 and beyond, floral artwork brings a burst of nature to residential and commercial settings in a broad range of styles.
Designers and brands expand on cottagecore themes, illustrate delicate botanicals and Toile de Jouy with new colourways and get experimental with mismatched compositions.
What does this mean for brands? As consumers become confident with maximalist styling, collaborate on a collection that enables brands and retailers to buy into a “full lifestyle” while targeting a new spectrum of customers.
Here is a list of the 9 key floral trends for 2021/22
1) Maximalist Looks
“Maximalism is, in a way, much more personal than minimalism. People are not just one thing; they are complicated and complex and multifaceted – and maximalist decor expresses that,” says Nicole Alexander, the principal interior designer behind the firm Siren Betty Design.
This style allows your personality and experiences to shine through much more easily than in a minimalist space.
Some key characteristics of a maximalist space:
- Layering
- Repetitive patterns in prints such as florals, abstract and animal prints
- Rich, bold colours with unique statement pieces
- Mixing and matching of textures and colours
- Multiples of items like books, statues, artworks etc.
- Blending of styles
Designers offer vibrant mismatched patterns and styling for fabric design. Artful florals give interiors a feel-good boost, as reported in Spring Summer 21/22 Euphoric Forecast.
Brands are embracing maximalist versions. As consumers grow more confident with their personal style, brands need to offer a variety of small and larger items to try at home.
Post lockdown trends reveal bedding, dinnerware, wall decor and soft furnishings are key pieces for the maximalist design. Encourage creative expression by layering different prints to inspire your audience.
Mumbai-based influencer @mishys_arrtsy_home displays her hand-painted terracotta plates on the wall in vibrant hues, while Kenzo Takada’s homeware brand K-3 continues the legacy of the Japanese designer with a focus on exuberant florals.
How you can activate this trend:
- Use hyper brights and high contrasts
- Offer smaller products for consumers new to the more-is-more look
- For textiles, use foil touches to pull your audience in
- Try one-off painterly styles on ceramics people can place centre stage as a talking point
Maximilist looks are characteristised by bright, bold colours
2) Paisley Patterns
Brands offer paisleys rich in heritage as they become considered a perennial design to style year-round. Designers are reinventing classical formats with a contemporary finish.
Paul Smith partnered with Maharam Design Studio to develop a paisley brocade that references a combination of antique needlepoint and digital pixelation.
Hand-rendered techniques are great for artistic flourishes populating intricate designs, working for Subdued Folk or gothic renditions.
Apply solid colours to the grounds to bring the motifs to the fore. US interior design studio Stephan Jones uses a matte midnight blue fabric in its oversized throw pillows.
How you can activate this trend:
- Create teardrop motifs with floral elements to decorate homewares
- Enlarge original artwork to bring attention to the finer details in the icon, ideal for statement cushions
- Use busy repeats for large surface coverage, such as walls and floors, to add an ornate feel to hospitality and commercial spaces
Paisley has a range of interior applications
3) Toile du Jouy
Discover traditional print press artworks with etched-like illustrations of modern scenes in updated colourways. Eighteenth and 19th-century printed cloths used for interiors and clothing feature romantic scenes of florals and everyday life, telling stories of that period.
Brands are creating their own narratives with cut-out scenes in refreshing tones. Find ways to appeal to the younger market and value customers who may shy away from this high-end look. American interior designer Sheila Bridges collaborated with The Inside and said: “I have always wanted to see my Harlem Toile de Jouy design on furniture that was affordable.”
How you can activate this trend:
- Recreate classic Toile du Jouy patterns by adopting digital pastels to appeal to Millennials
- Use visual images to show your audience how matching ranges can work together for a solid colour interior or can be mixed with existing homewares to appeal to consumers shopping on a budget
Adopt digital pastels to appeal to Millennials using Toile du Jouy
4) Paradise Garden
An important home décor trend in Autumn Winter 21/22 that features flowers and foliage from tropical climates to build a fantastical look and theatrical styling for fabric design.
Study otherworldly botanical species and place them in busy garden settings, including palm tree foliage and fresh tropics. Partner with a conservationist charity to support endangered plants, showing your commitment to the planet.
Jewel tones enliven motifs disguised in busy repeats while dark grounds are favoured for their dramatic effect, adding warmth to a space.
How you can activate this trend:
- Illustrate a variety of wondrous flora and greenery in a range of printed goods
- Be daring with colour to add vibrancy to the artwork; if dark grounds are too bold for your brand’s aesthetic, offer a lighter version
- As maximalist interiors take a dark twist, help users build their own level of drama with mix-and-match product options
Flowers and foliage are a dominant trend
5) The Rose Garden
Roses are key motifs for surface decoration, with brands reinventing the interiors of a grandmother’s home.
Designers and retailers are exploring painterly styles reminiscent of vintage furnishings. Muted tones contribute to the antique look, ideal for commercial hospitality brands seeking ways to recreate a different era.
Nepalese fashion designer Prabal Gurung collaborated with Etsy in a range of homewares, including graffiti rose server ware. The modern interpretation is given a vintage twist via gold edging.
How you can activate this trend:
- Put your own spin on classic rose designs, either through new colours, upscaling or decorative accents
- Offer a comforting dose of nostalgia with retro floral prints
- Appeal to makers with DIY needle punch kits they can use to create heirlooms of their own, ideal for gifting
Classic rose designs is on-trend
6) Quiltcore
In line with the cottagecore trend, experiment by combining ginghams with chintz to distinguish a new floral direction. Encourage consumers to explore their personal tastes and mix vintage pieces with new homewares.
UK-based Matilda Goad styles printed ceramics with antiques, showing you don’t have to purchase an entire collection to refresh a table setting. For surface decoration, position blooms with ginghams by screen-printing on pre-printed wovens or digitally merging icons over grid designs.
Test which artwork speaks to your brand by digitally editing the scale, either bringing focus to the blooms or grid structures. This will help with time-sensitive projects.
How you can activate this trend:
- Be experimental and refresh traditional checks with florals to build a kitsch aesthetic
- Appeal to Gen Z and Millennials with bold colourways and stick with pastel hues for baby and children’s ranges
- Invest in quilted throws and printed tech accessories as a quick win
Quilted throws and printed tech accessories are a quick win to get on trend with quiltcore
7) Charming chinoiserie
Bring an Eastern essence to interiors with delightful illustrations of botanicals, birds and greenery. Explore different wildlife from East Asian regions including Hong Kong, China and Japan.
Study archival material including wallpaper and ceramic pieces. Be sure to detail the source to pay respect to the origin of the design.
For styling, have fun contrasting chinoiserie with other florals to make an eclectic mix and encourage users to curate their own floral home decor interior.
How you can activate this trend:
Put your own spin on chinoiserie with painterly iterations inspired by local wildlife – drawing inks and gouache paints are a must
Apply this story to largescale items and bring an artistic backdrop to living spaces or the bedroom
Use solid brights for the grounds to appeal to the youth market
Bright solid colours make the chinoiserie trend appealing to a younger market
8) Blurred Blossoms
Create Blotched Blooms with blurred effects, for this Autumn Winter trend 21/22. Explore camo patterns where floral motifs are blurred to look like blotches of ink or watercolour.
Be time- and cost-effective by experimenting with past artwork and use digital tools to overlay the motifs and fuzz the outline, ideal for a quick turnaround. Introduce texture to add to the hazy appearance.
This abstract story works well for people who shy away from traditional chintz, so use this as a gateway to other ranges in order to reach a wider audience.
How you can activate this trend:
- Blur the edge of floral silhouettes either with painterly brushstrokes and sponges or via photo editing
- Increase the scale of the artwork to trick the viewer’s eye into that there is a flower motif
9) Spring Awakening
Tapping into our quiet botanicals trend, brands offer a faint interpretation of flowers and foliage for a charming look. Explore new variations of the Fluid Artwork trend, with colourful pastel hues offering a fresh feel.
Motifs appear lightweight and work well in repeat compositions, ideal for large surfaces including wallcoverings and textiles. Off-white grounds keep this direction new.
Embrace natural fibres such as cotton and linen to remove the need for extra dyes and printing pigments. New York-based Hill House Home is an example of how this look can appear maximalist, with the brand’s coordinated clothing and bedding range.
How you can activate this trend:
- Pull inspiration from wildflowers or grasses and illustrate via watercolour paintings and sketches
- Create newness with bright pastel hues such as apricot, teal and warm yellow
Floral trend for interiors: final thoughts
Due to the rise of thrift and vintage homewares all-over florals are a key surface decoration theme.
Emerging trends see designers and brands bringing an element of nature to residential and commercial interiors.
A variety of floral print and pattern textile trends offer designers endless opportunities to develop exciting bespoke fabric printed ranges that can be marketed to audiences in 2021 and 2022.
