Curious about what’s trendy for fall/winter 2022? Here’s our newest trend report chock full of expert opinions, advice and tips about what’s hot now in surface design, interior design and space renovation. Read on to learn about what trends you might want to incorporate in your own upcoming work!
We’ll start out with general and product-specific trends from Spoonflower’s Sr. Merchandising Manager Emerson Jones. Then we’ll have bios and Q&As from surface designer Tara Reed and Spoonflower Artist Community Manager Jessie Katz Greenberg, followed by a video interview with Tara and Jessie detailing suggestions that can help artists work with design trends. Next up, Lyndsay Lamb & Leslie Davis of HGTV’s “Unsellable Houses” and celebrity interior designer Vanessa Antonelli answer questions about trends they’re seeing, as well as creative and inspiring tips for artists. We’ll round all that out with search term trends.
This version of the report is a condensed version of the full report. Want to see the full version? Check it out at this link!
Fall/Winter 2022 Trends
Emerson Jones, Sr. Manager, Merchandising, Spoonflower
Favorite design style: Eclectic Maximalism
Favorite color: Green
After six years of working up through the Spoonflower factory, and then leading strategy for our brand on marketplaces like Amazon and Etsy, I am thrilled to be stepping into this new Merchandising role. My mission is to create opportunities that surface the right designs, on the right products, to the right customers, at the right time—with the goal to drive more sales for our wonderful community of artists.
I have been diving into the data to figure out exactly the types of designs that Spoonflower customers are looking for across all of our product categories, and I am excited to share them with you in hopes they inspire your next great print!
Wallpaper Trends
What’s trending in wallpaper for fall/winter 2022:
Monochrome motifs that feature subtle shifts between shades of a single hue: As wallpaper continues to be a mainstream staple, people are looking for more subdued prints in neutral tones and monochromatic palettes. Consider designs with slight shifts in tones of the same color.
Organic geometrics: Large-scale abstract shapes with soft curves, fluid line work and brush strokes.
Historic re-interpretations: Patterns honoring Victorian, Arts & Crafts and Mid-Century Modern styles.
Novelty toile prints: Designs with humorous or hyper-local motifs.
Large scale stripes and checks in bold, bright colors
Large scale botanicals, trees and florals: Designs that climb up entire panels to create an immersive mural-like feel. Popular in all styles from classic to boho.
Interior Design Trends
What’s trending in interior design for fall/winter 2022:
Modern Modular: Flexible spaces furnished with modular furniture and versatile decor designed with portability and customization in mind. Practical pieces that are easy to re-arrange, re-locate and re-cover.
Indoor – Outdoor Living: Not only are we bringing the outdoors in with indoor trees, houseplants and natural textures like rattan, wicker and bamboo—but we are bringing the indoors out with outdoor living, dining and kitchens becoming must haves in residential and commercial spaces.
Vintage Touches: As supply chain issues strain access to new furniture, designers and decorators are finding more new ways to mix vintage and antique pieces in spaces to create an eclectic, collected aesthetic.
Home Decor Trends
What’s trending in home decor for fall/winter 2022:
Nostalgic accents with retro florals, checkerboards, crushed velvet and shag rugs: Check out the 1970s Throw Pillows and Cheerful Checks design challenge winners.
Bohemian geometrics: Reflecting global influences mixing rich color and warm earth tones.
Joyful expression: Through pops of bold graphic color blocking and elevated novelty prints.
Color trends:
Apparel Trends
What’s trending in apparel for fall/winter 2022:
Color trends: Hyper pink, emerald green, warm, rich neutrals.
Modern academia: Classic large-scale checks, pleated skirts, polo shirts, pinafores and blazers.
1970s revival: Romantic florals and simple plaids in dark earthy pallets on luxe crushed velvet.
Matching sets: Expanding beyond loungewear and velour track suits, occasional ware and office appropriate outfits featuring the same print across multiple pieces.
Throwback denim: Loose, oversized fits and low rises are back as a part of the larger Y2K fashion trends originating with Gen Z on TikTok, but showing up across generational lines.
Subject Matter Expert Trend Tips and Advice
Tara Reed, Illustrator + Surface Designer
Favorite design styles: Bohemian and Art Deco
Favorite color: Deep greens
Tara Reed is a surface designer and illustrator located in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her work is all about color and how those colors are used—bright, bold and vibrant with a carefree simplicity. Her work has been described as, “a color rush for the eyes.” She worked as Spoonflower’s Artist Community Manager before leaving to pursue her lifelong dream of being a full-time artist. Tara is a Spoonflower “lifer,” who loves spending time at home surrounded by her plants and her inspirational, sweet kitties.
(P.S. You can hear trend tips from Tara in her video interview below!)
Jessie Katz Greenberg, Artist Community Manager, Spoonflower
Favorite design styles: Eclectic and maximalism
Favorite color: Green or orange (depending on the day)
Jessie Katz Greenberg is a crafter, content creator and workshop instructor living in NYC with her husband, two cats and two hermit crabs who joined Spoonflower in March 2022. With 10+ years as a graphic designer and packaging director, she loves incorporating her design and typography knowledge into the crafts she’s been obsessed with since childhood, especially upcycling and embroidery. She is also a co-host of the inspiration destination podcast Craft Hangout. Her work each day at Spoonflower uses her experience to advocate for our Artists while also exploring new and exciting ways to connect them to each other and help them grow.
What, to you, makes the Spoonflower Independent Artist community so special? The Spoonflower Artist Community is a diverse group including artists from all over the world, each with a passion to bring joy to others through their art. I find their dedication to be pretty special. Whether that’s participating in every Weekly Design Challenge, offering help to other artists on Facebook, or providing feedback to us when we need it, it’s clear that this community is invested in Spoonflower just as we are invested in them.
How many different skill levels are represented by Spoonflower Independent Artists? There is certainly a wide variety of skill levels represented in our Spoonflower artist community. We have hobbyists who dip their toe into Spoonflower and surface pattern design, enthusiasts who are setting goals and building businesses, small business owners who have already found great success on Spoonflower and of course our lifers who have been with Spoonflower since the very beginning, watching and helping us grow. I particularly love to see our small business owners and lifers share their expertise with the artist community by speaking at our webinars, providing tips in artist spotlights or sharing their knowledge with other artists on social media.
What’s your 2023 Pantone Color of the Year prediction? This is a tricky one! I personally feel like we’re due for a rich, saturated color. I believe in my behind-the-scenes chat with Tara Reed (see below) during our interview she alluded to the fact that a dark and saturated teal might be trending, and I’m tempted to follow her lead and agree!
What resources are available to help Spoonflower Independent Artists develop their skills? I work with several teams across Spoonflower on initiatives that support and provide opportunities for our growing artist community. My top 3 suggested resources are:
• The Spoonflower Seller Handbook: an incredible resource for artists of all skill levels. Artists can find articles about getting started and creating your first pattern, design tips, marketing your artwork and collaborating on product partnerships.
• Spoonflower Weekly Design Challenges: they provide artists with an opportunity to design for trending themes we know our customers will appreciate, while being discovered in the voting process. These challenges are also shared across all Spoonflower marketing channels each week, meaning a design has the opportunity to be shared with over 500,000 community members!
• Spoonflower Artist Webinars: these are live virtual events featuring speakers who are often artists from our own community. To stay up to date with future artist webinars you can sign up for our artist email list. To catch up on past webinars, check out our Vimeo channel or have a look at our new webinar recap blog posts!
Design Trend Interview with Tara Reed
Lyndsay Lamb + Leslie Davis, HGTV’s Unsellable Houses Hosts
Favorite design style: Lyndsay: Earthy eclectic vibe with contemporary touches. Leslie: Minimal clean design with some modern flair.
Favorite color: Lyndsay: All of them! Leslie: Green
Lyndsay Lamb and Leslie Davis are dynamic identical twins, real estate mavens and hosts of HGTV’s hit series, “Unsellable Houses.” They call Snohomish, Washington, home. It rains a lot, but they love it there. They love the people there. They love the adventure of helping their friends and neighbors find the perfect place to call home or helping them sell and move on to their next adventure. “Unsellable Houses” is a fun real estate and home design show where the twins help frustrated homeowners sell their seemingly unsellable homes.
What interior design trends do you see coming up this fall and winter? We see the warm tones of nature being used in the fall and winter months throughout the home. Blending high and low light through warm tones and autumn colors.
What led you to choose this trend? The beauty surrounding the Pacific Northwest.
What do you see as homeowners’ highest design priority? Generally starting with the entertaining areas like the kitchen and living space. Really any room a guest will see and use.
How important is personalization of design to homeowners? It is key. It sounds silly, but we often tell a client who can’t find their style to go to their closet and pull out the piece or pieces of clothing that make them feel confident and beautiful when they wear them. Then we use those pieces for inspiration. You want your home to also be a place that you feel beautiful and confident in.
How do you think the incorporation of Spoonflower Independent Artists’ designs into Shutterfly will inspire you as interior design curators? I can see these products fitting in seamlessly into home design as the majority of clients want to work their family photos into their home design. This will allow us to offer classy options to the clients in blending family photos and design.
Design trends seem to recycle. What do you see as the typical dormancy period for design trends before they come back around? This all depends on what it is, but I would say in general 5 to 10 years.
What is your prediction for the 2023 Pantone Color of the Year? I think we are looking at a brighter color like aqua.
Vanessa Antonelli, Surface Design Artist, Celebrity Interior Designer
Favorite design style: I tend to make up design styles. I’ve been known to title spaces things like “industrial beach” and “rock and roll modern.” The common thread you’ll usually find in my work is something modern.
Favorite color: Pale teal
What interior design trends do you see coming up this fall and winter? Large freeform abstract prints.
What led you to choose this trend? Minimalistic abstracts first started trending in the form of large-scale artwork about five years ago and their popularity has not slowed down! It’s increased tremendously. These prints have now found their way to other home decor items like wallpaper and textiles.
What do you see as your clients’ highest design priority? My clients’ #1 design priority is always function! They want a space to look absolutely beautiful and be comfortable, but in the end it would be a fail if it wasn’t functional for them and their family. It’s my job to combine all of that for them to create the perfect spaces.
How important is vision and personalization of design to your client base? So much of what my firm does for clients is create custom pieces and the reason for that is that everyone wants something special and unique in their home or has a vision of something that they cannot find in the pre-made market. In this day and age finding incredible artisans to bring custom things to life is easier than ever through platforms like Spoonflower.com, so something that may have previously been unattainable for many is completely realistic for all now.
How do you think the incorporation of Spoonflower Independent Artists’ designs into Shutterfly’s family of brands will inspire you as an interior design curator? Is there anything better than being able to create an entire collection of pieces for a client in a stress-free way? I’ll answer that for you. No. There is nothing better. It’s also incredibly inspiring and exciting to connect with artists from all over the world, people who you may have never been able to see their work before Shutterfly/Spoonflower. Custom has long been described as “luxury,” but this—this is completely attainable luxury and that’s exciting!
Design trends seem to recycle. What do you see as the typical dormancy period for design trends before they come back around? This is such an interesting question because while trends do recycle, I have always believed that they are never quite the same when they come back. There’s updates and tweaks that make them distinctly current. For a trend to truly be considered a comeback (even with tweaks) I’d say about 20 years would be the minimum. Just long enough for the next generation to have no idea it isn’t “new.”
Design Search Trends
Year Over Year Search Trends
We hope you enjoyed learning about fall/winter 2022 trends as much as we did. Let us hear in the comments what trend you’re most looking forward during the rest of this year!