12 Home Features Expected to Fall Out of Style Within 5 Years, Trends Show
Let’s be honest: home design trends don’t age like fine wine. What feels cutting-edge and fresh today can look tired and dated in just a few years. We’re seeing that shift happen right now as several once-popular home features lose their shine. Industry experts and real estate data are painting a clear picture of what’s on its way out.
The information below comes from interior designers, real estate trends, and renovation statistics gathered between 2023 and 2025. So if you’re planning a remodel or thinking about resale value, you’ll want to pay attention.
All-Gray Everything
Gray kitchens and walls are waning, with homeowners moving away from the cool, flat grays that defined modern design. Designer Sandra Asdourian notes that too much gray on walls, floors, and furniture can make your home look cold, bland, and uninteresting. What once felt sophisticated now often appears lifeless, especially when applied without contrast or warmth. Interior designer Kylie M notes gray is outdated in most cases for walls, cabinets, flooring, and other interior finishes, and experts began feeling fatigue from seeing so much millennial gray two years ago. The design world is clearly ready to move on from this neutral that dominated the 2010s.
Stark White Kitchens
White kitchens are being replaced with warmer wood tones, according to recent design trend reports. Many clients say white-on-white is too much, falling into the same bucket of sterility millennial gray has, especially when high-gloss or flat whites are involved. The ultra-clean, clinical aesthetic that once dominated Pinterest boards now feels cold and impersonal rather than fresh and inviting.
Open Floor Plans
People are slowly moving away from the open trend, with options including a closed concept, a broken-plan layout, and even a hidden kitchen. Homeowners discovered the downsides pretty quickly: noise travels everywhere, cooking smells invade living spaces, and there’s zero privacy for work calls or homework. Remodels will continue to put less emphasis on open floor plans and more on rooms that allow privacy for remote work, school and virtual meetings. After years of tearing down walls, we’re now realizing that some separation actually makes life more livable.
Farmhouse Shiplap Walls
The problem with shiplap wasn’t about the material itself, but that everyone started putting it up whether the style of their home suited it or not, making it feel out of place and needlessly rustic. All-white painted shiplap was commonly installed in many new construction homes built between 2013 and 2021. Designer Summer Jensen says if she sees one more shiplap wall in a home, she might scream, noting it’s giving basic. That Pinterest-perfect farmhouse look has been copied so relentlessly that it’s lost all originality.
Sliding Barn Doors
Barn doors date your home to a certain period when everyone was installing the Pinterest-inspired doors no matter how far away they lived from country life, with reduced noise dampening, tricky latching, and constant clanging. The Property Brothers are reportedly tired of seeing them in homes. These doors looked charming in theory, especially on bathroom entrances, however they never quite closed properly and offered virtually no privacy or sound insulation. What started as a rustic statement piece has become a red flag for cookie-cutter renovations.
Bold Accent Walls
Single statement walls painted a bold color are being replaced by color drenching, a technique where the entire room embraces one hue in varying shades. Random boldly painted walls in dining rooms or geometric wood walls in living rooms were super trendy in the 2010s and now feel out of place. The problem? They often look unfinished, like you ran out of paint or commitment halfway through the project. Designers are moving toward more cohesive, intentional color stories throughout entire spaces.
Terrazzo Surfaces
Terrazzo was one of the hottest 2024 trends to make your space stand out, from cafe countertops to trendy bathroom floors, but it is likely to become outdated in the next year or two as minimalist wood flooring trends emerge. That speckled look was everywhere this year, showing up on everything from counters to accent walls. While it’s durable and sustainable, the trend has already peaked. Like many maximalist moments, terrazzo’s saturated presence in the market means it’ll date spaces faster than more timeless materials.
Dedicated Home Offices
Only 13 percent of designers expect home office renovations to be their most requested projects in 2025, down from 32 percent in 2023, according to a 1stDibs report. Zillow data shows Zoom rooms are now appearing in 34 percent fewer listings, as noted by home trends expert Amanda Pendleton. Five years after the 2020 pandemic, companies are pulling workers back to physical offices, making that spare bedroom conversion less essential. That built-in desk and gallery wall of diplomas? Probably not the selling point it was in 2021.
Waterfall Countertops
Waterfall countertops had their moment, but they can sometimes feel a little too sleek and cold, explains interior designer Amy Peltier. In 2025, homeowners are craving kitchens with more warmth and personality. Those dramatic slabs of quartz cascading down the side of kitchen islands looked stunning in showrooms, yet they often read as overly modern and impersonal in real homes. Designers are seeing a shift toward mixed materials and unique details that add layers and character.
Bouclé Fabric Everywhere
Designers are tired of bouclé, saying this pretty, textured fabric oversaturated the home, according to Alexis Vitale of Vitale Design Group. It’s a little impractical when you have pets with claws or tiny fingers running their hands through it. That white bouclé armchair became the Instagram aesthetic everyone needed to have. The problem is when everyone has the same trendy piece, it stops feeling special or personal. Plus, it’s high-maintenance and shows every speck of dirt.
Matching Black Hardware Throughout
Matching black plumbing, bath hardware, and cabinet hardware are out, with one designer calling matching everything a rookie mistake. Instead, opt for mixing materials and finishes for a custom look, suggests designer Andrea Lackie. While black fixtures had a strong moment, going matchy-matchy with every single element creates a flat, one-dimensional look. The more sophisticated approach layers different metals and finishes for depth and visual interest.
Can Lighting as Primary Illumination
Designer Alexis Vitale is sick of seeing can lighting everywhere, noting that lighting is one of the most important elements of the home that truly impacts your mood, the aesthetic of a space, and the overall vibe. Recessed lighting might be practical, yet it’s cold and utilitarian. It provides function without any personality or warmth. Recessed lighting does little to add personality to the room, and you might need more fixtures than originally planned to offer the same level of illumination as one chandelier or pendant light. Statement lighting fixtures, layered lighting plans, and even the lampscaping trend are all replacing those boring ceiling dots.
Oversized Gray Vinyl Plank Flooring
That trendy gray vinyl plank flooring that’s been in every home renovation for the past few years? It’s about to become as dated as linoleum from the 1970s. While homeowners initially loved it for being affordable and durable, designers are now seeing how cold and lifeless these floors make spaces feel. The problem isn’t just the gray color – it’s those super-wide planks that scream “I renovated between 2018 and 2023.” Real estate agents are already noticing that buyers walk into homes with this flooring and immediately start calculating replacement costs. The shift is moving toward warmer wood tones, natural materials, and flooring with actual character and variation. Honestly, when every rental property and flip house uses the exact same gray vinyl, it stops feeling like a design choice and starts feeling like a builder-grade shortcut that nobody’s excited about anymore.
