A modern great room with a dining, living, and sitting area. Hardwoof floors with white walls and warm furnishings.

For a lot of us, our homes are our sanctuaries, places where we feel safe and at peace. Many of us have spent the last two years working and spending most of our time inside at home. It’s important to spend some time creating our spaces to be as comfortable and practical as possible. This leads us to our first popular design trend of 2022; Dual Purpose Rooms. Whether it’s making the kitchen table your office space, or setting up a desk in the living room to work from, dual purpose rooms let you flexibly have the resources you need readily available.

Have an extra room that has not been used in a while? This is a perfect opportunity to utilize the space to create yourself a new work environment. Whether it’s an at-home gym or office, this will help separate your work and home life, while still leaving it available space for guests to stay in when needed. Setting up a desk in the room with a comfortable office chair, some desk plants, and a clean, open work space is a great way to get a change of scenery while working from home. You can keep a spare bed in the room for when you do have guests, and this way they can even work from home when they come to stay. Add a standing shelf unit against your wall to hold plants, pens, paper, and anything else you may need to work comfortably from home. You could also use a shelf with drawers and bins that let you hide work accessories when you have guests. You can even add a comfortable chair in the corner of the room to lounge in on your breaks, or to read in on your free time!

Midcentury modern wood desk with skinny legs and a mahogany top. Showing macbook pro elevated on an aluminum stand, with a leather mousepad, and modern light fixture.

Another trending interior design style for 2022 is the nature inspired surfaces and objects look. Adding some beautiful, bright green plants to a space is one of the best ways to make a room feel more refreshing. Using raw materials like marble and stone for backsplashes, showers and bathtubs is a beautiful and unique way to strengthen your home's connection to nature and create an earthy, outdoor look while still being inside. Marble countertops are striking, especially paired with white cupboards and kitchen cabinets. Adding small crystals and small stones on a window sill, desk top, or shelf can also add a nature-esque affect.  Adding tall plants to your kitchen or entryway to your home can bring a refreshing, rainforest feel when you walk in, or even adding small plants to the window seal or kitchen table can do the trick. Try these home-makeover ideas if you’re interested in creating a more nature-centered look!

A loft style room with low, modern couches, a low hanging modern light fixture, and a trio of small round coffee tables. large windows let bright sunlight into the room, casting shadows on the hardwood floors.

    When it comes to comfort, there is no warmer color than caramels, tans, or chocolate browns. These colors are trending now in 2022, with “color pop” trends on the back burner. People are in need of a palette cleanse. Accent walls, furniture, blankets, and pottery are all ways to incorporate the brown shades within your home. These colors go perfectly with green plants around the house, and white walls or furniture. The earthy tones have the opposite effect of bright colors that typically tend to cool a room, where earthy tones tend to warm a room up. Even better, these colors work in all seasons, all year around. In winter, these shades of brown create a warming, comfortable feeling in your home, while in summer it keeps the same effect but the longer days and more sunlight creates a warm, outdoorsy vibe. Try these simple hacks out if you haven’t already, and see what new energy you can bring to your home!