5 Bedroom Trends On The Way Out In 2026

You know how it is, when you really need an escape from the grind of daily life, and nothing soothes you more than a room full of somber, dark cherry, and perhaps a bed with some inexplicable corner spires like a gothic cathedral scale model by Ethan Allen. No? Anybody? Fortunately, designers tell us that in 2026 bedrooms will be softer, more textured and playful, occasionally monochromatic but rarely monotonous. The heavy, predictable, uptight, and upholstered will give way to more relaxed places you want to escape to, not from.

We're seeing a lightheartedness throughout home design this year, and it's not always a reaction to gravity. The sterility of all-white bedding and walls suddenly, somehow seems even more oppressive than the formal cherry voodoo decor. And those board-and-batten accent walls that were recently the peak of our puckishness are being drowned out by uses of color and pattern that are equal parts riotous and refined. "The age of all white walls is over and we are seeing a return to color!" says Lina Galvão, co-founder and designer at Curated Nest, and one of the two designers Hunker spoke with exclusively about which bedroom trends will be put to bed — and, we hope, put to sleep — in 2026.

Let's start by getting rid of the dark, glossy cherry furniture ... though not necessarily all of it. The mass market furniture brands who've made their living selling matchy bedroom suits might need to wake up and smell the curation this year, as fewer consumers feel comfortable spending the GDP of a small island nation on a bedroom full of what looks like the same piece of furniture in different sizes. "Heavy brown cherry furniture and matching bedroom sets are on their way out this year," said Autumn Pochiro, founder and principal designer at Autumn Dawn Design in an exclusive interview with Hunker.

Designers are people too (if occasionally a bit superhuman) and sometimes people fall in love with individual elements ... a mirror, say, and then a tallboy in a completely different style. These eclectic collections are more fun to nap in, and a lot more fun to shop for. "Designers are now seeing more non-matching sets, bright whites, white oak, and softer wood tones," Pochiro said.

The good thing about curation is that there's no rule against curating things you already own. You curated them in the first place, after all. So don't put that ridiculously expensive bed on Marketplace just yet. "If you still have heavy wood furniture," Pochiro explained, "consider keeping the bed but swap out smaller pieces like nightstands for something more playful that adds texture or shine." A weighty bed in a sea of lightness feels like a solid ship to which you can retreat and rest; a weighty bed in a room full of weighty everything can seem more like being stuck in a bog.

Sometimes, wallpaper accent walls can create an impression of incompleteness, like you ran out of regular wall and had to finish up with a leftover box of accent wall from your mom's 2007 remodel. There's something needy about it, like a desperate wall wanting more attention than a single wall really warrants. "Wallpaper accent walls were very popular in bedrooms in 2025, but now more people are choosing relaxed color palettes," Autumn Pochiro of Autumn Dawn Design told Hunker when we talked with her about bedroom trends. Relaxed, it turns out, is just the sort of thing that works in a bedroom.

But relaxation is not the same thing as boredom, unless you're a high-strung teenager. There's a world of color out there, and you can have the hue without the cry. "Soft white and subdued colors, highlighted by textured and colorful textiles, are becoming the new favorites," Pochiro explained. Which colors, you might wonder? Hey, it's your bedroom. And, for that very reason, you can keep your wallpaper if that's your thing; the trends only ask that you not confine it to that one, out-of-place wall.

The problem with such cookie-cutter design notions like the aforementioned accent wall isn't commitment so much as genericness. Trends are sometimes so popular that they become the default, or at least one of only a few common options. (Matte black hardware, anyone?) If you play along with these defaults but feel uninspired by your own spaces, the problem isn't that you should be different from everyone else, it's that you are already different from everyone else and you're not letting it show. While design personalization is the norm, take advantage of it and find yourself in your most personal space — the bedroom.

"People are wanting less cookie-cutter design formulas (like accent walls) and are looking for more personalization and self-expression in their interiors," said Lina Galvão, co-founder and designer at Curated Nest, when Hunker interviewed her. You can find personalization in the most unexpected places. Galvão sees homeowners expressing themselves in their wall treatments. "In addition to color drenching, we are seeing pattern drenching (with wallpaper) or other wall treatments, like paneling or interesting decorative mouldings," she said.

Of course, it does take commitment to do some of the paint and wallpaper drenchings we've seen. But when it works, it can be spectacular. And not just in the magazine-feature rooms where the wallpaper somehow matches the upholstery, and you can only spot the couch by bobbing your head like a stalking housecat. Drenching can be more subtle, and even more dramatic, than that.

If trends allow you to paint everything that's not moving olive, or put candy-striped wallpaper everything flat thing in a room, surely you can get away with a little contrast in the form of white bedding, right? In our exclusive conversation with Autumn Dawn Design, founder Autumn Pochiro told us, "All-white bedding is no longer in style. This year, beds feature bold colors and patterns, which are also seen in drapes, pillows, and furniture like chairs." The point, of course, isn't to snub something as nondescript as white bedding, but to encourage people to be a little more playful with decor. Taking interior design seriously, for the moment at least, is the same thing as being playful with it.

And, once again, it turns out that being playful is just another way of saying "be yourself." There's a weird mirage on the horizon for interior design: If this trend toward personalization continues, the most trendy homes will be owned by people who care the least about design trends. If the first principle is personalization, all the other principles are secondary to what feels most like home to you. Of course, that's what most people have always done anyway, so if you like your white bedding, keep it — but maybe add a little color here and there.

Remember when we said you could keep the dark cherry bed? Well ... if you have a four-poster, we're going to need you to nail a few boards to it, because trends can be pretty specific sometimes. "Canopy beds are staying popular and are taking the place of four-poster [beds] and upholstered headboards," Designer Autumn Pochiro told Hunker exclusively. If you're particularly fond of tufting buttons or have a rich fantasy life centered around Arthurian legend, maybe you should hang onto yours. But let's be serious for a minute: Making it safer for kids to jump on the bed is the only polite explanation for upholstered headboards, and there's really no accounting for four-posters. 

Anyway, the transition seems to be from power poles to pretend glamping. "People want their bedrooms to feel like an escape," Pochiro said, "so they are choosing materials that are more playful and unexpected." Canopy beds are always fun, but be sure to actually add fabric to yours, or you'll leave the bed looking like a disused grape arbor or (for the Scandi models) the bottom half of a particularly roomy bunk bed. So by all means drape some fabric up there, as long as it's not white.