Residential design trends 2026 to 2027

Design for staying put

First-floor primary suites rose to a net +52% from +45%, multigenerational accommodation to +53% from +49%, mudrooms to +30% from +21% and sunrooms to +25% from +6% in the second quarter of 2026, and outdoor living areas rose to +51% from +40% and were the most popular single room, chosen by 20% of firms (AIA HDTS Q3 2026 report, 26 Aug 2026). Every one of these is a change to a house the owner already has.

The features that cooled point the same way. Accessory dwellings and rental units fell to +25% from +62% (AIA HDTS Q2 2026 report, 20 May 2026). Cold plunge pools fell to +13% from +30%, net-zero homes to +5% from +13% and home offices to +24% from +30% (AIA HDTS Q3 2026 report, 26 Aug 2026). Investment features and gadgets lost momentum. Comfort, access and all-season space gained it.

The business conditions match. Additions and alterations scored a net +38% and kitchen and bath remodelling +34% in the second quarter of 2026, against -25% for first-time and affordable homes (AIA HDTS Q3 2026 report, 26 Aug 2026).

How to read the numbers

Every AIA figure here is a net score: the share of firms saying a feature’s popularity is increasing, minus the share saying it is decreasing. A net of +65% does not mean 65% of homes are designed for aging in place. It means far more architects see demand rising than falling. Net scores measure momentum, not penetration. The working pantry fell to about +45% from +62% and was still the top-rated kitchen feature (AIA HDTS Q1 2026 report, 5 Mar 2026). The right sentence is “still the most popular kitchen feature, though momentum cooled”.

AIA describes the panel as hundreds of residential firms and prints no respondent count per quarter. We read values from chart labels in the PDFs, so we quote them rounded, and where the release and the chart disagree we quote the chart: the September 2026 release said outdoor living “rose 10%”, and the chart shows an 11-point gain (AIA HDTS Q3 2026 report, 26 Aug 2026).

Professional and homeowner surveys answer different questions. NKBA asked 634 professionals, 67% of them NKBA members and 57% designers, what they expect over three years (NKBA 2026 Kitchen Trends, 18 Sep 2025). Houzz asked 1,780 homeowners, a self-selected online panel, what they had just done (Houzz 2026 Kitchen Trends Study, Jan 2026). The first reads more bullish by design, so we never compare a professional expectation with a homeowner share as if they measured the same thing. Two more labels appear below: platform data means Pinterest search growth published without volumes, and brand marketing means a paint company’s colour pick.

Rising, fading and contested

Where two or three independent sources agree, the direction column says so. Where they disagree, the row is marked contested and names both.

Signals room by room

Kitchen

Kitchens are growing while houses shrink. 76% of professionals expect the kitchen footprint to grow over three years (NKBA 2026 Kitchen Trends, 18 Sep 2025), while the panel put overall home square footage at a net -9% (AIA HDTS Q2 2026 report, 20 May 2026). 76% of renovating homeowners added specialty built-ins, led by pantry cabinets at 47%, and slab backsplashes rose to 28% from 24% (Houzz 2026 Kitchen Trends Study, Jan 2026). On the panel, kitchens open to living space jumped to about +34% from +15%, induction held as the top product at about +57%, and smart appliances fell to about +6% from +15% (AIA HDTS Q1 2026 report, 5 Mar 2026).

Bathroom

The shower is winning. 49% of bath renovators enlarged the shower, up 10 points, and 26% removed a tub; wet rooms reached 18% of renovated baths, from 13% two years earlier, and the median spend rose to $15,000 from $13,000 (Houzz 2026 Bathroom Trends Study, 30 Sep 2026, 1,619 homeowners). 72% of professionals expect bath footprints to grow (NKBA 2026 Bath Trends, as reported by Floor Daily, 24 Nov 2025). On the panel, universal design rose to about +39% from +34% while doorless showers cooled to about +41% from +53% (AIA HDTS Q1 2026 report, 5 Mar 2026).

Outdoor rooms and sunrooms

Outdoor living areas were the most popular single room for 20% of firms at +51% from +40%, and sunrooms rose to +25% from +6% (AIA HDTS Q3 2026 report, 26 Aug 2026). Glass walls that open rose to +43% from +40%, pools fell to 0% from +6%, and building density on lots rose to +52% from +47% (AIA HDTS Q2 2026 report, 20 May 2026). Outdoor kitchens cooled to about +34% from +41% (AIA HDTS Q1 2026 report, 5 Mar 2026), and 3% of homeowners built one in 2025 (Houzz, 1 May 2026). Our reading: momentum is moving from separate structures to attached, all-season rooms on tighter lots.

Mudroom and home office

The mudroom is the quiet winner: +30% from +21%, and the most popular single room for 15% of firms, tied with the home office, whose net score fell to +24% from +30% while flex rooms scored +32% (AIA HDTS Q3 2026 report, 26 Aug 2026). 94% of kitchen professionals see clients adding mudrooms and flex-office areas (NKBA 2026 Kitchen Trends, 18 Sep 2025). The median home-office project was $2,000 in 2025 (Houzz, 1 May 2026). Our reading: specify a flex room with a door, not an office.

ADU

ADUs are the clearest reversal. Accessory dwellings and rental units fell to +25% from +62% (AIA HDTS Q2 2026 report, 20 May 2026), and in-law suites and junior ADUs to +34% from +46%, though still the most popular single room for 11% of firms (AIA HDTS Q3 2026 report, 26 Aug 2026). Permit data tells a regional story led by California, covered in our market outlook. A national ADU boom is not what the panel reports.

What the trends mean for scope, fees and services

The work clients want is attached to an existing house, involves structure and services, and is about how they will live for the next twenty years. That suits a feasibility visit for a first-floor suite or an accessible bath, an area schedule that tests whether the kitchen can grow inside a smaller footprint, and phased fees. We set out the aging-in-place service and the fee choices in separate guides.

Budget pressure makes scope discipline matter. Homeowners spent a median $20,000 on renovation in 2025, flat on the year, and plan a median $15,000 for 2026; 37% exceeded their budget, 35% chose higher-end materials than planned and 31% expanded the scope mid-project (Houzz & Home Study, 22 Apr 2026, 20,358 users). The kitchen and bath market is expected to be essentially flat at about $228 billion in 2026 (NKBA and John Burns mid-year update, as reported by Surface & Panel, 23 Jul 2026, a secondary source). The fee should name the scope and price the change.

Colours of the year, 2026 and 2027

Every colour in this table is brand marketing, chosen by a trend team, and measures nothing about what people buy. The only survey support for the 2027 cluster of muted greens is that 86% of kitchen professionals rate greens popular, behind neutrals at 96% (NKBA 2026 Kitchen Trends, 18 Sep 2025). High-end designers named chocolate brown their top colour at 33% (1stDibs survey, 17 Nov 2025).

The 2026 picks were warm and dark; the 2027 picks are lighter greens and soft blues. That is a change in brand narrative, not measured demand. Pinterest’s 2026 home trends are platform data with the same caveat, and we exclude its “Khaki Coded” because Pinterest’s own card describes it as fashion (Pinterest Predicts 2026, 9 Dec 2025).

The 2027 watchlist

As of 10 October 2026, no NKBA, Houzz or Pinterest 2027 trend report has been published (NKBA research listing, checked 10 Oct 2026). A “2027 trends” page written today would rest on paint picks and opinion. This page will be rewritten at the same URL once at least three of the datasets below are out. Dates marked inferred follow each source’s past pattern and are not announced.

Method

Every figure was checked against its source on 10 October 2026; the sources are listed below with their status. AIA values are read from chart labels and quoted rounded. Left out on purpose: Behr’s brand-commissioned nature survey, a Houzz special-needs statistic whose definition we could not confirm, NAR’s multigenerational purchase share, found only in secondary summaries, and an unverified induction share attributed to Houzz.