KARNDEAN Designflooring has published Trend Directions 2026/27, a new report setting out five interior directions shaping how people want to live over the next two years, and how to build each one into flooring designed to last.
Drawn from a year of trade fairs, showrooms and conversations with designers and specifiers, it focuses on shifts with real roots rather than looks that date within a season, and on the ranges that answer them underfoot.
The five directions are:
Biophilic living
Nature-connected interiors, answered by the new Van Gogh designs (Après Oak, Indy Urban Elm and Natural Prime Oak), with realistic grain and knots left visible (see featured images, top), and by the Art Select collection’s organic tones. Once a design theory, biophilic living became a mainstream demand after years spent more indoors than out, deepened since by increased screen time and hybrid working. Every Van Gogh and Art Select design is 100% waterproof and scratch resistant, so realism never costs practicality.
Heritage revival
The return of pattern, craft and provenance, met by the new Knight Tile Curio collection (above left) and its tessellated, vintage-inspired pattern, alongside the Heritage Collection (above right). Nostalgia in interiors moves in cycles, and design has swung back towards decorative pattern and craftsmanship after a decade of minimalism. Both draw on pattern languages with generations of precedent, offering heritage character without a heritage renovation budget.
Playful maximalism
Expressive, personality-led schemes are the natural correction to a decade of matching neutrals, as homeowners look for spaces that feel like them again. The look is built around a single Knight Tile Curio (above left) tile that rotates into near-infinite layouts, so a scheme can evolve without ever lifting a floor. New Empire Marble (a reimagined chequerboard, below right) and Rose Onyx from the Art Select range (below left) offer two further routes in.
Flexible living
One floor that adapts across zones and life stages, as hybrid working turns the kitchen table into a desk and more households live multi-generationally. Van Gogh’s consistent tones across plank, herringbone and panel formats let a single specification run through an open-plan home without a visible break. On value, it is the one to lead with: a floor that absorbs a change of use does not need replacing when circumstances do.
Confident contrast
Mixing wood and stone looks, light and dark tones and textures with intent, so a home can be zoned and updated over time without a full replacement. Less a single look than a shift in confidence, it sees homeowners combining eras and materials in one space. The key is intent: a change of material at a threshold reads as a decision, not noise.
