When remembering the past, it’s often art that the cements our memory in a time and place: the clothes we wore, the music we listened to, the movies we saw, the books we read. 2023 interior trends will remind us how we lived. Today, Google released its annual Year in Search, and the top trending queries for architecture and interior design styles over the past year are quite telling. But as Amalia Graziani, developer and designer at Noor Property Group says, “What people search and what people end up putting in their homes can end up being very different.”
The styles that made the list—10 architectural ones and 10 interior ones—represent search terms that received a significant spike in traffic over a sustained period in 2023 compared to 2022 in the United States. Curious if your favorite look was as loved by others? Dive into the 10 trendiest architectural and interior design styles of 2023 below.
Trending Interior Designs Styles of 2023
It appears people had their minds on water this year, as not one but two ocean-inspired design styles were among the year’s trending searches. “I think that makes sense—as human nature goes, we’ve always been obsessed with the sea,” says Joey Conicella, president at Soco Interiors. “The ocean means vacation, retirement, and wealth to so many people. And anything California has this feeling of old money.” Despite their trending nature this year, these styles also represent an aesthetic that will always be relevant. “They’re geographic styles,” Conicella says. “They evolve with the times, but unless California sinks into the ocean, it’s always going to be there.”
Also making an appearance among the trendiest architectural and interior design styles were the three “big m’s” of interior design styles: minimalist, maximalist, and modern. Both Conicella and Graziani agree that of the three, maximalist feels most accurate to where they see trends going. “Though I love minimalism myself, I think it has swung quite far in recent years, so it makes sense that of those three maximalism is at the top,” Graziani says. However, she says the way people are executing maximalism has changed in recent years. “It doesn’t have to be as loud, but it still has lots of rich layers for the eye to explore.”
Modern’s appearance within the top three spots was unsurprising to both designers. “Modern is always going to be there; I feel like that will always be top three,” Conicella says. “It’s easy to confuse contemporary, modern, and midcentury modern, and it means so many things to so many people, so I think people search it because not many can easily define it.”
Despite the expected appearances on the list, the top spot remained a shock. “It’s definitely surprising, because it’s so specific,” Conicella says. Graziani adds that she’s seen certain elements that could be considered steampunk—such as iron work, hanging clocks, screws, or circular windows—appearing in recent projects, which might explain the data, though she was also surprised. “If you pull out some of the core visual cues, you can squint and kind of see how it’s showing up a bit like Gothic maximalism, which we’re seeing in some spaces where there’s a lots of rich, monochromatic layers and deep colors coming together,” she explains.
