Design trends for 2022 ... and beyond

The NKBA designers have spoken and it’s clear that nature-inspired themes, bolder colours and the finish texture are among the key criteria when they’re reviewing decorative surfaces for their clients’ kitchens and bathrooms.

Their recently released 2022 trend report was a useful insight into what’s going to be in demand in the coming months and years. Group Marketing Manager for NZ Panels Group, Desiree Keown unpacks a few of those themes:

Natural-inspired decor 39% of designers predicted timber would be the most popular cabinetry colour, pushing white out of its long-held top spot. Bringing a sense of outdoors to the indoors has been growing for some years but had a massive boost due to the lengthy lockdowns that forced so many people to stay at home. The call for calming and homely natural spaces has seen a huge increase in woodgrain designs and thankfully the décor designers have responded with much more realistic timber designs for melamine.

Launched during the first lockdown in 2020, Bestwood’s Simply Eucalyptus had a rapid uptake as did Vintage Ash and Classic Walnut. A big part of their appeal was the combination with our deeply textured Timberland plate finish.

For those with clients with less budget limitations, you can’t go past natural timber veneer and most of the NKBA winning entries in 2021 featured veneer as either the hero surface or supporting player.

The launch of our Prime Toitū Veneer range answered the call for veneer that would emulate the look of solid timber – and with the bonus of being more affordable and sustainable than the classic book-matched crown-cut veneer. The mis-matched leaves create a stunning planked effect and with no need for matching leaves or panels, the irregularities, knots and beauty of real timber are brought to the forefront.

Toitū Veneer is becoming a real favourite for architects and it’s already been specified in some key commercial and residential buildings.

Texture the rough with the smooth NKBA designers picked matt finishes as the most popular trend going forward with 34% picking it as their favoured finish, while acknowledging texture is also very much on the rise.

The new matt acrylics, thermoformed vinyls and HPLs all answer this call for smooth – and while ‘anti-fingerprint’ is touted as the holy grail of easy-care surfaces, clients need to understand this doesn’t mean ‘food or grease-proof’!

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