The Gist: This article outlines six key interior design trends that SPI predicts will define multifamily and student housing in 2025, focusing on local influence, art, textures, and personalization.
What you’ll learn
Which six design elements (leaning into local, mixed media art + pop culture, bold floral upholstery, daring pillows, handmade furniture, layered textiles) SPI anticipates will shape design in this sector; why these trends matter; and how designers can implement them.
After reading, you’ll be ready to
Plan or update your property’s interiors with forward-looking design features, choose materials and furniture that feel fresh yet timeless, and differentiate your property using thoughtful, trend-forward design.
Talking points
- Leaning into Local: Use local artists and vendors to reflect community character and connect the property to its surroundings.
SouthPark Interiors - Mixed Media Art & Pop Culture: Blend painting, photography, and pop-culture motifs to create memorable, conversation-starting focal points.
SouthPark Interiors - Bold Floral Upholstery: Large-scale floral patterns bring nostalgia and depth, tying into the trend of eco-conscious and vintage-inspired design.
SouthPark Interiors - Daring Pillows: Pillows become statement pieces — unusual shapes, rich textures, and bold patterns add personality.
SouthPark Interiors - Handmade / Unique Furniture: One-of-a-kind or artisan-crafted furnishings add character, authenticity, and a sense of rarity.
SouthPark Interiors - Layers, Layers, Layers: Textiles, window treatments, throws, rugs — layering materials creates warmth, richness, and a curated feel.
SouthPark Interiors - SPI emphasizes balancing trendiness with timeless design, ensuring spaces remain relevant beyond short-lived fads.
SouthPark Interiors
Expect to see a lot more of these six elements in interior design.
As we continue into 2025, we always like to review the biggest trends of the year and predict the next big thing in interior design, particularly in the multifamily and student housing space. As resident preferences shift and new technologies emerge, visual aesthetics will also need to evolve to capture attention and contribute to residents’ quality of life.
Why is this important?
It’s simple: Getting ahead of trends that are about to become popular will help you design for longevity. Your interiors will stay relevant for longer while capturing peak interest and attention from residents and prospects.
With increasing competition in multifamily and student housing, it’s essential to create modern designs that residents will love.
SouthPark Interiors has a long track record of making accurate predictions of upcoming trends in these spaces. We have designed commercial interiors for student housing and multi-family properties for years and can guide you with a high degree of expertise.
Let’s dig into our design trend predictions for 2025 and how to implement them in your properties.
How We Create Our 2025 Predictions
We don’t use a crystal ball to predict the next big interior design trends. Instead, we’re plugged into the industry and have an intimate working knowledge of the space. Our team has over 20 years of experience in interior design and continually stays on the forefront of what is new and fresh.
We attend regular conferences, shows, and vendor summits that allow us to see what is ready to be released. We also listen closely to our clients to learn their visions, residents to understand shifting preferences, and technology makers to discover new products that are revolutionizing daily living.
We are inherently innovative, specifically in the student housing space where SPI was a pioneer in steering student housing toward more high-end, residential style design. These trends eventually make their way into multi-family designs as students graduate college and move on to that next chapter. We don’t like to settle and are always pushing the boundaries of innovation.
2025 Multi-family and Student Housing Design Trends
We used our expertise in the industry to identify six design trends that are set to define the 2025 student and multi-family housing landscape. Here they are, in no particular order.
Leaning into Local
The importance of supporting small businesses has never been clearer. People are more inclined to support small businesses and celebrate what makes their communities unique. Using local vendors and artists will be an essential piece of interior design to infuse natural local flavor and connect the property to it’s community.
Mixed Media Art and Timeless Pop Culture Integration
Art that blends multiple mediums, such as photography and painting, will adorn student housing and multifamily spaces in 2025. The sky’s the limit with this trend; it has true potential to set spaces apart from others by serving as focal points and conversation pieces. It offers a refreshing option compared to cookie cutter artwork and can contribute to other elements that make a property one of a kind.
Pop culture integrations provide the perfect foundation for this new wave of art. Blending classic pop culture (think popular movies, characters, or TV shows, for example) into art pieces offers a sense of nostalgia and can help build connections with residents.
Bold Patterns in Upholstery Featuring Classic Florals
Boring is out; bold is in. We expect to see a broader use of bold patterns, particularly classic florals that bring a sense of nostalgia while playing to the trends surrounding nature and eco-friendliness.
Part of the reason behind this prediction is the surge in vintage decor. Thrift shops are filling up with classic furniture and housewares from the 1960s and 1970s, leading to a renaissance of sorts for bold patterns.
Daring Pillows
Pillows are no longer just accent items. Instead, they’re entire centerpieces of standard furniture. Everything from fabric choice and shape to texture and pattern will come into play, adding boldness and depth to furniture in ways that only non-traditional pillows can.
Handmade and Unique Furniture
An extension of the local trend, we predict that unique furniture and handmade pieces will replace traditional boxy and boring. Again, this circles back to differentiation by design. It’s not enough to serve as a functional space; people crave unique and individualism, and adding handmade and unique elements will capture immediate attention and provide an aura of rarity.
Layers, Layers, Layers
Minimalism is no longer the preferred default, not by a long shot. In 2025, it’s all about layers. From multiple window treatments to pillows in various sizes and shapes to adding textiles on top of textiles, layers provide depth and a thick richness to model units and lounge areas.
Setting Strong Expectations for Design in 2025
Our six predictions for design trends in multifamily and student housing didn’t happen by chance. We’ve seen the writing on the walls through recent design seasons and are excited to see these trends develop.
As we continue to innovate ourselves, it’s important to note that we don’t always want to fall into fads and trends just because people want them. While we want designs to be fresh and innovative, we don’t want to have properties that date themselves too quickly, either.
Timeless designs always win. It’s not about incorporating the latest trends, but doing so while balancing longevity and “tried and true” design formulas that will keep your properties fresh. A professional commercial interior design firm will always walk this line perfectly.
