Salone del Mobile is unique.
At the latest, you will be reminded of this when you get off the crowded train in Rho-Fiera Milano, swim with the stream of people towards the trade fair entrance and feel the almost feverish anticipation. A unique feature of the northern Italian metropolis is how it brings design to life. Companies’ new models are staged like works of art and celebrated like pop stars. An element that still applies – to the last trend report back in 2022 and the 2026 edition. However, the circumstances have changed. In 2022, we felt that anything was possible. The pandemic was over. The industry emerged from the crisis with playful diversity, a variety of styles that were not all new, but created a colourful mosaic when viewed next to each other. However, the short period of breakthrough was followed by the some setbacks, and even now, four years later, the desire for safety is omnipresent.
You can hardly feel it on surfaces in Milan. Design fans not only flocked to the trade fair, but also the showrooms in the city centre or the Brera design hotspot. The queues at some of the stands so long, you sometimes got the impression exhibitors were handing out free iPhones. There was something to discover everywhere: AI art at the Palazzo, critique of capitalism as a totem installation out on the street or an exciting exhibition on the trade fair grounds, combining furniture and fashion classics. Design, art and lifestyle merge into a celebration of furniture during Salone Week, making us quickly forget about any crisis.
But what remains of the playful diversity from the post-COVID era? Is there another common thread? We think so, and this common thread also shows that the past four years have not just been and gone without a trace in furniture design.
We hope you enjoy reading the GRASS Milano Trend Report 2026!
Grounded Comfort
No place like home: Playful Diversity has become Grounded Comfort.
“Form follows feeling” – if you look at design trends over the decades, you will find that, apart from function, form always follows emotions. This applies to the utopian spirit of the 1960s with its soft shapes and vibrant colours as well as the black and white, chrome-plated, no-future attitude of the 1980s. Four years ago, visitors marvelled at a great junxtaposition in Milan: the GRASS Trend Report for Milan Design Week 2022 called it “Playful Diversity”. Four years later, it’s time for renewed stocktaking – and with all the hustle and bustle in and around the city, one thing quickly became clear: it's calmer.
The design isn't fainthearted, not low on ideas. It’s more grounded. Everything seemed possible in 2022. Minimalism and maximalism, authenticity and artificialism, matte colours and folkloristic opulence came together to create a polymorphic zeitgeist. In 2026, this diversity has not disappeared, given that the grounded, crisis-resistant variants of the large bouquet of trends have remained in particular. “Playful Diversity” has evolved into a warm and calm cosiness with attention to detail like a kind of grounded comfort. Quality is more evident at second glance and makes the home a reliable place in times of permanent uncertainty.
Grounded Comfort
The world remains unsettled. Homes are reacting to this.
The reasons for this development are obvious. The world hasn't become simpler since 2022. Quite the opposite, in 2026 the state of exception has become the new normal. Economic framework conditions are even more complicated, the future remains unpredictable. Perhaps that’s why the home has remained so pivotal. During the pandemic, it had to morph into a workplace, restaurant, retreat, classroom and stage for private life. You could have assumed that this kind of concentration would dissipate once the world opens up again. However, our own four walls have gained a new relevance that can no longer only be explained by the pandemic. This is not a contradiction to the weak demand, but rather the actual tension in current times: Homes are becoming more emotionally relevant, while the willingness to commit to vast investments is dwindling. The furniture industry is not responding to this with loud temptation, but with a promise of calm, value and consistency.
Not a revolution, but a logical development.
Even though the big gesture has not completely disappeared, it has just become more introspective in view of these turbulent times. Just like in 2022, the big design revolution hasn't materialised. At the same time, however, the importance of personal space has increased further: “When things get complicated outside, homes become even more important,” Arrital's Giuseppe Bincoletto explains. Grounded Comfort is not a retreat from the world. Grounded comfort is the attempt to counter the instability with a place that lasts, works for years, feels good. And that’s not a small statement. It is perhaps the most important message from Milan 2026.
Remnants of Playful Diversity.
A distinguishing feature of Playful Diversity was the variety, the playful arbitrariness, the "anything is possible", as part of which a parallel use of different styles created a sometimes confusing, yet common thread: Maximalism, vertical patterns, muted colours, wabi sabi, outside in, worktop shelves, seethrough fronts and supplementism were subtrends in the 2022 trend report. Not all of these observations have disappeared in 2026, but their energy has changed.
Discover what moves us tomorrow.
Five trend scouts. A city full of ideas. One mission.
Something became clear between craftsmanship and high-tech, authenticity and expressiveness: design is more than aesthetics. It creates atmosphere, triggers emotions and changes the way we live. Milan Design Week and Salone del Mobile are places of discovery, rediscovery and reinterpretation. Here, visionary ideas meet traditional manufacturing techniques, innovative materials meet familiar shapes and Italian design meets international influences. This creates an impetus that extends far beyond the exhibition halls to sustainably enrich our everyday lives. Milan as the fashion and design capital is always worth a trip – and Milan Design Week undoubtedly deserves to be a given any design enthusiasts' calendar.
Andreas Marosch (Head of Marketing)
Martin Schaefer (Text/interviews)
Jens Ellensohn (Photography)
Andrea Ferrin (GRASS Italy)
Christopher Anese (GRASS Italy)
Martin Schaefer
The graduate lawyer and design enthusiast has worked as
PR consultant, press spokesperson and independent journalist.
He has been senior editor
at GOOS COMMUNICATION press agency for around 15 years, accompanying the
furniture industry, and also works as a TV author.
Jens Ellensohn (ellensohn-fotografie.com)
For the past 24 years, he has been staging architecture,
industry and advertising projects.