What we want to see more of in 2025

2025… it feels like an auspicious year, a quarter of a century! Over the last week I’ve had a lot of fun scouring the internet to get some insights into what this year may bring for the world of interiors. I am so inspired and so excited to let you know that one of the main themes seems to be individuality and authenticity. With everything that has happened over the last few years and with what the world is facing, our homes, more than ever, are our havens. They need to reflect our own unique style and be less cookie-cutter. Our homes should be filled with history, character and personality, a place to recharge and fill our cup.

Whilst we don’t necessarily like to follow trends, we prefer our designs to be timeless and ageless with a sense of permanence, there are definitely some slow-burning design characteristics that we are loving and will look to introduce, or continue to use in our designs.

The Pantone® colour for 2025 is Mocha Mousse. A warming, brown hue imbued with richness, it nurtures us with its suggestion of the delectable qualities of chocolate and coffee, answering our desire for comfort. Combining this colour with warm creams, dark chocolates, and burnt coppers is a beautiful answer for those who love a neutral colour palette.

We’ve been moving away from a palette of more cool grey based tones for several years now. The use of these warm tones is cosy and welcoming, like a warm hug.

There are no straight lines in nature and we’ve always loved to work with circles and curves in our designs. It’s a wonderful way to soften the lines and angles found in most architecture - walls, windows, doors - although even a lot of these are being created in arches and soft curves right now. We’re continuing to embrace this attribute as more and more of our suppliers are producing stunning curved furniture and accessories. With an amazing group of skilled furniture manufacturers and contractors at our fingertips we can custom design pieces if we can’t find exactly what we want. The curved and organic forms emphasise the warm, comforting environment that people are craving.

Alongside natural form we continue to love natural materials like wood, wool, linen, stone etc. But we’re juxtaposing those earthy textures with the gorgeous shine of metal and glossy, highly lacquered paint finishes.

Another thing that I’m so happy about is the normalisation of rich, deep colours in our interiors. This is especially exciting for those of us who crave a touch more colour in our homes. Colour can be just as sophisticated as the beautiful neutral palettes of above. I’m seeing a lot of rich reds, burgundys, and deep, browny pinks, as well as our favourite earthy greens and steely blues.

The high gloss paint finish on the cabinetry in this room is contrasted with the dryness of the velvet sofa and the wool rug. And take note of the built-in bookshelves, as custom built-in furniture is another feature we’ll continue to see in 2025.

Coloured kitchens are here to stay, no longer do you have to stick to plain white especially now we’re using a lot of integrated appliances that are hidden behind cabinetry doors. A lot of kitchen cabinetry is designed to look more like furniture.

Natural elements like wood and stone are still popular and look stunning surrounded by rich colours. Don’t forget that art isn’t confined to the living and bedrooms, bringing artwork into traditionally utilitarian space such as kitchens, bathrooms and laundries is a way to emphasise your personality and individuality.

Just another way we’re seeing curves used in our homes is the resurgence of bullnose bench tops. They provide a smooth, comfortable surface to lean against, accentuating a sense of warmth and safety in our homes.

In the bathroom below they’ve used a double bullnose bench top and repeated the look at the top of the splash back. In both images the combination of green with dark brown wood is divine and borrowed straight from nature.

Combining red and green together might be a scary concept for some, but because they’re complementary colours it makes perfect sense. I love the boldness and playfulness of the kitchen below, it’s a great example of the unique, personality-driven design we hope to see more of. The burgundy and cream glossy tiles surrounding the cooktop are the hero, and complemented beautifully by the sage green cabinets and peachy pink walls.

The use of scallops, ruffles and curved edges will be prevalent this year. Using them in small touches such as lamp shades and cabinet handles is a great way to introduce this look into your home. There’s an emphasis on hand crafted pieces, treasures and trinkets in your home that bring you joy and spark memories.

Built-in furniture will always make a home look more finished and intentional. We’ve transformed many of our clients’ homes by designing custom built-in pieces to fill nooks and small spaces. Storage is always welcomed, especially clever storage that utilises the space well. The cabinetry below in a child’s room is not only fantastic storage, but showcases what we want to see more of - bold colours teamed with pattern and personality. They key to mixing this much bold colour is to keep the palette reigned into three or four hues, in this case - red, green, blue and yellow.

Maximalism has been on the rise for a couple of years. The look we’re loving hints at maximalism… less cluttered, more brave and unique. The use of bold patterns; embellishments like ruffles, fringes and piping; sculptural forms and colour drenching.

To summarise, be bold but exercise restraint. Add curves, softness and fun into your home. Surround yourself with things that bring you joy. You do you! And if that means a disco ball inspired rangehood in your kitchen - go for it! I hope you leave this blog post filled with inspiration and excited about the possibilities.

JULL BATHROOM | BEFORE + AFTERS

At Bibby + Brady our aim is to create homes that are a joy to be in. Not only because they look beautiful, but because the functionality of the design changes they way our clients live, making everything easier and more enjoyable. The most rewarding part of the process for us is to see our designs come to life and witness the transformation of the space and life for it's owners.

This is a bathroom we recently renovated as part of a larger home renovation. The room is used by the children of the house and guests.

The layout of the room actually worked well and by leaving the plumbing in the same place we saved time and money for our clients. We wanted a fresh look but one that was still relevant to the character of the villa, so we removed the wall tiles and clad the entire room in Hardie™ Groove lining. We retained a dado rail but took it much higher to line up with the top of the tiles in the shower.

We chose a soft blue paint colour and wrapped it over the walls, ceiling, the door and all the frames to create a soothing, calm space. It also helps to blur the lines in a small room where there are a lot of elements.

The vanity is a similar shade to the walls and by having a wall hung option with air underneath, it creates a more spacious feeling in the small room. A custom mirror runs up to the dado line, and the curved bottom edges of the mirror along with the wall lights add a nice softness to juxtapose the straight lines. Touches of pink and watermelon red are a beautiful contrast to the blue.

The bath tucks neatly into the left hand corner of the room and features a lovely curved right edge, which, again, adds a softness to the small room.

We removed the old shower box and created a new modern shower with simple custom made glass walls on two sides. Inside we chose tiles with an artisanal handmade effect with subtle undulation. A large recessed niches provide a spot for shampoo and soap, with a smaller one below handy for shaving legs.

Because we kept the room very tonal and calm, we could afford to have a bit of fun with the floor tiles. The terrazzo-look tiles combine all of the colours in the rooms - blue/green, pink, black and white.

Colour always plays a big part in our designs, even if it's a neutral palette. By saturating the room in this soft blue we've created a calm, welcoming space, and have been selective with the small bursts of visual stimulation.

Despite what's going on in the world right now, home should always be a place for respite, to relax and recharge. We would love to help you create this in your home. Our goal will always be to effortlessly blend functionality with aesthetics, and make a house feel like a home. If you’re interested in working with us you can fill out this form to tell us more about your project.

See more of this beautiful family home here.

Napier Hill Home Renovation

We’ve recently finished working with a fabulous client, helping her renovate her home on Napier Hill. Rachael had moved to Hawke’s Bay from Wellington with her two young children and bought a beautiful old character home. It had great bones and stunning views over the hill and out to sea, but the layout wasn’t quite right and the interiors were a bit tired. After working with Citrus Studio Architecture on the plan, Rachael hired local firm Davcon Construction to complete the renovation. It was Davcon director, Julian Davis, who recommended Rachael talk to us about her kitchen design. Jules knew we’d be able to guide her through all the tricky decisions regarding colours, bench tops, cabinet style, handles etc.

The old kitchen was completely removed and this space (above) has now been turned into a media room for games and movie watching. Walls came down and moved to create a much better flow and layout throughout the house, and the kitchen moved over into the old dining room.

After putting the design concept together for Rachael’s kitchen, we worked closely with our joiners, Sydaz, to bring the design to a reality. We’ve developed a great working relationship with the Sydaz team, so it was a really fun project to work on. Both Davcon and Sydaz have exceptional workmanship, it was amazing to watch both teams help bring our design to life.

Our initial idea was to have a beautiful soft sage green on the bottom cabinets, but to achieve this look with the cabinets painted in a two pot polyurethane was a slightly more expensive option. In the end we opted for a more cost-effective thermoform finish in textured limestone, which is essentially a soft white. We then put a beautiful light grey with a hint of green on the walls to bring in some tone while still keeping the space calm, light and airy.

We’re all in love with the bench top we chose. It’s an engineered stone with a textured matt finish. It features a white background with velvety grey swirls and smaller specks of dark grey. Dael took Rachael out to the Archant warehouse in Hastings where they could view the actual slab of stone. This enables our clients a much better idea of how their bench will look, although we always start by showing them a small sample square. Carrying the stone up the wall as an up-stand was the finishing touch - we love it.

You can see from the progress shot (below) that we put a pull-out pantry and integrated fridge along the wall to the right of the main kitchen. There was nothing we can do with that wall in-between, as behind that is the powder room. Positioning the kitchen island long ways helped to connect everything…

But what really succeeded to connect and ‘zone’ the kitchen area was the wall panelling we asked Davcon to create. It absolutely worked with the style of the home, and wrapping it along the wall between the two pantries, and over on the opposite wall, clearly marked the kitchen area from the adjoining dining area.

The media room, where the old kitchen used to be, is off the kitchen, and we love the sneaky peek of the deep blue walls against the soft grey/green walls in front.

media room re-gibbed and ready for it’s transformation.

loving it’s smart new colour scheme.

The entrance, kitchen and dining room have had new flooring put down. Rachael came home from Hutchinsons with a selection she had chosen and we helped her narrow it down to these boards, which look fantastic. These were the sorts of questions we helped Rachael tackle throughout the reno, another was which way to lay the boards. We would usually recommend running the wood from the front door straight to the back of the house, but the front door sits at the side of the house (to the left of the dining room entrance above). So, although the boards run across the entrance, they then lead your eye down to the beautiful big doors and view at the back of the house.

Rachael already had her dining table, chairs and rug. We sourced the pendant lighting for the kitchen and dining room, helped with art placement, and the colour to paint the fireplace. We sourced the kitchen handles from Archant and the chopping board, bowls and jugs are all ours.

The narrow double doors in the living room (above) were removed and an opening was made on the other side of the fireplace for easier access from the front door and kitchen through to the rest of the house. Large sliding doors were put in (below) to take advantage of the view and the light.

With new carpet and freshly painted walls, Rachael just asked us to help her choose a new sofa, coffee table, side table, and pendant light. We had this sofa custom made for her by one of our NZ furniture manufacturers. They’re made in New Zealand, and the quality and workmanship is superb, so it will last her a long, long time. To keep the cost down slightly, we chose a hardwearing but more cost-effective fabric in a gorgeous deep teal. The large coffee table is the perfect scale for the sofa, and the double layer is handy - you can pop baskets for storage on the bottom layer, or spare cushions. We also had new curtains made in a beautiful soft grey linen blend.

Rachael’s bedroom has these lovely character features, but we helped give it a mini makeover with a new wall colour, new curtains, and a new window seat squab.

The wall colour almost glows it’s so warm and gorgeous. It’s a dusty umber and ashen red toned neutral. OK, it’s pink, but it’s such a sophisticated colour that feels serene and restful in the master bedroom. The linen hydrangea cushions (below) we had custom made - all available to purchase from us.

Directly opposite the master bedroom is the tiny powder room. With no natural light this space would’ve looked flat if we painted it white, so we chose another soft, pretty colour.

The family bathroom was created from scratch in the old entrance area. A large space, we created wall-to-wall storage down one end to house the laundry as well as an extra cupboard for the mop, broom etc. I say “we created it”, but clearly Davcon did all the hard work…

And then Sydaz did a fantastic job creating all of the cabinetry. We chose the tiles from Tile Space, and used HardieGroove™ on the walls to add subtle texture.

The children’s bedrooms also only required mini makeovers. In Rachael’s son’s room it was choosing a colour that he would love, and also one that would grow with him into his teens. Also a cool new window squab so he could enjoy his epic view - lucky kid - and new bedding!

In Rachael’s daughter’s room we opted for a warm, happy colour scheme to add a bit of fun and interest. We kept the colour to the bottom half of the walls, and mixed it up with some different coloured bedding.

And here she is… Rachael was one of our most favourite clients and a joy to work with. We were so impressed with the way she managed a massive renovation with two young children, whilst holding down a very important, full-time job. No matter how smoothly everything goes, renovations are often still stressful, just because of the disruption they cause to your life. But this one was well worth it! The other reason we love Rachael is that she listened to us, trusted us, and followed through with everything we suggested. This is always the best outcome, so thanks Rach, and thank you for allowing us to share your beautiful home. x