Texture, Texture, Texture

We spend plenty of time looking at flat screens, so designers are now enticing customers by engaging with them on a textural level. "It's a way to call customers into showrooms to touch, because we as human beings need that connection and engagement," says Patti Carpenter, global trend ambassador and creative director of carpenter + company. "We're seeing a lot of material manipulation such as pleating and folding in velvets and cottons, plus huge stitches made of beautiful luxe yarns." Take, for example, this velvet pleat sofa.

It's all part of a larger macrotrend of comfort, adds Carpenter. "We're all looking for this sense of comfort and having a place to rest in all the chaos and information we're constantly having come at us." You'll continue to see faux fur, mohair and other luxuriously soft materials into 2017.