Last January I wrote an article predicting which flooring and tile trends were going out, and which ones were coming in. So now that it’s been a whole year, I think it’s time to take a look back and see if I was right!

*The predictions were isolated to our area in and around Stirling, so they may not reflect the trends that took hold in larger cities, or areas with a greater focus on fashion over function.

Let’s start with my predictions for what trends would be “IN”.

Surface Drenching

Surface drenching is something I thought would be huge, but I missed the mark on this one. While this may have been hot in large, upscale, new builds, it just didn’t have the same reach in the jobs that were doing. We have not done many full bathroom renovations or new builds in 2024, so this didn’t allow us to install the same tiles on multiple surfaces. We instead saw more customers putting different, but complimentary tiles in their homes. For instance, a concrete-looking tile on the bathroom floors, and a natural slate tile on the shower walls. This may have been a big deal in the general interior design world, but it wasn’t a big deal for us, here at Stirling Carpet & Flooring.

Marble-esque Tile

Marble-patterned flooring has been in trend. There was a surge in customers wanting marble-patterned tile, as well as sheet vinyl and vinyl tile. It seems as though people really do like the look of marble! Tiles designed to look like marble are not our top-selling tiles, but there was a bit of an uptick in interest surrounding them over other styles. It’s interesting to see how tastes change year by year. I can see this lean towards marble-esque flooring continuing in the coming year.

Natural/Neutral Wood Visuals

Bright natural flooring was a trend I was confident would make a splash this year, and boy, was I correct. We have almost exclusively sold flooring with natural wood visuals in 2024. This has been especially prominent in our laminate sales. As I mentioned in my original post from February 2025, most lines will have a couple of colours with the word ‘natural’ in the name. These colours and anything with a ‘natural’ name have been flying off the shelves. Things like ‘fawn, or Earthen’ have been really popular. Do people want neutral floors because grey is going out, or perhaps they want to appeal to home buyers and their tastes? Whatever the reason, we have seen and will continue to see our natural, wood-look flooring sales go up.

Laminate Flooring

In 2024 we sold more laminate than we did click vinyl plank or hardwood. Some may say this is because we have been pushing laminate more than vinyl plank, and they would be right. We trust our laminate brands, and we love to install them. But we have also had many customers coming in the doors with the words “I’m looking for laminate” on their lips. This hasn’t happened in years, which is a testament to the advances in durability, style, and waterproofing that laminate flooring has experienced in the past 5 years. It’s safe to say that this prediction came true in 2024, and it doesn’t look like it will change anytime soon.

Next, we’ll look at what I thought was going “OUT” in 2024.

Grey Wood-Look Flooring

I’ve been saying it for a while now, but grey floors are going out, so of course, my first predicted “out” of 2024 would be grey floors going into homes. We had very few customers looking at grey flooring this year, though cooler brown floors (or greige) were still sought after. We had two churches do their entire main areas using grey commercial vinyl plank this year, and I think it worked in those less residential spaces. The grey just doesn’t scream “home” to most, though, if grey is your style, it won’t matter what the trends say, you’ll still love it. It’s on its way out, but the die-hard grey fans will always persevere.

Decor Heavy Tiles

It’s always sad to see something you love go out of trend. For me, that is decorative tiles. But it is true, that decorative tiles are going out of style. It was bound to happen as clean, minimalist, calm interior design gained popularity. Busy tiles don’t typically work with any of those things. What we’ve seen in place of a tile that has a funky pattern, is a neutral tile that has a unique shape like a dark charcoal tile in the shape of a hexagon. The shape becomes the design while keeping the room from being too busy. This is not to say that no one installs fun decorative tiles anymore, it’s just that people tend to put them in smaller spaces like powder rooms or ensuite bathrooms. You probably won’t see a kitchen or main bathroom done in large patterned tiles anytime soon.

Dark Floors

If the trend in 2024 was bright, neutral floors, it stands to reason that dark floors are out. Brian likes to say that dark floors are like a black truck, beautiful when it’s just been cleaned but shows dust and dirt immediately and obviously. The average homeowners live full, everyday lives on their floors, so dark floors have not made a comeback. There is always going to be the rare customer who wants to put in a dark floor to add to a moody interior, and I think that when done well, and maintained properly, it is beautiful. But dark flooring hasn’t been the norm for a while, and it certainly wasn’t in 2024.

How Did I Do?

Aside from 2 predictions, it seems that I was pretty on par with flooring trends for 2024. Surface drenching ended up missing our small corner of the world, even though it is taking off in other areas of design. Marble tile is beautiful, but it seems that Mesa Stone and concrete visuals remained the tile flooring MVPs in 2024. It’s safe to say that most of our customers want reliable, affordable flooring that will be attractive to new home buyers if they ever need to sell.

Keep these things in mind, as many of these trends will continue into 2025! Let us know “What’s under your feet” in 2025! We would love to help you design and install your next flooring project!