The Milan Trend Report 2026

The world of Milan Design Week this year was bigger than ever. The event’s footprint is ever-expanding past the original boundaries of the Salone del Mobile fair, with many leading brands making the jump into the city proper for 2026, folding into their boldly dressed showrooms to bring hype and weight to areas that were once almost fringe affairs. As ever, the palazzos, historic buildings, courtyards, galleries and normally-out- of-bounds spaces made up a labyrinth of installations, activations, collaborations, craft and cocktail hours just waiting to be explored.

This 64th iteration of Milan was focused on consolidation, with brands refining their collections, reintroducing – lightly tweaked – heritage pieces and honing in on a handful of high-quality new designs. Here are the themes that caught our eye, and where our homes will be heading over the next twelve months.

The world of luxury Italian furniture is generally dominated by rich, dark woods, so when the big brands deviate from this, it makes headlines.

Porada, known for its celebration of all things Canaletta walnut, this year went lighter, introducing several pieces in warm oak and paler timbers. The Enook table by Marconato & Zappa arrived in a lighter iteration, its pedestal base and bookmatched grain-decorated top in slightly different pale tones, while Patrick Jouin’s characterful Oswood table is also available with pale timber legs and a tone-on-tone travertine top. The Pierre table by Gabriele and Oscar Buratti was also honoured in its oak form, the lighter shade lending its refined angles a soft affability.

B&B Italia’s launches were dotted with warm, light woods too, our pick being Antonio Citterio’s Alvar armchairs in elegant slimline brushed oak and colour-coordinating woven rope. Flexform also got in on the wood tone du jour with its Marquis table (also by Antonio Citterio) and the pale grain that radiates poetically from its centre.

Reds reigned, and rather than being of the post box primary persuasion that’s been on the scene for a while, this year things went deeper. Burgundies, clarets and maroons set the tone, bringing sophisticated personality and pigment without fuss or fanfare.

Much of Cassina’s new collection was doused in red tones, from Formafantasma’s updated FF. Spine bookcase in glossy red hand-stained ash, to the new Pinot Noir matt lacquer on the 780 table made in collaboration with Karakter.

Resplendent in rich red rock, Cattelan Italia’s Skorpio Marble table by Andrea Lucatello and Paolo Cattelan has a stop-in-your-tracks Rosso Lepanto marble top, showcasing striking white veins which contrast sharply against its merlot-hued base shade. Poltrona Frau’s Zabriskie storage units by Roberto Lazzeroni were presented in garnet leather upholstery, their 70s-inspired architectural lines made more playful by the colour.

Enter the trend of high-impact contrasting materials, those just not what you were expecting to see paired up, poised to get the heart beating and the soul singing. Take the Rhode sofa by Porada. Enhancing both style and functionality, a solid wood side table is integrated into the end section of the armrest, blending seamlessly with the sofa’s silhouette, blurring the aesthetic lines of two materials into a singular piece of furniture.

Meanwhile, Calligaris’s Riverstone table by Gino Carollo sets sculptural, water-smooth pebble-like legs in gleaming bright hues against a simple tabletop in the likes of glass, stone or timber for powerful oomph, while the Orbi coffee table by Studio Adolini for Living Divani contrasts both shape and material, made up of a black cuboid base and a (rotating) marble disc.

Milan may be an annual event, but it doesn’t mean that the trends it showcases are destined to have 12-month expiry dates. Some themes are clarified and consolidated, as was the case with glass – we’re still coveting it textured, rippled, dimpled, bubbled… in fact, any way that isn’t pop-it-in-a-window flat.

Glas Italia, as you might expect, led the charge. Its 2026 collection was virtually exclusively made up of glass that had some sort of tactility to it. Standouts were the Akur tables by Hlynur Atlason, decorated with angled grooves juxtaposed with organic forms and muted colours, and Patricia Urquiola’s Glacier tables, made up of thick slabs of glass with an almost molten texture.

Then there’s the Omni tables by Rania Hamed for Gallotti&Radice, the surfaces crackled and watery, akin to an iceberg, while Contardi Lighting’s Alma collection, designed with Controvento, features handblown linear pleated glass paired with an internal fabric diffuser, creating a delicate, layered tactility.

Lacquer held strong as the way to finish pieces with graceful gusto, its slick shine now to be found close to the ground on the likes of coffee tables and low-slung consoles. The lower the piece, the more dramatic the effect, with a floor-skimming lacquer reading like a pool of captured light.

A glossy finish gives Carlo Colombo’s low Modula sideboard for Lema a feeling of flow, the smoothness spilling from its pleasingly rounded edges onto the reflective surface itself. Bonaldo’s Blocco range by Alain Gilles is a block of brown or grey glossy lacquer resting on two slender supports, and Zanotta’s Low Bol coffee tables by Zaven have expanded, the crescent moon-shaped sculptural forms bedecked in beautifully buffed hues.

Thought the surface top was sacred ground, to be untouched in its level simplicity? Not this year. It’s being broken into, used as a canvas to demonstrate how the piece is built or simply to add another layer of decoration.

The Flatiron table by Mauro Lipparini for Bonaldo and the Bolt tables by Lorenzo Remedi for Bontempi feel like kindred spirits, their surface tops both broken through by the peak of one or two legs, drawing the eye to the design below as well as adding a jewellery-like adornment to the upper half of the pieces.

Molteni’s Midday sideboard by GamFratesi combines a rounded wooden frame in a lacquered or natural finish, with a curving top and back panel in marble, wood or lacquer. For a 2026 feel, choose lacquer plus marble for extra juxtaposition.

No longer are we hiding the secrets our furniture shelters inside – frames have officially entered the land of the visible. This year, they’ve become more than inside-out construction methods, transforming into artful flourishes and beautiful pops of personality. A chair held together with a flowing calligraphic frame, the Graffetta by Carlo Colombo for Lema folds its seat into being, its paperclip-inspired steel frame supporting indulgent cushioned softness within.

Zanotta’s Nagori bed by Simone Bonanni is an interplay of balance, solidity and lightness, the solid wood outer beam propping up a soft, curved headboard. Indoor furniture isn't the only genre taking part in this foray into prominent framework. Gloster's Ithaca Outdoor Lounge chair sports a low-slung, sleek timber frame that provides a beautiful contrast to its plush, pillowy cushioning for maximum style and comfort.

There’s nothing better than a welcome home hug, which is what our chairs and sofas will be contributing to going forward. ‘Tis the era of the power puffs: statement seating that’s inflated and generously pillowed, plump and padded, waiting to envelop us in the comfiest way imaginable.

The 70s legend that is Adriano Piazzesi’s Spring armchair for Arketipo is back (in new and improved materials), reintroduced to bring its cloud-like, inflated puffiness into homes just when we need it. Patricia Urquiola’s upholstered seating system Ardys, for Cassina, seems blown-up and buoyant, dedicated to a design-led, marshmallowy-ness, while Knoll’s expanded Biboni collection by Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee is crafted with voluptuous, Michelin Man-esque folds.

The excitement and wonder of the Space Age is back, futurism and nostalgia working together in a combination that feels entirely of the moment. Fluid forms, chrome surfaces and a conviction that design can reach beyond the ordinary are bringing optimism and possibility to the fore.

Setting the trajectory is the MC72 sofa by Studio Paolo Ferrari for Poltrona Frau, its continuous curves and low, sleek profile seeming aerodynamic, and like something that belongs on a warp-speed star deck. The fused amethyst glass top of Gallotti&Radice’s Cauce tables by Estudio Persona combines with a base in shimmering aluminium leaf for a hint of Tomorrow’s World, while Moooi’s Urchina Light by Studio Roderick Vos is composed of a hovering constellation of slim carbon rods subtly illuminated at the ends.

As always, some designs confidently strode out alone, indifferent to the conversation around them. Edra’s modular Anywhere Sofa by Francesco Binfaré approaches comfort in an individual way, its irregularly shaped base topped with Smart Cushions stuffed with patented technology, enabling the backrest angle and seat depth to be customised via an innovative movable element.

Knoll partnered with Dozie Kanu for the artist’s eponymously named coffee table collection. Their taut leather tops and hanging fringe tassels reference African drums and ceremonial dress, and Texas Cowboy culture in bronze or manganese metallic paint and leather. Tom Dixon’s Design Research Studio teamed up with Vispring to create a set of four headboards and a bed inspired by the designer’s signature chairs, which rejoice in the oversized, the whimsical and the irreverent.