These Are the 7 Top Home Trends of 2021, According to TikTok

Even if you’ve never downloaded TikTok, the video-driven social network has probably influenced your life in some way. Maybe you decided to make jarcuterie or whip up baked feta pasta for dinner one night. Or perhaps traded in your skinny jeans for a looser, more Gen-Z-approved fit. Or you’ve acquired a pair of those booty-lifting leggings from Amazon. Yup, those trends all originated on TikTok—so it was only a matter of time before the app became a destination to discover home and design trends, too. Some of the buzziest tips happen to be a continuation of what was already popular in interior design (like mid-century modern furniture and the Japandi style), but we wanted to call out seven TikTok trends that have taken on lives of their own—some of which we didn’t see coming.

If you watched Lord of the Rings and thought the Hobbits were onto something when they designed the Shire—or you’ve been dreaming of a quiet life in a countryside cottage with your own private rose garden—the cottagecore aesthetic is for you. It’s a mix of DIY, vintage and a desire to bring the outdoors in, and it’s a refreshingly romantic change from the many of the muted, sparse Scandi and modern farmhouse-inspired trends of years past.

“You feel like you’re turning back the dial on time,” says Realtor Suzi Dailey of Realty ONE Group. “There is such a trend towards soft contemporary in parts of California that it was refreshing and surprising to see Cottagecore appear, where people want to enjoy the delicacy of detail, color and history in their homes.”

DIY projects have long been popular on TikTok, and given the Cottagecore trend, it’s no surprise that dried flowers have also taken off. (When UK-based insurance company GoCompare recently analyzed the top home-related hashtags, dried flowers had generated 60.2 million hashtags, falling just behind Cottagecore and mid-century modern style in popularity.) Preserving bouquets of roses is popular, along with encasing them in resin. But, for a more 2021 take on the trend, try replacing your usual countertop arrangement with some feathery dried pampas grass.

Outside of TikTok, hunter and emerald green is having a moment in kitchens, but on the app, “green walls” isn’t a paint color; it’s about actual greenery, i.e., creating a vertical garden up a wall. However, those greens don’t actually have to be real—you can buy faux hedge walls everywhere from Etsy to Wayfair. And if a whole wall feels like too much of a commitment, you can ease into the look by making your own framed moss art.

If you’re not so crafty, you could always buy twisted taper candles, arranging them on bookshelves or counters as sculptural objets d’art. But there’s a certain satisfaction among TikTokers in submerging a candle in water and warping it into your own creation.

On the opposite end of the spectrum from Cottagecore, arguably, is Bauhaus. The architecture and design movement peaked in the 1930s and focuses on minimalism, where form marries function. There are no unnecessary flourishes, though it does have a bit of a playful side—think clean lines, geometric shapes and pops of bold color.

Rattan’s been gradually staging a comeback over the past few years, and #rattan currently has 12.3 million views on TikTok (though that number keeps climbing). It’s a popular find for thrift-flippers to share, though there are a ton of rattan-based DIY projects, like making your own coasters or table lamps out of palm stems. It can be an easy way to give a room a more beachy, laid-back vibe, particularly as a set of pendant lights or accent chairs.

Save the Pink Bathrooms, the 2009 movement to convince people to think twice before tearing out their 1940s- to 1960s-era pink tile and tubs, is now a major TikTok topic. Users highlight how people can lean into the vintage look, adding gold-and-pink lame wallpaper, or streamline the sometimes-extreme amount of color with matte white accents, all helping to preserve the history of the room without making it feel dated. And if you aren’t blessed with a retro bath, #pinkbathrooms can also provide inspo for working the color into any powder room, with suggestions for tile or paint that can give any space a rosier look.