As the days lengthen and we welcome the warmth of spring, it’s the perfect time to get our creative wheels whirring with the season of fresh starts! Pip Goldsbury offers some inspiration.

While a spring refresh at home could be something as simple as furniture placement and turning our winter layout from cosy inward settings to ones that embrace the sun, interior design trends illustrate that spring 2025 is focused on curating an environment that feels light, airy and loaded with understated charm.

Where a previous emphasis has been on deep colour saturation and stark whites, today is about the middle ground. Earth tones take centre stage and natural materials such as warm wood, stone and linen are abundant. It’s about decorating with a mix of old and new, a place where vintage and storied pieces sit alongside contemporary elements. Rooted and refreshed, our interiors will engage the senses and evoke the shift in season without feeling overly themed.

Deliciously warmed whites and barely-there beiges form neutral backdrops for personality to shine, while caramel tones – think Resene Buttered Rum, earthy burgundies and sage greens (my top picks are Resene Vanquish and Karen Walker Smoky Green) deliver hued palettes that radiate gentle colour. Resene Melting Moment and other buttery yellows are also making an appearance for soft, sunlit warmth. Spaces this spring are lively and natural, places that are cohesive and inviting. Don’t forget to embrace ‘sense-scaping’ by adding refreshing fragrances and candles to complement the role of the room, a sure way to engage all the senses.

Wallpaper is back with a vengeance. A personal favourite are the vintage-style papers inspired by botanical and animal motifs, embracing colour, pattern and an eclectic personality that creates a lived-in style with sustainability in mind. While you’re at it, embrace tonal schemes that match paint colour to wallpaper for a room that’s put together and polished.

Bold but balanced, think coffee and chocolate this spring with a few light gins on the side. 

Step Inside the Project

These projects in my bedroom were not for the faint-hearted! However, this wooden headboard and battered bedside cabinet are storied pieces that carry family and friendship deep within them. 

The stacked cabinet came first, apple crates sourced from an orchard in Temuka, South Canterbury. Dating back to the 1970s, hundreds of crates were up for grabs and friends and I picked our way through them. Covered in decades of dust, we emerged dishevelled and dirty, laughing at our good luck. Today, I can’t bear to part with it. More than a rough-as-guts bedside cabinet, it’s a precious memory of friendship.

I was first acquainted with this headboard when it was a wool sorting table. It’s now close to 50 years old – my dad stood at that table during shearing time on the farm. As I grew older, I threw my share of freshly shorn fleeces across it too. And then, when the farm converted to cows, and cancer took Dad from us, I sawed off the legs, screwed it to the wall and kept a bit of Dad with me forever.

Paired with linen bedding, contemporary artworks, layered lighting and walls in Resene Catskill White, our bedroom is a timeless narrative that I hold dear.