Lutron’s 2026 Trend Report Details Shifts in the A&D Industry
Earlier this week, Lutron released its 2026 Trend Report, which analyzed the results of a custom survey commissioned by Lutron Electronics in partnership with global market research firm The Harris Poll.
The online study gauged trends and preferences for lighting, shades, and controls among high net-worth American homeowners and residential interior designers. Specifically, the research was conducted between September 24–28, 2025 among 511 randomly selected affluent American homeowners and 254 interior designers and architects.
Cecilia Ramos, Senior Director of Architectural Markets, noted, “I am privileged to serve a unique role within Lutron, in which I am the voice of the A&D community both internally and externally. I love hearing directly from designers, architects, and the creative community about the evolution of their understanding and use of light in space and as a design tool. And, in tandem, bringing those insights to the Lutron team to inform product priorities, messaging, and training.
Ramos listed the key industry shifts she has seen over the past year as follows:
• Designers are embracing architectural lighting in historic, traditional, and contemporary homes now. While architectural lighting has often been viewed as a modern vernacular, designers are finding new ways to use alongside decorative lighting to pull the look of a room together and have more layers. When architectural lighting is done right, you don’t
notice the fixture source; just the illuminated objects, walls, materials that the light touches. These become the visual focus of a room alongside decorative fixtures that add sparkle.
• Designers are realizing that static light does not feel natural and are becoming champions for dynamic light. We are not accustomed to being in a single color temperature light throughout the course of the day. In nature, the sun is warm and dim in the morning, cool and bright midday and sumptuous, rich, and golden by night. It’s a missed opportunity not to think about light as a medium to create distinct ambiances for different times of day.
• Designers are treating light as a design medium, as a way to elevate and differentiate their projects. They welcome collaborations with lighting designers and other experts in the field including lighting manufacturers to realize their visions.
• Designers are now thinking of window treatments as both design elements and necessities for elevated functionality in a space. While window treatments should look great, they should also help the performance of the space and the comfort of the homeowner. They are important tools for privacy, security, comfort, and the protection of art and materials within.
• Designers are embracing the motorization of window treatments. Five-star hotels now use this technology as an amenity and almost all control their guestroom drapery and shades through a single button press. Once a luxury consumer experiences this luxury outside, they want to bring it into their homes.
• The tools with which designers use to control the connection between light and nature need to be ever more sophisticated and indeed future-proof. For technology to be an amenity, it needs to be human, easy to use and beautiful.
Added Lutron Design Ambassador Julee Ireland of Julee Ireland Design Studio, “We’re moving away from choosing lighting just for style or trend and toward creating experiences with light through spaces that reflect who we are and how we want to feel. The best lighting doesn’t compete with a space — it completes it.”
Ireland continued, “The desire for a deep connection to nature and wellness is not a trend — it’s here to stay. Wellness and comfort are now just as integral to design as the color, texture, and materials that define our spaces. Technology is changing the way we live, work, and feel — making it possible to design environments that are as functional as they are beautiful, supporting happier, healthier living…Controls complete the experience. Whether adjusting lighting, shading, climate, or entertainment systems, they allow us to personalize our environment, layer light, and create spaces that support how we live and how we want to feel. When we feel good in our space, we live well — and that’s truly timeless.”
To access and download the Lutron 2026 Trend Report, click here.
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