Trend #3: The New Antiquity & AI-Imagined Provenance
Our fascination with history and objects that possess a rich past—what the design world calls “provenance”—is eternal. In an age of fleeting digital content, we yearn for the weight and narrative of an antique. But what if you could commission an object with a history that never was? This is the provocative idea behind The New Antiquity, a trend where designers use AI to create furniture, patterns, and art inspired by imagined historical aesthetics.
Think of it as “future-facing nostalgia.” An AI can be trained on the entire catalog of Art Deco furniture and combined with the principles of ancient Roman architecture to generate a completely new design for a console table. The result is a piece that feels both uncannily familiar and strikingly original. It has the visual language of history but the clean lines and innovative form of a contemporary piece. This is the new must-have decor style for the intellectual homeowner.
This trend extends to textiles and surfaces. We will see rug patterns that blend Persian motifs with Bauhaus geometry, and wallpaper that looks like a forgotten fresco from a mythical civilization. It’s about storytelling. These pieces invite questions and create a unique narrative within a space. Instead of asking, “Where is this from?” the question becomes, “What inspired this?” This trend subverts the idea that value only comes from authentic antiquity, suggesting that an imagined provenance, beautifully executed, can be just as compelling. It democratizes the “collected look,” allowing anyone to curate a home that feels layered, historic, and deeply personal, all through the lens of cutting-edge technology.
