The Inspired Home Show draws more than 2,000 brands and buyers from 115 countries. In its 2026 edition, the keynote programme was notable not for any single revelation but for the convergence of its arguments. Speakers working from entirely different data sets - consumer spending figures, colour psychology, generational research, and AI adoption curves - arrived at the same fundamental point: the home products industry is sitting on significant growth opportunity, and the companies that find it will be those that choose to understand the consumer rather than simply supply her.

THE SPENDING PICTURE
Joe Derochowski, home industry advisor at Circana, opened with the number that frames everything else: global consumer spending reached $3.4 trillion in 2025, up 2.8 per cent on the prior year. The growth was not uniform. Discretionary spending pressure was concentrated among lower-income households and consumers aged 18 to 24. The broader K-shaped economy — in which upper-income households continue to spend freely while lower-income ones retrench — is producing diverging consumption patterns that require diverging strategies.

The categories that grew in units in 2025 cut across the practical and the emotional: food and beverages, casualwear, arts and crafts, health and wellness products, and social-inspired categories such as fragrance and hair care. The through-line, Derochowski argued, is that consumers are still spending on things that improve their daily experience at home. What changed in 2025 is where the inspiration for those purchases came from. Social media has become the dominant recipe source across all age groups — a shift with direct consequences for how home and housewares brands approach product storytelling. The most surprising data point of the year, he noted, was a reversal in four decades of growth in ready-to-eat baked goods: for the first time since 1980, consumers are baking at home rather than buying pre-made. Social media drove that shift. The industry that makes bakeware and kitchen tools is its direct beneficiary.

Circana forecasts home and housewares spending slightly down in 2026 before recovering in 2027 and beyond. The medium-term drivers Derochowski identified include population ageing, the rise of smart home devices (currently owned by 14 per cent of consumers but desired by 34 per cent), the return to office creating new demand for portable meal solutions, and the purchasing behaviour triggered by major sporting events. The 2026 FIFA World Cup and the continued growth of social commerce mean that for many consumers, the gap between inspiration and transaction will compress further.

WHAT CONSUMERS VALUE
Tom Mirabile, principal of Springboard Futures, presented the 2026 Value Equation Index — a research study conducted jointly with IHA in February and publicly released for the first time at the Show. The study surveyed consumers across four generations and asked a deceptively simple question: what does ‘value’ mean when you are buying something for your home?

The answers challenge the assumption that price sensitivity is the dominant force in purchase decisions. Quality ranked first at 64 per cent, with trust in second position at 49 per cent. When consumers were asked what quality means in practice, durability (49 per cent) and reliable performance (42 per cent) led the field — with safety moving up to third place, having risen 24 per cent in importance over the past 18 months. Peer reviews have also gained decisive influence: 80 per cent of consumers said ratings and reviews were very or extremely important before purchase, up 12 per cent from 18 months ago. Quantity of reviews matters as much as quality; consumers treat volume as a proxy for reliability.

The generational breakdown carries clear implications for product and marketing strategy. Gen Z (ages 14-29) spends modestly today but holds significant future value; they live in smaller spaces, favour refurbished products, and are heavily shaped by social media. Millennials (30-44), now the largest home-buying generation, will have children at an 80 per cent rate by 2030 and prioritise tools for entertaining and convenient cleaning. Gen X (46–61) is in peak earning years and spends heavily on outdoor entertaining, kitchen renovation, and smart home products. Baby Boomers hold 20–25 per cent of category spend, buy less frequently, and make quality-driven decisions. 

COLOUR AS STRATEGY
Lee Eiseman, Executive Director of the Pantone Colour Institute, addressed the packed audience with the Pantone View Home + Interiors 2027 forecast - the industry’s most authoritative guide to where home colour is heading. Her keynote theme was ‘Sense-Abilities’: the idea that colour decisions are not aesthetic choices alone but sensory and emotional ones, shaped by what consumers need their homes to do for them psychologically.

The 2026 Colour of the Year, Cloud Dancer, was chosen to reflect a widening consumer desire for calm in an environment that many people experience as relentless and overwhelming. For product designers and retail merchandisers, the forecast is not a trend prediction so much as a consumer psychology map: each palette addresses a specific emotional need that the consumer is trying to meet through her home.

AI: FROM EXPERIMENT TO INFRASTRUCTURE
Udayan Bose, founder and CEO of AI-first digital agency NetElixir, and Aaron Conant of commerce technology platform BWG Connect, closed the keynote programme with the session most companies came prepared to debate and left needing to act on. Their argument was not that AI will transform the housewares industry at some point in the future. It already has, for those who have started.

Bose cited a company that used AI-driven experimentation to revive 1,100 dormant SKUs, generating $1 million in incremental revenue in three months with 39 per cent total order growth. For an industry that routinely accumulates dead inventory and faces persistent margin pressure, the implication is immediate: AI is not a productivity tool for back-office efficiency. It is a revenue tool that sits in the catalogue. Conant added the dimension of discovery: the shift from search engine optimisation to Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) means that brands not structuring their digital presence for AI-driven search will become invisible to an increasing share of consumers. The consumer’s first touchpoint with a product is no longer always a search result or a social feed — it is increasingly an AI answer.

Both speakers were careful to separate this argument from the displacement anxiety that typically surrounds AI discussions. The technology, Bose said, augments human roles rather than replacing them. Its real value lies in what organisations do with the time it returns. The four principles he offered — treat AI as infrastructure rather than a product, work backwards from outcomes, keep humans in the loop, and start small with fast experimentation — apply as readily to a mid-sized Indian fashion retailer managing thousands of SKUs as to a global housewares brand in Chicago. The problem being solved is the same. Dead inventory, diffuse marketing spend, and consumers who are harder to reach through channels that no longer own their attention.