Meet Apartment Therapy’s New/Next Designers for 2026

Every year, Apartment Therapy spotlights the trends, products, and ideas poised to shape what’s new and next in home with our popular editorial franchise, The New/Next List. Now, we’ve turned our attention to the people behind the trends to bring you our very first class of New/Next List Designers!

We searched high and low for these tastemakers, each of which applied to be a part of our inaugural class. A panel of Apartment Therapy editors carefully reviewed each submission, looking for designers whose work brought the year’s defining design trends and ideas to life in fresh, inspiring ways. We considered creativity, originality, quality of work, and the designer’s unique contribution to the evolving conversation around how people live and decorate at home. The pool of candidates was incredibly impressive, but we had to narrow it down to five — all so we can confidently say: These design professionals are truly shaping the future of home right now.

You’ll find excerpts from each of their profiles below. Click their names, which are linked in the text just above (and below in each individual designer’s section), to read the full profiles. There, you’ll take a deeper dive into their careers, portfolios, and unique design philosophies. You’re going to be hearing a lot more from this talented design professionals soon — I promise!

For anyone who has had the immense pleasure of hiring Daniela Araya, they’ll tell you that her creative process is so much more than visuals — it’s rooted in her raw emotional reaction to a space, a person, and their story. So much so that she jokes she’s become a “color therapist” for many of her clients, which feels like an ideal moniker for the sought-after color consultant turned independent interior designer based in Hudson, New York. Editors at Apartment Therapy have watched as Araya has developed her craft over the last half-decade: She’s a longtime contributor who has helped readers understand complex color theory and the intersection of psychology and interior design. She’s also created a growing digital community on Instagram and via Substack, where she encourages people to experiment with design and discover the joy that only rich, bold hues can provide.

But what started as a passion project turned side hustle — Araya spent her early career in media marketing, including at CNN and Hearst — has blossomed into a full-time dream. Color consulting has remained steady for her: “Clients come to me with a fear; a color they love but won’t commit to; or a room that photographs well, but feels flat,” she says. But her growth as a full-service interior designer (a “one-woman team,” she says) has proved that her foundation in color theory and composition also helps her select furnishings, upholstery, and other details that transform each of her clients’ spaces into rooms that embrace “the entire rainbow.” Or, in her own words, to help anyone “land on a palette that’s true to them, and make decisions that last well beyond the after photos.”…

Today Ariene Bethea is an interior designer renowned for her bold designs. But for years she worked in human resources — until the day she redecorated her boss’s office. “Hey, maybe you should do this for a living,” her boss told her. And she certainly took that advice to heart. 

Bethea has mastered the collected interior look with her deeply personal approach to the design process. While sentimental details and personal touches might be the “cherry on top” to some, for Bethea they’re the foundation of every space she touches. “I’ve never believed the goal is simply to create a beautiful room,” says the founder of Dressing Rooms Interiors Studio. “The goal is to create a room that couldn’t belong to anyone else.” And that philosophy not only sets her apart, it’s also why she’s one of the five designers chosen for Apartment Therapy’s New/Next List for 2026. …

For decades, Los Angeles-based designer Julia Chasman told stories on film sets. Now she tells them through interiors, using antique furniture, bold textiles, and an “anchovy” or two (but more on that later). A longtime member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, Chasman has borrowed her silver screen design approach and adapted it to her residential projects, creating her signature layered look that has a cinematic quality. 

“In film we start with a script, a cast, location, and sets, and fine tune with lighting, music, costumes,” she says. “In the home space, we have a main design scheme, construction, architectural changes, selection of furniture and decor, and lighting and art to round it out.” Even scheduling and budgeting skills carry over — cutting a scene and nixing a new guest bathroom aren’t all that dissimilar. “Both processes can be painful but are full of joyful moments,” she says. “And in both jobs, I am working as a storyteller.” …

For interior designer Kristin Keyes, sustainability and a sense of community responsibility are at the heart of everything she does. She founded Kristin Keyes Interiors (KKI) with one goal in mind: to change the way Nashvillians think about designing their homes. And boy, has she done it. She doesn’t just mix a few vintage or pre-loved pieces into her spaces; she works with them almost exclusively. 

“Great interior designers have always used one-of-a-kind vintage and antique pieces in their work, but our approach is more radical: We aim to source every single item secondhand,” she explains. …

Architect, photographer, and designer Gabriel Yuri of New Operations Workshop has a design aesthetic that’s hard to pin down. It’s Scandinavian, it’s mid-century modern. It’s Japandi, it’s organic modern. Ultimately, his interiors embody a beautiful mix of intentionally laid-out spaces that never feel unwelcoming or cold. That’s because of his uncanny ability to seamlessly and thoughtfully mix several disparate materials and design references in one room cohesively.  

And that’s just one of the reasons Yuri was selected as one of Apartment Therapy’s New/Next List Designers for 2026. A graduate of UC Berkeley and the Architectural Association in London, Yuri also spent three years at Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the architecture firm behind New York City’s High Line. Beyond the fantastic material combinations he’s creating in his projects, it’s his skills as a neutral colorist that prove beige doesn’t have to be banished from today’s design conversation. In the era of color drenching and pattern-maxxing, Yuri’s work proves restraint can be just as compelling.  …