The 2024 HD Expo + Conference at Las Vegas's Mandalay Bay has once again set the stage for the latest in hospitality design innovation, offering a glimpse into the future of textiles and wallcoverings. Our design experts at Momentum—wallcovering designers Tia Strickland and Jane Tuss, along with senior textile designer Ellie Moser—returned with fresh insights and exciting prospects. Here’s a breakdown of their thoughts and impressions, and what inspires them in the material world for the remainder of 2024.

Tia Strickland, Wallcovering Designer:

Since elements of residential design are starting to merge with hospitality, novelty and fun conversational designs are becoming more popular. Bryan Ashley did a great job with their novelty wallcovering designs.

Ellie Moser, Senior Textile Designer:

Printing! Until recently, it was almost impossible to print at a high quality on textural, contract-grade upholstery fabrics. That’s starting to change as mills upgrade to digital printers. At HD, I spotted some really beautiful examples that used chunky chenille or boucle ground cloths, printed with metallic specks or big splashy florals.

Jane Tuss, Wallcovering Designer:

An ongoing trend is the use of natural materials and tactile textures in hospitality design. I am excited to see how our team can incorporate more of that into wallcovering.

*Digital-influenced florals such as our high-sheen Vivant textile (below) or digital wallcoverings like Poppy are predicted to lead hospitality design trends.

Tia: I expected to see lots of color, but primarily vendors were capitalizing on neutrals.

Ellie: I was surprised by how much grey was being used, compared to the shows that cater to the corporate or European markets. Last year at Salone, Proposte, and NeoCon there was hardly a spec of grey – just a sea of warm neutrals.

Jane: I was surprised by the lack of saturated color at the show. There was a lot of chalky, greyed-out, toned-down color (which is beautiful and on trend) but not a lot of brands taking a risk with color at their booths.

*Find the perfect neutral with our easy-to-use AI tool—simply enter a description of the tones you need or upload inspiration images.

Tia: My favorite product from our booth was the collaboration print with En Viu. One of the trends pointed out by a WGSN 2025 Trend talk at the Expo was the idea of rest as wellness and telling that story. I think that En Viu’s design, modeled after open skies, does a great job of bringing visual interest, as well as creating a calm and restful atmosphere.

Ellie: Our space was designed by Lauren Carpenter, our Senior Marketing Manager of Brand Experiences. She used our acoustic Pindrop panels as trim to build triple arches around the doors and windows of our booth, and I thought it looked fantastic. Such a great idea, and a beautiful way to add polish and dimension to a room.

Jane: I was excited to see the new En Viu digitally-printed mural installed!

*"Dropcloth," (below) by New York-based artists Chandler Noah and Diego Castaño of En Viu, premiered at our HD booth as part of Digital Creations collection.

Tia: It was great getting to talk with Chandler Noah from En Viu and learn more about his process. It was also great to meet more of our team members face to face. I loved hanging out with everyone!

Ellie: It turns out there are a lot of dog lovers in the design department, which we discovered while waiting in line for a glass of rosé during the party on opening day. Of course, we all immediately whipped out our phones to show photos (I can confirm they are all very, very good dogs). I loved this little moment of bonding with some of my newer colleagues.

Jane: I enjoyed seeing all the design-y dogs walking around and the laid back atmosphere.

Tia: I will be combining ideas from the show as well as what’s being seen within the market to come up with fresh and fun designs.

Ellie: I’m definitely going to add a few more green and teal options to my color palettes. This week I organized all my photos from the show, and there are dozens of variations on olive, sage, emerald, and ice green. Now I want to try them ALL.

Jane: The wallcovering design team is always inspired by the shapes, colors, and textures used in the tile industry, so I took lots of pictures at those booths as they can loosely inspire our future design direction.

The 2024 HD Expo has sparked a season of design innovation for us. Relive the highlights of the conference with us on our Instagram account, and keep an eye out for our upcoming collections set to launch later this year!