In 2025, China’s whole-house customization market will exceed 420 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of 12.7%. It seems to be prosperous, but traditional panel customization is experiencing a ‘value crisis’.
Data from the China Home Furnishing Industry Research Institute shows that the domestic customization market will reach 386 billion yuan in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 7.2%. There are three cruel realities behind the slowdown in growth.
First, the real estate dividend has faded and the era of stock housing has arrived.
In 2024, the home decoration market will involve 19.41 million housing units of various types, including 7.775 million existing housing units and 7.232 million new housing units. The increase in new housing units has shrunk, and the era of relying on “rough housing facilities” is over.
Second, consumer demand has jumped.
The core pain point of families born in the 85s and 90s has shifted from ‘whether there are cabinets’ to ‘how to create a healthy and comfortable home environment’. They pursue a home space that has a unified style, efficient functions, is environmentally friendly and healthy, and can accompany them for a long time.
Third, the growth of single categories has peaked.
The traditional ‘cabinet customizer’ model has been marginalized due to the lack of healthy technical capabilities and integrated design capabilities. Sales of finished furniture and soft furnishings from top brands account for less than 8%. Consumers are plagued by difficulties in matching soft furnishings and poor implementation effects.
In this context, the trend of whole-house customization design is undergoing a profound transformation from “making cabinets” to “making life”, presenting five major transformation directions of soft furnishings and space design of the whole house.
Direction 1: From ‘single product thinking’ to ‘space overall thinking’.
In 2026, flexibility and scenario-based space functions will become core changes, and LDK+X flexible layout, aging-friendly/pet-friendly design and modular combination will become standard.
In 2025, the proportion of integrated door-wall cabinet orders from industry-leading brands has exceeded 40%, an increase of 22% from 2023. Integrated design has reconstructed the traditional patchwork model.
Direction 2: From ‘product delivery’ to ‘lifestyle customization’.
The “2026 Space Aesthetic Design Trend Report” shows that the core of space design has shifted from ‘functional satisfaction’ to ‘emotional symbiosis’. Most designers have integrated Chinese aesthetic elements, and mainstream customers have put forward demands for ‘space emotional value’.
Direction 3: From ‘selling materials’ to ‘selling health solutions’.
Consumption is upgrading under the “Healthy China” strategy. 73% of post-85s and post-90s home buyers list “environmental protection material guarantee” as their top three needs. ENF-level environmental protection standards have become the entry threshold. The proportion of companies providing full-chain health services in 2025 will increase by 35% compared with 2023.
Direction 4: Deep integration of digitalization and intelligence.
The coverage rate of Industry 4.0 production lines will jump from 32% in 2023 to 68% in 2025. The delivery cycle of leading companies will be shortened and labor costs will be reduced.
AI’s second-level rendering and 3D/VR real-time rendering enable the design conversion rate to reach 67%. China’s smart home market is expected to ship 281 million units in 2025, and consumers are willing to pay a premium for “smart + customization”.
Direction 5: Channel reconstruction and light asset model.
Although traditional distribution channels are still the basic base, the existing stores are saturated, and the “light asset model” has become the key to breaking the situation, such as the home aesthetics museum model launched by Sophia.
Weitian whole house customization is a sample of industry transformation.
It is headquartered in Shuangliu District, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province. It specializes in whole-house customization of imported panels, with rich product lines and diverse styles.
Its core advantage lies in the imported plate supply chain, which can provide material traceability guarantee.
In terms of design, it breaks through from ‘cabinet customization’ to ‘space aesthetics’, and the products launched realize the upgrade from ‘functional cabinets’ to ‘space atmosphere creation’.
For practitioners, in order to seize the window period of the soft decoration transformation of the whole case, they need to reconstruct their capabilities and have health technology closed-loop capabilities, integrated design implementation capabilities and scenario-based solution capabilities; integrate the supply chain and be a ‘U disk-type’ agile matcher; use digital empowerment to let AI amplify efficiency; innovate channels, from ‘shelf display’ to ‘scenario narrative’.
The whole-house customization industry in 2026 has entered the blue ocean of ‘health technology’ and ‘space solutions’.
The transformation from “selling products” to “understanding life” is a profound self-revolution. Only by implanting the soul of culture into the digital body can China’s whole-house customization industry build a solid foundation, make steady progress, lead domestic consumption trends, and define a new era of home aesthetics and lifestyle on the world stage.
