Around The World in Milan
The biggest event of the design year, Milan’s Salone Del Mobile
festival saw the city once again taken over by the interiors
industry. The streets were packed with the biggest names in
furniture and architecture, exhibiting alongside up-and-coming
names that are new on the scene. Our own in-house design team were
out scouring the studios and showrooms for the hottest trends on
show, dissecting the wealth of ideas to select six key trends that
we are confident will be driving the look of our interiors over the
next 18 months and beyond. These diverse trends will be filtering
through many aspects of interior design, with the overall drive
being towards a warmer, tactile and soothing look and feel for our
homes.
NUDE TONES
Soft, subtle colours – ones that are easy on the eye and the psyche
- were in evidence everywhere, suggesting a desire for soothing
interior elements as an escape from stressful lives. The core
colour was a skin-tone pink, evoking the sense of touch and
inviting an emotional connection. We saw this combined with
organic, unbleached wood and tactile brass and copper.
MARBLE
Once considered a rather retro, ostentatious material, marble
continues its comeback as the luxury accent of choice. This year we
saw marble used on everything from chairs to bookcases, with
warmer, mottled versions more popular than harsh white. Marble was
combined with slick materials like plastic as well as organic,
sensual wood and metal, again with warm colour tones to the fore.
METAL FINISHES
Once seen as cold, hard and industrial, metal finishes in warm
tones continued to provide an air of luxury and light to many
pieces shown this year. Copper, brass and bronze featured in
numerous designs across all design disciplines, but the rose gold
was the finish of choice, adding glamour when combined with
materials like exotic wood, leather and velvet. Star of the show
was Knoll’s iconic Platner arm chair, created in 18 karat gold and
blue velvet to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
HIDDEN KITCHENS
At the Eurocucina dedicated kitchen exhibition at Salone the
kitchens were hard to find! Many companies displayed kitchens that
hid their workings when not in use – cooker hoods that retract into
the wall, sliding covers for hobs, and even a worktop insert to
cover the sink. In addition, large sliding door sections were used
to close off the whole kitchen, turning it into an object of
furniture or sculpture. The trend points both to our increased
desire for a clear, uncluttered environment, and the need for
open-plan living spaces to conceal multiple functions.
ORGANIC WOOD
Technology and tradition collided to present new ways of working
with wood this year. Modern production and processing techniques
have created an explosion in fluid, sensual forms for wood
furniture, where curved lines and surfaces both highlight the
natural grain of the wood and also invite the user to make physical
contact with this enduring material. This is enhanced by the
combining of wood with other tactile materials like leather and
moulded plastic.
KIDS FURNITURE
Design for children is emerging as one of the hot trends as
designers and brands cotton on to the vast potential of the kids'
furniture market. Among those to spot a gap in the market was
Italian brand Kartell, which launched an entire new range of
products for younger users. In most cases brands are approaching
the objects as adult’s furniture for the reason that you do not
have to clutter your house with objects that do not fit into the
environment.