Category: Trend Stories
Colour Decoded
What’s your decorating personality? Harlequin has launched a campaign to get us thinking about how colour affects our physical and emotional wellbeing, including a specially commissioned white paper.
A Complement to Nature
Outdoor furniture and fabrics are where technical innovation meets imaginative design. From a design perspective, these are exciting times for those looking to create a garden, terrace, yacht sundeck or poolside with personality and soul.
Creative Collages
From Wanderlust to Neo-nostalgia, discover four trends that are redefining design.
Sleep Tips from the Experts
When you buy a new bed, you're not just investing in a piece of furniture: you're buying the promise of a better night's sleep. To celebrate World Sleep Day, the Design Centre asked its specialist bed showrooms to share tips on what will deliver those precious eight hours' of shut-eye.
The Spending Shift
Attention on our homes has never been stronger than in the last 12 months. Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour asked its showrooms what broad trends they had observed over the year, to find out the bigger picture about our lifestyles and spending patterns.
First Look: Purple
It has associations with opulence and power, but purple can be light and joyful too. Dive into Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour's First Look initiative and discover its many guises among the latest collections.
First Look: Yellow
Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour's First Look initiative sees hundreds of new products expertly curated by colour online, and there are plenty of highlights when it comes to sunshine-soaked shades of yellow.
Checking In
Romo and its sister company Kirkby Design have taken a definitive stance for AW20, with both brands introducing checked fabrics to their collections. Within that, though, these classic geometrics explore a range of different ideas and aesthetics, from pretty upscaled gingham to faded velvet inspired by the punk movement.
Leather in Detail
Although Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour has showrooms that are entirely dedicated to the supply of leather – which ends up upholstering the banquettes of the world's best restaurants and the headboards of the finest hotels and homes – this most versatile of materials also has a strong presence when it comes to the design of stand-alone products too.
Speckle Mania
From terrazzo tiles to confetti-like patterns, there's a kind of speckle-mania happening in interiors. Are these small-scale graphic prints a reaction against big, bold maximalism, or an expression of how the 1980s and postmodern design are experiencing a revival?
Slimline Design
Fine lines can be traced across autumn's new launches, creating a look that manages to be both strong and visually light.
Glint & Glow
There's a certain lustre permeating autumn's new launches. Subtly reflective surfaces create dynamic design schemes, glinting when the perspective changes, or taking on entirely different qualities when lit with daylight or electric light.
Floral Brights
Bold florals are experiencing a revival. The big, blousy, overscaled designs made famous by brands such as Sanderson in the first half of the 20th century seem just as vital today, whether they're used with a reverence for traditional country-house style or a in a way that seeks to bring the look up to date for a more contemporary setting.
Savannah Style
As we hit high summer, the wide plains, sun-bleached colours and wild beauty of the savannah are being channelled in interiors. And while the palette may be neutral, an abundance of texture stimulates both the eye and the hand, with intricate details that demand to be touched.
The Power of New Beginnings
The past few months of change have had a profound impact on our relationship with our homes, with many people adapting to incorporate the extra functions of home-working, home-schooling, and spending more time together. Here's how interior designers expect our homes will change, informed by the client requests they are already receiving.
Antiquity Revived
Classical design may be based on logic and order, but it nonetheless has the power to stir the emotions, and is still a vital inspiration today. Architectural details such as columns and friezes can be endlessly reinvented for today's interiors, while the stories of the classical world, as told through art and sculpture, are stitched through the history of design.
Soft Spot
Chunky shapes and curvy outlines have replaced hard angles in upholstered furniture. These soft silhouettes express our deep need for comfort right now: a chair that literally wraps around the sitter has a calming, cocooning effect.
The Big Blue
One of those highly adaptable colours that seems to have a place in every scheme, indigo can feel raw and industrial, like a riveted pair of classic jeans, or have a breezy informality, like a tablecloth draped over a table set for an al fresco lunch in the Med.
A Cleaner Future
Post Covid-19, one design development we're likely to see in commercial projects is the increased use of textiles that can be disinfected. Jane Kennedy, director of StudioTex, says that she expects to see a much greater uptake of these fabrics, not just in healthcare environments but in places such as hotel rooms, too.
Scene Stealers
Fabrics and wallcoverings featuring highly detailed landscapes and courtly scenes are having a moment. Here are a few of recent offerings that will induce a sweet sense of escapism.
Crowning Glory
Passementerie is sometimes described as the jewellery of an interior – the essential last detail that sets everything off. Looking at spring's latest launches, however, it seems that trimmings are taking over as the star of the show, with glittering embellishment, bright colour and bold pattern.
The Heritage of Home
Home comforts are coming to the fore in a time of disruption. There's a soothing, cocooning sense of satisfaction to be found in the familiar, but schemes that mix innovation and tradition manage to keep up with changing lifestyles while staying rooted in the past.
Matter of Taste
Easy on the eye and pleasant to the touch, a matt white finish has a softness that feels just right for a troubled world. Several new launches at Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour are exploring this theme, from sculptural lighting to silky-smooth baths and tactile fabrics.
A Rosy Glow
Everything's heating up, as colours from the warmer end of the spectrum are dominating: think soft peach, blush and coral; earthy terracotta and Etruscan red; and punchy watermelon and tangerine.
Beyond Wallpaper
Paper may be the standard material for covering the wall, but why be standard? The relentless ingenuity and imagination of design brands have led to the development of some incredible alternatives, with a particular focus on natural materials, from cork to shells.
Keep in Touch
With daily digital overload, enhanced tactility has never been more important. From textured wallcoverings to woven leathers, thick bouclé carpets and incredible embroidery, it’s all so much more interesting than swiping a screen.
A Ripple or a Splash?
Biophilic design, inspired by nature, is closely associated with natural materials and botanical references – but patterns and motifs that take water as their starting point make just as strong a connection to the outside world.
Paradise on Earth
Bold blooms, shady trees, dappled light, and fanciful birds and beasts: bring a heady vision of an exotic garden inside with the latest launches.
Still Life
Still-lifes of Chinese and Japanese ceramics abound for wallcoverings, a look that takes one of the most traditional of all decorative objects and turns it into a something more playful.
Making Room Outdoors
Performance products are now more than just fabrics and furniture. Brands are expanding their repertoire to include a host of suitable for the outdoors, from rugs to curtain poles, allowing for the creation of true ‘outdoor rooms’ with a more decorative edge.
