ECLECTIC ACCENTS
A round up of what the best-dressed rooms will be wearing in 2019
The global interior design trend report
If anyone understands colour, it's India Mahdavi. Back in 2014, the Paris-based architect and designer painted Sketch's Gallery tearoom a popping shade of rose that transformed it into London's most Instagrammed restaurant and propelled "millennial pink" into the collective consciousness.
The tone mandarin Au Lait
So no one is more qualified to predict what shade will emerge for the year ahead. For Mahdavi, it's all about "mandarinau lait", a tone she likens to "a tangerine milkshake". It's a colour, she says, that is noticeable in the vivid sunsets of our cities' polluted skies. Most recently, she applied this rich, orangey shade to
the Los Angeles showroom of the furniture and design gallerist Ralph Pucci, who also has spaces in New York and Miami. "It's the perfect colour for LA," Mahdavi says. "It evokes a blend of excess and luxury tinged with melancholia." Inside the home it elevates and uplifts, lending warmth to cooler tones and creating a gorgeous cocooning effect.
The Detail Passementerie
Passementerie, the French word for the art of elaborate haberdashery trimmings, from tassels to fringing or braids, is enjoying a renaissance in the most stylish of homes. "I love using trims and cords and piping," says the influential Swedish interior designer Beata Heuman, known for creating spaces that are in equal parts cosy, eclectic and chic. "Trimmings are like the final brushstrokes in a room." Heuman favours midnight-blue trims on seating or bed valances, often adding double vertical lines of braid to roman blinds for a layered, textural feel. "The dark blue looks particularly sharp, tailored and modern," says Heuman, who gets her trimmings from Samuel & Sons, a one-stop shop for decorative detailing at Chelsea Harbour. "Passementerie is definitely coming back," says Sophie Ashby, of Studio Ashby, whose recent projects include the Casely-Hayford store on Chiltern Street. "It reminds me of all those incredible stately homes like Holkham Hall and Blenheim Palace." Ashby keeps trims feeling fresh by sticking to uncomplicated designs and a monotone palette. "Done right," she says, "it's this fun, extra layer to play around with."
The Method Decorating by Canvas
Minimalism, begone! For a next-level curated interior, let your art be your decorative guide. Be it a photograph, a print or a canvas, take an artwork you love (try partnershipeditions.com for affordable and desirable work by talented upcoming artists) and build your room scheme from there. It's an aesthetic approach that chimes with the rise of eclecticism, which sees spaces filled with an idiosyncratic array of decorative objects, antiques and design. "It's no longer about a standardised look or a single trip to Ikea," says Rachel Chudley, a London interior designer famed for her boldly creative work. "People want curated
spaces that show personality." She should know: Chudley, who has a background in art history, curates the homes of London's creative cognoscenti. In the Islington townhouse of a young writer with a standout collection of modern art, she clad the entrance hall in a bespoke wallpaper of a Constable sky, which was specially designed to highlight the beauty of an original Walter Sickert painting. Playing with the bright and breezy feel of the owner's pop-art collection, which spans Andy Warhol and Joe Tilson, she pulled patterns, tones and textures from the artworks to draw the eyes. "The first thing to do is to think about the feeling of the room," she says. "Start with what you love and build from there." Happily, you don't need to be a mega collector to give it a go.
The Motif Swans
The swan is gliding back into style. Embrace the kitsch and delve into its rich history as a decorative device. At her recent pop-up shop, Matilda Goad used vintage ceramic swans as vessels for plants and products to bring humour to the space. "They're charming, witty and elegant all at once," says the creative consultant, whose own house is scattered with ceramic swans from the bathroom to the sitting room. Beata Heuman is another fan: "Swans add a theatrical element to a room," says the designer, who is working on a series of swan-shaped brass brackets for her product line. "I like bringing a fairy-tale aspect into an interior. It's playful but surprisingly chic."
The finished bejewelled dining
The lines between decorative design and fine jewellery are blurring, turning our homes and our dinner tables into brilliant jewel boxes of shimmer and shine in gemstone colours. For starters, you could take some tabletop style notes from the latest collection by Astier de Villatte, the French ceramics studio set up by Ivan Pericoli and Benoît Astier de Villatte. It has upped the ante on its signature white ceramics by embellishing them with golden ring handles made with the artist Serena Carone, borrowing from her surrealist sculpture with eye motifs and jewelled configurations. In Milan, the jeweller turned furnituremaker Osanna Visconti di Modrone casts bronze tableware using the age-old lostwax technique. Meanwhile, the fashion design duo Peter Pilotto have created a gemstone-encrusted candelabra (coming soon to Swarovski) that perfectly sets the shimmering scene, and the handmade British rug specialist Front's range includes a Persian-inspired carpet covered in motifs of crowns and signet rings. For budget bijoux, indulge your inner magpie on the high street by bulk-buying metallic napkins, plates and candles then dim the lights.