TREND REPORT
The decade’s top ten
1 Colour in the kitchen
Stylist and designer Vanessa Nouwens, of Nes Design, picks bold colours and two-tone cabinetry as the next big kitchen looks. “While white kitchens will always have their place and are hard to trump in the clean-and-fresh stakes, the evolving trend is to include more colour,” she says.
Two popular colour families are navy or shades of green. When teamed with marble benchtops, brass hardware and smoky glass lighting, they add depth and create a beautiful, luxe look.
For two-toned cabinetry, the key is to get the mix of colours right. Blending wood finishes below with lighter colours above gives a feeling of spaciousness. Otherwise, opt for a contrasting island bench to make a statement.
Style tip An island bench in a contrasting finish feels more like furniture than
cabinetry.
2 Follow the curve
Rounded corners and organic shapes were in abundance at Milan Design Week, notes Laura Heynike, founder of Pocketspace Interiors. She says bringing this look into your home interior works best when echoed by multiple pieces, from furniture to accessories.
A rounded hallway console, for instance, connects to curved sofas, ottomans in freeform or distorted shapes and the gentle, wavy lines of watercolour textiles on soft furnishings. Rounded dining tables are said to promote more open conversations, too.
3 Wabi next-gen
Sometimes described as “imperfect, impermanent and incomplete beauty”, the concept of wabi-sabi has been applied to everything from landscaping to mindfulness. According to Laura, this has now morphed into an interiors style – a naturalistic look that also incorporates our high-tech lifestyle.
“This new wabi look brings together humble materials and mixed metals with soft curves. It embraces rich, imperfect terracotta tones and reflective metals to playfully contrast one another,” she says. Technological innovations for the home, such as lighting systems that replicate natural lighting, are on the rise, too.
4 Florals
Interior designer Toni Brandso, of Material Creative, says the days of minimalism are being overtaken by brave, bold and beautiful colour influenced by flora and fauna. “Particularly exciting is the maximalist move to mixing floral prints of various sizes on walls, ceilings, cushions, couches and even lampshades,” she says.
5 Power pastels
Hot on the heels of millennial pink come the sophisticated tones of mint green, faded blue, lilac and soft yellow. Toni says this trend is particularly strong in the realm of sculptural furniture. “When mixing and matching pastel colours, there’s an air of calming luxury and softness which is ideal within a residential setting.”
6 Sustainable materials
Sustainability is a strong focus when it comes to building and decorating. Current favourites in the decorating scene, bamboo and rattan, are joined by newcomer cork as materials that tick the boxes for being both stylish and sustainable, thanks to their low-energy, low-waste production. For building projects, recycled, reclaimed and salvaged wood and metals will be a preferred option.
7 Slow design
The antithesis of throwaway consumerism, this movement asks questions about a product’s origin and how it’s made, as well as its environmental impact. Consumers are starting to care more about the provenance of well-made pieces, rather than click-to-order mass production.
8 Modern Mediterranean
This look combines the timeless blue and white of the Med with natural or age-old elements such as terrazzo, travertine and rattan. Globally, this combination of natural textures and relaxed simplicity is set to be a hallmark of the decade.
9 Biophilic design
Biophilic design takes its cues from the forms, patterns and shapes of the natural world and embraces natural materials in their most unrefined state. Think rough-hewn timber, unpolished concrete and stone in all its many textures. Using these design principles has been shown to reduce stress and improve creativity and productivity in the workplace – so why miss out at home?
10 Antiques
If overseas trends are any indication, there will be a renewed interest in antiques in the coming years. Trendspotters say that while vintage style has been around for a while, designers are now digging further back, to art and decorative objects that are many decades, if not hundreds of years, old.