The Old Truman Brewery,

We love this space! An industrial warehouse building with a huge history. Within the heart of East London and this creative hub. The London Design Fair is a four day event that houses over 500 exhibitors from 36 countries. The exhibition includes brands, independent designers and a variety of talent from international suppliers.

Incorporating Tent London and Superbrands, it’s a great destination for designers, specifiers and buyers alike.

To us it’s a cauldron of a melting pot of styles, cultures and inspiration. From viewing young talent, from the Plymouth College of Art, – (and a shout out to the students for pulling together such a great stand), to established UK brands such as Linwood.

The variety of product on view, reflects the diverse array of visitors, that include: buyers, interior designers, architects, press and the design conscious public. The show is the most creative and exciting out of all the September events as it has a flavour of ‘anything is possible’ and reminds us of being an art student again! The show makes you smile, have fun and inspires you to ‘go create’!

From the Brewery we picked out a few stands that caught our eye!

Haru, ‘stuck on design’, is one such stand! Vibrant colour, playful, originating from Japan. And all sticky tape! The ‘tape’ lets you become your own artist and create a multi layered wall of art. As individual as you are, in a variety of widths, colours – plain or patterned, you can instantly transform a room. Sticking, stretching, taping freely – a new design tool is born!

There are 8 colour families, 2 pattern families, 3 different materials and 4 different widths. No excuse, in the creation of a masterpiece!

“HARU stuck-on design” hopes to inspire a new way of designing & styling spaces.
For more information on Haru, do contact them via their own online website.

Home and interior trends for Autumn/Winter 2017

 
Colour, ‘Teal’

An uplifting tone following on from the popular varying shades of ‘everything green’ this year (as we mentioned in our June 11th blog). A colour that sits between blue and green, teal is dark but with a freshness so it doesn’t overstate. Perfect to use on larger items like sofas and on accents too.

It’s a great colour to create impact, drama and works well when juxtaposed to strong saturated colours like ochre golds, black, and charcoal. Teal contrasts equally well with white and gold.

Think: Biba, being bold with colour, adding jewel like colours, and velvets.

Colour, ‘All shades of grey’

You still can’t go wrong with grey! Think all hues of a crisp, cold, winters morning. Easily mixed within an interior with a Nordic twist, or with modern chunky knits and oversized floor lamps.

Mood, ‘Rustic Nature’

Think organic, earthenware, jute, rattan, woven shades, linen, all natural elements used and mixed together.

Oak, unchanged in its raw form, showing the grain and character, contrasted with architectural metals.

The palette is off whites, soft neutrals, all shades of grey and slate.

Warm up, with the accent colours of ochre, and charcoal.

With luxurious and welcoming soft velvets for depth, warmth and contrast.

Materials, ‘Tiles’

Small scale geometrics, going away from squares and rectangular shapes.
Mosaics have made a come back too, with such variety of colour, shapes and sizes.
Small scale geometrics and mosaics work in rooms with a modern or traditional slant and are great to feature in bathrooms and kitchens.

Planet Organic, ‘Houseplants & all things green’

After pantone declaring ‘greenery’ as its colour of the year for 2017, green continues to be strong. With houseplants making a come back, just think of Liberty’s fantastic array of plants in store! Create your own mini conservatory at home and house plants are just great within a room with a vintage 70’s vibe. Take a look at our Durrington project, living space, to see gorgeous plants, a retro swivel chair and retro sideboard for the trend!

Deep shades, emerald green, to leaf greens are strong in interiors and fabrics too.

This trend brings nature and the outdoors ‘in’ and global trend agency Mintel/Catherine Cottney comments that green fingers soothe our digitally led lives. “Tending to a plant gives millennials a chance to take a break from their screens and connect with something tangible in the ‘real world.” Giving love and care to a plant is also nurturing and gives a sense of achievement as it grows.

An urban rainforest in your home! We will put some interesting houseplant articles up on our f/b page to view, for all you gardeners out there.

Interior accessories

There’s so much great choice out there, to make your home as individual as you are. So we’re featuring a snippet of a talented array of merchandise by creative designers!

‘Anna Hayman’ produces some quirky modern updated fringe shades with contrast braid and wacky modern coloured prints.

With an eclectic vintage bohemia vibe influences can be seen from; arts and crafts, Beardsley, Celia Birtwell, William Morris, the 1920’s and the 60’s/70’s. Colours and tones are strong, with velvets and heavy satins giving a signature style. We’ve shown a few of the lampshades!

We also love the mixed range of images from Atelier BigJon. Which to us, have again a slight Bloomsbury, arts and crafts, old fashioned feel but updated with gorgeous strong colour saturation.

With his growing archive of 20th Century original artworks (sourced from around the UK and Europe), portraits are reborn for today as vintage ‘one off’s’, retaining an individual signature style.

More other designer talent soon! It’s great to visit the store regularly for creative inspiration!

Design Trends – Orange (colour predictions for 2017)

2016 saw copper and rose gold big time! This will evolve into softer terracottas, blush neutrals, and burnt amber and oranges for a more sophisticated colour story.

There will be a shift away from the copper ‘full on frenzy’, with more softer warmer metallic hues like bronze, metals more weathered and beaten and with a more lasting, authentic quality – metal hues that have more longevity in interiors, and indeed work within more styles and palettes too.

An overall trend is that the world is changing, becoming more frenzied and the home will become more collected, treasured with the need to spend less time with technology and social media. Hence the need to create balance, and escape within an interior. Remember it is a ‘home’ after all! There will be a move to go ‘offline’, to get away from the laptop, iPhone, to communicate with each other the old fashioned way! So we will see relaxed furniture and a more creative homely use of space. From reading nooks, the outside coming in, and garden upmarket ‘shed’ bolt holes.