Interior Trend Spotting at Salone del Mobile with the DFS Design Team

 

 

Salone del Mobile.

 

 

At the beginning of April, DFS, the leading British furniture retailer, invited myself and 3 other bloggers; Jess, Caroline and Geraldine, to visit Milan’s Salone del Mobile, the renowned interior design show.

Can you imagine how excited I was? Not only that, but we also stayed overnight in the city at a super Hotel and the next day we were shown around Salone del Mobile by the DFS designers themselves.

Salone del Mobile

The DFS team visits the show every year, to identify design trends and gain insight and inspiration for their upcoming new product designs. In this way, they can bring us designer trends at affordable prices.

Salone del Mobile is a huge, glamorous and glitzy interior fair. You could end up walking several miles in just one day. Luckily for us, the design team had previously identified the highlights of the show and saved our feet from aching too much.

 

5 Stand Out Interior Trends;

So, I guess you are dying to know what the 5 stand out interior trends are for next year?

Burnt Orange was king. Yes, I know green is all the rage right now but remember we are talking future trends, not today’s trends. Orange and green are complimentary colours therefore they will team up beautifully together. Green will work well as a focal point with this colour. Think orange velvet, plus lots of botanical greenery in the form of leafy ferns!

 

 

Dfs and the Burnt Orange Trend.

The Ashby Sofa from DFS comes in a stunning burnt orange colour too, it is called ‘marmalade.’ More on this gorgeous sofa at the end of the post.

 

 

Curves as in comfort and cocooning. Silhouettes were softened and relaxed. The sofas I saw at the show were large, with some being able to be ‘bent’ into different shapes for varying degrees of comfort. Their curves provided the room to curl up in, whilst feeling secure and cocooned. Imagine a chair with a high curved back, it would literally feel as if it was wrapping its arms around you!

 

DFS and the Curves Trend.

Discover for yourself the comfort of ‘cocooning’ with the curvy Lark Tub Chair below.

 

 

Velvet was everywhere, rich jewel tones adding a luxurious look to any design. I found it so tempting to stroke every velvet sofa and had to restrain myself from sinking into their depths to rest my aching feet.

 

Dfs and the Velvet Trend

Dfs have some stunning velvet upholstery options, take look at their Topaz sofa in lime velvet below.

 

 

Marble covered everything from nests of coffee tables to huge dining room tables. It was in prints and patterns too. Marble is hot and is here to stay.

DFS and Marble Trend.

See the above pic for DfS’ Topaz range covered in Forest green marble velvet.

Casual folds. I spotted flaps aka ‘double flanges’ (I learnt that term from the experts!) and visible top stitched seams, as the casual upholstery trend merged with the comfort trend. This provided an unfussy, tactile decoration to these sculptural shaped sofas.

 

DFS and the Casual Upholstery Trend.

Check out the Athena 3 seater sofa below.

 

 

Minor Key Trends.

I also noticed several minor key trends; natural materials, lots of retro ‘g-plan’ wood style furniture. Plants were everywhere, styled in industrial wire containers. I was pleased to see the tribal trend will still be going strong for next year too. In the form of tactile ‘nubby’ textiles and colourful digitally printed fabrics.

 

 

I had a wonderful time in Milan at Salone del Mobile, in fact my view of the interior design world may never be the same again! I would highly recommend a visit next year if you are an interiors fan?

I also learned much that surprised me about DFS. Did you know that DFS has been making furniture for over 45 years and hand-makes every sofa to order? Or that DFS is the biggest sofa manufacturer in Britain?

Next week I am taking delivery of a gorgeous new Chester 3 seater sofa bed in orange velvet!. I will write a blog post about styling it to fit with the trends we spotted at Salone del Mobile

Now you see why I will never look at a sofa in quite the same way again! Huge thanks must go to my superb hosts at DFS for an amazing trip to Milan.