If you’re looking to do some interior design, a change in furniture has to be high up on your list. Furniture is often the focal point of your room, and since all good interior design follows the key principles of focal point, unity, and color, your choice of commercial furniture fabrics and wood table finish can make or break the room. To help you make your decision, here are some of the trends you’re likely to see in fabrics and design when it comes to home furnishings.
What’s Old is New Again
Vintage furniture is one of the 21st century’s biggest furniture trends, according to About.com. Vintage doesn’t mean you have to buy something old: styles are more important than actual age. One thing driving this trend is the perception that things were made to last in the past; and since two of the most important things American consumers want from their furniture is quality and durability, it only makes sense that we’re looking to the old way of doing things to make sure we get those qualities in our quality furniture.
What’s Old is New Again Reboot
It’s not just vintage style, but even recycled items that are making a splash, especially when it comes to commercial furniture fabrics. Only 25% of the world’s textiles every get recycled, yet cheap clothing keeps being made and thrown away with abandon. Some fabric designers for furniture are using recycled clothes to cover their furniture in a bid to raise awareness about this issue.
Holey Furniture
This isn’t furniture that can only be used in church: it’s furniture with actual holes. Perforating the material with the right kind of machine results in a unique piece with a lot of visual interest that’s also less heavy, a bit less expensive, and increases visual interest in the space. This can be easily done with all kinds of commercial furniture fabrics, like leather, and with materials such as plastic or wood.
Things Are Getting Stripey
When it comes to upholstery fabric, stripes are back in. Stripes used to be a furniture fabric no-no, but when used correctly they create interest or distract the eye, complement spaces that would otherwise be a single color, and can lead the eye to a part of the room you want people to see.
Sunny Yellow
Since the 70s overkill with yellow and orange, they’ve largely been avoided in commercial furniture fabrics. It’s still possible to overdo a good thing, so tread carefully and choose your hues carefully, but in general, yellow gives a bright and sunny look to a room and makes it feel inviting and optimistic.
Trending Fabrics
More than color, fabrics tend to trend year on year. Velvets have been popular for a while, but the demand seems to be increasing as it’s seen as a durable, well-performing commercial furniture fabric. Linen continues to be popular, and the biggest trend is in performance fabrics that are washable and durable. There is also increased interest in leather.
People buy furniture to last. Furniture consumers, for example, expect wooden furniture to be able to endure 15 years or more. The fabric should endure as well, not just in outright terms, but also in terms of style and trend. If you’re looking to redecorate soon, think about trends in furniture and make sure you’re getting quality pieces that will last the test of time.
