The 7 Design Trends All the Spring Markets Agreed On

With design fairs and industry events in full swing after two volatile years, the makers’ optimism can be felt in the products they are showcasing. Based on the new releases on view at Maison & Objet, Paris Déco Off, High Point Market, the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF), and more, furniture and design trends are skewing bright, joyful, and above all, fun. While natural materials (rattan), textured ones (bouclé), and curved furnishings continue their reign, we predict new silhouettes, as well as transportive, whimsical designs, will soon dominate the market. Below, discover AD PRO’s top takeaways we are sure to see more of at the Salone del Mobile this June and on Instagram feeds for years to come.

Grand Paradise

While flora and fauna have always been favorite subjects of artists and designers, this season we are seeing heightened appreciation for bold variations that conjure global locales. Take Pierre Frey’s Merveilles d’Égypte collection, which transports onlookers to the shores of the Nile: Highlights of the line include a vibrant wallpaper designed by artist Louis Barthélemy, as well as statement-making rugs that celebrate the lotus flower’s symbolic associations. Meanwhile, Fromental looks to Asia with its Kiku wallcovering, based on a late-19th-century vase with a chrysanthemum motif. At Maison & Objet, Japanese design had a moment worth celebrating: Tokyo-based textile designer Yuri Himuro was among the recipients of its Rising Talent Awards, and presented a woven Bloom blanket with floral and leaf patterns on the front and back side.

New lighting designs at Maison & Objet were especially transportive. There, Casa Remedios’s La Fauna collection, a tribute to Colombian craftsmen, presented a modern, Lalanne-like play on ostriches, composed of a metal structure with recycled plastic. (The collection also has benches, consoles, and more.) Elsewhere, African wholesaler Ngala Trading’s Delicious Monster pendant featured laser-cut leather on a hand-polished stainless steel skeleton, and Muriel Ughetto’s feather, glass, and wood lights appeared like floating, luminous succulents. In High Point, Skyline Furniture’s palette of seafoam, laurel, chocolate, sesame, and terra-cotta, illustrated on tropical fabrics, including a banana palm-leaf pattern, were echoed in several other designers’ creations. Standouts include the Garden Party high-contrast lamps and bowls by Cheryl Luckett for Wildwood (also at High Point), Popus Editions’ Flower tableware and Clarita tables, inspired by the floral patterns of the 1970s, and Maison Matisse’s home accessories, inspired by the namesake artist.

Surrealist Sensibility

Surrealist design has been on the rise for several seasons, and this spring’s trompe-l’œil creations proved especially exciting. Kalco Lighting debuted chandeliers both elegant and eerie that pay homage to Salvador Dalí, while La LanguOchat’s The Lovers Collection doubles as artwork, with its copper-wire negligees and undergarments suspended from illuminated hangers. Vincent Darré’s collections for de Gournay and Oka provide a full room’s worth of playful, Surrealist-inspired decor and furnishings that reinvent ancient Greek columns and architectural motifs. Keep your head in the clouds with Atelier Anne-Pierre Malval’s Bilbao pendants, or dive under the sea with Florence Lemoine’s delicate jellyfish-like lighting. Noir Furniture’s Drop console and Hervé Van der Straeten’s Borderline console, composed of colored, polished, stainless steel, trapezoidal prisms, both appear to stand as if by magic. Maison & Objet also featured several ceramic displays that were Surrealist-inspired, as illustrated by Passage Secret’s Splash! collection and Monochromic’s birds, ready to take flight. Meanwhile, at the ICFF, we were eyeing the uncanny, floating T-Lamp from Harry Allen, as well as Caleb Ferris’s Al Dente collection—who knew a pasta-inspired range of furniture could be so chic?

Fringe Festival