5 KEY TRENDS AND HOW TO CREATE THEM

IN CONVERSATION WITH OUR CLIENTS, we’ve noticed a change in requirements over the last year, largely driven by lockdown experiences. These are the five key directions that we’ve seen coming through and that we’re applying to our current projects.

This Surrey-based client's dining room doubles as a play area, home office and TV room and entertaining space

Multifunctional spaces

With more time being spent at home, what space we have has to work harder than ever before. From home-schooling to working from home, home gym to a return to home entertaining as a major social pastime, a fresh eye looking at our space and clever choices in furniture and fittings is the key. When an option, bespoke joinery is the solution to many requirements but ready-made units can be useful to understand what is required and how it will work. Open plan spaces can be adapted by partitioning or large item furniture placement to become broken-plan spaces (see our blog www.falchiinteriors.com/broken-plan-the-best-of-both-worlds/). Manufacturers and designers were quick to recognise this trend and individual items of furniture that serve more than one purpose abound.

Identify what purpose you require from an item of furniture and it will be out there somewhere. 'Chaves' multi-functional table/desk, Go Modern, £860
When creating a quiet corner, look out for a tactile fabric such as this textured cotton from Romo

Creating a corner of calm

With all this activity going on in the home, it’s important to have a place in which to recharge. This doesn’t have to take up a great deal of space, a favourite chair in the corner of a bedroom, on a landing, in the garden may serve the purpose. All that’s really needed is something comfortable to sit on, a side table, maybe even a footrest and if it’s beside a window, so much the better!

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Rugs, chairs and cabinetry, indoor pieces move outdoors. Fabrics from Sunbrella's fade and water resistant fabrics. Photo Outdoor Interiors Australia

Outdoor/indoor living

Many of our clients now ask us to co-ordinate their outdoor space with their interiors. Outdoor heating and lighting, umbrellas, pergolas and sails all help to make outdoor living and entertaining in the UK an easier option than it was once. Clients frequently express the wish to invite the outdoors in, even if subconsciously, via maximum window placement and sizing and connecting door opportunities, ceiling sun tunnels, balconies, roof gardens even window boxes! And indoor feature plants are in-style, once again.

A clutter free home

With apologies to Benjamin Franklin, the slightly adapted quote “a space for everything and everything in it’s space” could never have been more appropriate. While we look around for rooms and corners to tick the boxes of our activities, storage for the relevant items becomes even more important. Default once again to the items of furniture that fulfil more than one purpose, to beautiful storage boxes that double as seating or display items, to room dividers with inbuilt cabinets and so on.

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Sustainability and restoration

Buy wisely, take care of and finally restore the items that you love and everyone will benefit. It’s crucial to increase the lifestyle of the products that you select and purchase. From reclaimed materials to expertly restored items, much-loved items bring with them a heritage that is hard to recreate. We always talk to our clients about the items of furniture and accessories that they love before we begin a project as it helps us to understand their tastes and if any item needs incorporating into an interior plan we can work with it from the start.

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