Get creative with colour – insights from Milan Furniture Fair
If our word on colour isn’t good enough then the message is coming all the way from the fashion capital Milan – COLOUR IS BACK. Brisbane based interior designer and our carpet pattern maestro Stacey Stojcevski recently returned from the famous Salone del mobile Milano 2019 (Milan Furniture Fair). She shares with us the latest trends we are bound to find making their way to Australia over the next 12 months.
Colour and pattern were everywhere at the show and some of the combinations were breathtaking. There was a lot of coral, deep blush, turquoise and light mint green. Colour is great especially in flooring as it really helps to hide any sin of wear.
Florals were also popular, along with bold African tribal patterns. There was also a lot of texture especially through the natural wood items. Some of the tables were amazing, and the long group dining concept is certainly still on the agenda, but they would need to be sealed to make them more practical, especially in hospitality settings.
Metallics are also a winner but it seems the trend is favouring softer hues like rose gold. They were most popular as an accent in lighting design and the legs of furniture.
Curves were also popular, and the designers made them work across everything from furniture to material patterns. The style was quite a throwback to the 60s especially in chairs and lighting, with a good dose of natural timber and rattan. I believe this will be one of the styles we will easily embrace here in Australia as curves can help provide a wonderful flow in a space as they can be attributed to most elements from floors, to walls, furniture and accessories.
The big takeaway for me was about being bolder with colour and using it to really help set a tone for a venue. It’s an amazing show to visit and every year I come away with so many new design ideas.
Design trends from the Milan Furniture Fair
Brisbane designer, Stacey Stojcevski has just returned from Italy where she immersed herself in the latest and greatest concepts in interior design at the Milan Furniture Fair – the largest trade fair of its kind in the world. On her return we asked Stacey where she sees design headed in the near future and what trends made a lasting impression.
Q: What colours and colour combinations are you seeing more in hospitality interior design?
A: At the Milan fair we noticed a lot of rich colours coming through – emerald greens, and deep royal blues contrasted with rose gold and brass. The colours are bold and distinctive – not a lot of subtlety in the colour palette, but a lot to catch the eye.
Q: What design trends do you predict will influence hospitality design in 2019?
A: Leading into 2019 I think we’ll see some African, tribal influence make its way into Australian interior design. I’m seeing lots of bold, geometric prints and earthy colours.
Q: What design trend grabbed your attention the most?
I love the fine tubular metal work in furniture coming out of Europe – the detailing is very refined and sophisticated. We saw a lot of this at the Milan Fair – chairs and occasional tables perched on very fine, elegant legs and backing supports styled from thin tubing.
Photo credit: Stacey Stojcevski
One-of-a-kind custom carpets for designer homes – giving you the creative edge
For 39 years Artistic Flooring has created beautiful one-off custom-designed carpets for some of Australia’s most recognisable luxury hotels and clubs – and now we’re offering this highly specialised service to discerning interior designers of private homes.
The opportunity presents interior designers with a significant creative edge when developing design proposals for potential new business. Your design concepts are no longer limited to what your carpeting specialist can supply. Now, the world is your oyster.
In the words of our Managing Director David Williams, “We can take a design – it doesn’t have to be a pattern, it could be any design at all, even a child’s painting, and turn it into a one-of-a-kind carpet for your client.”
At Artistic Flooring we only use the finest quality New Zealand and British wool in our Axminster carpets. Why Axminster? Because it’s the world’s best manufacturing technique to ensure complete creative control.
“Axminster has the highest thread count per square inch,” according to our MD “The more wool used, the thicker and more luxurious the carpet”
“Our Axminster carpets are also woven in perfect squares. This, combined with the high thread count, means patterns are sharper and curved lines have greater definition.”
“We can essentially ‘sculpt’ the carpet to create the feeling that you’re looking into the depth of the design. It brings it to life even more and that’s truly something special,” Mr Williams said.
And we control every aspect of the carpet manufacturing process – from initial design through to spinning, dyeing weaving and finishing the final product. This complete manufacturing and creative control means you get exactly what you ordered, every time.
Artistic Flooring can also recreate new carpets from old heritage designs – a highly specialised service of interest to designers engaged in the restoration of old and heritage-listed homes.
“During the renovation of an almost 100 year-old building in Brisbane recently, the original Roaring 20s-era carpet was discovered, still intact, under several generations of flooring,” Mr Williams said. “We were asked to recreate that original design – a blue and green tartan – in brand new carpeting.”
“The end result was spectacular and it was wonderful to be part of a project where there was so much respect for the history of the building.”
Winning over that hard-to-impress client
“Meh.”
That’s the sound of a potential client who’s very hard to impress. We’ve all come across them – the discriminating type that wear their lack of enthusiasm like a badge of honour. They enjoy making people work for their approval and don’t give it away lightly. They’re a hard nut to crack.
When you work with Artistic Flooring we’ll help you tackle that stubbornly underwhelmed client by arming you with the tools you need to break down their defences.
We’ll give you as much or as little help as you need. We can create mock-ups of how a custom-designed carpet will look in a room, provide professionally manufactured samples and advise on design aspects that work best in a large format custom carpet. Our experienced designers can even create an entire design-scheme for you if you’re short of time or ideas.
“Our aim is to support designers through the design process,” our Managing Director, David Williams said, “Preparing a presentation for an important client is a big project. The more people you have working on it, fine-tuning it, checking the detail, the better.”
“Floors can sometimes be included as an after-thought on design presentations, which is a mistake,” David said, “Floors are the biggest canvas in a room – if you don’t get the foundations right, everything else suffers.”
“We can help you get the fine details on carpet design right. This will give you the edge over your competitors and could make all the difference to the outcome.”