First furniture of the year was imm in Cologne. With 750 exhibitors and 42 000 visitors this was a busy and crowded fair. A lot of German brands and German visitors, but I really want to emphasize that the fair was busy. Among the trends I saw chunky furniture and lots of yellow.
Arriving on a Saturday morning before everything opens? Why? Well, I was invited to participate. imm Cologne introduced a new fair concept called “The Circles”. Round areas (hence circles…) were filled with various concepts for visitors to be inspirered by. Kind of interactive platforms.
I have been working with Elisabetta Rizzato from Italianbark a lot. We try to bring the best of Scandinavian and Mediterranean design and perspectives.
For a few days in December we worked on our concept. We had a colour scheme with pastels that we liked. But don’t forget that these pastels need a bit of brown to avoid too much of a kid’s room.
In our concept we had these feather lamps that we hung upside down. We deliberately wanted people to look up. And start daydreaming. We need more of that.
A perfect place for daydreaming? Pieces from Kare Design, Fermob and Montis.
We were very happy with our installation.
Well, time to talk about some findings.
Trend 1 – chunky furniture
The smooth thin sofa legs are gone and focus is on furniture in one piece. Here from Gandia Blasco
Herleven made these. All from sustainable materials.
From Pode
From Sixinch
From Montis
From Furninova
From Cor
Trend 2 – black leather
As you will see also from the Furniture Fair in Stockholm and at Christmasworld, black is a colour you will see more of. Here at imm, I noticed lots of black leather. Here from IP Design by Werner Aisslinger
From Brühl.
From Nikkari
Trend 3 – yellow
We have been talking about chartreuse now. At imm, I absolutely saw hints of this hue but more classical, stronger yellow. Yes, chartreuse or green-yellow for sure, but more common with normal yellow.
One last thing
Not a trend, but a cool innovation I saw. Just wanted to share this. At Hollands Licht they launched a new lamp by Dick Spierenburg. When it is on, the diods are lit. And when it is off, the lamp is all clear. And you can add hoods to it, if it looks to plasticy on your window sill. I liked this.
nice report, thanks