HOW NOT TO FOLLOW TRENDS
Magazines, bloggers and retailers often promote this year or this season’s trends, with the hot colours and must-have accessories.
This is great if you love to be on trend, or are starting from scratch, but there’s a lot to be said for classic furniture and decorating for longevity.
Interior design trends are on a much longer cycle than fashion trends, thankfully, but there’s an argument that encouraging us to spend purely on fashions coming and going, is bad for the environment (and our bank balance).
CLASSIC STYLE
In the same way that many of us dress for what suits us, rather than what the catwalks and magazines are currently hyping, we can choose to decorate and style our home with classics. This means choosing quality furniture with a simple silhouette, that will likely never be in fashion, or out of it, and also choosing a style which suits the age of your home.
AGE – APPROPRIATE
Consider the age of your house and what furniture would have been in style at its construction. A velvet Chesterfield, or an over-stuffed sofa on castors or turned legs works perfectly with the proportions of the typical Victorian villa. Do you have an original fireplace, parquet floor, or cornicing? What period features could you reinstate or re-orient your room around (ideally demoting the TV from dominant focal point)? What fabrics, colours, structural features, for example cornice and dado rails would have been in use? It’s not about turning your home into a museum, but about creating a thread from the past to the present.
For example a Georgian, or early Victorian house may have included Damask fabrics, velvets and linens. These are timeless textiles and depending on the colours chosen will barely date over the coming years.
DESIGN RULES
Think of the features of a house or room which have endured through decades, or even centuries…what unites them? We’d say - symmetry, scale and proportion, having a focal point (usually a fireplace) a neutral or simple colour palette, and a pared-down simple style all create a sophisticated and timeless look. And while house plants are arguably a trend at the moment, they are a macro-trend, which we see coming into focus every decade. Creating space for large leafy plants or trailing ferns from your bookcase is always going to be in fashion.
COLOUR AND SIMPLICITY
Your colour palette is also key for timeless style. Limit your scheme to 2 or 3 colours, and ideally opt for neutrals or pale colours for timeless look. And certainly, limit your use of boldly-patterned fabrics or fussy window dressing. Timeless interiors are elegant, graceful, simple and unthreatening. Black and white interiors are enduring and sophisticated, as are white-themed interiors (if your lifestyle permits!) If you’re updating large items of furniture such as sofas, choose a simple plain fabric or leather finish in a light colour (remember you can always ring the changes with new cushions or throws).
ICONIC DESIGNS
Chesterfield sofas, and button-back ottomans and headboards are style classics. They’re perennially popular and suit most styles of home, but especially Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian.
CLASSICAL FURNITURE
Similarly, you can create a timeless contemporary interior with enduring classics from the middle of the last century. The Mies van der Rohe ‘Barcelona’ chair, Hans Wegner ‘Wishbone; dining chairs and Arne Jacobsen’s ‘Egg’ and ‘Swan’ chairs grace the luxurious receptions of investment banks, the dining rooms of high-end hotels and the homes of design aficionados. With a contemporary home, perhaps with more glass than solid walls, the furniture becomes the focal point. These investment items again show a respect for the past, albeit more recent and connect us to the design greats. If you’re looking for a timeless interior for your home, take a look at our collections from Duresta, Ercol, Collins and Hayes, Alexander and James or the Cookes Collection online or in store.