The Furnishing Trends 2017

6. March 2017

We report on the Furnishing Trends at IMM 2017, the Cologne furniture fair: what are the five most important styling tricks for your living room, and what does “hyggelig” mean?

Let’s start with the best news: everything in the home is going to be cosy and snug! At the most important furniture early in the new year there is consensus among the experts: when it comes to furnishing anything goes, as long as it’s “hyggelig”. This is the main buzzword at the moment among furniture professionals, interior decoration bloggers and furnishing magazines. It comes from Scandinavia and describes a cosy, intimate home which has a snug, secure and all-round feelgood atmosphere.

Hyggelig – how the new cosiness works

In times of uncertainty cocooning and homing are the megatrends right round the globe, with our homes becoming a place of retreat. It’s exciting to see how interior designers and furnishing consultants are implementing this new trend, because the new cosiness has nothing to do with dusty old furniture and bourgeois homeliness. On the contrary, this personal furnishing style is based on our own mood, the state of our inner feelings and individual preferences.

Those who look for peace and quiet and wish to get away from the hectic and stress of the world in their own living room may well decide for a highly reduced, purist furnishing style featuring natural colours and materials, together with clean-lined furniture. Authentic materials like wood, glass and metal are very much at home in such a meditative furnishing oasis.

Purist or plush – the main thing is that it pleases us!

When it comes to furnishing a little kitsch, plush and glamour are the right ingredients for dreamers who give free rein to their imaginations in the living room or bedroom, on the principle that “My home is my castle”.

And of course it’s a matter of personal taste how you playfully create enchantment within your own four walls. At one end of the scale there is a patchwork armchair in pastel colours, at the other end a drop-dead gorgeous dresser with all-round reflecting surfaces.

Why retro furniture remains so important

Regardless of whether it’s purist, natural or playful: the furnishing worlds of 2017 will always contain stylistic elements from past decades, starting with art deco ornaments on sideboards followed by the unadorned Bauhaus design of the Twenties to modern interpretations of cocktail chairs which first made their appearance in the Economic Miracle years of the Fifties. Why are furniture designers looking back to the formal treasures of past decades? Retro furniture and designer lamps symbolically represent an age before the mass spread of the Internet, a time when the pace was slower and the rhythm of the day was not set by a constant stream of emails, WhatsApp messages and Facebook posts. In the era of Big Data a little nostalgia has its place in the spirit of the times.

KARE Trend No. 1: Brass, plush, and a tame gorilla for the living room

After years of restraint in every imaginable shade of grey we believe that furniture, lamps and accessories can now let their hair down a little. In other words, those who feel like showcasing their apartment movie style will feel right at home with KARE’s new “GLAMROCK” furnishing world. This contains extensive elements of gold and brass, combined with discrete grand hotel glamour which ensures that the ambience has the right dose of glitter. This furnishing trend combines references to furniture design from the Fifties to the Seventies with the matt reflections of console tables and sideboards, deep velvety armchairs, retro sofas and Plexiglas footstools covered in synthetic fur. Surprising touches are provided by striking decorations such as ‘Jane’, the seated plastic gorilla, or the colourful pair of XXL parrots called ‘Sissi and Franz’.

KARE Trend No. 2: Strength from nature – living with wood, stone and iron

The longing for nature within our own four walls remains a major trend in 2017. With the new ‘Elements’ furnishing world KARE places roughly hewn materials in an elegant context. ‘Elements’ generates associations with archaic landscapes, while inspiration is provided by natural experiences such as the calm of a Swiss mountain lake or the wildness of Scotland’s rocky coastline. In the process the designers play with the exciting combination of wood, glass and metal. For example, the ‘Fundy’ side table features a lake of greenish glass in its solid wood top.

In the ‘Vulkano’ furniture series amorphously shaped, dark slabs of slate rest on rough metal legs, while a mighty, weather-beaten root forms the base for the ‘Roots’ console table. Solid wooden furniture remains a central theme, but the design varies. An important role is played here by harmoniously rounded edges, as in the KARE ‘Brooklyn’ series, and by handcrafted details such as simple, decorative carvings as in the Puro collection, which tell of traditional craftsmanship.

KARE Trend No. 3: Playful and humorous

Mirrors from a fairy-tale world of enchantment and amusing small articles of furniture add playfulness and an element of humour to the home. Few brands can match KARE when it comes to furnishing design with a touch of fun. At the Cologne furniture fair visitor favourites are, for example, our animal umbrella stands for the hall. The White Rabbit from “Alice in Wonderland” looks out from the upholstery of a neo-baroque armchair, while a cat wearing the expression of the famous ‘Grumpy Cat’ serves as the base for a table. Dressers from the ‘Fun Factory’ series consist of lots of different colourful elements, as if thrown together by goblins.

KARE Trend No. 4: The bar trolley makes a comeback

Bar trolleys are now revealing themselves to be stylish and functional items of furniture: as a side table for your favourite books and pot plants or as a decorative all-rounder for candelabras, for example, and of course as a place to keep your favourite brand of gin together with elegant carafes and glasses. It’s sure to fit into any corner: just place a small table lamp on top – perfect!

KARE Trend No. 5: Green is the colour

Why do we need a vitalising touch of green in every room? Green represents life and nature and generates positive feelings such as calm and security. In other words, it’s a perfect match for the major furnishing trend of 2017. In “Greenery” Pantone has crowned a spring -like shade of green “Colour of the year”, and with their green fingers our KARE creative spirits demonstrate that they have just the right flair for the new 2017 trends.