Buying new furniture can be tricky because it’s such a major purchase. Ideally, it should make a room look both timeless and up-to-date. For guidance, we asked three professionals to predict what 2006’s most important looks will be. Personal taste should always dictate your choice, but it doesn’t hurt to know that a velvet chair-and-a-half may start to seem a little dated in a year or two.
Edgier looks, downsizing
Ray Allegrezza
Editor-in-chief, Furniture Today
“The march away from formal is continuing,” says Allegrezza, whose magazine is the home furnishing industry’s bible. Because of changing demographics (more Gen Xers and Gen Yers are buying furniture), we’ll be seeing edgier looks, but it won’t be Jetsons contemporary with stark lines. There’s also a definite trend to downsizing, he says. “There’s not as much King Kong furniture as there has been for the last couple of years.” (Goodbye, chair-and-a-half.)
These days, it’s almost a sin to have anything matching, and manufacturers are catering to that in a variety of looks.
More Top Picks Best Outdoor Infrared Saunas
Rugged finishes
Davis Remignanti
Design consultant, Furniture.com
One of the big changes Remignanti sees is a return to rugged finishes–in upholstery, tweeds, boucles and raw silks, for instance, as opposed to velvet. Wood furniture will have a bit of imperfection in its grain.
Natural materials like sea grass and jute will be important, in themselves and as accents: a lampshade, perhaps, or an inset in a table.
Bright colors, patterns
Kenneth Brown
Host of HGTV’s “reDesign”
Brown sees bright color and geometric patterns a la the 1970s as the two newest looks for 2006. Pair one or both with traditional furnishings, and you can have your cake and eat it too.
“Your grandfather’s chesterfield sofa is popping back up, but in a bright green fabric,” he says as an example.
By the end of the year, we’ll be seeing a lot of graphic patterns, Brown predicts. Accessories will also be available in “potent” colors, if you want to approach this bold look cautiously.