* Lightweight is on trend for furniture: lightweight materials, lighter loads when moving house and making adjustmentsd
* Robust, matt surfaces in black or black-and-white as well as copper accents are currently on trend
* Mix & match combinations of smoky blue and aqua-turquoise with amber-hued wood
Our homes will start breathing sensuality with truffled wood, cool cement-look walls that come in a roll, suspended doors, wall veneers infused with the aroma of coffee and faux rust doors.
With shimmer and shine all around, it's matt that is the new sign of exclusivity. Dark matt is the new black, especially as part of classic black-white contrasts. Using tone-in-tone nuances, structures and ornament, matt black creates beguiling depth for surfaces. Together with metallic accents - glossy or matt and predominantly copper - and unusual colour combinations of red & pink or the popular coupling of turquoise tones and warm wood, the colour trend of this year's international fair for the furniture supply industry interzum was characterised by matt and authentic-looking surfaces. Many nuances for lighter woods were also on display, from chalked oak to honey-coloured beech for floors and furniture.
Colour and surface trends.
Innovative technologies and clever materials provide momentum for furniture design Sliding doors that can not only be seamlessly integrated into furniture and walls, but can also be made to hover open and closed with just a light touch (InLine S by Hettich); opaque veneers (Radiant by Alpi), cement-look walls or rusty doors that come on a wallpaper roll (stoneslikestones), matt surfaces which don't require cleaning after every touch (Fenix NTM nanotech material by Arpa, Traceless by Resopal, XTreme by Pfleiderer and Pianova Lackmatt by Niemann) and sofas that can be dismantled into easy-to-carry parts, in case you are moving to the top floor (CoFix by Hettich) - these innovative furniture and decor features for interior design are not only of interest to the consumer, but also to interior decorators and furniture designers. After all, the designer is the one who conceives the functionality, determines form and chooses material and colour. However, just which options of form are available to a designer, what materials and above all, what surfaces can be selected for construction, upholstering and cladding of a piece of furniture, largely depends on the companies that develop the elements which make up furniture, walls and floors. For this reason, what you see at interzum often won't be available in stores or seen in magazines for one or two years.
The desire for the original has become a general trend. As a sort of levelling of the contradiction that exists in our society between individualism and mass-production, the genuine and unique has been transformed into the essence of personal style and that which is considered valuable. Originality is the trump card in interior design too, where the question of whether the object is really genuine or only "almost" genuine appears to be less important. In fact, today's modern technologies even make the customisation of mass-produced goods possible.
Everything's authentic
Authentic-looking materials for floors and walls, doors and furniture, such as wallpaper, laminates, worktops and faux leather and printed cork (ATN faux leather collection, for example) not only look deceptively real, and are sometimes even more robust and easier to clean than the materials they are imitating, they can sometimes be customised with (photo) motifs or exclusive colour schemes. Rarely is the "fake" label playfully employed, whereas the authentic look is consistently upheld and more often than not without any irony. The results are astonishing: whole walls appear genuine Cor-Ten rust red or textile-like denim blue, with some floors, it is hard to tell whether they are made from wood or concrete (Atrium grey by Pfleiderer), and with the Reysitop compact panel by Polyrey, even the longest store counter can shine in saturated matt copper tones. A deceptively real wooden feel can be created using a particularly deep structuring (Meandra by Pfleiderer). 3D and thick-cut veneers (by Danzer in the new, especially strong 2mm version) are not only ideal for automobile interiors, but also for upholstered furniture. Weight also plays a role here - veneered wood fibre panels which look like solid wood or composite boards are lighter, and save on raw materials and energy for transport. At interzum it is plain to see that the furniture industry is making steady advances in the area of sustainability. It is more often the case now that lightweight materials can be manufactured from almost a single material or at least without any harmful additives. The Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research (WKI) has even created an easily recyclable wood foam made from 100 percent wood, which is manufactured completely without any petrochemical additives and has been developed as a replacement for packaging material and as a base for lightweight materials. Good old plywood also finds exceptionally innovative new uses, as shown by the construction panel Flex by Ply Project, which combines flexibility and a hard surface.
[Reprinted from interzum event news.]
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About the Organizers
Koelnmesse
As a world-renowned trade fair organizer, Koelnmesse has an excellent track record for organizing some of the world’s most successful trade events, such as the accomplished interzum and imm in Cologne, Germany and furniPRO ASIA in Singapore. With 90 years’ experience in organizing large-scale commercial events connecting buyers and sellers, Koelnmesse brings forth an unrivaled skill-set and expertise needed to develop CIFM / interzum guangzhou into the premier international furniture production trade show in Asia.
www.koelnmesse.com.
China Foreign Trade Centre (Group)
The China Foreign Trade Centre (Group) is a highly qualified and experienced exhibition company. For more than 50 years, it has been organizing the China Import and Export Fair (also known as the Canton Fair), the largest trade fair in China. It is also the organizer of CIFF (China International Furniture Fair (Guangzhou), Asia’s biggest furniture trade fair.
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