Design in 2018 – what will furniture design look like?

As part of our series on the future of design in 2018, Made.com design director Ruth Wassermann looks at what will happen in furniture design over the next 12 months.

What do you think 2018 will hold for furniture design?

I think 2018 will focus on generation rent, and creating small footprint, multi-function furniture that has a small(ish) price tag but is big on design. Nomadic furniture that generation rent knows they can take from one home to the next. At the other end of the scale, I think we’ll be seeing a focus on understated luxury. This will include simple, modern design with beautiful finishes, colours and materials, a focus on velvet and leather, mixed textures in textiles and metallics in grown up hues, all of which will be mixed together.

What was your favourite furniture design project in 2017?

Looking back at 2017, my favourite project was Tom Dixon’s Multiplex at Milan Design Week. It was as much about the immersive experience as it was about presenting the products, and the experiential elements contextualised his products and enhanced our understanding of their personality. I think it was so relevant at a time when we are placing much more emphasis on the importance of experiences and the new understanding of luxury that they represent. I loved the bar and the ice cream parlour with perfume-infused ice cream, but if I had to narrow it to one favourite product I’d say it was his London washing up liquid. It was amazingly extravagant, but I loved it and bought it.

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  • Temenouzhka Zaharieva January 12, 2018 at 5:50 pm

    “small footprint, multi-function furniture that has a small(ish) price tag but is big on design.” + understated luxury – this is the perfect most concise definition of the trends that we can expect for 2018!

    • flat pack king January 15, 2018 at 3:00 pm

      I think that trend has been in scandi furniture retail for the last few years…

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