Highlights at Ambiente 2017

Dining, Living, Giving – the lures of the new season

After a recent trip to Frankfurt to see the annual showcase of trends at Ambiente, this is their guidance and outline of what to expect on your shelves, surfaces, rooms and homes. The dining, living and giving assets all have one thing in common: making time for oneself, family and friends.The overtone for this year is to create an atmosphere of well-being in your home by bringing in original, hand-crafted and homely things.

We will see the attention manufacturers are giving natural materials such as wicker, bare wood, cork and ceramics, untreated surfaces are combined with glazed, relief-like textures and strong contrasts in the materials mix make for surprising tactile effects. When it comes to the colour palette, expect discreet nude, beige and sand shades, which leave plenty of freedom for individual accents.  

Living

There is a great ascent into the sculptural and geometric forms in living spaces. Rounded armchairs with extra-large backrests and vases that look like folded paper are setting prominent accents in the home. The traditional art of glassblowing is enjoying a renaissance: pots, vases and bowls with embedded cracks and inclusions, elaborately ground, sometimes coloured, sometimes carefully painted by hand, reflect the desire for value and quality. This will be seen across electric light bulbs, picture frames and hanging plants in raindrop-shaped or spherical glass containers.

If your orbit is full of illustrators or you want to do a course for your very own decor, this year is all about the hand-made drawings on pots, tableware, napkins and tea towels: 2017 is all about illustration with fine lines and often drawn naturalistically. Wood will give shape to modern loudspeakers, candle holders, toys and dishes – either rough and rustic or modern.

Dining

The spotlight is on functionality in the dining arena. Many natural materials will be used to preserve aromas and nutrients longer, as well as at preparing food gently to retain all the goodness. Enamel is playing a more important role when it comes to pots and pans. Complimenting these items are vintage-looking wooden spoons and leather details, adding a rustic touch to the kitchen and transforming functional products into decorative accessories. Keeping the same sentiment to the ‘living’ area, we will see popular abstract colour compositions reminiscent of watercolor paintings.

Giving

Nostalgia is finally a trend in the gift department. Handwritten letters on decorated paper are going to be seen everywhere. So is sustainability. Innovative designers are creating more  jewellery fashioned from artists’ materials and bags made of old celluloid or extraordinary new materials. Rare stones are being used in all kinds of accessories and ‘chokers’; tight-fitting necklaces and neckbands are all the rage. Pearl-studded clutch bags add to the sophistication of style. To complement them, ‘champagne hippies’ wear necklaces with colourful pompoms and feathers. Cork is a new material that is on the up – perhaps in a mix with vegan leather. Contact: Ambiente