imm cologne 2019. Overview of the design trends

 

When you stroll through the 2019 Cologne trade fair, the international furniture and interiors fair held at koelnmesse exhibition centre in Cologne, Germany, you won’t only find new products and the latest trends for those interested in design, but also concrete solutions for all needs, as well as all kinds of suggestions, tips and lounges. imm cologne 2019 offered exciting living ideas from new innovation drivers, market leaders and brands. The design show provided new impulses for the furniture market.

imm cologne 2019 offered a fantastic week full of design trends, innovations and inspiration.

Good things are always worth being reinvented: re-editions of popular classics were again among the eye-catchers at this year’s imm cologne. The main focus: designs by Bauhaus icons such as Gropius and van der Rohe.

After the Midcentury style of the 1940s to 1960s, Seventies style is taking over 2019 design trends. Typical shapes, colours and materials were present everywhere at imm cologne.

Retro is not an autonomous style, but rather a pervasive style element. Not only that classics of the modern period, of the mid- century and of pop culture are cult – their forms also turn up everywhere, but in new interpretations, with a new coat of paint or a new dress. The tried and trusted is coveted in this life dominated by change and appears surprisingly fresh in the new mix and new environment. Whether poppy, in the industrial look or staged in a dark and elegant Art Deco atmosphere, furniture soloists populate our living rooms, while kitchens or bedrooms tend to be more systematically orderly. The gap between city and country, the lack of and the surplus of space, small and large furniture continues to grow. On the whole, the increasing flexibilisation of our life calls for new furniture: smaller, more modular, more multi-functional. Patterns, exiled from the sofa and cultivated on wallpaper, are returning cautiously, sometimes in printed form, sometimes in 3D, to highlight furniture like the sideboard.

Wood is simply invincible.

Wood is not only sustainable, but also cosy, healthy and versatile. It is presently staged as raw as possible: not coarse, but “un-smooth”. Besides this, metal in particular is popular, usually in warm, high-quality colours and surfaces like gold and bronze – and not only as feet for sofas or tables, but also as decorative elements, for example, for lights, tables and wall elements. Glass is in the process of establishing itself as a third force among materials. Basket and wickerwork are also popular, while natural stone turns up here and there as an exclusive companion. Leather is preferably used soft and luxurious, and as far as home textiles go, one classic fabric is really in the race with upholstery fabrics in puristic quality: velvet. Usually used in single colours, it reliably radiates a feeling of warmth, a soft texture and a feeling of luxury.

The “smart home” – an integral element of home furnishing

imm cologne and LivingKitchen, which took place simultaneously, presented special exhibitions dedicated to smart home theme, in which applications across solutions were presented through the examples of a kitchen staging, a business apartment and a smart home. However, in the near future smart home technology will tend to establish itself less as a special solution and more as an integral element of home furnishing.

One currently important theme is connectivity: this makes it possible to link various functions, such as air conditioning, security, light, kitchen and bath applications, and that also in a decidedly user-friendly way, like voice control. The smart home technologies will in future primarily be used there where they make life easier for us, for example, to help us with better nutrition.

The trend colours for living in 2019 and beyond?

In addition to the continuing trend of a light grey palette accompanied by nature or pastel shades, which, however, appears to be less inspired by Scandinavian features than by nature and ethno motifs, there are two important directions: colourful and dark-elegant.