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A setting in Bo Concept’s showroom
highlights some of this year’s bold
new accessory colors.
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It’s a bright and shiny new year, but what color is it exactly? For that matter, what does it feel like to the touch? I put these questions to the design experts – those gurus at home design businesses who tell us what we need to have to make our spaces look off-the-press hot.
In terms of color, it looks as though 2010 will be bright and wild as well as serene and earthy. Hmm … maybe the new decade has a split personality, I don’t know … but these guys must! According to David Shafer, owner of 13th and U streets’ Urban Essentials, this will be the year for softer colors like beige and taupe. “People want more tranquility when they go home,” he said. “Things are more uncertain on the outside, and people want a sense of warmth and familiarity at home.”
Along those lines, so to speak, Shafer went on to say that this will be the year for cleaner lines in furniture. In other words, more modern pieces will be in the major furniture stores. For that, you can thank the success of “Mad Men,” AMC’s top-rated television series about Madison Avenue Advertising men (and woman) and the lives they lead. That much I do know, but more about that later.
As for Urban Essentials, look for more of what I would call “comfort furniture.” You will be seeing more upholstered pieces, according to Shafer. “The trend we have been seeing is that people around the Shaw, Columbia Heights, Logan Circle and Convention Center area are buying smaller pieces to fit in generally smaller spaces.”
Urban Essentials will be stocking up on storage items like beds with lift mechanisms that hide storage underneath. “People want function with their form,” he told me. Also, according to Shafer, fewer folks are moving these days because of the increased difficulty for some to get credit, so they are staying put and making over the spaces they have.
Those consulted all pretty much agreed that people want to feel as though they have a new place even when it’s the same place. In keeping with this trend, Vastu’s Jason Claire acknowledged, “We’re not getting in as many new customers.” And he echoed that “people are spending money on redoing their homes and not buying bigger places.”
However, he parts ways with Shafer when it comes to the colors that folks will go for to accessorize this year. “My big color prediction is turquoise,” said Claire. In terms of fabrics, Claire predicts that style-conscious buyers will want more of what he termed “durable textiles.” By this he means fabrics that are more germ- and stain-free for chairs, benches and sofas. He agrees that style-istas will be snatching up comfort furniture, but what they will be going for is comfortable modern. Another strike for that “Mad Men” craze!
Vastu will be carrying very 1960’s type furniture like credenzas, buffets, dressers and night stands and also end tables, said the 14th Street store’s co-owner. But, whereas the mid-century modern version would have been in teak or walnut wood, in 2010, said Claire, we will see the return of lacquered furniture. “But this time it will be more brilliant with higher gloss paint and not so flat.”
If the whole “Mad Men” craze makes you … mad, then Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, located farther down 14th Street, just up from P Street, may not be your home design destination of refuge. To hear John Zisel tell it, what you can expect in 2010 is formality in approach, but fun in execution. Zisel, the company’s visual director, located in New York City, said that much of this year’s collection is inspired by the blockbuster show. Even the hot “new” colors, like tangerine, daffodil and “ice,” boldly resurrect themselves from the go-go era.
More “Camelot” sedate colors appear in Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams accessory pieces, too, like beige and copper. As seen on “Mad Men,” these colors will appear in tweeds and geometric pattern on pillows, throws and certain other accessories, Zisel said. The mid-century modern redux goes into all rooms at Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams. From the ultra modern “Josie” sectional sofa to the very hip “Kirk” swivel chairs, both yet to be unveiled, all the icons of the original modern-era home furnishings live on again in re-imagined form.
“We redid (North Carolina) Senator Kay Hagan’s Washington office with mid-century modern pieces from our current line,” Zisel beamed. “It gives a traditional Capitol Hill office a much more updated and accessible look.” Though DC is usually more conservative than New York, he said that the store will have a mix of the new lines for 2010. For an “average-size store with 23 room settings and about 5,000 square feet of space, we will have pieces for people on the affluent side who love great design and who want to be price conscious at the same time.” That describes a good bit of the Washington market, he contended.
Mad Men fad men said Ed Rudock, a design specialist at Georgetown’s Bo Concept. Even though the store is based in Denmark, where much of what was sold to stylish homes in the US in the `60s as Danish Modern was designed and built, they aren’t looking to the `60s so much for their color inspiration. “We are forecasting that raspberry, ochre yellow, purple and teal blue will be our big colors this year,” said Rudock. These will be the colors of vases, bowls, throws, pillows and rugs, he said, to offset the more neutral tones in the modern-inspired furniture they sell. In terms of color, “People are looking for something more fun to lighten their spirits. People want to escape from the present,” said Rudock. “They want something bright and happy to take them away from what is and has been.” |
