I am not one for practical jokes, but as a designer I do love  a good visual trick or two.  That’s what I am seeing lately -trompe l’oeil (French for “deceive the eye”)  looks from fashion to decor that marries whimsy and humor with style and design.

I’m seeing trompe l’oeil looks in :

Walls

Piet Hein Eek’s wallpaper  makes scrap wood gorgeous!

Koziel’s antique shutter wallpaper doubles your fun.This paper gives you pause- is there or isn’t there a window there?

What can a say?- Christain LaCroix for Designers Guild. LOVE.LOVE. LOVE

Need architectural detail? Berard has it.

Doors

Shelving

Deborah Bowness is a Genius with fool the eye looks

Everyone loves books Right?

Textiles

Windows

I ♥ Bauke Knottnerus’ trompe l’oeil curtains, they can be on a window in a doorway fooling the eye into believing there’s more space thanks to the perspective.

Koziel’s Decorative film provides the view and the ornate ironwork.

Fashion

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Industry, and Split Clarity. Restlessness, anxiety, curiosity, desire for design all signal a C change globally and Montage exemplifies that shift.

Colors play a leading role at the Heimtextil 2012 Trend Show: “We use intensive colors to set decisive accents. In the new season, rich, fresh shades will act as channels for emotions”, ex­plains Claudia Herke of bora.herke.palmisano, the design agency respon­sible for the concept of the Trend Show and fabric selection.

The Shade Store Via House Beautiful

With Tangerine Tango the Color of the Year-why not try it at the window?

So if we start embracing color; could we , ( O heart be still) start to see bold dynamic pattern at the window? God, I hope so; I could use a little drama….

All shade images from The Shade Store

So with knitting immersing itself in all manner of new media mash ups, it’s no wonder we are seeing it filtering into interiors. Watch for knits in all shapes and forms to get a stronghold in the home in 2012. We’ve seen its influence on fabrics, furniture, lighting, windows and even walls.

Deryn Relph, a textile designer explored the effet that color has on emotions through the kitted media in these ” Uplifting Lampshades.” Relph specializes in knitted textiles for interiors and  merges this with previous upholstery and furnishing skills to create unique and contemporary solutions to an idea.

Tired of the cold sterility of most modernist furniture — then check out these inviting knitted stools by British textile designer Claire-Anne O’Brien. A graduate of the Royal College of Art, O’Brien’s funky and tactile stools are a refreshingly clever rethinking of what form the ordinary stool may take.

FLOR rethinks  traditional cable sitiches in these Just Plain Folk modular carpet tiles in muted neutral tones of 100% recycled Nylon fiber providing visual warmth for your floors.

The ‘loop chaise lounge’ was born from dutch designer sophie de vocht’s interest in the ‘tufting’ technique, and is characterized by a high number of tufts of yarn inserted through needles on a fabric base. Designed for italian furniture company casamania, the chair features a metal structure in which ‘over-sized yarn’ is woven through to create a softness. The main base and seat are tightly woven, gradually getting looser in their stitching along the length of the chaise lounge, eventually fanning out over the floor.

 Knitted wall panels seen at M&O

Don’t forget knitting cousin, Crochet. Believe me you won’t if you see any of Polish artist ,Olek’s work  who aggressively crochets her life into her work, and  has freely admitted to spending the night in her Knitting Is For Pussies exhibit,recently at the Christopher Henry Gallery.

Award winning designer Chae young Kim creates intricate interior products by combining analogue and digital techniques. Her Knitted Room Wallpaper is created using 2D vector graphics processed through a software to create a knitted 3D effect onto a printed surface.

We first saw this at imm Cologne as part of the Young Talents exhibition and it is now in production and available through Surface View.

Check out Etsy for loads of wonderful knittted and crochets accesories, soft furnishings and one-of-a-kind pieces if you’re looking to jump on the Knit trend bandwagon.

Key looks and color trends at Showtime included:

1. Teal and burnt orange were strong color contenders, closely followed by apple green and bright lemon.

2. The neutral grays are morphing into driftwood or raffia.

 3.Botanicals are back, particularly in silhouetted prints of trees, ferns, or gingko leaves. Figurative florals are also key.

Pierre Frey + Deyrolle

4.Prevalent patterns included paisleys, cabana stripes, suzanis, toiles, lace, and Florentine tiles.

5. Menswear designs inspired leather looks, including a houndstooth pattern on a hair-on-hide.

Kyle Bunting Hair on Hide pillows

6.Crocodile featured strongly on fashion runways this fall, and it’s back in a very big way for leather suppliers.

7.Novelty patterns included folk-art birds, postcards, scientific equations( think Big Bang Theory), china plates, round chickens, and hamsa (a palm-shaped design).

8.In trims, look for tassels to start appearing again, particularly Deco-inspired designs that step away from the traditional shapes.

May I toot my own horn? I am sooo excited to  have just been asked to be a member of the jury for the  Les Découvertes (= your favorite product) Awards at Maison & Objet .  I will sift through the different sectors of the  show, covering every aisle in order to find the best-of-the-best and  pick my favorite product in a specific sector .Les Decouvertes will reward the most impressive new products of the show as discerned by a jury( me!) which is completely composed of bloggers and design columnists.
 Watch for my posts from the show and see what I pick. Don’t forget to check out the more real time coverage of Heimtextil and imm cologne as I work my way through the January design shows.

Federico de Vinciolo

Lace is back.

As supported by the design studios like Indigo, lace is a popular design direction for the next couple of years.  But this isn’t Grandma’s lace doilies; look for lace rendered in fresh ways, unusual materials and in unique color and pattern combinations. Today’s lace is too fashion forward and created in many too forms and materiasl to be old fashioned. We love the dichotomy of lace- its charming innocence paired with mystery concealing as much as it reveals. Lace is can be sexy and sweet at the same time. It all adds up to an intriguing medium for interiors.

"Energy" laser lace by Creation Baumann

Customizable chain link fence through Droog USA

Another reason we love lace- the romantic softening of interiors as we move post recession. Lace adds personality because with visual and tactile layering.

Dareen Henault's Kips Bay Dressing Room

Metallic lace is one thing, but lace made of entwined human hair? It may sound revolting, but in fact, it is quite beautiful!  Kerry Howley took inspiration from the wallpaper patterns she discovered at the Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture and turned up the Victorian artwork a notch. Attraction/Aversion is Kerry’s award winning graduate collection.

Modern Lace by BandJ Fabrics

1000 gallon oil tank by Cal Lane for Lace in Translation

Cal Lane's Wheelbarrow

Concrete lace by Doreen Westphal and G.tecz

Naïve and Romantic sees the application of soft pastel colors. Coral and salmon shades freshen up  simple patterns  such as polka dots and stripes. Turquoise and lilac are combined in hand drawn checks, and hand painted patterns. Text, postcards, stamp motifs evoke memories Trees and tree trunks are used as decoration.

Dreamlike florals and blossoms are the most important subjects, in all possible variations, but especially watercolor looks and hand painted florals. Old-fashioned roses and birds are applied in new ways with a touch of golden details. Flowers of importance are roses and orchids. Oriental influences are present in blossoms, birds and flower patterns Old cupboards recycled and decorated with Japanese blossoms and 3-D branches add for a fairytale effect. Florals  and botanical motifs can also take on a refined effect. We see huge wallpaper with a flower photo print. Flowers, birds, butterflies, branches and botanical subjects like mushrooms. We see a 3-D flower motifs for pillows.

Shine, metallics and a touch of silver and gold are indispensable. Glass tiles,  Swarovski crystal effect and materials with the iridescent effects are  found in small details. F homey atmosphere is evoked by recycling and patchwork effects in the carpet. Multicolor effects are visible in stripes, and the fresh retro inspired combinations of pink and turquoise. Colorful patterns are mixed freely for a bohemian effect . Also here gold is important. Home accessories are pleated and folded for 3-D effects. Different shades of blue  are combined. We see how handcrafted designs play an important role in the prints. We see blots, spots and stains, but also ikat prints. Ombres, degrade looks, chipped paint add to the romance.

Milou Ket – Trend Forecasts, Home Colors, Product Development

Maison and Objet’s Observatoire says, “Enough of gloom and doom in this crazy world! A pinch of folly and caustic humor can let your imagination take the wheel. It’s time to champion the right to a breath of mental fresh air, to have fun. Quirky, festive creativity is turning to whimsy and humor. Insolence and irony, extravagance and outrageousness are sweeping away things we’ve all seen before. Now is the time for sweet delirium and highly euphoric abnormality. In the offbeat bazaar of our contemporary cabinet of curiosities, we don’t take ourselves too seriously, and it feels crazily good.”

M&O’s Observatorie is made up of three style agencies along with  other mover and shakers that come together before each edition and bring their  discoveries, their emotions and their intuitions about emerging lifestyles. This   brainstorming helps define a topic as the running theme of that season. Emotions, Desires, Secret, Luxuries, Use, Intensity- the themes refer to major, all-encompassing trends and not the whims of fashion. They have chose Crazy as the trend theme for the January 2012 edition of M&O. Here’s a peek…

Sweet Freaks | Monstrous beauties by Vincent Gregorie for Nelly Rodi

Eccentricity is energizing our imaginations. Wild flights of fancy and offbeat whimsy are shaking up a world caught between being too orderly and unhinged. Supercharged design is experimenting with curious overlaps combining the unusual and the refined. Juxtapositions, accumulations, and subversions are creating a dizzily psychotropic style. The home is mutating into a cave of wonders

Artketing | Mad about art by Francois Bernard for Croisements

We are all trying to proclaim our uniqueness, but sometimes it seems  pointlessness. Unique pieces draw out nothing but the boredom of the commonplace. Hyper-personalization is now designing our décors. So it’s time for the unexpected to leap into a scattershot yet elegant jumble that is both ironic and luxurious. Anachronisms, colliding materials, collusive colors… The home is becoming a work of art, and you are its creator

Dream Box | Gentle madness by Elizabeth Leriche for Elizabeth Leriche

A disconcerted, disconcerting age is exploring the strangeness of imaginary worlds. Dreams and nightmares are teleporting us into disturbing parallel realities in which our desires and fears are transformed. Optical illusions, losing our bearings, outsized objects, an upside-down world, distortions and other black magic… a phantasmagoria that enchants and bewitches. The house is experiencing the ready-to-dream.