There are a lot of coloring books out there for both kids and adults. But how many of them focus on home décor as the subject? My email this morning included a message from furniture-maker Blu Dot. Attached was a coloring book, featuring some of their pieces, sent just for fun. Marketing Director Kelly Sieben […] Read more...

In the past couple of weeks, several people have asked me how I think trend will change in a COVID-19 world. This is an important question, given the vital role that trend plays in assortments. To begin with, I believe that the language used to communicate about products softens. Already, many companies have put excitement […] Read more...

Paris Déco Off bills itself as The Rendezvous of International Interior Designers and Decoration Editors. The Trend Curve’s editorial team always heads to Paris a couple of days before the Maison & Objet trade fair to see what’s new in the world up upscale fabrics and designs. The 2020 edition, held January 16 – 20, boasted […] Read more...

A return to classic elements has begun moving the needle on home-décor style trends. It is part of a broader interest in traditional décor that has been building for about two years. In the wake of COVID-19, The Trend Curve expects classicism to really take off. Why do we believe this so strongly? The answer […] Read more...

L’Objet’s table linen collection made quite a splash in Paris. And why not? The patterns, including fetching mitered stripes and a tiger print, offered mix-and-match variety in an amazing range of au currant solids. Linen sateen in ochre, terra cotta, blue and mossy green harmonized with neutrals of black, warm white and gray. Coordinating leopard […] Read more...

Consider the lowly vending machine. Once nothing much more than a modest, self-service supplier of cigarettes, candy and soda pop, this iconic form of retail is getting new life. Developed in the late 1800s, vending was a common method of delivering stamps, postcards and writing paper in England. The version shown here, made by Harper […] Read more...

Wallpaper is back in a big way. This phrase refers to the accelerating preference for using wall coverings throughout the home. It alludes equally to the scale of motifs in the freshest new on-trend designs. There is nothing boring about these papers. In a bold reimagining of an outdated 80s trend, they use enormous scale […] Read more...

Move over, orange! There’s a new player in town for Halloween. Gold metallic is one of the freshest emerging color trends for October 31. The idea of swapping orange for gold in your Halloween mix may seem odd at first. After all, Halloween is casual and fun, while gold is considered as a standard-bearer of […] Read more...

Texture was out in force at all the big European trade fairs in January. Its message: the texture trend is nowhere near finished. Heimtextil, Paris Deco Off and Maison & Objet were all covered in gorgeous textures. These tactile delights were applied to almost every possible material. We love how very different products—a leather hide, […] Read more...

Letters to Santa is a sweet, child-like Christmas theme that The Trend Curve highlighted last in our 2012 color-and-trend forecast, ‘Tis The Season. For 2022, it is making a comeback. In fact, at Christmasworld in Frankfurt and at the Atlanta Gift Market, this theme was just emerging (we posted about it on The Trend Curve’s Instagram in […] Read more...

When it comes to Christmas, conventional wisdom holds that the most salable color story is red and green. I’m here to tell you that while this may be absolutely true for core products—the bestsellers you repeat with success year-after-year—nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to trend. While it’s more than advisable […] Read more...

Hands down, the most exquisite tabletop presentation at the Maison & Objet trade fair in Paris was seen at Legle Legrande Lebouc. The feature was a black table of over 20 feet in length, which was styled by Vietnamese designer Axel Huynh. This dramatic, turned-leg table was layered with the designer’s porcelain dinnerware collections. Some of […] Read more...

  Pierre Frey teamed up with 200-year old tableware maker Faiencerie de Gien to create a dinnerware pattern inspired by Frey’s new Le Jardin du Palais wallcovering and fabric. Gien’s new Jardin du Palais collection debuted at the Gien showroom on the Left Bank. It was unveiled during January’s Paris Deco Off, an event that bills […] Read more...

Many Portuguese towel, rug, throw and bed-linen makers exhibiting at the last Guimaraes Home Fashion Week agreed that blues are key. Antonio Salgado characterized this color family as being, “on top.” Coton Couleur said sales of their blue products were rising. One mill, Domingos de Sousa, projected that the surge in blues will last into […] Read more...

Is our obsession with color trends killing the planet? A Fast Company article by Elizabeth Segran asks just that question. The piece chides us with numbers that reveal our wastefulness—like how many times we wear an item before banishing it from our closet (down 36% to seven to 10 times since 2000), or how many […] Read more...

The Trend Curve team has gone from one trade show to another since the year began. Today, Leigh Ann Schwarzkopf is at Spring Fair Birmingham. She is trend-spotting many categories, including party products. I spoke with her this morning about her top party-product trend takeaways: Bridal is bigger than ever It’s not just the number […] Read more...

Because I forecast color and design trends, consumer shows are not normally on my radar. After all, the products shown at consumer events come way too late in the trend cycle to be of any use to forecasts for the industry. But I have learned that this is not necessarily true of Midsummer Scream. If […] Read more...

Guimares Home Fashion Week is a showcase for Portuguese manufacturers of towels, rugs, sheets, comforters, throws and more. The fourth annual edition of GHFW took place June 26 and 27. One of the biggest trends at this year’s fair came from embellishments. This was not because they were opulent or complicated. Instead, it was because […] Read more...

The Chelsea Flower Show, held May 19 – 23 was a visual delight. Color always leads the way at this Royal Horticulture Society event, and this year was no exception. Nonetheless, along the Main Avenue show gardens, there was an overwhelming sense of green. Towering trees, quiet under plantings and foliage of many kinds seemed […] Read more...

The fourth annual Guimarães Home Fashion Week was held June 26 and 27 in Guimarães, Portugal. At this year’s fair, ways to minimize the impact of home-textiles production rivaled interesting materials as top innovations. Fátima Sousa, Commercial Manager for Domingos de Sousa & Filhos, revealed that retail customers worldwide are insisting on sustainable practices. Taking […] Read more...