With angular-geometric forms and patterns the biggest news for home décor, dots have drifted off the trend landscape. But don’t think for a minute that dots are languishing there. Instead, they are taking advantage of time out of the spotlight to reformulate themselves for a trend run that is forecasted to take hold in 2017 and really get noticed in 2018.
Irregular speckled patterns, a small-scale dot variation, provided the first hints of how a reconstituted dot trend might begin. Trending since early this year, it has connections to the still-popular farm-to-fork lifestyle. Speckles will continue to build throughout the coming two years, take their place among a variety of types and personalities as a larger dot trend accelerates.
Relief designs that take a page from the 3-D-texture playbook will also be a factor. Whether you call them blobs, drops or bubbles, rounded protrusions are set to take up where today’s protruding diamonds, cubes and triangles leave off. They will provide an organic countertrend to the angular preferences of today. This softer look will be found in a range of materials, from glass and ceramic to textiles and wood.
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- Vanessa Mitrani
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- Madam Stoltz
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- Vivaraise
Surface designs are also poised to take on handcrafted personalities, as patterns on porcelain and those woven into fabrics highlight imperfect forms that suggest primitive or tribal origins. Dots carved into layered glass will do the same. Concentric circles—some made from dot rings—add visual texture that evokes block prints.
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- Serax
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- Asiatides
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- Notre Monde
And what about standard dots? Of course, they never go away. Expect them to get more attention, though, when the dot trend ramps up again. Look for sized from small to medium, and designs ranging from all-overs to gradients, and from mixed scales to abstract flowers.
