There are lots of reasons to be happy about the arrival of Spring and none more so than the Milan Furniture Fair that happens once a year in April.
The place is buzzing with excitement! There are people everywhere, the showrooms are packed with new designs and just about everywhere you look there are new ideas to stretch your imagination and stimulate your creative juices.
We come to markets for just that reason and the combination of perfect spring weather and the beautiful showrooms has everyone incredibly happy and optimistic about our industry (this is Italy so there are olives and wine too to aid in the optimism).
What are we seeing consistently? The colors are still soft warm neutrals but the accents are bright and cheerful – strong yellow almost in the citron family, orange, spring green, and gray. The metals are a bronze color softening to a brushed brass. The woods are still walnut, tobacco and open pored very light oak we have seen in past markets. This year there is also open pored elm which is quite unique and beautiful. We are seeing a lot of items that have used metal, wood and marble together – the coolness of the metal and marble combined with the warmth of the wood makes for a beautiful marriage in these pieces.
Lastly in a tip of the hat to the “transformers” many of the companies have product that is one thing at one point in the day and Shazam! The next thing you know it is hidden away or folded up and the room looks completely different. We all know that homes and condos in general are not as large in Europe but there is certainly a market for this in the United States with all of our Boomers thinking about downsizing. We looked long and hard at all of the vendors presenting this type of product to us.
We felt that the Design Industry, designers and manufacturers alike had really upped their game in the Contemporary market. If you asked us to use one word to describe the fair this year – Fabulous!!
Next up – High Point! Stay tuned, it starts for us on Saturday.
