1. Sunday best
Gather round. Dressing the table for dinner is now as important as dressing for dinner. Liquorice is an online Irish store, set up by fashion designer Gillian Leavy, that offers richly colourful options including Dimanche Vaisselle, a French ceramic brand whose credo is: “why save your best tableware for Sunday, when you can use it every day?” Its hand-painted dinner plates (€23 each), side plates (€20 each) and serving dishes (€55), come in indigo blue, geranium red or sage green patterns while a robust red will taste even more complex if served in its Venetian-style Rialto stemware in tulip and coupe shapes (€95 per pair) by New York-based Sir Madam.
2. Switched on
The devil is in the decor detailing and there’s a new focus on lighting switches and power sockets as adornment. Interior fans are plumping for the savoir-faire of Meljac, a smart French brand whose clients include the Palace of Versailles; the Louvre Museum; Cartier and Chanel stores; Paris-based hotels the Four Seasons George V, Le Meurice and La Réserve; the Royal Mansour and Mandarin Oriental in Marrakesh; the Intercontinental Geneva; and Hotel Danieli in Venice. Solaris is its new range of rich metals in a variety of finishes, from about €172 per single unit while Pierrot, a range of tempered glass designs in a rich array of finishes, starts from €197, and will add elegance to any space.
3. Op-art edge
Featuring an installation of furniture, textiles, rugs, hand-blown glass and ceramics, London-based Bethan Gray’s recent exhibition at Milan demonstrated masterful pattern play. The show, entitled Inky Dhow, is an evolution of the original Dhow drawing Gray made while on a trip to Oman. It was expertly translated into an intricate marquetry pattern by Muscat-based craftsman Mohammad Reza Shamsian, who has used 16th century marquetry techniques combined with cutting-edge technology across a range of her cabinetry. Pictured is the Ripple chair, which costs about €10,500 to order. bethangray.com
4. Screen time
Here’s to more screen time. You can artfully subdivide open-plan spaces using a statement screen as a room divider. Tramonto a New York by Gaetano Pesce for Cassia features a kaleidoscope of colour streaming through the windows of the skyscrapers to emulate the Big Apple skyline. The semi-opaque polyurethane resin panels have brass hinges, feet and plate and costs from about €26,470 to order from Minima Home. minimahome.com
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5. Put me on a pedestal
The pedestal table makes a diningroom return. Teatro Magico by Studio 967 for Saba Italia is sinuous form in semi-matt shades of pale rigid lacquered polyurethane with ballasted steel plates in white, soft grey or nude, it comes in round or oval shapes and is available to order through Dún Laoghaire-based Lost Weekend. The 150cm wide round costs from €5,401, while the oval option comes in two sizes and with one or two bases. Prices for the smaller 220cm-long option with two separate bases costs from €5,572. lostweekend.ie
6. Joy to the world
Penneys leads the mood-enhancing charge this autumn with its happy home collection, a series of 1980s design trend Memphis-inspired pieces to inject your home with an affordable injection of colour and curves from mid August. New bedding is one of the easiest and most effective ways to switch up the mood in a bedroom and this floral print starting from just €16 for a double set, will add plenty of punch. The oblong cushion cost €8 each while the pink wavy mirror, available in the UK only costs about €15, if you can track it down. It is very much inspired by the 1970 Ultrafragola by Ettore Sottsass for Poltronova, which has been doing the rounds on social feeds. The teal-coloured striped picture frame, one of a series, costs €4 while the hanging macrame glass holder is €5. primark.com
7. On reflection
With smoked mirrored glass and candy-coloured hues becoming more mainstream, an easy way to add individuality to a room is by hanging a sculptural mirror that will perform the triple duties of light reflecting light, add interest to walls and bring in artistic forms in a functional fashion. Oree, €3,060, by Roche Bobois, features simple interlocking shapes, and a play of colours. roche-bobois.com
8. The 5th element
Look up and make the ceiling the focus of a room as demonstrated here by French paper and fabric house Maison Pierre Frey, which has just launched a limited-edition range of furniture upholstered in touch-me textures in mono blocks of colour. Also described as a fifth-wall by decorators, it’s an under-utilised surface that can be adorned in a bespoke mural, as shown. You can choose from an array of its heritage papers too to create such an art installation. The Litho range of seating, by Guillaume Delvigne, includes from centre front; bench (from €1,624); armless sofa (from €2,857); mustard armchair (from €5,276); chaise longue in cream (€8,036); burgundy-coloured bridge dining chair (form €2,758); and low stool (from €1,019), all to order from Suzie McAdam.
9. A new kind of blue
The Azul House by designer Paula Navone for Italian furniture firm Turri showed at the Milan Furniture Fair. Its focus is a new kind of blue, one that borrows heavily from the world of art and artist Yves Klein’s signature shade, a colour the French artist patented in 1960. The intense lapis lazuli-like shade that colors the house, a design by Paola Navone and Otto Studio, includes a living area in which the traditional shaped sofa is covered in a blue velvet. Even the lighting tones with the furniture. Expect to see it everywhere.
10. Chalk-stripe chic
Designed by Orla Read and featuring some of Drummonds classic bathroomware, this space feels anything but clinical and cold. By installing lines of ceramic squares to create bold chalk stripes you get a dramatic effect that is easy to implement. Shown in antique brass is the Dalby, a surface-mounted shower with a straight arm (from €2,775); 300mm shower rose (from about €527), a five-bar floor-mounted heated towel radiator (from €3,915), as well as the Swale bath with a painted exterior (from about €5,100 and small bath rack from €720).
