I’m back from spotting interior design trends, buying and flitting around Maison & Objet – refreshed yet exhausted after 4 days in Euro Disney and 3 days of sightseeing in Paris which included a day at Maison. We had a great time, the children loved Disney but they also got just as much out of getting to the second level of the Eiffel Tower, seeing the Mona Lisa (had covered it in school so were very keen to see it), Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame as well as eating lots of chocolate crepes and croissants!

Here’s some photos from Maison as well as some insights into the upcoming interior design trends for 2012 and beyond.

Wood

Yes, the woodland theme is still strong, perhaps not quite as popular as in the autumn but still very much in evidence.  Lots of wallcoverings in wood as well as rough-hewn tables topped with glass.

Cities

The emphasis seems to be on iconic buildings or sculptures in various cities with Paris and London being firm favourites. With the London Olympics and the Queen’s Jubilee coming up, London is going to be a popular choice for designs but there were plenty of items such as various wire / other material sculptures resembling the Eiffel Tower. Christian Lacroix’s new Paris cushions are a good example too. (available through Designers Guild)

A Sunday in Paris

We also have Famille Summerbelle’s Un Dimanche á Paris as a really charming example of citified themed wallpaper

Not to mention the Wish You Were Here wallpaper by Yukari Sweeney of London.

Now, who in Ireland will design a beautiful wallpaper showing Dublin’s sights? Is there one out there that I don’t know about?

Birds

Birds are still popular especially on wallpaper and that whole ‘birdcage’ sticker/memoboard/theme.  I was somewhat surprised though to see Voyage’s new fabric designs showing ducks, grouse and peacocks amongst other birds!

It ties in with the country theme that is going on in varying guises. While the nautical theme is still evident, it has been softened and is most attractive when blended with a soft country theme. I’m loving Designers Guild’s new Country collection and the blues in the Greengate display were lovely too.

Oriental Blossom & Murals

I loved this room set with the branch of blossom strung over the master bed. It also shows that metallics and faux fur is still very much ‘in’ too.

Designers Guild have launched a new  range named Kimino Blossom which is a new collection of delicate painterly patterns inspired by Japanese watercolours.

One of the new designs (and if memory serves me correctly, it is Madame  Butterly) is available in a mural. Each individual mural comes as 4 lengths of wallpaper, each being 300mm long (the width is slightly narrower than standard wallpaper at 45cm).  The availability of designs in wallpaper murals is coming more popular too and we are looking forward to soon stocking the various murals available at Coordonne. They don’t have them up on their website yet but I should have a CD of images in a week or so. Some of them are very graphic – very vivid and different.

The whole postmodern theme of having pieces of furniture taking inspiration from other products is still good fun. My favourites were these two cupboards – one with its door resembling piano keys and the other with a variety of door styles and colours.

Retro

The retro look is still very much in evidence particularly with some wallpaper designs and with kitchen design and kitchenware. Miss Print’s fabulous Little Trees fabric looks great on this sofa with their new Mountains wallpaper as the backdrop (and remember we stock Miss Print right here).

I always seem to take a photo of the Andrew Martin stand but it is always so amusing and ‘out there’, I can never resist.  This time the main theme of it was retro fairground with vintage cars on a mini roller coaster through the middle of the set, complete with carousel half horses coming through the walls and props like popcorn carts dotted around. Complete with enormous posters from 50s films and the wild west, I almost felt like I was momentarily back in Euro Disney for a moment!

TinTin & Perspex

I have always loved Sasha Sykes‘  designs – whether they are filled with woodland finds, roses, straw or whatever other filling she decides upon.  When I saw these wall hangings and tables created with scrunched up TinTin comics and also containing complete comics, I had to take a picture. 

Animals

There is still a plethora of animal designs on display and available to purchase, from deer and bull heads adorning walls to numerous cushions featuring dogs and cats of various breeds. These pictures show various dogs in various poses, attire and expressions – the first one reminds me of a great aunt!

My favourite though is still our Henry in the Rain cushion by Yukari Sweeney Design, which incidentally, was featured in last week’s Sunday Times.

Henry in the Rain

Colours

Teals, turquoises and blues as well as vivid greens were very much on display too – and Designers Guild’s new Havana collection features huge oversized blooms and signature stripes in these vivid colours.

I also loved seeing the more restful blues, greens, greys and salmon pinks of Ferm Living and the good news is that we’ll have Ferm Living products in stock within the month.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the new trends and that they might even give you some design ideas for your own home. Have you got a favourite trend?

If you were at the Ideal Homes show in the RDS last weekend, you might have picked up a copy of ‘Moving in to Inspire’ and here’s a copy of the article I wrote for it. (just click to enlarge)

And here’s my most recent article for My Waterford magazine – all about Christmas decorating:

I’m guest posting over at Scarlet Opus today with a post on some of the interior design trends I spotted at Maison so do pop over there for a look.

If you have been missing my ‘farming type’ posts that I occasionally posted here, I have just started up a new blog at Irish Farmerette. I was finding I was getting too many unrelated hits, not to mention phone calls looking for breeds of pigs! So do pop over there and say hello every now and then

I have also set up a new business in partnership with Marie Ennis O’Connor. It is a ghost blogging business, offering blog writing and mentoring services to business and also offering training regarding using social media to promote your business. Following on from our enthusiasm (and yes, I admit it, addition) to social media and our reaching the finals of various blogging categories with our blogs, we decided to partner and start. We will be officially launching in December but are working on getting the word out there. You can check out our website Write On Track and let us know what you think.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and see you on Monday

Are you wondering what the Interior Design Trends for Autumn/Winter 2011 will be?  I’m looking forward to going to Maison D’Objet in September and checking it all out but for now, here’s a rundown of a few trends I have noticed.

1. Flora/Fauna

Birds and animals on fabrics, wallpapers, cushions, bedlinen …. you name it, is still very much in vogue.  I wouldn’t consider myself that nervous around real birds when I’m outside (and I am a farmer’s wife so well used to animals) but for some reason, I would feel uncomfortable sleeping in a bedroom that was decorated with bird wallpaper or fabric unless they were owls – don’t ask me why but for some reason Owls seem to be quite a friendly bird within interiors! (do share if you have any similar foibles – please, otherwise I shall feel quite a freak!)

Owl Cushion at Garrendenny Lane by Greengate

Owl Rug by Mini Moderns at Garrendenny Lane

But the difference this year is that creepy crawlies have now become popular – yes, spiders, butterflies, beetles, insects etc on cushions, throws, fabrics, wallpaper …. I can imagine cuddling up to a cushion like this which is beautifully embroidered with butterflies but not so sure about other creepy crawlies. What do you think?

Butterfly cushion at Studio Sasha

2. Alpine Shelter

The next trend is that of Alpine Shelter, think Scandinavian whites with splashes of colour, think cosy ski lodges with cosy cushions and throws, think hot chocolates in beautiful latte cups, think about making dramatic statements in your home with Scandinavian wall panels such as one of these below.

Scandinavian Wall Panels at Garrendenny Lane

3. Colour Brights

Bright colours in blocks is what it is all about at the moment – bright bold colours on walls or alternatively put white on your walls and mix with striking, colourful furniture or put up the occasional Wall chart wallpaper panel such as one of these.

Soho furniture from Designers Guild

Scandinavian Wallpaper Panels – Colour Blocking at Garrendenny Lane

And I’m sure I’ll have loads more to tell you about Interior design trends when I come back from my buying trip in September. What do you think of these trends by the way? Will you be adding any of them to your home?

Having just chosen a wallpaper for a client’s dining room (will have a photo in a week or so), I decided to do a post on wallpapers that look fabulous in dining rooms. Wallpaper makes the room or dining area so much warmer and cosier and more luxurious, perfect for creating the ambience for making a meal seem special and for lingering over a post-dinner coffee with a long chat.

1. Fit for a Manor

Yukari Sweeney’s Manor House wallpaper is suitably grand and atmospheric for a dining room, featuring chandeliers and candelabras but yet is light enough to wallpaper the entire room and not be overwhelming, even for small rooms.

2. Go Retro

Pet Sounds by Mini Moderns offers a fun, quirky conversation wall covering for a retro dining room.

3. Delineate the Dining ‘Zone’

Use wall panels to delineate a dining area in an open plan living space or in a kitchen/dining room. These are the new ‘Colour’ wall panels by Scandinavian Surface.

4. Wallpapering within Panels or in Alcoves

If you think a wallpaper is too busy or in too strong a colour to wallpaper the entire room, then you could either use wall panels within an alcove or to create a feature wall such as Yukari Sweeney’s Field Trip and Rose wall panels as seen above, or create a panelled area and wallpaper within it.

5. Feature Wall

And if you remember Lisa’s (Nenaghgal’s blog) guest post on decorating her home some time ago, you’ll remember her dining room with its striking blue and white toile wallpaper on the feature wall – it works great with a plain table and chairs as it is allowed to make a statement rather than ‘fighting’ with other decorative details.

6. Go Retro again

Sanderson launched their 50s collection this year and there’s a plethora of choice of retro wallpapers in this collection. These are designs that would have traditionally have been placed within the sitting rooms and dining rooms of houses all over the country and here it is happening again.

Atomic by Sanderson has a strong distinctive retro pattern – see here how the shapes in the design are echoed by the ceiling light and the round table.

7. Go Animal

Not a traditional dining room – but Turner and Pocock’s Zebra wallpaper was used in this London restaurant to great effect.

What do you think? Do you have wallpaper in your dining room or dining area? Is it something you would consider? Do you have a favourite style?