This year’s trends at southern Sweden’s biggest interior design fair
Dark woods, bold colours and sustainable solutions. Those are some of the most prominent trends at Vårmässan in Malmö. Southern Sweden’s biggest fair attracts architects and purchasers from both the business community and the public sector, who come to view the latest innovations within furniture and interior design.
Both Nordic and international brands are represented as Input interior holds its 19th successive Vårmässan event in Malmö. This year over 68 exhibitors are taking part, all showcasing exciting new products for public environments. Several of them exhibited at the Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair and Malmö now has the chance to see the best selection from the fair.
Natural materials such as cork, leather, sisal and wood are clear favourites with the exhibitors at the fair. The woods are dark, and generally smoked or stained. This trend is reflected in, among others, Massproductions’ Icha chair and Rose chair, wholly sculpted from wood. Both products have been designed by Chris Martin, who was awarded the accolade Årets Stol (Chair of the Year) at ELLE Decoration’s Swedish Design Awards. This year’s colour palette features bold colours together with muted, warm shades of dusky pink and apricot. The grey hues of previous years now give way to various shades of beige and brown.
Functional design
Digitisation has changed the working methods of many organisations and several of the exhibitors present smart and flexible solutions. Lammhults is launching Add Cable Table, an evolution of its Add table. Just as the name suggests, this side table has been augmented with a cable solution, featuring both an electrical socket and USB ports.
“We are seeing an increase in products developed to fit today’s flexible, digital environments. There are many demands for functional design and it’s always fascinating to see how the furniture manufacturers tackle this challenge. I think of Offecct, for example, which is presenting an ottoman with an integrated table where you can sit and work on your laptop while charging your phone. As activity-based environments increase, we are also seeing more sound absorbers, which, apart from providing more pleasing acoustics, can also serve as an interior design detail,” says Niclas Mattsson, Site Manager at Input interior’s office in Malmö.
Re-use in several ways
Many furniture producers are coming up with their own variation on various forms of re-use – either by reusing waste material in new products, or in the form of offering repair services to give old furniture a new lease of life. One example of the latter is Swedese, which gets certified furniture upholsterers to refurbish worn Lamino chairs.
If you are interested in sustainable design, check out Offecct’s Jin chair, which was named Best Product at the Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair. The chair is made from 100 % biological flax fibre, which is often used for fabric or paper. The thin layers of flax fibres result in a chair with a strong shell around a core of air, making the chair incredibly light.
