At the end of January I headed off to NEC Birmingham to visit the January Furniture Show. A trade only event held every year with over 500 suppliers attending. It’s a good mix of well established brands alongside newer and emerging furniture design companies.
As a designer it’s a great opportunity to meet the furniture manufacturers find out more about their ranges, production and delivery processes so I can create the best options when specifying furnishings for a project. It adds an extra dimension to the design process alongside the usual research I do such as searching through product images and literally hundreds of fabric swatches.
Nothing beats getting up close and personal with the furniture, talking to the makers as well as getting an insight into the trends that we’ll be seeing more of in 2019. Here is my Top 5 Trends from the January Furniture Show.
1. The Velvet Sofa
The velvet sofa trend goes on and on. Since I first saw these appear in the Heal’s AW Collection in 2016 they have gone from strength to strength. Velvet is the fabric of choice for so many of the new collections additionally new textile technology means it is tougher and more stain resistant than ever before. Various styles are emerging from the traditional chesterfield and deep button upholstery to more contemporary mid-century modern profiles. Also seen were more unusual curved sofas. Velvet sofas works really well with bold colours. Read on to find out the trending colours of the show.
Classic elegant sofas in muted tones from Duresta
Curved sofa in jewel toned gold by John Sankey
2. Rustic Industrial
Rustic industrial furniture features a lot in the dining roomsets. Industrial style steel cafe chairs with leather upholstery. Rustic wooden tables with industrial style metal supports or hairpin legs. Warm lighting from Edision lights with vintage glass shades
Also leather upholstery paired with metallics such as copper and steel create an edgy industrial feel softened with natural cosy textures such as woollen cushions and sheepskins.
Hill Interiors at January Furniture Show
3. Dark Decor
Lots of the roomsets featured dark walls in warm grey or deep blue shades. A great background for working with the rustic industrial trend alongside warm woods, tan leather upholstery and mixed metal accents.
Additionally dark colours also provide a great background to show off the bold glamour of jewel toned velvet sofas.
4. Boho Luxury
Well crafted pieces of furniture and accessories with a luxury boho style. Think cream and white coastal and colonial style furniture and accessories. The simplicity of rattan and white woods paired with deep and luxurious white linen sofas
Relaxed rustic luxury at Westbridge Furniture
5. Colour
There was lots of colour at the show. Jewel toned velvet sofas in warm tones of mustard yellow, terracotta and blush pink as we predicted in our recent colour trends blog. However I am going to pick one stand out colour that I definitely think we’ll be seeing more of and that is deep forest green. I love this colour so I’m really pleased to see it appear across more furniture and accessories.
Green Velvet Bed by Hill Interiors
I used a deep green recently in a bedroom for a design project to create a lovely calming refuge for the homeowners. At the show it was a popular in deep green sofas, chairs and beds.
Deep green sofa from Tetrad Furniture
Alongside the trend for all things tropical and botanical the colour features a lot in accessories too. Cushions, throws and tons and tons of faux plants and foliage bringing colour and elements of nature into the room.
It was a great trip and I'll definitely be visiting next year. I'm looking forward to visiting The Ideal Home Show and Grand designs next. To keep up with our latest news from the design shows make sure you follow me on
