The International Contemporary Furniture Fair, being held this week at the Javits Center in New York City, demonstrated that a twist on classic furniture designs and styles is the epitome of hip today.
Whether adding a flashy and colorful fabric to a classic furniture design, as at exhibitor Polart’s booth, or just making furniture big for an over sized impact, vendors focused on making the old new and engaging. In many cases, the influence of mid-century modern and other retro styles remained evident, but in more stylized looks that used materials, finishes and constructions to update and vary the styles, such as Sauder’s showcase at ICFF.
In lighting and accessories, scale mattered, as many designs were sized up to give them new applications, such as classic desk lamps highly colored and scaled to the dimensions of arc lamps to create statement pieces. At Adesso, a new line of snake neck and swing arm portable lighting combined features of desk lamps to direct light effectively, with relatively large scales to make them functional in more settings. Umbra offered a small scale lamp but one with a built in pencil cup and charging port to enhance its functionality.
Scale also was a factor in home decor items, with big products making a splash. At Nomon, for example, big analog clocks are designed to provide rooms with a little additional character.
Ultimately, ICFF exhibitors focused on furniture designs that could help consumers express their particular style effectively at home. No one style trend prevailed. Rather, furniture and lighting vendors focused on specific looks that spoke to diverse design priorities as they sought to provide buyers and ultimately consumers with the components to create customized home decoration.
