Things are getting light and minimalist

Goodbye, small parts! Goodbye, heavy wall unit! The tendency is clearly going towards open rooms and unconventional solutions. Rooms coalesce and influence the character of the furnishings.

The demands on living are currently changing at a rapid pace. With limited space available, more and more upmarket one-room flats are in demand. At the same time, a liberation of conventions is also finding its way into the interior. Both factors reinforce the trend towards spacious one-room apartments that feel like a loft. On top of that are one or two bedrooms or studies, depending on the requirements.

The kitchen and living room are merged in modern flats and the bathroom tends to remain separate – in the high-price range, it’s often en suite and a bit larger. Instead of separate rooms, an open room structure is created. In the case of compartmentalised old buildings, walls are removed and they are ‘ventilated’ this way. Conservatories and converted attics let light in and generous window fronts that are ideally without window sills visually extend the space outwards as well.

Because rooms are increasingly merging into one another, multifunctional furniture that indicates or separates living areas is in demand. Apart from built-in cupboards, predominantly solitary furniture is on-trend. Consistent collections and wall units in the living room weigh down the feeling of freedom too much, but a well combined mix and match look is more suitable. The art of this furniture with its classic qualities lies in the right balance of design – independent but not extroverted and appealing but not boring.

These are the heroes for unlimited living:

• Multifunctional furniture like tables that are used as a dining area or workspace
• Free-standing sofas
• Cupboards that serve as storage space and walls
• Room dividers with with a double-sided function (for example, in the form of a swivelling screen that can be used from both sides)
• Mobile furniture for indoors and outdoors

For some time now, small and compact sofas and armchairs have been on-trend, and their designs often based on classic typologies. Affordable system furniture and compact individual furniture solutions with the following characteristics are also in demand:

• Scalable (adaptable to different room dimensions)
• Variable (technology that can be pulled out etc.)
• Flexible in use

Life high up is also becoming stylish – the loft bed is making a comeback. However, such furniture systems have lost their reputation as something for a children’s room – instead, the suppliers place great value on modern aesthetics in an urban style. This is because they are now used in all smaller residential units such as microapartments and large spaces such as lofts.

There is another development that increases the demand for multifunctional furniture: the first wave of the trend to clean up and abstain has already reached us from the USA and Asia. Abstaining from consumption and limiting oneself to the essential things is now more popular than ever over here. ‘Quality instead of quantity’ is the principle, and therefore less is more when it comes to furniture.