“Customers want light, bright and cheerful – and colours with impact,” says Catharine Miller, one of our art dealers. Uplifting colours is a trend well noted across the interiors industry this year, with paint companies launching happy shades of yellow, green and blue. Art dealers have found clients looking to buy more paintings and decorative works than ever before, in smaller formats. “The gallery wall is still definitely a major feature in homes,” adds Catharine. “It is so easy, and fun, to mix and change displays whenever the feeling takes you.”
Nathan Barker of Jenna Burlingham Fine Art agrees. “Our clients have been keen to purchase works with lighter and more colourful palettes, and whether abstract or figurative works, they all want pieces that express a light-hearted feeling.” He also notes that regular clients who have been buying to develop collections in their London homes are now adding substantially to their weekend houses out of town. – less expensive pieces, but more art, nonetheless. “They have realised, working from home in a house they might previously have only spent short periods of time in, that bare walls are not the look they want at all. I think also our regular clients have found browsing for, and buying art online during lockdown has been a pleasing way to pass the time.”
Vintage and contemporary art has been selling well, although it is much noticed that for clients who are making improvements to a country house – or who have bought during the past year – more traditional paintings and tapestries are also proving popular. They bring a layer of history to the home and work well both in period or modern properties to create a lived-in look. In fact the merits of decorating with antique tapestries and textiles generally are being rediscovered by younger homeowners. Floral designs have been selling fantastically well, and chintz is back on everyone’s hotlist; an appreciation brought indoors of the wonders of nature, and well, just pretty! Hannah Whyman is offering a lovely example of a block-printed C19th palampore (a type of bedcover made in India for the export market) featuring the classic Tree of Life design which would work as a wonderful wall covering (and at a price considerably more affordable than some of the high-end hand-painted chinoiserie wall papers currently in vogue).
Gardens and the outdoors are more important now than ever, and the natural look in design has come to the fore – furniture in light-coloured woods such as bleached oak, wicker and rattan are what we are looking for now, and easy pieces you can carry from inside to outside as required. Ed Butcher, one of our C20th dealers, says “bamboo and rattan is hugely popular, it’s a country look for my clients who prefer a more modern interior style; it also works very well with plants, indoor or outdoor!” Peter Sohier agrees: “There has been an increased demand for garden seating, of course, but also items – wooden prep tables and florist’s containers – to use in garden and flower rooms.” These traditional spaces, like pantries and larders, are making a comeback. If your home isn’t large enough for a dedicated flower room, why not bringing an element of that in to a boot room, utility room or conservatory?
Mark Tincknell of Violet Grey, specialists in country and garden antiques, says “clients are now looking for 19th and early 20th century antique garden dining furniture and bistro sets. With entertaining at home outdoors set to continue, antique pieces also provide garden decoration, so we expect this trend to continue on the up for the foreseeable future.”
The desire to bring nature indoors is reflected by the beguiling work of the Japanese artist Kazuhito Takadoi, represented by our exhibitor jaggedart. Inspired by the rich woodland surrounding his birthplace of Nagoya, Kazuhito grows and hand picks grasses, leaves and twigs from his garden to weave into wonderful sculptural creations. These delicate works actually using nature herself look very special on the wall, but some can also work as tabletop pieces.
Darren Hudson of Hudson Antiques, who has an adorably diminutive child’s wicker chair in the Pop-Up, is also Organiser of the Decorative Fair and talks to many dealers on a regular basis. “Some of our regular exhibitors, dealers in decorative antiques and stylish garden pieces, have been doing brisk business during the lockdowns; there is a definite trend towards lighter furniture – in colour and in materials such as cane, bamboo and wicker. There is something slightly frivolous and light-hearted about furniture constructed in these materials, and there’s a definite hankering for this feeling in the home right now.”
Comfort is also a huge trend too – Justin Evershed-Martin has been selling large quantities of sculptural and supremely comfortable seating by French and Italian designers. “When you spend 24/7 at home, you realise that ease and coziness are as important to an interior as pure style.” He also notes that his clients are taking a deeper interest in the stories behind the designer and the history of the objects he sells, taking time to understand why one chair design, for example, might be more important or valuable than another they might choose. “There seems to be a renewed desire to learn and understand about the significance of past designers, not just buying for ‘the look’”.
Picture credits, from top: Violet Grey; Catharine Miller; Hannah Whyman; Peter Sohier; and jaggedart.
