5 Interior Design Trends from IMM Furniture Show 2013

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I recently returned from the IMM trade show in Cologne, Germany and I picked up on a few up-and-coming trends. I was lucky enough to attend the show as part of BlogTour, which was an event created by Modenus. IMM is one of the largest interior design trade shows in the world, and this year it teamed up with Living Kitchen to present over 1,200 companies from over 50 countries. That's a lot of design! It's a well known fact that European design sets the trends and then they slowly make their way here to the United States. Although it was impossible to visit every booth, it was easy to see which direction many of the companies were headed. Here are a few of the trends I noticed.

Organic shapes are very much in. Although we Americans tend to think of European design as minimalistic with straight lines and hard edges, it's easy to forget that minimalism can also have soft curves and organic shapes. At this year's show, organic shapes were apparent in many things, from furniture, accessories and even kitchen fixtures.

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Brights are back. For a while we've been seeing a lot of greys and browns, and that may be due to our conservative attitudes as a result of the recession. I'm not sure what the bright colors say about the hopefulness of what's to come, but there were many loud and colorful pieces of furniture and accessories at IMM this year! Here in New York we've been seeing spots of color in interiors but I think we'll be seeing more hues very soon.

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Slim, thin designs. Gone are the days of heavy, bulky furniture. Yes, we knew that, but things are getting even thinner than expected. Our smart phones are slimmer, and now, so is our furniture. This was very evident and could not be ignored. A great example is this chair's slim wooden frame. Chair by Busnelli [link: http://www.busnelli.it/en/pages/home].

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Details are emphasized. It was evident at IMM that there is more attention to detail that would have otherwise been overlooked. I noticed things like alternate colored piping on chairs and neon painted trim on white tables. The specifics were very refreshing and I know they are making their way across the pond soon!

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Innovative use of materials. Would you have ever thought of buying a felt lamp shade? I didn't until I saw these by Hey Sign [link: http://www.hey-sign.de/English/page/0101_Hey_About.html]. Actually, almost all of their products are made of felt. You may not notice this at first, until you actually touch the pieces. This was just one of many interesting materials I encountered.

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