TRENDS FROM COLOGNE FAIR- CLEAR CONTOURS AND COMFY CUSHIONS

Furniture World Magazine

After long tables, now come long sofas. Just like the tables, they are intriguingly spacious and open to interpretation. There are no pre-conceptions or restrictions on how they should be used -everything is possible. Despite this, the furniture still maintains posture, radiating a sense of calm and subtly conveying the style of the owner. First of all there are the classically-inspired sofas featuring soft, rounded upholstered rests and set on feet and/or runners and then there are the clear-cut modern models. Here concepts from the 60s spring to mind like floor clearance, dainty metal feet and horizontal focus. Several designers interpret this line in a very traditional, cubist manner. So it comes as no surprise to learn that a real "modern classic" from the 60s has now become a sales hit again. Another interesting feature of these sofas are their widths - they are produced in a wide range of breadths or are even made to measure. Also adding to their comfort and versatility is the choice of different heights. Just the place to get comfortable in cozy corners, for couples too. Or else you can put your feet up, take a nap or even improvise a place to bed down for the night. With their bed-like features, some models are even designed to double up as a place to sleep. With these clear-cut contours, soft cushions can often add cozy comfort. Oversized old-style feather cushions create a conscious effect allowing you to puff them up and shape them at will. When you stand up you leave a hollow in the cushion that traces the body contours creating a friendly, lived-in look This contrasts nicely with the clear-cut, smooth-upholstered sofa body and lends itself magnificently to adding color and pattern highlights. For today, more than ever, upholstered furniture needs long-lasting design and durable covers and fabric - and it is not difficult to put new covers on cushions. Even with such a "simple" piece of furniture as the large modern sofa, imagination and variety are the order of the day. Some offer "two-in-one" features allowing you to sit at two different heights and others offer an add-on option allowing you to make a chaise lounge. Here a squat stool is just pushed in front of the sofa or instead a flap-like cushion stored down the side is pulled out. As a "solo" item too, large stools are also a big international trend theme, the squarer in shape the better. They replace tables or are just left standing "out on a limb". With their generous, homely dimensions they dispel any ideas of a straight-laced middle-class lifestyle. Also inspired by the international avant-garde is upholstered furniture. While it seems as if some parts are missing, they never fail to attract attention, like the bench- style sofas with two high arm-rests but no back or the chaises lounges with no arm rests at all. Such flamboyant items of (upholstered) furniture are just a part of an entire trend range to be seen at the INTERNATIONAL FURNITURE FAIR in Cologne from 19th to 25th January 1998, from the classical to the minimalist. Recently one armchair has been drawing attention whose name dates from past decades, namely the shell chair. But this is not a dug-up version of 50s/60s design, rather a new design creation. The younger designers, in particular, like to use its clear-cut, soft forms, often in combination with the rediscovered material plastic for the Sussere shell chairs. Shell chairs act as side chairs to accompany larger sofas, striking a decorative note in subtly decorated rooms and often fulfilling multiple functions - for the home and other furnishing applications as well as in offices, hotels, restaurants or shops.