Feature Ellen Finch
Delve deeper into the workings of this look with three designers who embody Playfulism’s emphasis on materiality, color and shape
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Italian powerhouses are going soft, formful and romantic with the catwalk’s dreamy ballet-inspired look taking over interiors, too. Here we unpack the trend with a landmark shoot that brings this look to life
The
New Pretty
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Camaleonda three-seater sofa; Camaleonda ottoman, both by Mario Bellini, B&B Italia. Dawn Original rug, Knots Rugs x Nat Maks. Cicladi tables, Edra. Seaweed platter by Flora Wallace at Wondering People. Orbit coffee tables, Poliform. Pompeii II vase, Anna Lea Tunesi. Pacha lounge chair, Gubi at Heal’s. Torii stool, Porada. Fontana console, Paolo Moschino. Mercury vase by Holly Dawes at M.A.H
On model: Dress and jacket, both Selezza London
Photography (Batiik) Alice Mesguich; (Montesol) Karel Balas; (Michael Hilal) Katie McCurdy; (La Fantaisie) Jérôme Galland
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The slouchier the better when it comes to furniture: low-profile sofas feel relaxed and informal, so keep things close to the ground. The playfulness comes through in the pattern you choose to upholster with, but also in the shape: there’s a softness to the silhouettes in this trend that can lean towards the ultra-organic.
Go Low(-slung)
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Use traditional and folk-inspired prints on upholstery and fabrics, but don’t stop there: combine them with candy stripes, busy contemporary botanicals, checkerboard patterns and a small dose of animal print for a scheme that’s just the right amount of maximalist – all set off by a pared-back base.
Clash your Patterns
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A one-note scheme this is not: the most successful looks involve schemes layered with rich, deep-toned woods, colored stones, rattan and jute, and a hit of glossiness through lacquered surfaces or zellige tiles.
Embrace Materiality
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There’s a certain rose-tinted quality to many of the designer schemes that tap into Playfulism: blush pinks and mauves are key, but also look to yellow-toned neutrals with sandy pigments, hits of rust, burgundy and deep brown, forest greens, and small hints of pale aqua.
Be joyful with color
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The easiest way to introduce all of these elements into your scheme is through buildable accessories, which is why rugs, pillows and throw blankets are key to the look. Layer flatweave rugs with high-pile textures, combine round and rectangular throw pillows in clashing patterns: as long as there’s a thread that holds them together, your scheme will still feel cohesive.
Layer it up
Successful interiors merge the rough with the refined, polished with raw, and matte with sheen elements. Similarly, colorful spaces also need moments of respite, so neutral shades with strong pops are my go-to. I’m drawn to extreme or unlikely
Yasmine Ghoniem, director of Sydney design studio YSG, draws on a diverse range of textures for her distinctive schemes
Material Balance
pairings, like velvets with woven straws. As much as I love colored natural stone, I feel marble especially has somewhat saturated kitchens in recent years, especially when it comes to enormous solid islands. I’ve pared back its use to glorify its beauty again, like for a floating vanity in a bathroom. We’ve been crafting some spectacular oversized marble door pulls and adding custom Lazy Susans with energising tonal patterns to circular timber tables. Both are a great way to utilise marble offcuts as opposed to committing to purchasing entire slabs and finding purposes for them through the home, which can end up looking a little matchy-matchy.
I’m interested in exploring tiled floors and walls, plus raw, less refined timbers for work surfaces and joinery – rich woodgrain patterns always catch my eye. I’ve never been one to specify timber floors, but I am interested in looking at different formats with less traditional stains and unexpected board sizes and laid patterns. Tactility is key for me; it’s how you connect to a space.
I love varied timber species that have really interesting woodgrains, like the dark watercolor-like blobs on Poplar Burl – and their swirling hollows, which invite touch. Lighter timbers like birch also appeal as they stain really well (I’m talking color, not varnish) and look fabulous on cupboard doors. I sometimes mismatch timber species or veneers for tonal contrasts and create tapestry-like jigsaw connections on joinery surfaces.
Glossiness is synonymous with light reflection. That’s what a lacquered surface does best: throw light around. A resin finish is an interesting way to bring gloss in, as [are] foiled finishes and gilded corners; colored glass also brings sheen to a space in an unexpected way. Glass bricks divide spaces fantastically without creating a sense of enclosure: I love how natural light can filter through colored [blocks] and cast tonal reflections on neighbouring walls. I’m also partial to painting feature walls and ceilings with Venetian, Waterstone or Marmorino plasters and French washes, which bounce light about and create incredible shadow-play come nightfall with lights set on low.
ysg.studio
YSG’s Soft Serve House features burl wood and mixed stone surfaces
Parisian interior designer Dorothée Meilichzon created the whimsical scheme for Ibiza hotel Montesol Experimental
Color, for me, is a very emotional, instinctive thing. Most of my palettes are custom created: I have a painting degree, so color and paint as a material are things that I address in the very beginning stages of a project. Rather than working from a paint book, I tend
to mix my own colors with gouache, a high-mineral paint I’ve been working with since college: it’s very opaque, and there’s a lot of pigment in it. I love playing around and mixing colors I’ve seen in movies and paintings to inform my palette for a project. Doing this means I can create something really custom rather than something that's trend based: it's a journey based on instinct and individuality.
I watch films and source artwork before I even look at photographs or moodboards. Films tend to have color threads that make them cohesive and really beautiful – you can often look up the palette of a movie and somebody's already derived those colors for you. I watch a lot from the sixties and seventies, which have a particular kind of yellowness to them. I love that nostalgia created by color, like a room that looks ‘vintage’ because of the particular shades that have been selected. You can create such a mood with color and it doesn't need to be bright or juvenile – it can be very sophisticated.
Color theory is something that I learned really young, and at this point it’s so ingrained that I get excited when there's unusual chemistry with colors. When I'm playing with materials, I'm looking for a bit of tension – an electricity or energy from the combinations of colors. By themselves, they don’t do anything, but they vibrate off of each other, just like with different styles of furniture or fabrics – the combination creates the mood. I don't love perfect harmony – it's not my style to have it be very monochromatic, very safe or soothing.
Right now, I'm really into yellow: it's just such a happy color, and it's very Californian to me. I’ve been using it a lot in projects with the citrusy combination of oranges, peaches and pinks – it just feels joyful, and very youthful. I also just finished a project that I'm excited about, that is a little more feminine and uses a lot of pink: It wasn’t heavy handed, but soft and mature. If you want to create a mood around pink that is more masculine, it holds well against heavy woods like oak. Somebody told me once that I treat colors like neutrals, even navy blues or olive greens. I do have projects that are exclusively neutral with a ‘star’ hue that sticks out and electrifies the room, but mostly, the neutrals are filling gaps and creating moments of calm amongst the color.
geremiadesign.com
The nostalgic look of old films inspires Lauren Geremia’s approach to color – she explains how tension is key to a playful palette
Color chemistry
Michael Hilal’s Pinehill project features casual, low-slung furniture pieces – including his own Big Sur furniture collection for St Vincents
a better understanding of materiality, of how to frame a sofa like that. New materials have led to a new generation of furniture makers, like Virgil Abloh, pushing the boundaries: they’re taking historical designs and riffing on them, reinterpreting the classics.
The way people live has also changed. Formality has gone out the window and so we're apt to move into a new direction in how we think about seating, in particular – it can be a bit more interesting looking. I always balance interesting shapes with some more ‘standard’ pieces in my projects: otherwise, it becomes a little jokey when, for example, every piece of furniture is a sculptural piece. It diminishes the value of the individual piece.
Low-slung furniture is a big part of this look: I think it's the insinuation of a less formal space. It makes you feel like you can actually sit in the room, curl up on the sofa and lounge as opposed to having to be precious. Low profile furniture also makes the room feel much taller than it is, [especially] balanced with floor-to-ceiling drapery.
For our Big Sur sofa series, I didn't want everything to feel too rounded: it has a bit more angularity than the average amorphic or biomorphic-shaped sofa. I take inspiration from Philippe Malouin’s pieces, which have a good balance of softness and structure. Velvet, mohair and heavy chenille work really well on these kinds of seating because those fabrics feel a lot less rigid and help to soften the edges. A material like linen will take it into a completely different direction. Ultimately, slouchy furniture is all about getting people into a space by making it feel a little less formal, a little fresher. The way we live now has changed in a way that is much more conducive to cooler, loungey, more interesting furniture choices.
michaelhilal.com
The reintroduction of the curved sofa opened the floodgates to playful furniture shapes. Curved pieces have come in and out of style since the Art Deco era – but what people have done [now] is make curved seating more playful. That’s because we now have
San Francisco interior designer Michael Hilal on the curves and low-slung shapes that make up this trend in furniture
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The Designers
Who’ve Long Been Ahead of the Curve
Designers Explain the Rules Behind Playfulism – The Decor Tricks That Create Joy for Every Home
Return home
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5 Rooms Where Designers Have Perfected the Playfulism Look – the Curves, the Colors, the Candy Stripes