As we checked out inside design tendencies rising from Salone del Cellular 2026, just a few supplies and furnishings genres stored popping up and it turned evident they’ll set a brand new course for inside design within the coming yr and past.
Strolling the halls of Salone del Cellular and exploring Milan’s new Fuorisalone places, installations and extra, we stored coming throughout just a few recurring themes that may assist form how we think about our houses within the yr forward.
From the ever present use of lacquer – which is infiltrating gentle furnishings, including construction and class to sofas and chairs – to the inescapable sculptural desk, there are many indicators that daring visible statements are the form of interiors to come back.
Listed below are the important thing inside design tendencies we noticed in Milan, for 2026 and past.
Lacquer infiltrating gentle furnishings
Left, Tacchini. Proper, Frigerio
(Picture credit score: Courtesy Tacchini and Frigerio)
‘Pigreco’ chair by Tobia Scarpa, reissued by Tacchini
(Picture credit score: Giuseppe Dinnella)
The ultra-softness and comfort-led method of upholstered seating that we’ve seen prior to now few years was positively disrupted this yr by lacquered components inserted into sofas, supporting armchairs and breaking apart conversation-style seating preparations.
At Tacchini and Frigerio, for instance, armchairs previous and new had been enriched by shiny constructions that enriched their aesthetic. ‘Lacquers envelop merchandise like a skinny, protecting pores and skin, able to holding and preserving the impressions collected,’ stated photographer Massimo Gardone, who labored with Tacchini on their nature-inspired assortment of reissues by Tobia Scarpa, Vico Magistretti and Gianfranco Frattini. ‘Color is now not only a floor, however a dwelling reminiscence of the matter from which it originates.’
High: ‘Orion’ couch by Giampiero Tagliaferri for Minotti. Backside: ‘Baton Rouge’ couch by Mauro Lipparini for Visionnaire
(Picture credit score: Courtesy Minotti and Visionnaire)
In the meantime, Visionnaire, Minotti, Molteni & C and Residing Divani all subscribed to this new wave of remarkable seating. These are sofas that take over an area with their intricate geometries – it is now not only a matter of modularity, however an even bigger idea the place components are positioned in dialogue with each other all through techniques that play with supplies, surfaces and hues.
Take Minotti’s ‘Orion’ couch, a system devised by Giampiero Tagliaferri: for the design, he was impressed by John Lautner’s structure to create a spatial imaginative and prescient that goes past seating.
For Mauro Lipparini at Visionnaire, the couch is an element of a bigger structural thought. ‘Within the “Baton Rouge” couch, the compact base and rear connecting components reinforce the challenge’s constructive logic, permitting the couch to convey order and rhythm to the house,’ reads a word introducing the brand new piece.
High: ‘Julian’ couch by Vincent Van Duysen, for Molteni & C. Backside: ‘The Edge’ couch, by Piero Lissoni
(Picture credit score: Courtesy Molteni & C and Residing Divani)
‘Every bit emerges from a want to create types which can be each beneficiant and exact, sculptural but calm, expressive but acquainted,’ stated Vincent Van Duysen of his Molteni & C assortment. ‘Traces circulation seamlessly, with out rupture or pressure, permitting the attention to maneuver gently from one curve to a different. Gentle turns into a part of the design itself; it glides throughout surfaces, tracing the motion of a hand, revealing the textures of wooden, cloth, and lacquered finishes.’
Structure was additionally on Piero Lissoni’s thoughts for his newest effort at Residing Divani. Aptly titled ‘The Edge’, his couch is outlined by a lacquered container that envelops it on three sides. ‘“The Edge” is an indication that pulls house. It doesn’t occupy the room, however acts as an edge that organises it. It has a exact, pure geometry, nearly architectural,’ he says. ‘The totally different components that make up the seating kind an open line, a fringe for dialog, pausing, dwelling.’
Sculptural tables
‘Abaco’ desk by Ronan Bouroullec for B&B Italia
(Picture credit score: Camille Vivier)
At Salone del Cellular this yr, we spent lots of time crouching underneath tables to admire their sculptural bases. It’s clear that the eating desk is now not only a useful piece of furnishings, however is now inspired to set the aesthetic tone of a room, taking over house with imaginative constructions supporting its high.
At B&B Italia, Ronan Bouroullec was unconsciously impressed by the structure of the corporate’s HQ, by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, to create his ‘Abaco’ desk. ‘I used to be each delighted to lastly uncover the place and desirous to turn into a part of this story,’ he says. ‘This challenge of tables and seating speaks of structure, development, and connection.’
‘Lambda’ desk by Rimadesio
(Picture credit score: Courtesy Rimadesio)
Clockwise from high left: ‘Tara’ by Sebastian Herkner, for Flexform; ‘Blaine’ by Hannes Peer, for Minotti. ‘Kumo’ by Calvi Brambilla for Frigerio. ‘Zaho’ by Christophe Delcourt, for Baxter
(Picture credit score: Courtesy Flexform, Minotti, Baxter and Frigerio)
Bouroullec wasn’t the one one to convey larger considering to the desk: at Minotti, Hannes Peer had Florence Knoll and Ray and Charles Eames on his thoughts for his ‘Blaine’ desk, whereas Sebastian Herkner was impressed by brutalism for his ‘Tara’ desk.
At Baxter and Frigerio, in the meantime, expressive marble elevated the sculptural nature of the types. ‘Assembled in a corolla form, the panels kind an structure like a millefeuille, typically with sharp edges, typically with gentle, rounded traces,’ stated Delcourt of his ‘Zaho’ desk for Baxter. ‘A base like a constructing, as gentle as it’s monumental.’
Greater influences are additionally on the coronary heart of Calvi Brambilla’s ‘Kumo’ desk for Frigerio. ‘Natural abstraction and sculptural presence characterise the challenge, which thrives on the dynamic distinction between mass and void, steadiness and pressure, in a steady dialogue between autonomous types,’ write the architects. ‘“Kumo” fills the house like a dance, evoking the fluid types and daring colors of the sculptures of Alexander Calder and Henry Moore.’
The evolution of the tubular chair
‘Avalon’, by Antonio Citterio for Flexform
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of the manufacturers)
The design world has been enamoured with the tubular chairs for just a few years now, and Salone del Cellular 2026 confirmed that the style could be very a lot right here to remain. The chairs had been current on the truthful and throughout city, within the type of new designs in addition to reissues of originals, merging a way of nostalgia for modernist concepts and a want to innovate and develop the idea.
At Flexform, Antonio Citterio’s ‘Avalon’ mixed the important character of the tubular base with a ‘sartorial attentiveness’ that’s typical of the Italian firm.
From left: the wood cantilever chair by Time & Model; ‘CH66’ chair by Nicos Zographos for Karakter x Cassina; and ‘Graffetta’ armchair by Carlo Colombo for Lema
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of the manufacturers)
A recent tackle a basic tubular chair was provided by Cassina and Karakter, who joined forces to reissue Nicos Zographos’ 1966 cantilevered chair. The design reverses the basic s-shaped Bauhaus cantilever, creating as an alternative an equally elegant b-shaped seat utilizing a steady line of chromed tubular metal with mild curves.
Japanese model Time & Model additionally provided a brand new imaginative and prescient for the tubular chair, made from moulded plywood so as to add heat to the design.
A unique, humorous course was seen by Carlo Colombo at Lema, who took the fabric to new horizons with the ‘Graffetta’ armchair: named after a paperclip, its tubular steel body helps a leather-based seat and combines a necessary visible gesture with a well-recognized idea.
Environmental richness
Boiserie by David/Nicolas
(Picture credit score: Giulio Ghirardi)
This yr, designers did not maintain again when it got here to adorning areas. Milan Design Week not solely provided new takes on conventional furnishings, it additionally gave us a glimpse into how maximalism can remodel areas with class and the way conventional concepts might be emboldened by means of new conceptual approaches.
David/Nicolas have lengthy been severe proponents of boiserie – intricate wooden cladding – and this yr they staged a wood takeover of their studio to indicate the approach’s artistic alternatives, not simply as a wallcovering, however for doorways, cupboards and hooks for artworks. The challenge is the results of years of analysis from the Lebanese, Milan-based designers, and their modular system ‘transforms the wall into an architectural function’.
Hannes Peer for Officine Saffi Lab
(Picture credit score: Courtesy Hannes Peer)
(Picture credit score: Courtesy Margraf)
Elsewhere, the areas created by designer Hannes Peer (who filmed an area’s information to Milan with us – test it out earlier than your subsequent journey) additionally featured a wealthy, textural method to dressing partitions. Initiatives corresponding to his Officine Saffi Lab takeover or his Casa Di Marmo for Margraf gave a good suggestion of how surfaces might be handled as artwork, to provide interiors a brand new dimension.
(Picture credit score: Tomaso Lisca and Luca Argenton)
Patricia Urquiola for Cimento
(Picture credit score: Courtesy Convey)
Different designers took old-school wallcoverings to new horizons. Patricia Urquiola‘s ‘Mosso’ three-dimensional tiles for Cimento, for instance, had been used on the wall to encourage motion within the house.
One other shake-up was discovered at Artemest, the place New York-based studio Gachot did not maintain again. We had been impressed by its mirrored wall, a nod to Twentieth-century residences, that works completely in modern interiors.
Left: David/Nicolas and De Gournay at Nilufar Grand Resort. Proper: Camerafissa by Studioutte with De Troupe and Dedar
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of Nilufar and Studioutte)
Textile wallcoverings additionally took a novel flip. At Nilufar Grand Resort, for instance, David/Nicolas and De Gournay showcased them in three-dimensional guise. ‘The motif employs an array of hand-embroidery methods, the place “stumpwork” types a wealthy dimension alongside silk, raffia and tremendous metallic threads,’ reads a word from the corporate to elucidate the richness of the setting.
Design agency Studioutte, recognized for the cinematic high quality of its interiors, labored with lighting studio De Troupe and textiles by Dedar for its ‘Digital camera Fissa’, an immersive house that nodded to non-public golf equipment. And whereas immersive was a buzzword throughout Milan Design Week this yr (not at all times providing an expertise matching the outline), the thought-about approaches we’ve revisited right here definitely promise interiors that soak up and interact.
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