Interior designers get busy in Spring. In a primordial kind of way, it is probably to do with the end of hibernation and the need to clean up after the winter. Spring cleaning does not always do the trick, so painters and decorators are called in to refresh the walls and woodwork. And if this is not enough, carpet fitters and furnishers follow on.
Picture Caption: A squeeze of lime sharpens up this Jane Clayton seafront interior in Newquay.
At these moments Jane Clayton's design team is often asked what is "on trend". Interior design is a fashion business just like the Rag Trade. Catwalk trends and colours can work their way through into furnishing fabrics and styles a year or so later. Whether you should take any notice or not is another matter. If you do not have a fetish for regular redecorating, you may want to go for "classic" rather than fashionable.
Who remembers Austrian Blinds? The love affair with these 1980's must-have window treatments survived one dry cleaning. The fiddle involved in re-hanging them and rethreading all their little strings soon changed the nation's view. Shameful, the number we sold! The show home design team does have to keep up with fashion. The designers walk up and down the aisles of the big interior design exhibitions looking for new ideas to help their house builder clients keep ahead of the competition. One of the very biggest interiors shows is "Maison et Objet", in the Parc des Expositions in Paris. Twice the size of the NEC, the complex of exhibition halls is jammed with high quality furniture and accessories. Most of the furniture is very smart and of generous proportions, with big deeply comfortable sofas and substantial solid cabinet furniture.
Puzzling to see how much more generous this furniture looked than the usual UK offer, until you consider that the average size of a new home in the UK is just 76 square metres.In France, an average new home is 113 square metres. For those who take any notice, colours at Maison et Objet were dirty neutrals, anywhere between putty and khaki, with strong highlights in lime and aubergine. It often only takes a few cushions or a fabulous picture or a wallpaper panel to give impact to an interior. So, to follow fashion on a budget, keep the backgrounds plain and add just a few elements that are easier to change when you get bored. And if you have better things to do than DIY, get your decorator booked in now! Richard Clayton is MD of interior designers Jane Clayton and Company Ltd www.janeclayton.co.uk
