Nikki Hunt’s Design Speak

Pantone has declared Living Coral the official colour for 2019 and I can’t think of a more perfect choice to lift our spirits in the year ahead.  Over the past couple of years, I have increasingly found myself turning to this happy hue to elevate our room schemes and bring a cheerful energy to our projects.

Coral has the warmth of red, the carefree sense of orange and the romance of pink. Melon, salmon, flamingo, peach, apricot, I love them all. They bring both freshness and warmth at the same time. Very often, red is too harsh, pink too feminine, orange too playful but coral is a perfect blend: it has become my goldilocks colour: not too hot, not too cold: it is just right. Just the tiniest hint is enough to bring a happy energy to the most neutral space.

In the same home, we covered a large armchair in coral. What a perfect spot to curl up with a morning cuppa and a good book: you can just feel the cosiness.

But, don’t be misled in thinking that we use this colour simply to add pops. So versatile, coral can be used anywhere and everywhere and throughout the home.

Here we have used coral on curtains to add life to a bright white space.

Feeling a bit more adventurous? Try enveloping the whole room with this cheerful colour. Can’t you just feel the joy?

Think outside the box! We have even used Coral on the ceiling. It brings a wonderfully, unexpected cheerful glow to this penthouse in Kallang.

And in this bedroom below, we have combined coral in different tones, a soft apricot sorbet on the walls and varying tones in the rug. I love the combination of coral and yellow. It is just so happy. What a fabulous room to awake in every day!

So for 2019, I am looking forward to seeing more of this jolly colour. In fact, I am planning a coral coloured kitchen… Now wouldn’t that be fun?

As I plan my table setting for our Christmas celebratory meal, I find myself musing about the significance of the dining room.
Let’s face it, for most of us, it is all too often, breakfast on the go, lunch at our desks and dinner on a tray in front of the TV. Meals, shared with family or close friends are, sadly, far too rare and should be treasured. Whether it is for Christmas, Thanksgiving or a Chinese reunion dinner or a a birthday celebration, it is often, times spent seated with loved ones around a dining table that form our most cherished memories. And, as the backdrop for so many special moments, the design of the dining room is key to fostering that perfect ambience. A well-designed dining room will stimulate and encourage lively conversation. It can embolden us and inspire us to be animated, even romantic. The dining room is an area of the home where the designer can afford to be bolder and explore a touch of drama in the design.

This is a perfect example of a dramatic dining room. Guests to this table will definitely feel special and glamorous. The dark silk wall-covering creates a moody, intimate vibe and the Chinoiserie panels add a romantic feeling. The high back dining chairs envelop their guests with comfort encouraging them to linger and enjoy the evening. Soft light bounces off the gold leaf ceiling casting a glow akin to candlelight, creating an intimate, romantic feeling.

Design Intervention

The black and white lines of this dining room form a crisp backdrop for an evening of glamorous entertaining. The injection of chartreuse lifts and brightens the room, balancing the stark bold lines. The jubilant rug design brings a freshness to the scheme that invigorates the space, adding an energy to the elegance to create a perfect backdrop for an evening of sparkling conversation.

Design Intervention

In open plan space, making the dining space feel intimate can pose quite a challenge. Dropping the ceiling to delineate can provide the solution.

Intimate spaces and fresh, contemporary ones don’t have to be mutually exclusive. In this modern dining space, the use of ombre on the chairs and pendant light arrangement invokes a sense of flickering candlelight creating a warm, intimate mood

So whatever your preferred dining room style, I hope it sets the scene for a wonderful celebratory meal. Enjoy this special time of year with your loved rooms.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Since it’s inception sixteen years ago, the London Design Festival has become one of the most celebrated  events in the design lovers calendar.  The festival permeates most corners of the city with vendors from all over the world showcasing their latest products and ideas. With such a vast spectrum of things to see and do, the London Design Festival is pure inspiration and provides a preview into the trends that will dominate the design industry in the year ahead.

This year’s London Design Week was a riotous celebration of pattern, print and colour… I have written before about the trend for tropical prints, well this trend shows no sign of stopping and if anything seems to be getting bigger and bolder, encompassing all elements of both flora and fauna. Colours reigned supreme this year design festival, whether it comes in the form of Black Pop’s multicoloured rugs, or Pierre Frey’s latest range of wallpapers in vibrant shades and Matthew Williamson’s latest collection of fabrics for Osborne & Little, featuring a multicoloured large scale pineapple design.

Black Pop’s Rugs and fabrics, Osbourne&Little Fabric, Pierre Frey Wallpaper

Designs were bold bright and decidedly cheerful. Millenial pink, which many predicted would be a passing trend, is very much entrenched as the new neutral. And why not? It is as calm as beige and grey but with a more optimistic vibe. There was not quite so much rose gold as there was last year but gold, bronze and brass have certainly replaced cooler metal tones as the top choice for hardware and lighting. If you were in any doubt Exuberant Maximalism reigns supreme.

But the most significant new element was an obsession with trim. Bullion fringe, tassels and braid seemed to be everywhere!!!

Left Images: Decorex 2018 by Nikki Hunt

Passementerie as they are officially termed was originally used for furniture as a way to keep textile trims from unravelling, fringe has a long history in home decor, from Victorian lampshades to hippy 70’s curtains.

Decorex 2018: Images by Nikki Hunt

This year, passementerie was used to adorn everything cushions, lamps and upholstery. From dainty, bell-like tassels to relaxed, boho leather trim. Fringe is back and flowing loud and proud!

It is Paris Design Week, and the French capital is teaming with exhibitions, installations and creatives types from across the globe, all eager to discover the latest ideas, the most current designs, and be amongst the first to enjoy a glimpse into future trends. But for yours truly, the greatest source of inspiration from France has been my trip to a much older showcase of great Design. This year, I took a short 30-minute trip outside the French capital to visit the Chateau of Versailles.

As I wandered through the magnificent halls, what struck me most was just how timeless, and relevant the designs are still. A world heritage site, the Palais de Versailles harks back to the year 1682 when King Louis XIV began the mammoth task of building the Palace on the site of his father’s former hunting lodge. The palace remained the principal residence of the Kings of France until the revolution in 1789. And many of the designs that the French King implemented over 3-and-a-half centuries ago, continue to influence the great designers of our time.

The first thing that came to me as I toured the grand palace was, “well no wonder there was a revolution!”.

The opulence and grandeur are omnipresent. This palace was the palace that all later palaces were modelled on. It was the very symbol of extravagance I could so see why a French peasant farmer might feel that the national wealth was a tad unfairly distributed. So then how could such totally excessive gilt and glitz be relevant today, I hear you scream…

Well; beneath all that ostentation are exquisite details and a masterly use of proportions, pattern light and colour which have inspired designers (yours truly definitely included) for centuries. I am sure it will continue to inspire for many centuries to come.

Peter Marino, Jacques Garcia, Kelly Wearstler, Mary Mcdonald, Jean Louis Deniot, Joseph Dirand, Pierre Yovanovitch these are some of the biggest names in design  of the 21^st Century. Their works regularly grace the pages of International design periodicals and images of their work are some of the most “pinned” pictures on Pinterest. So where do these design gurus get their inspiration?

Scroll through the images below and see if you agree…

WOW… Just look at that floor! Dramatic geometric lines, sharp contrast,  magnificent proportions  – Installed in the 17th Century but could anything be more current! Just check out this home in Hong Kong by San Fransico interiors firm Bamo and an apartment by the great Pierre Yovanovitch.

Kelly Wearstler and Mary Mcdonald are two of the most celebrated American designers working today
– any guesses where they have drawn inspiration?

Perhaps from here? The Salon De Diane, Grand Apartment, Chateau De Versailles

Jean Louis Denoit is another one  of the 21st Century’s great designer.
Check out the photo of one of his recent projects featured in Architectural Digest.

and compare it to a room from Versailles below.

 Kelly Wearstler’s restaurant design for Bergdoff Goodman (below) was widely hailed as iconic by design lovers…..

but check out my picture from Versaille… look familiar?

These photos of an interior by Jacques Garcia who CNN describes as the “Creator of the worlds finest hotels”.

This has long been one of my favourite images of the work of Jean Louis Denoit.

Below is the Chapel at Versailles.

The Hall of Mirrors: perhaps one of the most famous rooms at Versailles associated with the unrestrained decadence of the pre revolutionary French Court.

And look at this interior below- thoroughly contemporary!