How can furniture and design adapt as fast as “trends” change?

In the contract furniture industry, it’s well known that styles come and go quicker than seasons, but how do we adapt to overcome these constant changes to create timeless spaces.

Fluff It

An obvious but important one if you’re creating a space that you don’t want to change by the end of the week. Keeping the colours neutral allows you to focus on aesthetics elsewhere, think about adding your colour to interchangeable areas making it easier to adapt to changes. Think of the “fluffing” bits such as, cushions, rugs, statement walls, even curtains. Having to change these pieces will still be an unwanted cost but would you rather that or change 100 bedroom chairs within a month…

Choosing neutral colours for larger areas will allow you to dress the space up with additional, but frankly, cheaper ways to include colour and pattern. The less you have to change, the better.

Customer Journey

The customer journey is how you think about how your visitors will move through your space, but most importantly how you want them to move through your space. The customer journey very rarely changes, it’s timeless so it’s important you get it right. Using intentional focal points helps with where you want to guide your customer to and where you intend on having them stop and spend extra time.

Thinking about when you go to a hotel and you’re asked to wait before booking in, would you rather be asked to stand at the side or taken over to a thoughtful, soft seating area with calming music, where you wait to be collected by a member of staff? Guessing you chose the second option, this is the way you must look at the spaces you’re creating and think about how you would want to be considered. If you create a journey and move your customer through your space with intentional pieces rather than focusing on aesthetics, the space will stay timeless but also create a better experience for your customer.

The 5 senses

Transport your customer the instant they walk through the door, what do they feel, what do they see? This is up to you to ensure that these important stages are covered. The way you make the customer feel is never going out of style and they leave with a great impression, they need to feel considered. Lighting, temperature, aroma, fabric quality and type. Think about what your customers will see, smell and feel, This is something we all focus on subconsciously.

Lighting, your lighting choices have a huge impact on the atmosphere you create. If you consider the right lighting for your space, most of the atmosphere is set, if you set your atmosphere correctly, this takes away from the need to add different fabrics and colours.

Keep your stamp to yourself

We understand designers will want to out their own mark on the spaces they create, but sometimes this isn’t always going to work. Focusing on the client brief and working to the design they have in mind is what really matters. Keeping things timeless isn’t very easy if you try adding your own unique twist to it, remember the customer journey, the client brief and the atmosphere you need to create.

Check out some of our amazing projects to see some great examples that show timeless atmospheres.