Maison & Objet Trend Watcher on Looks to Expect in 2022
Trend forecaster Elizabeth Leriche tells us about her Elements of Nature exhibit at the iconic Paris fair
Trend watcher Elizabeth Leriche’s highly anticipated What’s New exhibit at the March 2022 edition of Maison & Objet highlighted the year’s trends across objects, furniture, textiles and tableware, drawing on the new collections presented at the Paris fair. This year, in a complicated situation where a number of exhibitors were unable to attend or come out with a new collection, the trend forecaster and founder of an eponymous style agency united the trends under the theme Elements of Nature. This is “a trend that is already entrenched, a clear value in our interiors, which we look to for comfort above all in this troubled time,” Leriche says.
Elizabeth Leriche’s new exhibit, Elements of Nature, at Maison & Objet 2022
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- Essential nature emphasizes the rustic, artisanal and local. With the help of digital artist Riccardo Fornoni, Leriche represented this theme through the likeness of a contemporary farm lost among golden wheat. Natural fibers like linen, wood and colors anchored in the earth, from terra cotta to sand, come together to help us through a worrying future.
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Elements of Nature at Maison & Objet 2022
- Sculptural nature grounds itself in a mineral, almost brutalist universe. This colder, contemporary theme appeals to the strength of materials like marble and travertine, to the sculptural aspect of furniture in totemic shapes and to a earthy experience where colors emerge from fire, from white to black, passing through dark gray or dark red.
Elements of Nature at Maison & Objet 2022
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Even for a seasoned trend forecaster, it is far from a simple exercise. “When summarizing the trends and creating each of these decorative worlds, I always tried to reach the visitor on an emotional level because it goes back to the universal. I close my eyes in search of emotions and sensations and try to imagine the feeling of the materials and colors in order to be connected with the visitors, who will be in contact with these objects at the fair,” Leriche says.
She can fall back on more than 20 years of experience in style agencies, where she analyzes the buzz in the worlds of fashion, decor, design and technology. She likewise draws on her work as consultant at La Redoute Interiors, where she orients every collection of furniture, decor and textiles.
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Even for a seasoned trend forecaster, it is far from a simple exercise. “When summarizing the trends and creating each of these decorative worlds, I always tried to reach the visitor on an emotional level because it goes back to the universal. I close my eyes in search of emotions and sensations and try to imagine the feeling of the materials and colors in order to be connected with the visitors, who will be in contact with these objects at the fair,” Leriche says.
She can fall back on more than 20 years of experience in style agencies, where she analyzes the buzz in the worlds of fashion, decor, design and technology. She likewise draws on her work as consultant at La Redoute Interiors, where she orients every collection of furniture, decor and textiles.
8 Trends in New Home Design Products Featured at KBIS 2022
Horizon collection from Atelier Germain
Mauve breakthrough. She therefore has an unparalleled view on what our homes will look like in the coming months or more long term, as she draws up trends well in advance. “Ten years ago I proposed rose-colored sofas at a time when beige was the most sold. We had to wait for 2020 for apricot, terra cotta, khaki and eucalyptus to finally dethrone beige. … And Art Deco motifs, which we already proposed five years ago, are still loved by the general public. From this season onward, there is a notable increase in pastel colors, in particular, [from] mauve to violet,” she says.
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Mauve breakthrough. She therefore has an unparalleled view on what our homes will look like in the coming months or more long term, as she draws up trends well in advance. “Ten years ago I proposed rose-colored sofas at a time when beige was the most sold. We had to wait for 2020 for apricot, terra cotta, khaki and eucalyptus to finally dethrone beige. … And Art Deco motifs, which we already proposed five years ago, are still loved by the general public. From this season onward, there is a notable increase in pastel colors, in particular, [from] mauve to violet,” she says.
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Designer Claude Cartier’s apartment in Lyon, France
Vintage, colors and curves. What other trends will be significant in 2022? “The biggest trend is to anchor the home is the authentic and essential, which makes it easy to borrow from nature. For the same reason, vintage speaks to people in their 30s, who have an appetite for the ‘70s, secondhand shopping and recycling,” she says. “Alongside this return to origins, we observe a more optimistic and regressive current, marked by the return of color and curved patterns. It is a fantasy that almost tends toward transgressive luxury as evoked by trend forecaster Vincent Grégoire as a theme for this edition of the fair, which he entitled New Luxury.”
Vintage, colors and curves. What other trends will be significant in 2022? “The biggest trend is to anchor the home is the authentic and essential, which makes it easy to borrow from nature. For the same reason, vintage speaks to people in their 30s, who have an appetite for the ‘70s, secondhand shopping and recycling,” she says. “Alongside this return to origins, we observe a more optimistic and regressive current, marked by the return of color and curved patterns. It is a fantasy that almost tends toward transgressive luxury as evoked by trend forecaster Vincent Grégoire as a theme for this edition of the fair, which he entitled New Luxury.”
La Gare by Laura Gonzales. Photo by Jérome Galland
Mix and match. Nonetheless, Leriche points to how our relationship to trends has evolved. “Boomers from a certain social background are still using trends as rules. But millennials take the liberty of creating their own style. I said that today there is no longer a diktat of trends. It’s the end of the total look and the advent of mix and match,” she says.
She cites decorator Laura Gonzalez as a prime example of this trend. Gonzalez is an aficionada of eclectic style, where uninhibited, on-trend fantasies collide with old traditions in an explosion of colors.
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Mix and match. Nonetheless, Leriche points to how our relationship to trends has evolved. “Boomers from a certain social background are still using trends as rules. But millennials take the liberty of creating their own style. I said that today there is no longer a diktat of trends. It’s the end of the total look and the advent of mix and match,” she says.
She cites decorator Laura Gonzalez as a prime example of this trend. Gonzalez is an aficionada of eclectic style, where uninhibited, on-trend fantasies collide with old traditions in an explosion of colors.
Hot Design Topics at Decorex Virtual 2021
Paris renovation by OUI Architecture. Photo by Thomas De Bruyne
Our love for unique pieces and natural materials. Besides eclecticism, Leriche sees bohemian style and a love of linen and other natural fibres going strong. As is our attraction to minimalism, with a preference for the quality of unique pieces of artisanal art to frenetic consumption. “In an increasingly digitalized society, materials and ceramics in particular have never been so attractive,” she says.
What About the Future of the Home?
We also asked Leriche how she sees the home emerge over the next few years — a difficult question given that we seem to be at a turning point.
Streamlining essentials in our homes. “It is up to us to have gratitude that we have a home,” she says. In this disquieting time full of uncertainty, Elizabeth Leriche points to the recentering of priorities on our home interiors.
“We prefer a healthy and comforting home that includes products whose origins and supply chains can be more easily traced and a reinforced connection with nature,” she says.
The trend forecaster also notes a recent tendency among some families to move to the peripheries of towns, anxious for more nature as well as self sufficiency or energy independence.
She likewise sketches the portrait of a home that is at once a “cocoon and porous” and a “protection without disconnection,” imagining that technology will have a big role to play in allowing us to remain connected with the planet. She emphasizes “the aspect of facilitating connectivity and private home automation to simplify our lives.”
Leriche also bets that working from home is here to stay, which will impose the necessity of including the best possible office in the home. She stresses “flexible, rather than set interiors,” capable of addressing the needs of different generations living under the same roof, creating homes that adapt to different people at different points in their lives.
The keywords describing the future of our homes, she says, are “comfort/consolation and inventiveness/creativity.”
Your turn: What trends do you see playing out in 2022? Share your thoughts in the Comments.
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Our love for unique pieces and natural materials. Besides eclecticism, Leriche sees bohemian style and a love of linen and other natural fibres going strong. As is our attraction to minimalism, with a preference for the quality of unique pieces of artisanal art to frenetic consumption. “In an increasingly digitalized society, materials and ceramics in particular have never been so attractive,” she says.
What About the Future of the Home?
We also asked Leriche how she sees the home emerge over the next few years — a difficult question given that we seem to be at a turning point.
Streamlining essentials in our homes. “It is up to us to have gratitude that we have a home,” she says. In this disquieting time full of uncertainty, Elizabeth Leriche points to the recentering of priorities on our home interiors.
“We prefer a healthy and comforting home that includes products whose origins and supply chains can be more easily traced and a reinforced connection with nature,” she says.
The trend forecaster also notes a recent tendency among some families to move to the peripheries of towns, anxious for more nature as well as self sufficiency or energy independence.
She likewise sketches the portrait of a home that is at once a “cocoon and porous” and a “protection without disconnection,” imagining that technology will have a big role to play in allowing us to remain connected with the planet. She emphasizes “the aspect of facilitating connectivity and private home automation to simplify our lives.”
Leriche also bets that working from home is here to stay, which will impose the necessity of including the best possible office in the home. She stresses “flexible, rather than set interiors,” capable of addressing the needs of different generations living under the same roof, creating homes that adapt to different people at different points in their lives.
The keywords describing the future of our homes, she says, are “comfort/consolation and inventiveness/creativity.”
Your turn: What trends do you see playing out in 2022? Share your thoughts in the Comments.
More for Pros on Houzz
Read more stories for pros
Learn about Houzz Pro software
Talk with your peers in the Pro-to-Pro discussions
Join the Houzz Trade Program
An Ode to Nature
Elizabeth Leriche’s iteration of Maison & Objet’s annual What’s New exhibit revolved around three themes. We can draw on these three decorative worlds to breathe new life into our homes and our disenchanted spirits.
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