Evolution of Furniture Design: A Fascinating Look into History
Design is fluid and constantly changing while sometimes appearing to return as a reinvention time after time. Other design appears to be constant,
Chinoiserie, blue and white ceramic, even chintz and florals never completely disappear but ebb and flow through the tides of changing design briefs.
There is always a degree of cross pollination in the world of design but looking at these images I can see we were ahead of the ‘full blown sneeze’ on a number of occasions!
Furniture Design from 2008 to 2024
At Eccotrading Design London we have looked back through our own evolution and discovered some images going back to 2008! Interesting what you can find when looking back through old files and folders.
Perhaps some of you will also have a memory when looking at these…. especially if you bought one of our innovative and original artworks or sculptures. Some images were taken in our previous showrooms and others from various trade events, Decorex or more recently the pop ups on Design Avenue prior to having our own showroom at Chelsea Harbour Design Centre.
One thing these images have in common is that they were all created with a sense of fun and excitement. Some perhaps with more fun than others! Seeing these again brought back so many fond memories of places and people, fun and laughter, and a sense of anticipation. It’s also interesting to note that many of the designs are still selling and in production today, so we must have got something right!
Spend a few minutes while we share below a few of these images. Shown in no particular order, that here at Eccotrading Design London we maybe inspired to recreate, with, a tweak here, and a new finish there some of our previous creations!
2008 and we all about the dark ‘mood’. Almost all wenge finishes teamed with brushed and beaten silver nickel details seemed to be the trend way back then. Surpassed now with a much broader spectrum of wood finishes there are still a handful of perennial designs still as popular today in our collection.
Roll on 16 years and here we are again still in a dark mood, albeit these images are brightened by a wealth of our solid cast bronze designs both furniture, sculpture and objet.
These are supplied in a myriad of finishes and textures, when teamed with bright jolts of colour this provides drama and layers to this classic palette. Shown here with large and original abstract artworks provide even more interest. Its worth noting we have a constantly changing collection of original artwork in stock from the neural to the vibrant so always worth visiting the website when sourcing!
All out with colour
This year we went all out with colour!! This was fun and eye catching. I remember collecting the swatches for this scheme and it did look a bit like Sesame Street. Colourful ceramics, Jim Thomson silks and a fabulous border from Cole and Sons. Not sure what year this was but I do remember remarks such as ‘Oh no pink and orange together’ or ‘that’s such a clash’. Guess what a couple of years later so many schemes featured exactly this!! Time to move on…
Somehow, we seem to gravitate back towards warm neutrals with our original artworks, bronze designs and some playful additions. Painting the wall detail in the centre image worked well as we wanted to ‘blend’ the 2 colours and blur the corners. We were slightly ahead of the curve again and just before the trend for decorating walls in this way became popular, and still been used today… maybe we should have been bolder and carried it further? The Chinese lanterns and dare I say it newly launched outdoor rugs from Ikea which were so popular were recycled and used time and again for summer parties in the garden!
