Sustainability, slowness and reflection really do belong in the 2010s leading interior trends. I would also like to highlight one stylish Japanese-inspired kitchen I found at homedecorarcade. Advanced and alluring composition!

Trendey correspondent (i.e. me) is now loaded and ready to visit the ongoing Home 2010 Fair in Stockholm. Home decor trends and inspiration will be brought right back at ya! Before this wknd is over. As a starter, let’s hear from our Swedish decor trend expert Lotta Ahlvar. She’s the CEO of Swedish Fashion Council. (And yes, of course we need a fashion council in Sweden, we’re serious on home & fashion trends.). Anyho, trend expert Ms Alhvar says there are three important trends for interior design going on:

• Humour. We love to enliven our homes with strong funny and happy accents. That’s sounds great to me since Swedish homes are, as you all know, overly whiteish. @Trendey, klick e.g. the tags accent colour, colours and happy for inspiration on this part. And the full eclectic style department of course.

• History. This can be antiques, patina, rust, collectibles or just children’s drawings. You’ll find pieces of this anywhere on Trendey, but press history for some specific posts.

• Tactile & clean wood. With natural materials and a low-key colour range. At Trendey mostly found within the Nature style section and tags about wood; clean wood, blonde wood, grey+wood, etc.

Now let’s indulge in this last-mentioned trend with some photos from the Fair:

Woodwork, driftwood and clogs are crucial in Homelywood. And so is the Old School Wood-line with kindling wood, a Lumberjack-look, chopping blocks and Woodstock. Added to that a reindeer skin, the occasional stump and some fur cushions. They have really taken the wood & nature-trend seriously! Will we see some of this in the near future? I bet we will. Here’s a last pic for today, with a distinct retro vibe:

Reviews say they were a success. A soft and clean collection, slightly bohemian. Colour scheme is mild with a lot of beige, grey, some accents of coral and blue, and a few hints of animal patterns. And the fashion news – geisha shoes!

Now Ambition to Create Novel Expressions. The tone for the Acne brand is subtle luxury and understated items. Nothing dominating anything else, yet every piece effortlessly stylish. Cool and personal. ACNE ideas were also unfloded in this interview. Asked about his one style rule ACNE’s founder and creative director Jonny Johansson says:

Keep it simple. And go for something that is from your relatives – something that you know why you’re wearing it – and mix with something that’s contemporary. It gives you your identity. I have a brooch that I wear that’s a family heirloom.

How is that for a decor philosophy? Makes sense and is pretty easily adapted into interior design/home decor I think! Certainly the points to keep it simple, no fuzz, and: go for something that is from your relatives or something that you know why you’re having around you. Mix and be personal. Next to Jonny Johansson in the pic above is a sofa from Acne’s first collection of furniture. It’s design reference is Carl Malmsten’s 1949 Berlin Sofa. As with fashion they played with proportion, lineage and structure to create new sculptural forms – and they dressed it in indigo. Slightly more spiritual and eclectic is the floral version if you look below, dressed in collaboration with Liberty.

Now, one last thing on the ACNE topic. Be sure to visit the newly opened concept store on London’s Dover Street. I paid it a visit the week before last and got myself a pair of the oh so hunted-and-hard-to-get-in-Sweden Pistol short boots. The store is a former gallery, now with four floors of Acne. Someone called the interiors “updated white box with a twist” and that’s pretty much what it is. Very very nice though. Clean wood, concrete, simple and stylish. And hey, that black sofa is comfortable!

This old barn below, in the rural parts of Holland, originally housed hay to feed the chickens, rabbits, cows and pigs. Neglected for centuries, two interior designers decided to restore it and call it a home.

…and did they succeed! The old barn transformed into a bright and ultra-stylish dwelling with the rustic and natural character kept intact. The living room and kitchen above are so trendy trendey almost expode. And then we have not yet looked at the bathroom and bedroom (below). I drool…Before I close my mouth, just look at the details, the lovely rag rug next to the free-standnig enamel tub, the wooden Eames-stool serving as a bedside table…

| all images: marie claire maison |

| each pic is linked to its original source |

| photo by Pia Ulin, styling by Lotta Agaton for the latest issue of Elle Interiör |

…and speaking of friendly. On behalf of me and my big sis I’d like to extend a huge THANK YOU to lovely Emma who told about Trendey on her excellent design blog. We sincerely appreciate that and your great intro! Any new readers visiting from Emma’s – you are very warmly welcome. I hope you feel at home here, browse around, find some inspiration, agree or disagree with us, and every now and then check back. Stay tuned. :)

The Recycling trend is pretty obvious. And pretty cool. I haven’t yet started my own DIY Odd China Lamp project, but in time I will! As for chairs – it’s all about paint. Old chairs, not least pin chairs, are easily enlivened with some strokes of paint. Seat cushions can be created from old clothes, yarns, cloths, curtains, scarves, anything. All one needs to immortalize old goods is a creative mind and a skillfull hand. =)

The Clean Wood trend, in Sweden, speaks of Nordic blonde wood like birch, ash and oak. Birch bark is a personal favourite in this compartment. Like this lamp, that recently was for sale on an auction site (auction closed due to lack of interest). Birch bark handicrafts are common in Northern Sweden, and can be found at flea markets, like in this example from the blog Kurbits. A fav light-wood chair is the previously metioned mushroom-ish IKEA CARLJOHAN stool.

The Neoclassical trend asks us to dust off old family portraits and bring down those leather-bound hardcovers from the attic. Soft upholstered furniture is the key for seating, as watchwords in this trend are elegant, timeless, cozy and recognition of roots. For my new home, I’ve decided on at least one Louis Ghost Chair by Philippe Starck for Kartell. (And of course, my heart still beats for the velvet DAY sofa and what if one had place for a Chesterfield as well =))

One overriding, long-lived, chair trend that I am definitely bringing in to my new home is the odd chair mix. Examples of this pick-and-mix feature are numerous in interior design magazines and blogs. This photo is from Sköna hem:

Now speaking of chairs, make sure to visit London Design Museum’s online exhibition A Century of Chairs. The exhibition shows chairs from the late 1800s ’til today:
“Few objects tell the history of modern design as eloquently as the chair. Aesthetics trends, the emergence of new technologies, ergonomics, social and cultural developments are all reflected in the evolution of chair design.”