The Return of Haute Luxury

Luxury in interiors has cycled through a few different aesthetics over the past two decades. In the early 2000s, it was sleekness and minimalism that represented a technological optimism for the new millennium. By the early 2010s, it was the tropical opulence of House of Hackney and palm-fringed prints that captured our imagination, as we compensated for more isolated urban lives with purchasable greenery. COVID lockdowns spawned a frenzied market for home improvements and upgrades, from ‘yard-ens’ to creating spaces we felt cosier and safer in. Now, as we have come to accept the ‘new normal,’ the decadence of high luxury is beginning to creep back in as an appetite for grand design flourishes grows. 

The popularity of frivolous Netflix period drama Bridgerton certainly helped to set off this trend, with palaces, stately homes and castles providing an appropriately dramatic backdrop. Although ‘Royalcore’ is a more extreme version of this trend, it is a more subtle and quietly lavish style that characterises luxury interiors for 2022/23.

The creative design process has brought together different aspects of this new vision for luxury, some that date back to the inception of this brand and its innovative use of colour, and others being inspired by the pages of magazines like World of Interiors, and what we have seen in galleries and beautifully curated concept stores. Although these mood boards are just a snapshot of our thinking, they are an important aesthetic starting point for how we build products outwards into cohesive collections. We also enjoy the opportunity to incorporate small props or trinkets with flat designs, to assemble a small section of what we envisage as our ‘cabinet of curiosities’ as we generate new collections and respond to the evolving tastes of the industry.

In addition to this, we have brands that we collaborate with that we feel embody this new luxury and align with our philosophy of careful craftsmanship and expressive ornamentation. Our longstanding relationship with Forwood design marries their ethical approach to luxury materials (they use a hard-wearing faux-shagreen that is indistinguishable from the real thing)  with our colourful offering. Our velvet lampshades work seamlessly with almost all of the colours they offer, constituting a sort of textural range of neutrals, often finished with brass or gold details. Forwood Designs also incorporate a lot of jewel tones into their trays, lamp bases and decorative boxes; lapis lazuli and malachite are particularly enduring. If you wanted to create a really sumptuous interiors scheme, you could combine our cobalt blue or carnelian red designs with their gemstone-inspired pieces as you layer rich shades together.

You can see more of what Forwood Designs has to offer on their website. You can shop a jewel-tone inspired edit of our designs here https://forwooddesign.com/