The Unexpected Seating Shape America Isn’t Ready For

New York design week is as thrilling as it is overwhelming, but the best things always are. It’s sort of like Brimfield, but also it’s the exact opposite: an addictive marketplace where, instead of shoppers and shopkeepers uncovering the past’s best work, designers put the present (and future) firmly on display—and up for sale. Here’s what’s trending.

Utensils Are The Next Big Thing

If you’ve never really paid much attention to your utensils—kitchen, garden, bath, or otherwise—designers are proposing that you do so now. Montreal designer Loïc Bard’s minimalist spoons aren’t merely finished in a matte black—they’re literally torched to achieve that smoky hue; Grain Design shared these primitive-looking hand-carved “sculptures,” on display at Soho’s BDDW showroom; and DWR had an entire collection, Furnishing Utopia: Shaker Design Influence Now, that looked at modern interpretations of the almost monastic design vernacular.

And I don’t even shave, but Good Thing’s collaboration with Harry’s on a line of conceptual shave brushes, has me reconsidering my beard’s appeal.

Marble Is Going To Take Over Your Home—in New & Exciting Ways

Marble has proven its staying power in the design world, and this year we saw the distinctive style manifest itself in fresh new ways. Exhibit A: This super-chic platter from Other Kingdom, which might just be poised to usurp Max Lamb’s ubiquitous marmoreal serving boards as the tray du jour.

If you need more surface area covered, look to Aesthetic Pursuit designer Jenny Kaplan’s Pieces collection, which put marble to use on tabletops large and small—all of them equally covetable. Last, but not least, the humble bud vase got a bold new faceted shape and a marbleized makeover from design studio Response Response.

The Unexpected Seating Shape America Isn’t Ready For

It’s like a lounge chair and a love seat in one—the love lounge? Maybe best described as an oversized armchair, I first encountered the uniquely proportioned seat at SP01’s Over / Under pop-up showroom in Soho, where it stole the show in an orangey-hued aniline leather on a natural ash frame.

I came across a similar-sized seat at Arper’s showroom, where the old-school Italian brand collaborated with the new-wave design gurus behind Sight Unseen on a series of 80s office-inflected furniture tableaus.

Then I discovered Philippe Malouin’s foam Mollo armchair and realized that this indulgent new seat size has firmly gripped the imaginations of design’s biggest creative minds. Are you ready?

Outdoor Furniture That Could Be Indoors

Another takeaway from SP01’s incredible Over / Under showing: We all need to think about bringing our outdoor furniture inside, stat.

For the skeptics in the audience, Spain’s Expormim offers an upholstered option that looks so chic no one will be the wiser, whether it’s patio-bound or front and center in your living room.

Color Is The New Pattern, At Least In Rugs

Though, don’t get me wrong, there are still plenty of patterns to go around. But it was the color combinations, gradations, and permutations that really caught my eye this year. Good Thing’s new line of rugs showcased a relatively straightforward Bauhaus-cum-Craftsman pattern made all the more amazing in a range of on-trend colors.

Spain’s NaniMarquina unveiled their new Shade rugs, with a technically impressive ombre flatweave design.

Then there was Swedish brand Kasthall, whose new Harvest range is made entirely of residual yarns in rainbow hues.

Which one of these are you dying to incorporate in your home? Which is simply not for you? Let us know in the comments.