Decorative Flourishes

We love a micro trend for a quick home refresh, whether it’s a change in season or your interior taste evolving, we’ve put together our top three picks of how to change up your home whatever your budget.

The Memphis Group, founded by Ettore Sottsass in 1980, was all about rule breaking, mixing asymmetrical shapes with primary colours using interesting textures like terrazzo and plastic laminate. We’ve seen this extravagant style making its way back into the home from heavily patterned fabrics to uniquely constructed furniture.

Image credit: Memphis Bathroom
Recreate the look: Matrix Orange Gloss, Matrix Mustard Gloss, Matrix Blue Gloss, Matrix Diamond White, Atro White, Memphis Mayhem Wallpaper by Graham & Brown

Create a multi-sensory delight in your downstairs loo (or master bath if you’re brave enough!) Pair together a few bright colours like orange, yellow and deep blue and contrast it with clean white and a jazzy wallpaper to bring in the feeling of asymmetric pattern. Complement the look with a printed terrazzo tile on the floor, the colourful flecks in Atro will pull the different shades together.

The Matrix tile collection offers the option of a perfectly coordinated grout so you can seamlessly blend colours together and then use contrasting grouts to create a graphic effect.

Image credit: Memphis Kitchen
Recreate the look: Flute White Decor, Suburbia Polished, Marble Laminate Covering, Rust-oleum Kitchen Cupboard Paint in Coastal Blue

Create a sophisticated twist on Memphis in your kitchen by taking elements of the core group ethos. A beautiful blue shade on the kitchen units makes a statement, break up the matt surface by using a graphic line decor on each cupboard. Add texture by using a 3D reeded tile as the splashback, the rolling surface of Flute brings the white tile to life. You can then ground the look by using an earthy terrazzo on the floor.

Adding a touch of white marble will harmoniously blend the colour scheme together whilst adding some natural pattern to contrast to the graphic lines. Keep your accessories interesting and your fixtures in either chrome or nickel for a cool toned finish.

According to Pinterest, searches for Goth kitchen décor have risen by 85% in the last year. Darker kitchens are certainly becoming more popular but can be a little daunting to design. The key to creating a successful black room is to create layers of texture and interest to break up the black. This is easy enough in the kitchen as you have unitary, work tops, tiles, and fixtures to play with.

Image credit: Black Shaker Kitchen, Black Opulent Kitchen

Black can be interpreted into many different styles depending on how it’s dressed. Here we can see a modern take on the traditional shaker kitchen in a sleek satin finish. The rest of the room purposely uses cool tones, in the marble, tapware and flooring to provide a very contemporary and streamlined finish.

At the other end of the spectrum, you have the opulent side of black, dressed up with warm toned brass hardware, a richer denser marble, and extravagant accessories.

For something truly gothic, introduce a dramatic glossy black marble contrasted against a matt black kitchen and painted wall. Introduce elements of gothic detailing like stained glass doors and stonework on the floor.

Whether it’s painted, wallpapered, or tiled, borders are back! Traditionally borders were used to hide imperfections but now they are centre show and being used to highlight architectural delights in a room.

Borders help to add interest to a room with minimal cost but they can also help change the proportions of a room, if you don’t want to completely redecorate, adding upward borders can add height to the shortest of ceilings!

Image credit: Wallpaper Border
Get The Look: Victorian Flooring Newbury Black, Triple Strip Border, Serac

Avoid borders looking twee and old fashioned by laying them along joinery details such as skirting, coving and even stairs. Utilising doorways can bring a door frame to life creating a welcoming entrance, particularly useful if you’ve got an open frame that flows into the next room. If you’re a maximalist at heart, you can break up different elements of colour in the room by using a well-placed border, adding a contrasting detail for interest.

After looking at opposite ends of the colour spectrum with bright and bold Memphis to gothic black on black and yet more black, which camp do you fit in? You can experiment with different tile colours in your own home with our online tile visualiser Design My Home.