the 8 interior trends that will define 2021 - and the good news is, eco-conscious design is growing!

first of all, happy new year everyone! i guess we have all agreed not to talk about 2020, so i don’t want to say too much apart from how much i hope you all have an amazing new year with many well deserved, happy moments. for now, it seems as though we are stuck indoors for a little extra time again, and it’s all a bit grim. but here at zitozza indoors is what we’re good at, and with that in mind, you are invited to look through the interior trends of 2021 with our research glasses!

1. ECO CONSCIOUS DESIGN!

i was hesitating whether i should really call this a trend at all, when in fact it should be the standard really, but it’s just a fact that eco-consciousness has not been high on many agendas until recently. from the design industry’s perspective this has been imperatively rising though - and i’m 100% certain that it will be the most important one for decades to come. personally what i’m most excited about is the revolution collection by vondom - the first part of it (called “ibiza” by eugeni quitllet, made of plastic waste in the mediterranean) came out last year - read a little bit on design milk.

and this year we’re expected to see sustainability in many more ways - not just in durability and reusability but also in more innovative material choice such as foresso - the timber terrazzo, this beautiful surface. i love how it looks - texture within texture! made in the uk (birmingham) with bio-resin and timber waste, their sustainability credentials and transparency with their products and traceability are truly exemplary.

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image and product design by foresso.

2. EARTH TONES AND TEXTURES

warm is the new cool, and interpreting a luxurious space as a kind, bracing cosiness has been growing and growing in recent years, resulting in a beautiful play with many textures and organic designs. clay, woodwork, boucle, velvets… this is very much about tactile qualities combined with warm colours and round, cocooning forms. coleur locale illustrates a rich, well-travelled take on this - below in the styling of the brilliant cleo scheulderman. it’s the comforting hug of mother earth that we crave!

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A post shared by Cleo Scheulderman (@cleoscheulderman)

photography by Jeroen van der Spek. styling by Cleo Scheulderman, 
client: Coleur Locale.

3. FRESH, OPEN BLUES

remember what free, open spaces used to be like? remember the summer breeze under the bright wide sky? remember the beach, the colour of the ocean? it’s hard to imagine it right now, scooped up inside in the midst of an ugly, grim january but those amazing blue hues are being brought indoors with rather spectacular results. as a fan of this colour i’m really excited about benjamin moore choosing it to be colour of the year. if you’re familiar with nicola harding and co. then you’ll know that she is an expert of using these shades for cool, thoughtful spaces with lots of charm and character. the below snippet is from this project (published in house & garden last year) - can we please take a moment to note the rugs too!

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A post shared by Nicola Harding & Co (@nicolahardingandco)

design by Nicola Harding & Co, photography by Paul Massey

4. ONE ROOM, MANY FUNCTIONS

hands up, who’s surprised at this one? since we have spent pretty much all events of our life at home recently, this trend has risen perhaps out of necessity, but it’s here to stay because it’s immensely practical. while it has really been simple reality for many people, 2020 has certainly brought it to the surface and the market for functional solutions might expand as a result. expect to find space dividers and lots of clever home office furniture - the personal pick is this super smart, modular home office by arnie.m - the brainchild of angela and matt maurer. british made (in manchester), masterfully skilled, fully customisable and it’s sustainable too - made of 100% natural plywood (with beautiful wood pattern on the surface) and none of that awful mdf stuff.

design by Arnie.M, photography by Paul Moffat Photography. 

5. FUNKY ACCENT RUGS

the one i’ve been waiting for! this one is for the pattern lovers out there and it’s just become barefoot-friendly. we have been layering upon layers upon layers for the past few years now, but increasingly we’re doing it to the floors as well and i’m 100% here for it. rugs outside, rugs in the kitchen, rugs on rugs, everything goes with everything. it’s the floor that makes the statement in 2021 so give it the love it deserves. london-based floor story always has some of the brightest and most exciting collaborations to look forward to - a great start to the year with the mediterranean collection by adam furman.

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A post shared by Simon Goff (@floor_story)

image by Floor Story, rug design by Adam Furman. 

6. NORDIC WABI SABI

minimalism has also taken a more inviting, warmer form in recent years. it’s still quite rustic and sparse but with plenty of thought-provoking richness in texture and imperfect, natural form. it still seeks that delicate contentment, and it still finds it in the peaceful serenity of warm, monochrome hues and natural surfaces, worked with the most skilled craftsmanship. but recently, it has all taken a more hugging, cosy, organic form in a somewhat scandinavian manner - or dutch as seen on this take by cleo scheulderman for vtwonen. it’s an artful creation of an unfilled but stimulating space where we want to go to to feel better about everything again.

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A post shared by Cleo Scheulderman (@cleoscheulderman)

photography by Jeroen van der Spek, styling by Cleo Scheulderman, 
assistance by Mette Sophie, client: vtwonen

7. VINTAGE LOVE

classic styles become such because they work, there is nothing new about that. however there are always new and ever more inventive ways to widen the boundaries and take braver, bolder twists on our cherished favourites. and if sustainability is chic, then surely, the glamorous way to do it is to give our vintage treasures the love and attention they deserve. it’s all about expression, maximalism, individuality and all the personal stories each object bears. i chose another take from nicola harding & co to illustrate this - a fabulous, opulent space that feels inviting and familiar at the same time.

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A post shared by Nicola Harding & Co (@nicolahardingandco)

interior design by Nicola Harding & Co, photography by Paul Massey

8. NATURE AND GREEN (and all the other colours)

maybe houseplants are not a “trend” so much, we just collect them because they are great and we love nature. but those of you with gardens and balconies have really hit the jackpot and a new appreciation certainly grew out of last year’s events. outdoor spaces are being increasingly valued as an extension of the living space and they’re now getting their rightfully earned, fully saturated upgrade with appropriate cosy cushions and floor covers. this one by mimi forrest is obviously not an outdoor rug but first of all it’s too beautiful not to be shared here and secondly, the styling might just give you the right idea - it is exactly the type of indoor space we want to see more of in 2021.

i hope you will all have an amazing, productive and successful 2021 with lots of colour and pattern - and more importantly please stay safe and healthy! although the start to the year feels worrying and sad, i’m hoping that it won’t be much longer until we can work more closely again and i’m looking forward to seeing more of your creative projects. happy new year!

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A post shared by Simon Goff (@floor_story)

image by Floor Story, rug design by Mimi Forrest

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further reading

interior design trends 2021 – the 20 top looks for the new year (jennifer ebert, homes & gardens, 01/01/2021)

the biggest interior design trends for 2021 revealed (jacky parker, livingetc, 23/10/2020)

living room trends 2021 - top styling tips and trends to inspire (ruth doherty, ideal home, 09/10/2020)

pinterest predicts 2021’s interior trends: how to add them into your home, according to experts (eva waite-taylor, the independent, 15/12/2020)

interiors trends that will be big in 2021 :how to update your home for the year ahead (prudence ivey, homes & property, 31/12/2020)

a soft, wool-carpeted walk down memory lane

first of all, many thanks for following the sunday inspiration series on instagram, i’m really enjoying sharing those thoughts with you. however, you will have noticed, it has so far featured the MODERN collection only. so i want to do something different today, and i’m going to share with you some of my inspiration of my more traditional (HERITAGE) collection. some of this is obviously inspired by the rich textile heritage of scotland (and more of that later) but there is of course also the influence of hungary and this post will focus on the latter - specifically, the flatweave “torontáli” rugs, particularly those made by this one factory in the south east of the country, in a town called békésszentandrás (yeah good luck trying to pronounce that one).

the art of weaving rugs came to hungary probably with the ottoman empire in the 15th-16th centuries and slowly evolved from those oriental, turkish patterns into folk motifs suited to the hungarian taste (torontál, where this type of flatwoven rugs are thought to have come from, was a county in old “big-hungary”, today it is partly in hungary and partly in serbia.)

the rug which we understand under this name today is always a pure wool flatweave with bold colours (reds, yellows, greens, blacks), with sharp contrasts and interesting, geometric folklore patterns which have been popular from the 1880s until today. at the late 19th - early 20th century they were made by a few manufacturers for a newly emerging middle-class, however, by the middle of the 20th century it conquered the world all thanks to this one factory. this archive news report from 1955 talks about exporting it to many countries (and wrongly names békéscsaba as the town where it’s made but in reality it is békésszentandrás.)

this factory in békésszentandrás has celebrated its 100th birthday a few years ago, they started producing carpets after the first world war starting with traditional hungarian and transylvanian folk patterns. by the mid-1920s they expanded their range to oriental, persian-style rugs and became known for their quality, by then they were exporting to many countries and were a major employer, mainly of women in the region, and they kept working during the world war, after nationalisation and they even escaped the devastating de-industrialisation of the 1990s.

i genuinely believe this is at least in part thanks to these torontáli flatweave rugs that remained quite popular throughout the times. i do not remember a single house i have been to as a child, which did not have at least one of these beautiful, “pixelated” patterns, although my family does come from the region too and it was an easy access. below is a collection of some of these family treasures - the brown one was on the wall around my bed when i was a kid - it was custom-made to order with the creativity of the weavers and i think it has a variety of mottle yarns as well as natural and brown wools. the geometry of these rugs is present on the KAKTUSZ tileset in the the most obvious way, but it’s safe to say that these rugs have influenced all of it, perhaps sub-consciously.

at the end, there is also this mini-tapestry, as memory of a dance competition in the nearby town of szarvas (which has a stag in the town crest). this woven, “pixelated” graphic is quite reminiscent i think of my floral prints that also have this effect to them even though it’s printed. i think to have this woven effect emphasises the heritage influence that drives this whole collection.

apart from all these family treasures, there are plenty more. the factory store sells most of these in unchanged form, to this day, and they are all really beautiful (and exactly how i remembered) here, see all this colourful range for yourself.

i hope you enjoyed this little trip onto soft, woolly surfaces. i’m sharing with you one more archive news footage from 1972, which is about the christmas anticipations of the design trade, and it showcases not only a whole lot of beautiful (and praised) rugs by békésszentandrás-based rug artist margit szabó, but also features a lot of great design from czechoslovakia and east germany, this is truly a gem! i hope you’re enjoying getting christmas ready too despite everything.

links:

art kelim kft (factory store)

behir.hu - békésszentrandás celebrating 100 years of rug making (in hungarian)

magyarmuzeumok.hu - the torontáli rugs and the domestic industry (in hungarian)

stitched patterns

ok so this is going to be another more visual blog post and i might have to share a little bit more of the history behind these prints. (if you’re interested in the full origin story, you can visit my other website where i have already written a blog post about it here, however i’m quite willing to write more if you want to read!)

anyway, one of the base of zitozza was a uni project called “anthropocene” where one of the three collection called “GRIDS” consisted of block printed jute (now the SOROMPÓ, TRANZIT, FÁZIS and a small part of the SKÁLA tilesets). however each of these also had an extra “haptic” layer over the print and on the “GRIDS” collection these were stitches.

the main inspiration behind these initial patterns were of course actual grids, transport networks, cranes, gas tanks, industrial architecture, signals and signs, that kind of stuff. so naturally, more lines, straight and zigzag stitches were applied for that kind of “wiring” effect.

i’m going to put some products with these surface effects up for sale in the coming weeks to test and see how you’d like them. below then is the picture gallery of these older ideas. these are all from that old project (hence the aligning colours) with the more grid-like tiles, and linear or zigzaggy stitches that complement the surface. the colour inspiration came from industrial signage too at the time but i just love the nautical effect of these.

as for the future, i’m especially interested in this effect on the lampshades for the potential contrast against the illumination. what do you think? would this work on a rug? or a cushion?

and about the other, more brutalist, blocky patterns… combining embroidery with these is also possible, even with different colours and bolder areas, however these will be an entirely new category of haptic, tactile rugs and lampshades and cushion. see also the BRUTEJUTE project and watch this space….! :)

it’s all about the system

hello! and welcome to zitozza. we are now open and this is our first blog post. introductions are always awkward so let’s get it quickly over with. the intention of this blog is to keep it updating regularly, with all the latest research into our processes and thoughts that drive our designs, and of course news and developments around our studio. also, of course, to give a chance to look behind the scenes from time to time, share some inspiration and sneak peeks of up and coming products. so let’s start with a short introductory post.

so what is exactly do we do here at zitozza? first and foremost, surface pattern design. however i understand that’s a little generic, given that the “surface” at zitozza is made exclusively of jute, for its amazing, tactile texture and incredibly sustainable qualities. we mostly cover surfaces in the modern home such as rugs, lampshades and cushions and these products showcase the variety of patterns possible with the printing blocks. (although you can, for sure, make bags and other things of our fabrics too (and if you do, please share!)

and yeah, well, pattern design must be specified further too. we don’t just offer separate patterns in defined colourways, no. here’s the interesting bit: the zitozza look is all one system! not individual designs, not separate collections (okay, a little bit), but it’s all about the system. our patterns are made of (mostly) uniform sized, square shaped printing blocks, creating the system of interchangeable, infinitely combinable designs, and you can make it as simple or as complicated as you want. they are separated into MODERN and HERITAGE, the former consisting of brutalism-inspired, geometric elements and the latter a bit more organic and tradtional, but all arranged in an orthogonal geometry that’s unique and defining our look.

this system allows us to create an infinite number of pattern with the same printing blocks in individual colourways, suited to your taste and surroundings. because of the flat, square shapes of our blocks, we call them tiles, and instead of collections, we call them tilesets, because they are not a collection, and it’s all one system. we don’t have collections in the sense of metres and metres of the same pattern and even samples are made to order because the hand printing makes a deep level of customisation and exclusive designs possible.

apart from having immense fun making them, we want to be able to offer unique designs and something that can be varied further in a single room but remains in the same modern, hand printed style of course that we define as the “zitozza aesthetics”.

what we want to offer to the modern home is colours, play, and nice, durable things that didn’t cost the earth.

so why don’t you browse and discover for yourself what’s available? explore our “collections” or make up your own design with these blocks.