Maison & Objet has returned to Paris, France, with the first in-person edition of the decor, design and lifestyle fair since the start of the pandemic. The eagerly awaited event gave us a chance to discover the products and trends coming out of manufacturers’ new collections. Our editorial team was on site to bring you the latest news from the event, starting with the colour trends for this coming season.

Blood red

As if to perfectly illustrate the theme of this edition, ‘Desirable Development’, the most prominent colours on the stands comprised a natural autumn bouquet. This palette appears on furniture, accessories and finishes with hues running from red to yellow by way of burnt orange and terracotta. These individual shades bring a lot of warmth into our interiors, with a few pleasant surprises, such as blood red.

Terracotta tending to russet

The autumnal composition begins with a shade we’ve been talking about for a few years now: terracotta. The shade is still very much present in the collections and at the stands at this edition of the fair, appreciated for its direct connection to the earth, and bringing us back to nature.

Burnt orange

New this year, burnt orange completes this spectrum of warm colours, bringing with it a dose of nostalgia and a return to the decor of the ’70s.

Elizabeth Leriche, director of the eponymous style agency, mentioned this emerging trend in the Maison & Objet Digital Talks at the start of the year: “The lifestyle of this era is well loved, doubtlessly because the young generations are nostalgic for these happy years when everything was permitted. There is a desire for a less formal, more relaxed and more convivial lifestyle,” she says.

Brown

Brown fits naturally in this ode to autumn, as it is a pleasant, neutral and relaxing shade. It is also expressed in the choice of materials, with natural fibres, leather, and darker woods than we have become used to in the last few years.

Warming yellows

Pantone selected it as the Colour of the Year 2021: hopeful, optimistic and joyful, yellow was by no means an afterthought on exhibitors’ stands this year. It made its appearance on the autumnal palette with softer, warmer and more muted shades than Pantone’s Illuminating, with tones such as mustard or pastel yellow.

Klein blue

Yellow is combined, in moderation, with another colour that had a big comeback this year: Klein blue. Leriche made note of this trend earlier this year, though in a rather more electric version and as another hint of the return to the ’70s.

Mauve

Another nice surprise in this year’s collections: mauve and violet have returned to the forefront in decor. They were unexpected, but seductive in daring combinations with the other bold shades trending this year, like Klein blue or yellow.

Moss green

What would an edition planned around the theme ‘Desirable Development’ and reconnection to nature be without a notable presence of green, the best representative of the plant world?

In the coming season, we are moving slightly away from pine green and sage and turning rather towards moss and lichen shades. In other words, tones reminiscent of the interiors of the ’70s, which we combine with burnt orange to really commit to the period.

Brown to beige

Balancing all of these striking colours is a very natural and neutral palette composed of ecru, beige, stone grey, taupe and brown. In other words, organic shades, related at once to the earth and the mineral world, which can be used to create a soft and relaxing atmosphere.

Pastels

Likewise responding to this need for softness in interiors, we are once again finding pastel tones, particularly pale pinks, in the collections presented at the fair. They are part of a more general tendency towards less saturated colours than the ones we’ve seen over the past few years.

Colour blocking

More than the colours themselves, the real novelty is the way they are combined in a big revival of colour blocking, which is representative of decor from the ’80s and ’90s. Colours no longer match, but clash as contrasting solid colours within the decor.