Right at home: Crisp geometrics shape decor
Quadrilaterals, cubes, polyhedrons ... sound like 10th-grade math class?
Perhaps, but they’re also examples of one of this fall’s biggest trends in home decor. Crisp, contemporary and pleasing to the eye, geometrics work well for tables, lighting, accessories and soft furnishings.
Nate Berkus is a fan of these modern motifs, as his fall collection at Target attests. One of his favorites is a wall-mounted art piece made of hexagonal metal. His inspiration came out of a trip to a gem and mineral show, where he saw a table of crystallized honeycombs.
“They were breathtaking,” he said.
A series of polyresin marble trays are emblazoned with a scattering of rhombuses. Check out the zigzagged enamel photo frames here as well.
Restoration Hardware’s curated “Curiosities” collection includes some Belgian “maquettes” — wooden scale models used to teach architecture. The large polygonal star or pyramidal cone would make a striking accessory.
Canadian design duo Gabriel Kakon and Scott Richler have created the Welles light fixture, a cluster of blackened steel polygons with interiors available in nickel, brass or copper.
Also in lighting, Seattle-based design house Iacoli and McAllister offers open-framed rhomboid pendants, available in different configurations, crafted in metallics as well as fun, powder-coated colors like tomato, blue and white.
Ridgely, a Toronto studio, welds cut steel rods into crisscross shapes on screens that can be left raw or powder-coated with several different colors. They can be used as room or landscape dividers, or as wall art.
Flor.com has a range of carpet tiles that replicate graphic patterns like zigzags and rectangles.
At overstock.com, circles are the focus on the Metro wool rug, with disc shapes in vibrant fall shades of rust, olive and steel blue on a charcoal background. The retailer’s Ivory Geometric Circles rug has a midcentury vibe with concentric sea foam, magenta, gold and olive swirls on a background of cream.
Another Canadian talent, Renato Foti, makes tables, accessories and other home decor elements out of colored glass; his Martini tables and Geo Square basins feature geometric shapes embedded in the handworked glass.
New York designer Jill Malek’s Voyageur wallpaper takes non-Euclidean geometry to the next level, with a range of papers printed with lines radiating from points, like a compass gone wild. They’re available in several color combinations, including Red Eye (white on black) and CandyLand (white on red). Her Luci Della Cita wallpaper evokes city lights at night, with spherical shapes playing across a moody, out-of-focus background.
You can solve for “x” with one of Modshop’s side tables, with zebrawood, hickory, rosewood or oak veneer tops on sleek, chrome, X-shaped legs.
Finally, if you’re the crafty type, check out Brett Bara’s tutorial on creating your own geometric patchwork wall art using triangle fabric shapes in an Ikea frame. It’s so simple that you’re guaranteed an easy “A” in this geometry class, at least.