enLIGHTenment magazine shares Cliff Notes from the recent Dallas market.
It’s a mod, mod world out there! The International Lighting Market – running concurrently with the Dallas Total Home + Gift Market 2012 at the Dallas Market Center – was filled with Modern interpretations of nearly every décor style. Even companies known for traditional looks dipped a toe in Contemporary waters injecting some modern freshness into classic designs.
Another noticeable trend was Bling. Sparkling crystals accented a lot of lighting fixtures and portables throughout the market, spanning all lighting categories. Crystals – from raw rock versions to varieties featuring machine-cut precision – appeared evident in nearly every showroom. Employed as accents, crystals give unexpected visual oomph to any piece from sconces and shades to portables and fixtures.
Flexibility was offered by many lighting manufacturers at market. Fabric and finish options are just the tip of the iceberg. Customers have a greater variety of fixture sizes to choose from than ever before plus a choice in bulb options and – depending on the manufacturer – a lot of leeway in selecting patterns and colors.
Whether the phase-out of the 100-watt incandescent is making the world misty-eyed or a yearning for the good ole days, Nostalgia was big. Those old-timey light bulbs were everywhere (although I learned you have to ask whether the nostalgia bulbs shown are shipped with the fixtures – quite a few are not).
Slim is in. Fixtures with clean lines and incredibly lean looks were very much in fashion. In many cases, there were new fixture designs that were so sleekly slender that they required special engineering to accomplish. Why the preoccupation with thinness? These slim designs allow rooms to look bigger by taking up less room (visually as well as physically) and give any setting a contemporary edge.
Keep checking back with enLIGHTenment magazine to see even more Trend information weekly.
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