Enrich Your Space With Lavish Velvet

Rich, lustrous velvet ­— a timeless, trans-seasonal texture that always makes a comeback and never fails to create gorgeous, luxurious interiors. With a rising trend in tactile, textured fabric and bright colours, a maximalist aesthetic is back in style. The bolder, the brighter, the better!

Inspired by European spaces, it’s all about grand settings filled with character and detail for a theatrical theme. Although considered ‘vintage’ due to its popularity in the 1970s, velvets can be used in modern settings for a sophisticated or softened look.

From printed, to matte, mohair, quilted, or patterned, each type of velvet finish can either dress a room up or down, bringing different moods and touch. Whether used on a sofa, headboard, ottoman, cushion, or as curtains, velvet is a beautiful fabric with a soft, heavenly feel — a texture you will love for years.

In three trends, we explore ways of how you can feature velvet into your space and create varying moods and unique styles.

EUROPEAN ELEGANCE

For a touch of European elegance, heritage patterns are classic options for creating bold, intricate styles. Taking inspiration from the Baroque and Renaissance eras of captivating art and sculptures, this look can be paired with modern décor to elevate and freshen up an otherwise traditional look.

Purchasing vintage pieces, as well as restoring worn furniture and homewares, has become a popular choice recently — it’s also a great way of adding a sense of nostalgia to a space. The furniture style for this look can vary. From soft, sleek, fluid shapes, to tailored structures, each style will bring a unique feel and can help create a more modern aesthetic when paired together.

For a similar theme, try featuring an organic or velvet sofa with a tailed statement chair and soften the look with dramatic drapes for extra elegance — our Vivaldi and Duke collections would look phenomenal in this setting. Beautiful marble with extravagant veining paired with patinated brass or gold accents and venetian plaster is another stunning combination that brings sophistication — one you would see in a relaxed, yet luxurious manor.

RETRO RIVAL

While velvets can bring a sense of luxury due to its soft touch and lustrous sheen, they can also bring vintage moods and nostalgia. The Retro Rival style is all about being playful and creative with a modern finish.

Filled with functionality, longevity and personality, this look features bold colour and colour blocking techniques that create statement pieces, as well as spaces. When selecting shades, be sure to choose differing tones as it will define each block/section — an example would be pairing Casimir Orchid with an opposite tone, such as Casimir Gold. We also recommend incorporating an optic white to balance the bold hues used in this style.

For a more conservative take on this bold trend, try styling it with tonal pigments for a considered look. Playing with textures, such as a matte velvet like our Novara collection, will also help create variety and allows for a highly pigmented design with a soothing quality. If a glamourous sheen isn’t for you, matte velvets/finishes are perfect for this style and still offer sophistication and a luxurious feel without the shine.

Modular also plays a big part in this trend. Whether it’s home décor or furniture pieces, design shapes will bring focus and emphasise on the colour rather than its shape. To recreate a similar style, we recommend incorporating matte and high gloss textures with coloured glass finishes for a futuristic, modern twist to the traditional retro elements featured in this look — such as the warm woods and crisp, white grounds.

THEATRICAL GLAM

Velvets are a great way to create theatrical glam interiors that are opulent and emotive, particularly rich jewel tones such as blue, emerald, gold, and red. The Theatrical Glam trend is luxurious and glamorous — one that offers escapism with playful finishes.

Mysterious yet nostalgic, this style brings Hollywood glam with its lavish, plush texture, grand pattern, and silky-smooth touch. More of a maximalist take on a traditional theme, this look uses velvets with a mohair or shimmer appearance to build contrast and heighten the mood for an elegant and glitzy aesthetic.

Playing off light, the sheen of velvet is eye-catching and will add dimension to a space — especially our Plaza range, as well as Weave's Ava cushion for a sumptuous touch. It can also be mixed and matched with varying textiles — such as satin or devore — to create subtle surface interest for a luxe statement.

Although ‘more is more’ for this maximalist style, the key with this look is finding a great balance between pattern, texture, and colour. For a dramatic theme, moody, evocative colours and bold pattern can bring dark, impactful, and impressionist spaces. You can still create a captivating environment using texture instead of pattern — such as quilted finishes like our Roux collection — which adds depth and drama without being too bold or compromising other selected patterns.

To recreate this look, we recommend incorporating ornate furniture that pay homage to the 1920s for a vintage feel, or rounded, arch shaped pieces to bring a unique style. Combined with brass, gold, or silver accents and beautiful, classy antiques, the velvet paired with these details is bound to bring sophistication with a twist of modern elegance.