Brown in the home

Lidewij Edelkoort trends a/w 20/21

After seeing Lidewij Edelkoort’s presentation on the importance of the colour brown for fashion - ehm yes brown is the new black indeed - Craftscurator had a close look at the use of brown in the interior. We love brown when it is used in a bold way, for oversized items such as statement ceramics or cork furniture. We also appreciate brown because when is more traditional and basic, when used for wrap-around check blankets or textured floor rugs.

The use of natural colours in the home has been a huge trend in the last couple of years, but these are often light shades such as blonde wood, bamboo and natural fibres, and unbleached cottons and linen. On the other side of the colour spectrum, we see lots of very dark colours in the home; charcoal, midnight blue and dark green. Brown can function as the great unifier – a colour that is more alive than black and dark grey, and works very well with other colours such as dusty pink, petrol blue and red.

In our article ‘All wrapped up in handmade textiles’ we already highlighted the importance of blankets, wrap-around shawls, floor cushions, rugs and throws. This trend will continue, and we will see cuddly, hairy and soft textiles made of animal fibres, sometimes in more traditional checks, argyles and twills. There will also be home textiles made of more rugged, textured woven fibres, with raw edges, patchwork and hand-embroidery.

Brown is the colour of earth, of some animal hair, and there are many subtle brown shades to be found in natural fibres and vegetable dyes. That is why it works very well in natural and more sustainable applications, such as textiles. Craftscurator is currently studying the textile manufacturing sector in Laos, where beautiful textiles are made of locally grown, hand-spun, veg-dyed and hand-woven cotton.