Trends
Trend-inspired home décor solutions
Colours and geometries to bring a personal touch
The spaces we live in are rather like the outfits we choose, only larger. We like to feel comfortable in them, we like to bring our own personal touch to them, by mixing shapes, combining colours, layering and creating volumes, so that they reflect our image, our needs and our tastes.
When it comes to décor surfaces, the trend is towards combining solid, high-quality covering materials with the decorative scope offered by colours and materials to shape a dynamic effect by creating contrasts and adding depth and character. This is now an effective opportunity we have, one the world of design continues to explore and experiment with. Today’s living spaces aspire to an increasingly personal touch and seek to meet a variety of needs, both ethical and aesthetic: resistance, quality, technology, respect for the environment, and of course style and beauty.
For the decorative solutions for tiles, companies and designers also feel a desire to go down a new, different road.
A return to art and quality craftsmanship, combining it with the extraordinary opportunities offered by technology and industrial production, is an approach Mirage is continuing to explore, because industry can now forge new ideas and new approaches to innovation and integration.
All the qualities of porcelain stoneware.
Earth, a noble, natural décor surface.
Porcelain stoneware is a product that mixes the various materials the earth is made of (sand, quartz, minerals, clays and natural oxides) and blends them together into one: a solid material that is versatile, reliable and extremely beautiful. Practical, odourless, non-absorbent, wear-resistant and low-maintenance, stoneware is safe, because it is non-combustible and does not give off toxic substances. Its inorganic nature makes it practically impermeable to frost and allows it to maintain its colour intact even when exposed to sunlight.
Glocal and the new frontier of custom-made surfaces
Today, this material, already featured in the long-established Mirage collection, has been given a makeover, thanks to the invaluable collaboration of Giulio Cappellini, a giant in the world of Italian design. Giulio’s artistic sensibility and profound knowledge and experience have helped breathe new life into a successful product, paving the way towards a renewed vision and to opportunities for innovation and research.
Glocal x Cappellini x Mirage, presented last year at Cersaie 2023, is a new beginning for a much broader project to be developed in the future, because, as Cappellini himself says:
Glocal x Cappellini x Mirage, presented last year at Cersaie 2023, is a new beginning for a much broader project to be developed in the future, because, as Cappellini himself says:
“It’s absolutely not true that everything’s been done when it comes to surfaces. Covering materials today have an important role to play in architecture and interior design, and there’s definitely still a lot to be done, new avenues to explore, new finishes, new images and new compositions. Right now, there’s an increasing desire to bring a personal touch to living spaces”.
The Glocal collection can be used for both floorings and coverings, indoors and outdoors, and the most important new aspect regards colour.
Cappellini has reviewed and extended the colour range, adding 8 new softer, warmer shades, and above all working on the material decoration, allowing for additional new composition and customisation options at the design stage. The decorative variants, in terms of both colours and different textures impressed on the porcelain stoneware, offer the opportunity to respond to the designer's customisation requirements.
“As regards the possibility to mix different decorative elements and textures, this is undoubtedly a further plus offered by the Glocal collection, and probably extends its range of use. At a time like this, in which there’s a huge demand for highly customised surfaces for both indoor and outdoor areas, this is more important than ever, and I believe that this new edition of Glocal has some very interesting responses to offer for designers.”
In addition to the new, trendier colours, which bring a warm touch to the natural shades, green, blue and terracotta tones have been added. Soft yet distinctive, they open up a range of creative combinations. However, the element that contributes most to creating the new decorative trend is undoubtedly the material effect obtained by impressing rigorous geometric elements on the tiles. These hallmark elements of Cappellini’s style bring a touch of modern architecture to the textures on the tiles, with an interesting hint of Japanese style. The collection comprises six decorative options, with distinctive geometries: the mosaic elements color, cube, board, globe, globe skin and skin. The ton-sur-ton decoration and the wide range of colours available offer the possibility to choose between a more classic, natural look, or a more audacious, eclectic effect.
An industrial product with an artisan soul
For the new edition of the Glocal collection, Mirage and Giulio Cappellini worked hand in hand, driven by the same passion, and the result is a product with a strongly industrial identity, yet rendered more authentic by the hand of the craftsman.
The Glocal collection can be used to create large, uniform surfaces, or for walls with colour elements, or to design more dynamic, textured surfaces.
Cappellini says: “This project is a sort of Lego, which designers can really have fun with, for both indoor and outdoor settings”.
A new trend that uses wall coverings with an industrial base, but which are able to bring a custom, decorative touch to living spaces by turning porcelain stoneware tiles into elements of architecture. The processes used alternate rough and smooth finishes, obtained using latest-generation technologies, which offer the impression of skilfully hand-crafted pieces, rising to the challenge of managing to incorporate minor imperfections that are the hallmark of a unique, artisan product. The geometric rigour, coupled with the pursuit of bespoke solutions, thus becomes a distinctive feature of contemporary architecture, allowing it to maintain the characteristics of timeless design.