Hard-edged rooms, even the rustic kind, seem to need at least one big soft thing. Scandinavian interior design uses textiles in this way, and increasingly the term for the contemporary application of this idea seems to be “warm modernism” or “soft modernism.” The more unrelieved the hardness, the more warmth is needed and the more excessive the textures can be. That amazing felted… rug thing in the first photo by Hotze Eisma! It’s like the love child of a flokati and a Star Trek life form. Any textile helps, but these wilder objects seem to bring out people’s unrestrained side – they don’t just change the look of the room, they entirely change the way people behave in it. It makes the difference between a puritan interior and a sensual but simple interior. Wool flokatis, felt, hides – these are what a child entering the room will probably go for first, and a child is the acid test. And for those who feel these things are not cleanable – I put my flokatis in the washing machine all the time. Hides generally just need a periodic gentle shaking out and can also be gently damp wiped in case of spills. From here, desire to inspire via mimou, and Skona Hem via emmasdesignblogg.
