Trend Alert: Curvy Sofas

As with most trends, what gains a new momentum is not new per se. But the circumstances are new, the framework is different, the times have changed. This is valid for trends in fashion as well as interior design. Recently I felt there is a new surge of one particular but very focal interior object: the curvy sofa. Suddenly I noticed curvy sofas in commercial design projects, in private homes, and all over Instagram in general. While this idea is not new, it seems to be coming back into the design focus.

The idea of a curvy sofa is by far not new. Already in 1938 the Danish designer Viggo Boesen draw curvy furniture that is nowadays available as Little Petra armchair and sofa at &tradition. Back in 1946 for example, Isamu Noguchi designed his Freeform sofa. This model is still available through Vitra and is exceptional in its simplicity and sophisticated beauty. Similarly, Vladimir Kagan designed his Freeform Curved Sofa in the 1950s too, a design that is equally popular nowadays as it was back then.

Curved shapes in interior and furniture design had an absolute high in the 1960s. Lounge chairs, side tables, rugs, patterns on home textiles and wallpapers – the curved shape was pinpointing at a more playful era in flux as compared to the previous decades marked by sharp lines and edges of the new modernist movement. The curvy sofa became a focal point – with its flowing shape it seemed to annihilate the constraints of rectangular spaces and made lounging the center of a room’s purpose.

Curved shapes have something organic, sensuous and welcoming. They are like the furniture manifestation of a hug and invite you to discover and linger. Yet they exude something decadent and luxurious too. They come as a statement in an interior, they require space and attention. They surely are not the quiet, decent and toned down sofa in the corner of a room. They take center stage, they are the star.

Nowadays I see lots of curvy sofas in upscale design projects. Whether it is high end commercial designs like bars, hotel lobbies or other public spaces (love the design of the new Lobby bar in Moscow) or luxurious residential projects (here is a favorite example designed by Nildo José Arquitetura). And the curvy sofa has its new, contemporary setting making it utterly modern and sleek. It is sculptural and when placed in a quite surrounding it truly enhances the entire design of a space. Playing with colors and fabrics gives another dimension in fine-tuning the design concept of an interior, but the overall curvy shape makes a bold statement. It is here to be seen. It is here to be admired.

Curvy sofas never really got out of date. Contemporary designers still create beautiful curved sofas such as the Swedish designer Jonas Wagell with his Julep sofa for the Italian furniture label Tacchini. Or the German design superstar Sebastian Herkner who designed the Miles sofa for Austrian design label Wittmann. What do you think about curvy sofas? Would you go for one in your home? I am definitely on the YES side!

Photography in appearing order via Yatzer, Jonas Wagell, 1stdibs, Fantastic Frank, Vladimir Kagan, &tradition, Roman Plyus, Yatzer, Nildo José Arquitetura, Yatzer, Jonas Wagell, Wittmann