The theme explored by Maison & Objets' 'Observatoire' for the show was 'Crazy'. Different aspects of this theme were then interpreted by three trend houses, 'Sweet Freaks' by Vincent Gregoire at Nelly Rodi, 'Art'keting' from Francois Bernard and 'Dreambox' from Elizabeth Leriche.

The overriding idea being that in these difficult times we need a touch of madness, eccentricity, whimsy and humour in our lives, to fire our imaginations, enjoy and have fun with design and not take ourselves too seriously. All this, and a great selection of sofas. 

Dream Box, explored perception, opening your mind to dreams and imaginary worlds with Escher-esqe pink neon staircases, Ron Gilad's floor length mirror(from a series of nine) that appear to lift, at the bottom, like curtains, playing with scale and perception, giant teacups and tiny beds. Wooden chairs whose backs had reverted to  nature, becoming entwined branches, a sideboard where the legs grow up and literally branch outwards giving them a dream like, Alice in Wonderland quality. My favourite was the wonderful Carnovsky RGB wallpaper, where the images printed on the wallpaper change as the lighting changed from red to green and blue & a menagerie of animals appeared and disappeared before your eyes.

Art'Keting explored the blurring of the boundaries between fine art, decorative art and and design, a mix of art + marketing. Playing with traditional codes, mixing up historical references and "global" styles, producing design that can be displayed in shops as if it were in a gallery, and thinking of your home as 'art' & yourself as the curator. Tapestry covered figures and animals from Frederique Morrel, bright Mexican furnishing textiles, cushions with faces and moustaches, wallpaper with open empty frames, surreal rugs with lobsters holding whisks, & Fleux's giant cupcake poufs all fit the bill.

Sweet Freaks, The dinner table is  laid, the plates are covered with insects, birds and snakes patterns, a chandelier hangs over the table, but its arms are knotted rubber tubes, mismatched neon chairs surround it. Animal heads adorn the walls, disturbing doll wall lamps hang by their necks. Then retire to the 'lounge' where, Puff and flock's 'sofa so good' sofa with wrap around arms and hair cushions, is waiting for you. Its bizarre & disturbingly humorous. The polyethylene moulded, 'Romantic Baroque', Proust chairs from Alessandro Mendini in vivid colours have kitsch dog cushions, there are monster chairs with big eyes, a 'Perished Persian' animal skeleton rug hangs from the wall. This quirky, gothic influenced theme was my favourite interpretation of 'Crazy', bold and slightly unhinged, with the feel of a mad professor's castle, peacock feather lamps, glasses with air bubbles that look like jellyfish, a 'cabinet of curiosities'.

Missprint

So Ive a few more images to share, I loved the 50's inspired prints and wall papers at Missprint

http://www.missprint.co.uk/

Letti

More 50's inspired designs at Letti & Co

http://www.lettiandco.com/

Golran

In carpets, the trend for patchwork rugs was much in evidence,  eg  at Golran made from 100 year old, worn, Persian rugs, unstitched, cut up and then restitched and over dyed.  www.carpetreloaded.com/

Kare

At Kare the more contemporary patchwork rugs were made from multicoloured and textured cowskin discs or the similarly bright Bobbel multicircle rug, made from wool,  create a bright  optical almost pixelated effect.

Kare also showed the trend for aged furniture, they had distressed new furniture to achieve a vintage look. Continuing the "retro decor" theme, Kare also showed some great lighting with collections of old fashioned lampshades, with pattened interiors, hung together in clusters. So recreating a vintage look, with new items.

You can also see more patchwork chairs & sofa in the blurred show photo.

http://www.kare-design.com/en

Studio Job

I loved this Perished Persian rug, a great animal skeleton design, which frankly, you don't see too many of. By Studio Job for Nodus.

http://www.nodusrug.it/en/

I mentioned earlier the trend for photographic collage, trompe l'oeil, humorous, whimsical & kitsch designs. So now a little cluster of companies to illustrate what i mean.

DK family jewels

The digital print cushions and lampshades cover a range of retro collage themes, not forgetting the crochet shower cap.

http://familyjewels.dk/

Laissez Lucie Faire

With cute and kitsch animal cushions, textiles, mirrors and accessories.

http://laissezluciefaire.com/

Bonjour Mon Cousin

Surreal and sweet juxtapositions, maps and macarons, bright and fun from

www.Bonjourmoncousin.com

Grain De Coleur

Photographic trickery from Grain de Coleur with this range of chair covers.

http://shop.graindecouleur.com/

FS Home Collections

More animals from FS home collections, with its  family trees of kitsch dog cushions

http://www.fshomecollections.com/

Feathers in prints and as trim, even used to cover lightshades, animal prints, skins, antlers and animal ornaments were everywhere at the show, we even  saw leopard print chocolate eclairs.

Macarons have apparently become the unofficial confectionery of Paris, and the show was filled with them, displayed on stands, in cafes and the colours of sweet macarons  throughout. I even brought some home for the family, although barely got to taste one.....

Florals from Voyage Decoration

 www.voyagedecoration.com/

Its hard to sum up an entire textile hall, as you can imagine, but what has left the greatest impression  were the washy large scale florals, on white, for example at Designers Guild & Voyage Decoration, images from engravings, aquatic, architectural and old maps, at Andre du Daphune, textured effects both photographic, such as the crumpled paper blinds at Lily latifi, or Ella Doran's Geo wallpaper (from 2010), and real textures, such as Tracey Kendall's new 'Drape' textured wallpaper which is actually metres of hand stitched fringing. Or her large sequin wallpaper this year in a new colourway, 'tutti fruitti', produced in layers of real, oversized sequins, so different from the oversized black & white cutlery wall panels that I associate her with.

Andre Du Daphune  http://www.artunddecor.com

 Crumpled effect blinds at Lily Latifi    http://www.lilylatifi.com

Above, images of Ella Dorans stand at Maison from her blog.

showing detail from Ella Dorens catalogue, includng the Geo wallpaper, fretwork, sunlight through leaves and Bugs & Butterflies, amongst others.      http://www.elladoran.co.uk/

Tracey Kendal's tutti fruitti sequin wallpaper and Drape.

http://tracykendall.com/

Hosoo

Hosoo are a Japanese company, who until relatively recently have been producing 75cm wide woven fabrics for Kimono's, using 1200yr old techniques. They now have an amazing range of woven, textured, furnishing fabrics, (twice as wide). Mainly textural, incredibly luxurious, embossed looking fabrics with textures like ripples or sand, in blacks, greys and neutrals as well as some more traditional looking, colourful florals. I loved the skate fabric. It looked almost like a photographic negative and is also in a reverse colourway on black. The image doesn't do it justice, it is beautiful. The design is called Ultraviolet, because of the way it appears to glow.

http://store.hosoo-kyoto.com

Elitas

 Still on a textural theme Elitas showed this fabulous embossed effect fabric that looked like a snowy scene and many more textural wall coverings and fabrics.

http://www.elitis.fr/en/home.php

Cole and Son

Metallic finishes were all around too, this aged metallic finish is one colourway of the Albery wall paper at Cole and Son.

http://www.cole-and-son.com/home.asp

Copper seemed very "on trend" too around the show.

Sandberg

 Swedish textile and wallpaper Sandberg had some interesting childrens ranges.

http://www.sandbergab.se/en/products

 The section of Maison devoted to Children and children's goods is full of some great companies and fun products.  There seems to be a real retro feel across alot of design, and emphasis on knitted & fabric toys, which could almost be home made. (well, if you were really good at knitting patchwork & applique!) Ive already included a couple of childrens ware companies already, but another of my favourites is the Dutch company Kids on Roof. They produce ranges of card creatures, trees and playhouses, which slot together, as well as textiles for bed linen, bibs, & stationery. Ive seen the houses and insects in our local museum shop, but not the textiles which are sophisticated, graphic and playful.

www.kidsonroof.com

ANNE-CLAIRE PETIT

I can't really mention knitted toys without mention of the gorgeous crochet toys of Anne-Marie Petit.

http://www.anneclairepetit.nl/index.php?page=2

ENGELPUNT

Engelpunt make bunting and party decorations, table mats, ribbons and angels, i loved their giant confetti bunting, and paper wish boats.

http://www.engelpunt.com/

(Ive just seen these paper designs again at the NEC Spring Fair, and they are by Jurianne Matter, and her lovely website and blog can be found at 

www.juriannematter.nl/

Always nice to know who actually designed them!)

The bottom images of toys on a washing line are from GLOBAL AFFAIRS

They import childrens toys and home accessories from India and China in lovely bright colours, including knitted toys , childrens bibs, mobiles, and they are another Dutch company!

These mobiles below are also from Global Affairs.

http://www.globalaffairs.nl/

COQENPATE

Coq en Pate produce childrens accessories and t-shirts from a range of different designers, including Mibo. I particularly liked the animal character t-shirts, and this cheery penguin scarf..

http://www.coqenpate.com/

MIBO

Having mentioned Mibo, here are some images! Mibo's bold animal characters are very familiar but they are really lovely across a range of products, paper animals, tea towels and prints

http://www.mibo.co.uk/

The bottom image is from from ATOMIC SODA, who are still constructing a website, but sell lots of great brands like

Mini labo   http://www.minilabo.fr/, 

Moulin Roty  www.moulinroty.uk.com

100drine with their monoprint line characters on tinware and paper goods http://www.100drine.com/,

Orla Kiely  www.orlakiely.com/

Mr & Mrs clynk http://www.mrclynk.com and many more.

MAILEG

I knew Maileg from their lovely long limbed fabric rabbits dressed as different characters, I didnt know they also made other creatures, including mice, and produced cards, posters & seasonal ranges for Easter & Christmas. they have a lovely on line catalogue, i love the sketchy style, and circus setting. Circus themes were quite a strong trend across the show.

http://www.maileg.dk/frontpage

JULIE PLOTTIER KIDS

Has a range of fabric products produced in Madagascar by a craftswomen cooperative.

http://julieplottierkids.com/

ZOE DE LA CASES

Zoe de la cases produce paper goods like notebooks, cards, paper figures, masks in a bright graphic style, and also textiles like cushions  that seem to be mainly photographic collages. I liked the styling too.

http://shop.zoedelascases.com/

MIHO

Miho make unusual home accessories, slot together bird houses and animal heads, and textiles with lovely applique details. There is a little animation of how the bird houses & stag heads are slotted together at

http://www.mihounexpected.it/

PIP STUDIO

Pip Studio have a great looking website and their stand at the show was also very well dressed and so colourful, they will be at the Spring Fair too showing their ranges of ceramics, stationery, quilts & bedding.

I think their website captures the trend for the handmade, crafting & stitch with a retro feel, and lovely fresh colours.

http://www.pip-studio.co.uk/

Alain Gee at LINNA MORATA had some lovely retro prints on bags and wash bags

http://www.linnamorata.com

SEBRA

Sebra, a Danish interiors company have a great on line catalogue  with toys, bed linen, lights in bright bold coordinating shades. The knitted toys and graphic animals are simple & fun.

http://www.sebra.dk/index.php/home.html

LA CERISE SUR LA GATEAU

Ive include this company partly because of moustache cushions, and aprons. The show seemed to be full of quirky moustaches, modern & playful, quirky & surreal images and photographic collages, all of which can be found at

http://lacerisesurlegateau.fr/

LES PETITES MARIE

Loved these cheery patchwork characters from Les Petites Marie

http://www.les-petites-marie.com/

POISSON BULLE

Poisson Bulle have some great prints, decals, stationery & books from a range of artists, well worth checking out their site. The image below left is one from Emilie Vast, and right from Abigail Brown. 

www.poissonbulle.com/ - France

These wall stickers are by Camilla Engman.