Tiles as pixels and new palettes for contemporary environments and, yes, very instagrammable

It becomes evident when you are faced with the reconstruction of an Eighties-style basketball court, with tiles from the Pixel 41 collection by 41zero42 used to create a typical American high school playground. There are also those who really play basketball. But obviously the important thing is the tiles: a collection of 42 different colors with which to build videogame surfaces or abstract and refined macro mosaics.

The study of the palette is the focus: there is no color that is not part of the trendiest and most dégagé chromatic scale. The result suggests a return to ceramics beyond the boundaries of the bathroom and kitchen. In addition to inspiring the future inhabitants of a house with the forbidden dream of designing a floor or a wall as if they were a digital image, pixel by pixel.

Bathroom wallpaper and to choose as a decorative poster

An idea that is reflected in the products of many brands: the hunt for a direct relationship and not mediated by architects and installers, so that even the surface is an impulse purchase, an individual choice. The new Fabula collection by Co.De (Jannelli&Volpi) is for bespoke definition: eight different materials, from silk in brilliant or opaque onwards. The real novelty, however, is Ready Roll: a roll of wallpaper to buy in single format and to take home on the spot. To see the effect it has in the living room, or to decorate a portion of the bathroom.

The surfaces? Two-dimensional fashion

Surfaces treated as clothes, therefore. Fap brought Murales, a collection of ceramic wall coverings to Cersaie. The level of processing during the printing phase is very high, with varnishes that give three-dimensionality and brilliance to some details of the hyper decorative designs. And the seduction of yesteryear atmospheres seems to be the path chosen by many to explore the wonders of an industry that is getting closer, at least in products, to individuals and their lives that are still very domestic for now.

Natural stone especially for coverings. And the abstract forays of design into more traditional décor

Stone and its veins, reproduced in macro on ceramic surfaces, are still a must. Florim for 2021 chooses a particular Belgian stone, the Pierre Bleue and its unusual grain for Atmosphère de Rex. The contemporaneity, on the other hand, is expressed more clearly in the design research of Ferruccio Laviani for Lea, which with Masterpiece explores the surface once again by combining the dense material of the different traditional stones with the traditional seminato conceived in different densities. We move here in an atmosphere of possibility, in which Ferruccio Laviani invites us to look for the right combination on the border between architecture and design. After all, the surface has exactly this role: to act as a bridge between the different dimensions that make up the interior design.

Pietra naturale soprattutto per i rivestimenti. E le incursioni astratte del design nel décor più tradizionale

La pietra e le sue venature, riprodotte in macro sulle superfici ceramiche, sono ancora un must. Florim per il 2021 sceglie una particolare pietra belga, la Pierre Bleue e la sua venatura inusuale per Atmosphère de Rex. La contemporaneità invece si esprime più chiaramente nella ricerca progettuale di Ferruccio Laviani per Lea, che con Masterpiece esplora ancora una volta la superficie accostando la materia densa delle diverse pietre tradizionali al seminato tradizionale pensato in densità diverse. Ci si muove qui in un’atmosfera di possibilità, in cui Ferruccio Laviani invita a cercare l’abbinamento giusto al confine tra architettura e design. Del resto la superficie ha esattamente questo ruolo: fare da ponte fra le diverse dimensioni che compongono il progetto d’interni.

Wood in the bathroom? You can

There is a continuous borderline between materials and design possibilities . Worth mentioning is the wood of Itlas , which with a zero waste production project is also moving into bathroom world, pushing itself into new territories. A ductile, flexible boiserie with a great ornamental expressiveness is placed side by side with washbasins and taps. An operation that bridges the gap between bathroom furniture and surfaces which, in other contexts, becomes an excuse to overcome the obligatory relationship between the bathroom and its typological specificity.

Iconic sinks to choose from as unique pieces

You can see it in Elena Salmistraro's project for Flaminia, the Spire washbasin. A piece that has an independent life, a design statement capable of becoming iconic. A strategic attitude also shared elsewhere. Relax Design has worked with thirteen different designers on a collection - Black Label - that seeks to give a completely different sense to bathroom fixtures. The man-made materials are used to give shape to pieces that redesign the world of the bathroom in its typological details. The bathtub with the step by ZeTae Studio, the laundress's sink, the magnum bathtub that mentions the measured lines of classic architecture and the sinks that play with the typical shapes of cupcakes.

Stone and water to bring nature into the home

Finally antoniolupi. At Cersaie the brand continues its research on modular ornamental surfaces with Tralerighe by Gumdesign. And it presents a sculptural piece, free standing, in which the material, the stone, comes first. The Anima Liquida washbasin by Giorgio Rava is, as often happens in the brand's catalog, a project with a high symbolic gradient. A work on the more natural life of water, on its spontaneous relationship with stone and on the possibility of reassembling this delicate combination in the home.