Many are the challenges of the interior design, the
biggest one for me as a foreign resident, and with limited finance if I may
add, remains sourcing. And that is why a trade fare looked like such a good
idea.
I got a free invitation, to be honest, and had it not
been the case, I would have regretted to pay what it costs. Here is why:
1.
Styles
are so limited! In fact, what was there in the way of furniture was an endless
variation of a handful of high end top heap objects of the day: chairs – Scandinavian
– heavy shell on square legs, there’s your chair! Sofas: rectangular, edgy,
oversized. Just how many proportions would make a perfect parallelepiped look
different?
2.
Prices
are so limited – the stuff was basically expensive – in fact so expensive (4
grant a sofa?) that one wonders why is not everybody shopping at IKEA. I guess
for a lot of the pieces presented the selling point is that it is not IKEA (how
original)
3.
Limited
niche for other styles – complements point one – what was not heavy
minimalism/simplistic/industrial with a Scandinavian touch, was ultra-classical,
or flashy boudoir style – and that is the rest 5 percent methinks
4.
Limited
for variety of objects – there was mostly furniture (not bad for a deco exposition
in fact), but also a number of competing out f place water distributors? In
terms of finishing – all tiled up. In fact, the tile market in Belgium, or
elsewhere, is very competitive, whereas they are hardly ever seen in deco
solutions outside of a bathroom…
5.
Did I
say limited? Well, I think it is the word that describes it best. But it is not
necessarily a criticism. Before going further, I must just add that if I hadn’t
found much to pen about, it is probably because cocoon caters for a specific
public I am not yet part of…
So, here is what I learnt about the consumer, their
tastes, and consequently, what is in it for me:
1.
It may
already be incurred that people going to cocoon are rich enough to live in
oversized houses (with swimming pools mind you, or at least Jacuzzi), but they
still prefer very simple things. And once a trend is there, all jump for the
trend.
2. Alongside
furniture, art is also highly appreciated. The number of galleries and art
dealers may have been enough for a parallel expo. Also noticed that some pieces
were mass produced, but it is non the less a very fine touch alongside the grey
and beige industrialities.
3.
Very
strong support for the local producers was there, but also enough of
open-mindedness for a bunch of foreign suppliers: I liked a very nice Italian sofa
(the 4 grant plus piece if you wonder), without a straight line in it, and
neither classic nor boudoir. Was refreshing. A prominent Austrian bookcase also
got catalogued for future reference.
And this is where I stop – don’t mean to make it look as
if the negative is more than the positive. I just go back to the raison d’être of my blog, which is – teach myself enough interior design so that I can do the
best of my apartment, ideally with my own hands. And blog while doing it.
And that is why the best is saved for last – as I was
re-doing palais 9 – by mistake, or with the hidden intention to walk by the
speculoos stand, I bumped into the representatives of UFDI!
UFDI is the francophone union of interior designers, which
I will gladly research, and the existence thereof I was totally unaware. The
four ladies behind the counter (if I got that correctly total number of members
from Belgium), were very nice and readily presented the association.
Turns out – it is possible to study interior design in
Belgium (another research in this one), the alumni offer a set of services,
varied and impossible to price in a chat. None of them had a project open to
the public, though, so it looked like I had found theee niche of the deco business
around here. It seems that people trust themselves enough with their tastes and
wouldn’t bother asking a stranger to work out which beige angular sofa will
match the grey tiles?
So, so much to agree and disagree upon, but please go
ahead and share: what is your view of the local style? Can one aspire to do
something different in Brussels, when the market is so overwhelmingly choosing the
same things? What would be a nice place to go and see contemporary Belgian
interior design?
This post wasn’t planned. I am thinking that it comes
handy, as it will be time to introduce my style in a future post.
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