#Product Trends
Chubby Design and All-in-One Interior Concepts by Dôme Deco
The chubby design trend is a real thing, with full-figured furniture pieces as a bold statement. Dôme Deco is following the market toward this trend, said to be the biggest design trend for 2020.
Curious about current market trends? Need an all-in-one interior design concept? Read this article to see how Dôme Deco responds.
Every year Belgium-based brand Dôme Deco organizes its three-day Experience Days event to reveal the brand’s most recent endeavors—a preview of a few new products in the upcoming Fall-Winter collection 2020—and to discuss how it can create made-to-measure furniture and collaborate on projects with loyal and or potential clients.
Invited guests browsed the Spring-Summer collection 2020 and witnessed the sneak preview of Dôme Deco’s newest products that will be exhibited during Maison&Objet in September.
Each collection has an underlying notion, depicted by the materials selected for the products. ‘Slow Living’ is behind the theme of the Fall-Winter collection. A large portion of both collections demonstrates the two major design trends of this year.
[Design] Slow Living: Chubby Design, Natural & Contrasting Materials
Dennis Decker, Head of Creative & Product Development, gave a tour of the newest pieces and described the Fall-Winter theme, ‘Slow Living’. After the tour, he spoke exclusively with ArchiExpo e-Magazine.
“‘Slow Living’ involves taking the time to enjoy life, moments, and seeing the beauty in what’s around us, about smelling and feeling as well. People are getting more in line with this. The market has been going in that direction, too.”
The company utilizes three main categories to translate the concept into interior settings: materials, fabrics and shapes. In regards to fabrics, the Fall-Winter collection 2020 is all about a coarse relief texture and thick thread; as for shapes, we’re seeing bold designs, meaning clear, straight lines, according to Decker.
“The more progressive brands are doing these bold designs, what we’re hearing called the ‘chubby design’ trend, and we’re also integrating it into our designs.”
These bold designs go beyond clear, straight lines. They take up more space, offering maximum comfort. What’s being called chubby design means voluminous curves, defined as transporting viewers back to a time when life was more simple. It is said to be the biggest design trend set for 2020.
Instead of adding extra layers of materials and finishes which would be more fitting to the sense of chaos, the company uses simple, natural and imperfect materials with no or few polishing steps. The two main materials seen in the Avant-premier products are untreated mineral stone sourced near hot springs in Europe and black-stained natural oak.
“The tree is the perfect item to show the idea of imperfections.”
Several pieces combine such raw materials with smoother, industrial ones. Combining refined form and coarse materials works as a statement piece, according to Decker, and the company is advancing in the market with enough statements to go around.
“We’re becoming more extreme with this because it’s what the market wants and we have more confidence to do it.”
It contributes to the slow living concept, behind which people seek to escape perfection and be taken out of the norm of everyday life. People want an emotional stimulus that will wake them up.
[Projects] A B2B Design Brand that Makes to Measure
During the interview with Decker, we also learned that the majority of the company’s sales are made from project-based clients. When the company first started, it was 100% retail. The struggling and ever-changing retail sector could have presented a great challenge for the company’s future, but Dôme Deco seized the opportunity for more creative ventures by providing made-to-measure, tailored solutions for its clients.
“Although the retail market has changed, we still value our retail-based customers. Today, we work best with retailers who advise the end-user on their purchase, but it was always in our plan to become a B2B brand,” Founder and CEO Stefan Verheyen said in an interview with ArchiExpo e-Magazine.
The team has studied the meticulous details required to fabricate products for years—fillings, fabrics, etc. It is because of this the company can offer clients all-in-one quality interior concepts, cutting downtime and cost, crucial for clients working on projects like hotels and restaurants, to name a few.
“Our full interior concept allows clients to save costs and time, by offering an all-in-one concept—from lighting to carpets to furniture to accessories—and we have an in-house interior designer for clients who haven’t contracted an interior design firm.”
The hotel industry has been picking up pace, according to Stefen. Many clients working on medium to high-end projects have a time-frame of only a few months to complete them.
A prime example is the 72-room, 4-star hotel in Belgium called Le Sanglier des Ardennes set to open on April 2, 2020. Only a few months prior to the opening date, the client requested the interior design concept. Having established a strong relationship with the manufacturers over the years, DD succeeds in producing in a timely fashion.
This example alone shows how DD is able to respond to the speed-hungry hospitality industry, but it also highlights how the company collaborates to produce made-to-measure furniture. For this hotel, the unique pieces were made specifically for Le Sanglier des Ardennes.
“In this case, the architects come with their own designs and our product manager translates this into Dôme Deco pieces, using our select materials, as we would do for our own collections.”
Clients can choose, however, to use products from the existing collection, as is seen in the four-star Boutique Hotel ‘t Fraeyhuis and the four-star Terhills hotel, located near the showroom.
The Terhills hotel provided lodging for many of Dôme Deco’s guests during the event. The interior displays almost solely Dôme Deco furniture, decoration and textiles. Although the pieces are from older collections, the hotel offers a firsthand end-user experience, and the comfort is undeniable.
How It Got Started
Stefen started from scratch, with no money and no experience but a deep desire to become an entrepreneur. After attending a fashion trade fair, he wrote and faxed a letter to the first ten exhibiting companies.
One positive response opened the door for him to become an independent sales contractor, selling fashion items to retailers first in Belgium then beyond. Quickly, he decided to run his own textile company, EuroFashion, in parallel. The joint venture led him to his current brand, Dome Deco, whose roots go deeper than the ten years of its existence and has published three new collections each year for the past five years.
