Artwork by Tiina Menzel
Artwork by Tiina Menzel

We’re passionate about design and custom furniture at Buildlane, and our Instagram Saved folders are full of great ideas. Well, THAT’S Brilliant is a collection of favorite pieces our team and collaborators shared on Slack this week YEAR. We think these deserve a creativity award.

Because we do so much work in and around the Interior Design industry, we are constantly following industry news and we are seeing your work on all our favorite media outlets but more and more, we are loving what we see in our Instagram feed.

So, for our annual roundup, we have pulled examples that made us stop the scroll, whether we were simply inspired or moved to laugh (or cry) along.

Lead Times

As the year lengthened, so did your project installation dates. At Buildlane, our builders did their best to maintain unheard of lead times, making many of you thrilled to be partnered with workshops in our network. And for the few that didn’t, we can attest… it feels like death to make the dreaded call that a vendor has let you down.

Pattern on Pattern

More of this look is sure to follow, but in 2021 we have really enjoyed seeing your patterns coming through our workshop.

Moody Color Makes a Come Back

I guess by 2021, we finally decided we’d seen our fair share of white walls. Rusts, Browns & Greens are everywhere and a million people have better things to say about why than I do, but it is easy to see its more about being down to earth. This sofa certainly screams 2021 too, doesn’t it?

But Plenty of You are Keeping it Neutral and Natural

The rallying cry for clean, cozy and comfortable is growing and growing as we long for safe spaces.

Fringe & Pleated Skirts on Sofas

And Suddenly, everyone is rushing to renew their account status with Samuel & Sons. Whether pleated or fringe, 2021 saw more sofa skirts being spec’d than we have seen in years.

Bip Bip Boucle… It’s everywhere

Sorry, that was supposed to be a play on hip hip hooray, but either way… bring on the boucle, no one is over it. It’s nubby, natural, soft, holds up well over time and brings much needed texture into the neutral mix. How much boucle did we see pass over the fabric cutting table this year?

Body Crazy, Curvy, Wavy

This year saw so many edges go soft. Interior Design hasn’t seen this many curves since the era of Art Nouveau, a complete response to the hard edges of the Industrial Revolution. When life gets hard, our home decor appears to get soft.

Camaleonda Much?

I personally fell prey to this, but if Interior Design is a fashion industry, the IT girl move of 2021 was to stock your living space with the Mario Belliini reissue.

Your Grandma Called

I’m sure you heard the buzzword Grandmillienial being tossed loosely around the internet. We heard it was in, we heard it was out. We weren’t really into the term that much, but we loved seeing the nostalgic styles that you guys came up with.

And that is our wrap on 2021. We saw many of our influencers and peers predicting that custom will become even more sought after as the designer playbook seeks to work around the supply chain inconveniences of big box and imports. We’ll be keeping our eye on your work and we hope that when you think custom, you think Buildlane! We can’t wait to see what 2022 has to bring.



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