What's New, Now: Our New York Editor Keith Flanagan on the 4 Most Exciting Decor Launches for January 2024

Here at Livingetc we rely on Keith Flanagan to keep us up to date - he tirelessly views all the important decor launches so we - and you - don't have to. Keith is a design expert, a editor with an exceptional eye who has a talent for spotting trends as soon as they happen...or sometimes just before they're about to.

And the New Year is a particularly busy time - brands are rushing to get pieces out for the peak shopping season of Spring. So this is what has caught his eye and will be helping to inform what we report on this year.

A mix of furniture, window treatments and even wallpaper, these are the new ideas from the best home decor stores that Keith knows are setting this years big interior design trends. 

Light Shade

Like many New Yorkers, finding an apartment with ample natural light — let alone windows that don't face a brick wall — has always been a top priority. And so Hunter Douglas’ latest rollout, the Aura Illuminated Shades, which the brand is calling an all-new product category, is an easy win for someone like me (read: not a vampire). 

What looks like a traditional shade system happens to include a reflective room-darkening liner and, most brilliantly, ambient illumination thanks to programmable LED strip lights. Designed to brighten a dark room by mimicking natural daylight, the new line can even extend the feeling of natural light into the evening, a real boon for short winter days. Shades that can shine? Now that’s a bright idea. 

Pin Point

Earlier last year aluminum furniture slowly took over my feed, and so it’s a welcome surprise to see the algorithm was onto something: according to an annual trend forecast by Pinterest Predicts, silver tones and chrome are on the rise. Pinterest posits that these striking cool metallics are a rejection of neutral color schemes amongst Gen Z and Millennials seeking a bit more edge. 

Who’s doing it best? My mind immediately goes to Philadelphia-based designer John Pomp, who recently opened a NYC showroom where metalwork is a staple in mixed material pieces; the legs of his new Warp Dining Table in particular, pictured here, seem destined for a rockstar’s pad.

ICON STATUS

A new iconic chair that’s… rather old? I’m sold. Floyd, the Detroit furniture company best known for its platform bed frame, has partnered with American designer Gere Kavanaugh to market The Gere Easy Chair, a never-produced 1970s prototype that was part of the 94-year-old icon’s private collection. The design draws from the Sonotube (a cardboard tube used to mold things like pillars and columns), which Gere fashioned into a curved chair, adding a plywood seat and foam. 

Originally upholstered in retro orange, Floyd expanded the lineup with nine colorways and slightly updated the mechanics. Did I mention the chair swivels? Alas, a star is reborn - see thee collection here.

AMERICAN DREAM

I track wallpaper trends like it’s my job (ahem), which made it was a delight to see this eye-popping collab between NYC- and LA-based textile maker Voutsa (by George Venson, known for painterly prints) and interiors studio Marked (by Mark Cunningham, a talent for considered palettes). Mark dreamed of wallpapers inspired by American quilts, something he hadn’t seen on the market, while George longed to create a line of uncharacteristically geometric and minimal patterns. The result? Bold and refreshed patterns in punchy colors that truly jump off the wall, like the joy-inspiring Sawtooth pattern pictured here, screen printed in orange and pink. Be inspired by the line here.