It always feels a little strange for us to look back at the previous year each December; when you run a publication, not to mention a major annual event, your mind is always, always fully consumed by thoughts of what’s ahead. And yet, it’s now a Sight Unseen tradition to spend the final week of December reflecting back on the prior year, so we’ve taken time out to do just that. First we’re reviewing Sight Unseen’s greatest hits of 2018, which — no huge surprise here — are mostly interiors, from a wicker-filled studio in Marrakech to a peach-walled house in upstate New York to a London flat filled with colorful concrete tiles. Not quite as predictable? Our readers’ enthusiasm for an art exhibition in Oslo and a flooring company’s stand at the Stockholm Furniture Fair.

Scroll down to see if your favorites made the list, and while you’re at it, never miss a Sight Unseen story again by subscribing to our weekly digest, which sends an entire week’s worth of stories straight to your inbox every Thursday afternoon.

1. This London Flat Will Make You Want to Cover Your Walls With Concrete Tile
“The 4×4 tile — once relegated to builder-grade status — has gotten a makeover lately, and nowhere is that more evident than here, where Darkroom alum Rhonda Drakeford tweaked its traditional aesthetic by using pigmented concrete tile, color-blocked and coordinated with the furniture, to create an interior that might be the most fun we’ve seen this year.”

2. Mociun’s New Brooklyn Flagship is a Sophisticated, Instagram-Friendly Oasis
“Caitlin Mociun’s newest flagship makes you feel a little bit cooler just for being inside it. Mociun designed the space herself, using a mix of locally fabricated display cases and building elements chosen for maximum graphic impact — such as glass bricks, terracotta breeze blocks, and subtly patterned floor tiles.”
3. The Best of Milan Design Week 2018, Part I
“This year marked our tenth anniversary of attending the Salone del Mobile in Milan, and this year’s fair felt a bit… different. The showrooms were more crowded (sometimes uncomfortably so), the brands were more lavish (Hermes’s installation employing 150,000 Moroccan tiles rivaled only Flos’s poured concrete last year in terms of sheer material costs), and the trends felt less obvious (we’re living in such maximalist times that it can feel like all colors are suddenly trending at once).”

4. A Belgian Designer in Morocco On What It’s Like to Run a Global Brand Via Instagram
“Working from the center of a medina in Marrakech might not seem like the most straightforward way to achieve international acclaim, but with an aesthetic that walks right up to an Anthro catalog, then takes a sharp left towards Picasso, Laurence Leenaert has done just that. We caught up with her in her showroom-cum-studio to find out what it’s like to run a global brand via Instagram, how she stays inspired, and why she can’t imagine being anywhere else.”

5. See How Hawkins New York’s Founders Transformed a 1750s Farmhouse Into a Colorful, Modern Home
“To walk into the 18th-century Dutch farmhouse owned by Paul Denoly and Nick Blaine of Hawkins New York on twenty-five acres in Hudson, New York, is to immediately question all past decorating decisions. When I visited the couple at their home upstate late last summer, I immediately began wondering things like: How soon can I replace all of my percale sheets with linen? Why have I never painted an entire room — from baseboards to ceiling — in the perfect shade of pink? Should I get a Bernese mountain dog?”

6. The Design Trends We’re Predicting Will Be Big in 2018
“Even as some (jokingly, we assume) proclaim 2018 ‘the end of trend,’ we’ve compiled six of the design trends that we predict will most influence interior design and objects in the coming year, from Vienna Secession to terra cotta to glass blocks.”

7. At Home in Hudson, With A Designer Embracing the DIY Culture of Upstate New York
“Elise McMahon was drawn to Hudson by the promise of a more involved, DIY community and by the potential for collaboration, which she’s fulfilled in spades. Her art-filled home in Hudson acts as a creative lab for furniture experiments and as a repository for the nostalgic objects she’s acquired from creative friends, family and collaborators. We visited her to find out more.”
8. The Coolest Booth in Stockholm Was for a Vinyl Flooring Company
“While it’s not exactly news that formerly uncool materials can be made to look beautiful and sophisticated, it’s perhaps never been done as well or on as large a scale as it was this week at the Stockholm Furniture Fair, in a booth Note Design Studio created for the French flooring company Tarkett. Called the Lookout, the booth was made from a mix of wood, textiles, linoleum and a vinyl flooring material called iQ Megalit.”

9. In a New Exhibition in Oslo, Eva LeWitt (Yep, That’s Sol’s Daughter) Comes Into Her Own
“It can be difficult to approach the work of New York artist Eva LeWitt and not immediately attempt to place it in context with the work of her father, the late, great conceptual artist Sol LeWitt. So it makes sense that LeWitt, for her new exhibition at VI, VII Gallery in Oslo, might try to escape comparison entirely by using materials in such an opaque way that they reframe your initial appraisal of the work — you first must understand what exactly it is you’re looking at.”

10. In a New York Apartment, Dimes Co-Founder Sabrina De Sousa Lives With What She Makes
“Sabrina De Sousa’s impeccably appointed Chinatown apartment is filled with objects she created herself, which is why we’ve been begging her for ages to photograph it — a feat we’ve finally pulled off thanks to our editorial collaboration with Sonos.”