The 40+ Best Things We Saw at IMM Cologne and Maison & Objet 2019

Our trend-spotting needle hasn’t exactly gone haywire in the first few weeks of this year — and we, for one, think that might be a good thing, considering how frenetic the pace of trends has been of late. IMM Cologne and Maison & Objet, the first two big furniture fairs of the year, have also traditionally not been the first places you might go to scout for said trends, whether owing to their spot on the design calendar (just before Milan) or the regional peculiarities of each host country (Cologne, to this day, always has a preponderance of Bauhaus-inspired pieces). And yet, scrolling through our picks this year, you’ll see a few things that look just different enough that they might be harbingers of things to come — New Tendency‘s no-frills, right-angles-only Standard Sofa, Nendo‘s room divider made from a single sheet of crackled, cast glass, and, weirdly, more than one instance of emergency orange. But then again, maybe they won’t! Only living through 2019 will tell. Scroll through to attempt to read the tea leaves with us, and tell us on Instagram which design is your favorite!