Milan to Israel: New materials in home design, 2024

Milan Design Week is hailed as a success this year, bringing forth innovative design trends and materials for home decor.

New and unique stones like Bottarga and Empardor, alongside the timeless Travertine, continue to dominate. Smoked oak, creating a balance with the familiar oak, is among the exciting introductions from Northern Italy.

Prat Living stores in Israel offer leading international brands, incorporating beauty into design pieces, furniture, and lighting.

New and unique stones in home design

"In recent years, we've seen a surge in the use of marble in furniture and complementary accessories, primarily focusing on Carrara and Calacatta marble with various veins. After Travertine, a form of limestone, also made significant strides, this season we're witnessing a variety of new and unique stones like Jura, Bottarga, and Empardor with captivating veining. All of these impart a luxurious and intriguing look, especially when combined with different wood finishes, creating a perfect balance between warmth and sophistication," says Carmit Redlich, owner of Prat Living stores.

Smoked Oak - Design Elegance: It exudes presence, a captivating and distinct hue adding uniqueness and statement. It allows for a twist in space, and most importantly, knowing how to blend it in the right proportion.

Most of us are familiar with smoked oak as a material used in creating high-quality and luxurious parquets and impressive kitchens. Its use in furniture is one of the delightful and beautiful revelations for 2024.

Creating a smoked oak tone involves a smoking process of oak wood, exposing it to ammonia fumes that draw out tannin in the wood onto the surface. As a result, a unique wood tone with a significant effect in space is achieved.

Leading international design brands such as Bolia from Denmark and Studio Christina Dejam, imported to Israel by quality stores like Prat Living, present a wide and fresh collection for 2024. This collection extensively utilizes dark smoked oak as a contrast to natural and bleached oak, aiming to create a balance, uniqueness, and harmony in space.

"Smoked oak is clean, authentic in appearance, and provides an earthy root tone in home design. It's essential to pair it with lighter tones. The idea is not to design a space solely in bleached wood or smoked tone, but to find the right combinations. Different finishes and types of wood create harmony and design richness, making the home more expressive. Less matching sets of chairs or one-tone jumps and more playfulness. The idea is to blend materials together and do it right. When the items are of high quality, any choice will work," adds Redlich.

Interior designer Ella Morgan, ahead of her time, utilized smoked oak impressively and remarkably in a bathroom she designed, stating, "The dominant tones in the house are mostly light, so we decided that all the woodwork would 'warm up' the atmosphere. Hence, we chose dark oak and enhanced the look with delicate carvings, and the furniture legs are wrapped in gold socks for a subtle touch of glamour. Together, we created a pleasant and distinctive eclectic style."