It's high time the octopus got some ink. As a home furnishings motif, it's a trend with tentacles.
At the Las Vegas and High Point, N.C., furniture markets, octopi were all over pillows, tableware, furniture and all manner of accessories. In the wild, an octopus changes color depending on its mood. Blue means it's excited, white shows fear, and red indicates anger. No matter what color, the octopus blends into interior design schemes from contemporary to classic.
"It's just a build-up on a trend that emerged last year and has not gone away. If anything it has gotten bigger," said Ron Bishop of Blue Sky.
At the Las Vegas Winter Market, he showed his red octopus teapot, a unique piece of the sea captured in ceramic. Norwalk Furniture, meanwhile, adorned its High Point showroom with a specially designed octopus wall hanging by Kelly O'Neal of Design Legacy.
Steven Shell, the British furniture manufacturer, was showing dressers and trays with suckers. Its Stacked Flight of Drawers from the Bloomsbury Collection bears a hand-painted Jules Verne-ish octopus. The eight-limbed creature is black or gold against a milk finish.
DB Imports displayed an octopus statue, and Spi-Home went even bigger with a cast-aluminum table that had a round glass top held up by tentacles. Gilded Home and Made Goods both had tabletop octopi in gold, while Global Views and the Seiche Collection showed a 13-inch-high creature in matte white.
No one is really sure why the octopus suddenly has the home furnishings market in its grip, but they're in no hurry to escape.
"Its tentacles have spread around the house from lounge to bedroom," said Shell.
