Who said that blinds or linoleum are out of fashion?

In design, a very recurring contradiction is to wonder if, with everything we have, we need to design one more chair.

Fortunately, not all human beings have been stuck there throughout history, because we would continue to sit on chairs harder than stone.

But reviewing existing objects and materials is part of a designer's job, not just creating something new.

Sometimes it serves to add value to something that already had it, but that for some reason fell into oblivion, into disuse or in the carelessness to continue improving its design.

Others introduce technical improvements that did not exist at the time.

And then there is the inexplicable cyclical inertia of elements from the past that, against all odds, reconnect with the present.

Here, five examples of how to give a good return to materials,

Composite walls with the Matilda latticework collection.

asymmetric version

Concrete or terracotta lattices are part of our landscape and our Mediterranean culture.

It is a resource that has been used, especially until the seventies, to create enclosures and partitions that provide privacy, while allowing ventilation and thermal comfort.

His designs have been evolving, leaving behind those that we all have in our memory to give way to more contemporary, minimalist and architectural proposals as opposed to the floral and geometric ones of Arab inspiration and heritage.

With the aim of bringing this style into the 21st century, the designer Inma Bermúdez has created the Matilda collection for the Castellón company Nadis.

Two pieces of extruded terracotta, one with 2 perforated circles and the other with 16, with which compositions can be created that appeal to tradition and nostalgia from a modern language.

They allow to compose exterior and interior enclosures and divisions that produce attractive games of light and shadow.

They can be used individually or mixed, which makes it easy to avoid symmetry.

This was one of the objectives: to achieve a versatile design that stimulated the designers' creativity.

Apart from natural clay, they are also available with a black enamel finish.

Linoleum floor in a house renovated by the Hanghar studio. Luis Díaz Díaz

ecological and diverse

Linoleum has returned to our lives, just like bicycles: because it is healthy, sustainable and makes you save money.

This type of floor was falling into disuse with the appearance of new ones —and also because, being so cheap, it ruined your image—.

However, it is a material that has been placed in the forefront due to its natural composition, as it is made with linseed oil mixed with other elements such as cork or wood powder, ground stone and jute.

It is, therefore, recyclable and biodegradable, two qualities of great value in these times.

On the other hand, its surface is antistatic, so it is perfect for allergy sufferers.

It offers a very soft and pleasant footprint, also providing acoustic damping.

At the design level, it is much cheaper than other floors and is available in multiple formats and colors, so it gives a lot of play when it comes to designing, as in the renovation of this home in Madrid by the Hanghar studio.

The large-format linoleum used in this project has made it possible to create a floor that gives the sensation of continuous flooring, connecting all the rooms.

In this way, the different spaces do not transmit a very clear and corseted function, allowing its inhabitants to assign them the one they prefer.

In this case, the Hanghar studio opted for a reddish tone as an abstraction of the traditional clay tile, which produces a contrast with the rest of the white surfaces or stainless steel.

The Odisseia chair, by Dooq, with 'bouclé' fabric.

pleasing imperfection

When last year we began to see

in the upholstery of certain furniture proposals, we could not imagine that its use would become a trend.

Possibly driven by the natural, organic and raw style that prevails in interiors, this high-volume curly yarn, with a somewhat coarse and imperfect texture but pleasant to the touch, fits like never before in domestic spaces.

It is no coincidence that most of the pieces in which we see it have curved and organic shapes, such as the Shona armchair, design by Charlotte Hancke for Made, or the Loll sofa with footrest, design by Paola Navone for Gervasoni.

If her peculiar aesthetic sounds like something to you, but you don't fall for it, here's a clue: Chanel.

This is a fabric closely associated with the firm since the sixties, especially in its famous jackets.

In interiors it has been introduced not only in the upholstery of chairs, armchairs and armchairs, but also in textile accessories of all kinds, such as blankets or cushions.

And, above all, in white, bringing light and naturalness to the interiors, and combining with materials such as raw wood or brass (base of the Odisseia cantilevered armchair, by Dooq).

House in Alcobendas of the Urban Branch office.Asier Rua

Without prejudice, but with care

This resource has been used so much that there are even solutions on the market to recreate it with all kinds of fake materials, from wallpaper to polyurethane panels.

The grace is in leaving the original without revoking, to highlight its rustic or industrial touch.

But its unbridled use has ended up generating a rejection of

towards brick .

However, it remains an attractive resource if it is used creatively and in the right nature spaces.

Now, unless it's the original from another era, why not use a real one?

The architects of Sucursal Urbana have done so in their home-studio in Alcobendas (Madrid), with whose design they wanted to be able to enjoy the beauty of raw materials.

Investigating which could be the brick that would give them the most play, they arrived at the Megatosco model from Ceranor.

They used it to raise the interior partitions, since the starting space was a rough room.

They arranged it in a continuous joint instead of the traditional counterbalanced way.

In this way they enhanced the verticality of their cracks, with a very fine visual result, and achieved a beautiful continuous profile.

The space has gained warmth and connects with its origin, as it is not a flat.

The Fantin Kitchen.

new furniture

The kitchen is one of the few parts of a house that is usually given to us and cannot be moved.

When we think of nomadic kitchens, we tend to imagine more

equipment than domestic equipment,

inside cupboards or industrial-type models, with open metal modules that leave everything in sight.

The kitchen is usually conceived as a fixed space, but new lifestyles are promoting more versatile proposals than those mentioned: free-standing modules that function as furniture and contain all the necessary equipment, including built-in appliances.

Aesthetically they are usually closer to an industrial kitchen, since they tend to be made of metal and lack upper modules, since they would have to be fixed to the wall.

They propose open shelves (less cumbersome to fix) or fronts finished in a shelf, which can have built-in lighting.

The Fantin firm has devised tall modules to integrate electrical appliances.

Its range of shades allows you to opt for a colorful design.

Another brand that also works with this type of kitchen is Buster + Punch, in its case with a level of details, finishes and elegant accessories with a sophisticated design.