Soothe and surprise: How to bring curves into your home

After a period of linear-focused design, curves are emerging as a key trend and a fresh way to add warmth, softness, and beauty to a space. 

“Designers are looking to the past for inspiration, taking the gentle curvature of the 1920s and ’30s and mixing them with contemporary elements,” says designer Nickolas Gurtler.

“Curvature in design is soothing, enveloping, and comforting, which we all respond to well.” 

Curves help provide balance, and allow an interior space to relate with the organic curves found in nature.

“They encourage us to be curious, and help draw us in and out of spaces,” says Gurtler. “Curves reinforce direction and guide the eye, while softening the hard-linear elements that are prevalent in design today.”

Curves require expertise to execute and, as such, are also a sign of quality craftsmanship. “It requires skilled work by hand to execute curves well, be it a piece of furniture, architecture, or interior feature,” Gurtler says. 

The Expansive Kitchen, an exclusive collaboration between Laminex and award-winning architects Kennedy Nolan, is an example of the latter. With the aim to explore laminate’s design potential, it features a series of softly tapered shapes and organic curves in timeless neutrals that make for not only a striking kitchen, but highly functional one too. 

The hero feature, a large island bench, is crafted in Laminex Paper Bark that sits atop drum-shaped legs. Its contrasting square top combines Laminex Paper Bark with French Cream in a geometrical pattern of just-touching circles.

Its curves are reflected in nearby scalloped tower cabinetry doors featured in Paper Bark, and a curved seamless splashback flowing from the rear benchtop in French Cream. The end result is a calming aesthetic and real sense of luxury.   

“Joinery is a fantastic place to add curvature,” says Gurtler. “By softening harsh edges in a rangehood or island bench, dynamic geometry is made possible. Curves are welcoming and calming, but can also be sexy. They have enormous versatility and can be used in many ways, inside and out.”

In architecture, arched windows and doors provide an element of the unexpected, softening straight lines and adding a sense of grandeur. A curved staircase is not only an effective use of space, but provides fluidity and drama. As do the ultimate in elegance, beautifully curved walls, says Lauren Li from Sisalla Design. 

“They are the purest of shapes,” she says. “They convey a sense of familiarity, warmth, and cosy comfort, and are lovely to live with.”

Introduce curves simply through decor, be it an arched mirror, sculptural pendent light, ceramic sculpture, or curved bedhead.

“Choosing furniture that features curves is an easy and effective way to achieve the effect,” says Gurtler. “It could be a coffee table with rounded corners, or floor lamps featuring curvy elements.”  

Li agrees, and says curves can be added in both a dramatic or subtle fashion. “It could be the curved shape of an armrest, or set of organic-shaped nesting tables,” she says.

“Or apply on a larger scale, like a vast dining table with rounded edges, or exaggerated chubby armchairs that embrace us when seated. 

“Whichever you choose, curves provide soft expression, sense of familiarity, and an element of the unexpected.”