The continued rise of warm minimalism
The cool, white-walled, Scandinavian-influenced minimalism that dominated KL apartments through the 2010s is finally giving way to something warmer. Walls in plaster and lime-wash. Floors in solid hardwood instead of polished porcelain. Furniture that you can actually sit on without rearranging the cushions first. It is the same restraint, but rendered in materials that age well in tropical light.
What we like about it: it lets the architecture and the climate become part of the room. What can go wrong: trying to do too much in too few materials. A warm-minimalist room without enough texture variation reads cold instead of restful.
Rattan and cane, finally done properly
Hand-woven rattan and cane have come back so hard that the showrooms are full of poorly-made versions of both. Done well — hand-woven, on solid-wood frames, with the right binding and the right finish — they are sculptural, breathable, and exactly right for the climate. Done badly they are cheap-looking and short-lived.
Our advice: if a chair or cabinet has rattan or cane in it, examine the binding. Hand-bound with rattan strip is the marker of a real piece. Heat-shrunk synthetic binding (you can usually see the join) is the marker of a machine-made one.
The return of darker timber
For ten years, light oak and ash dominated. Now we are seeing walnut, dark teak and merbau back in briefs, especially for dining tables and entry consoles. Dark timber works particularly well in Malaysian homes because of how it sits against the cream walls and tropical light. It also hides eight years of family wear-and-tear far better than light oak does.
Banquettes instead of dining chairs
About a third of new-build dining rooms we have furnished in the past eighteen months use a banquette along one wall, with chairs only on the other side. It seats more people in less floor area, gives children somewhere to climb, and creates an architectural anchor for the room. Done in good fabric, with proper springs and cushions, a banquette is more comfortable than most dining chairs.
The vertical garden is finally being thought through
Indoor plants in Malaysian homes used to mean a sad Monstera in a tin pot. Now we are seeing serious botanical planning: clusters of grouped pots at varying heights, vertical wall planters with proper irrigation, and integrated planter boxes in joinery (we have made eight in the past year). The light and humidity here are perfect for indoor plants — the question is just whether the design treats them as part of the room or as decoration.
Things to leave behind
A few things we think the last decade can stop sending us:
- Marble-everything. White Carrara waterfall countertops on every surface, including dining tables and coffee tables, was a 2017 thing. It hasn't aged well, especially with families.
- Industrial-everything. Edison bulbs, raw steel and shipping-container aesthetics never quite landed in Malaysian homes, and they look dated already.
- Veneered MDF posing as solid wood. Easier than ever to spot, harder than ever to justify. If you want the price point, embrace the look — use stained ply with exposed edges, treat it as the material it is.
- Open shelving everywhere. Open shelves are great until you have to dust them every week.
Things to embrace
And a few we think will hold up:
- Pieces that improve with age — solid wood, oil finishes, full-grain leather, hand-loomed textiles.
- Built-in joinery that suits how you actually live, not how a magazine spread looks.
- One or two pieces of art that you actually love, not five pieces you bought to fill walls.
- Furniture you can move around. Heavy fixed pieces are limiting; bench-built pieces with mortise-and-tenon joinery can be disassembled for moves without losing rigidity.
- Generous storage. Toys, books, papers, school bags, sports gear. Tropical homes need it as much as cold-climate ones.
What we are watching
One trend we are watching with interest: a return to colour. Deep terracotta, dusty teal, brass-and-emerald palettes. After fifteen years of greige, designers are reaching for saturated tones again. We're already doing more upholstery in jewel colours than we have in five years. It might be a moment, or it might be the beginning of the next decade. Either way, it is more fun than the beige before.