Whitewash

If you’re finding the plushness of such recent furniture trends as floral prints and the deco revival not to your liking, take heart. Many designers still have a love affair with white, minimalism’s primary color, and there’s nothing quite like its pristine sheen. Here are five products to refresh your palette.

New Antique
Perhaps pinching ideas from grandma’s parlor, or else the movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Dutch master Marcel Wanders delivers a witty take on chintz. His New Antique collection for Capellini is cool yet cozy — some combination. “We can no longer fall in total awe at a tube being bent,” he declares, explaining his elegantly playful antimodernism. www.capcon.it

Paper
How postmodern can you be? For funky Dutch brand Moooi, Antwerp outfit Studio Job has mimicked the monumental forms of old-fashioned floor lamps, cupboards, dressers, dining tables and even chandeliers in paper and plywood. Is the Paper range flat-packing for the pretentious? Who cares? IKEA has never been this much fun. www.moooi.com

Antibodi
Well, who said this theme was exclusively white? With its lip-smackingly red accents, Patricia Urquiola’s hammock-like Antibodi chair is almost flirtatious. Created by the Spanish designer for Moroso, its petal pattern conjures images of lying on a bed of water lilies. Sensual bliss. www.moroso.it

Trace
These stackables give a high-tech nod to standard garden furniture. “Close your eyes, think of summer seating and you see this shape,” says Shin Azumi, the Trace chair’s London-based Japanese designer, who used Hirek, a clever polymer, for structural support. Any resemblance to a G-string is coincidental. Honest. www.desalto.it

Polar
Arctic levels of chilling out are available from Tacchini’s fluidly flexible Polar seating system, designed by London company PearsonLloyd. Seats and armrests can be configured in six different setups, so there’s always a new angle to admire. Inspired by “the shearing planes and fractal quality” of ice floes, this Polar expedition makes an ideal base camp at a party. www.tacchini.it