One of several exciting feature exhibitions that took centre stage at , Furniture Forecast set out to offer a snapshot of the global furniture industry today. While IDS is well-known for launching Canadian brands onto the world stage (this year featured the debut of homegrown furniture maker , as well as the return of established players like Hollis+Morris and Coolican & Company, both operating at the top of their game), another part of the show’s mission is to introduce the Canadian market to leading international design.
With that in mind, IDS Toronto 2026 rounded up a series of recently launched designs from major fairs in Milan and Copenhagen to present alongside one another in a museum-style setting. Curated by IDS director Will Sorrell in collaboration with AZURE, the selection of sofas, tables and chairs on display served as a primer on current trends, material innovations and positive sustainability initiatives. The rich backstories behind the pieces also delivered insights into the creative process, demonstrating that an idea for a great piece of furniture can stem from just about anything — whether it’s a peach or a Pedro Almodóvar movie.
The Installation
Credit to , the Toronto interior design studio founded by Valérie Cardozo, for setting the scene with a bold display that felt more like an experimental design gallery than a typical trade show booth. By sticking to the materials that make up the backbone of the Canadian construction industry — plywood, metal panels and steel studs and grates — Cardozo created a shell that could be easily dismantled, allowing each component to be reused in future projects by (which also handled the Furniture Forecast build).
Inside, she then layered in drapery that served as a softer juxtaposition. Mind you, these interior textiles still tied into their industrial surroundings, thanks to rippling folds that echoed the undulating pattern on the corrugated metal behind them. “This interplay of texture creates a high-end retail atmosphere, proving that sustainability and luxury are not mutually exclusive, but rather, perfectly paired,” says Cardozo.
Colour proved just as critical to the concept. High-impact cobalt blue — , as featured in Carv’s own branding — continued from the curtains down onto the carpeting below (by ). This eye-catching backdrop helped the exhibition catch the eyes of IDS visitors making their way across the show floor. Four separate entrances facilitated smooth flow in and out of the pavilion, while also allowing for different vantage points on the various statement pieces inside.
Speaking of which, tour through the exhibition’s five main themes and read the captions that AZURE supplied for each of the featured designs below.
1
Secretly Canadian
Many of Toronto’s leading design studios are sought-after collaborators of top furniture brands — meaning that even though Furniture Forecast focused on international manufacturers, it still managed to represent the local design community, too.
by Paolo Ferrari for SEM Milano
Back in Ancient Greece, Aristotle identified the “tragic hero” as a fixture of many narratives and broke the character down into its core qualities. Flash forward to present day, and Toronto designer Paolo Ferrari used that same philosophy to drive his own investigation into the dining chair archetype, developing this solid wood interpretation that brings contemporary flair to the age-old ritual of mealtime. It launched at during Milan Design Week 2024.
LEFT: by Alessandro Munge for Stellar Works
Toronto’s own modeled this rounded chair after a piece of plump stone fruit. Set on a swivel base, the leather-wrapped upholstered seat is the perfect place for reading (or watching) Roald Dahl’s beloved James and the Giant Peach.
RIGHT: by Yabu Pushelberg for Stellar Works
“Ynez” translates to “pure” in Ancient Greek, which is a nod to Toronto- and NYC-based studio Yabu Pushelberg’s mission with this collection to deliver an ultra-versatile range of seating that feels both modern and nostalgic and resonates across a wide range of cultures.
2
Everything Old Is New Again
Hindsight is 20/20, and today’s designers continue to offer fresh perspective on the past — whether by bringing out-of-production pieces back to the market (with a few modern tweaks) or by prompting re-examination of one of architecture’s most controversial movements.
by Mario Bellini for Hay
This revival of a 1966 design swaps out the original’s fibreglass shell for recycled ABS plastic and adopts more sustainable foam cushioning. Speaking of evolving with the times, the design is modular, meaning you can start out with a single chair and then later add extra units to form a sofa — offering ideal flexibility as you move through life.
LEFT: by Alain van Havre for Ethnicraft
The bold, sculptural shape of this brawny geometric table recalls the brutalist architecture of the 1970s, but it’s executed in solid mahogany rather than concrete. While unpopular with the public in recent decades, brutalism is gaining a fresh following. Given how much embodied carbon is tied up in brutalist buildings, it’s especially important to champion their heritage value — and new interpretations like this one help even more people appreciate the style.
RIGHT: by Ronan Bouroullec for Magis
Speaking of concrete…This two-part indoor-outdoor design celebrates the poetic possibilities of a material traditionally thought of for its brute strength. Its softly curving, monolithic components can nest together to create a pair of complementary tiered surfaces, or split apart to act as distinct cocktail tables.
3
Slice of Life
As cerebral as industrials designers may sometimes get, they are also just people going about their lives — watching movies, raising kids or reminiscing about childhood memories. The difference is that, for a creative, any one of these moments of daily routine may provide a spark that then gets translated into a deeply personal product that nevertheless has mass appeal.
Peaks sofa system by Yves Béhar for Moooi
Craving human connection during the pandemic, Swiss-born American designer Yves Béhar (one of IDS Toronto’s 2026 keynote speakers) set out to create seating that would encourage joyous play. Fabric hinges with hidden zippers allow for triangular components to join together or stack on top of each other to introduce backrests. First exhibited in Milan as a prototype in 2024, the system had its commercial launch in Furniture Forecast.
LEFT: by Nicholas Baker for Moooi
You can take the kid out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the kid. Designer Nicholas Baker may be based in Brooklyn, but many of his core childhood memories involve visits to his family’s farm in Kentucky, where he and his cousins would play on hay bales. Here, he straps leather cushions together in similar fashion to bring rural charm to the big city.
RIGHT: by Sacha Lakic for Roche Bobois
Working with Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, Roche Bobois brought the distinct colour palette of his movies (including Volver and The Room Next Door) to a special furniture collection . Modeled after stained glass, this graphic shelving unit casts vibrant shadows that highlight the rich relationship between design and cinema.
4
Nature Walk
Nature endures as one of the most popular sources of design inspiration. And particularly during the winter, when much of Toronto is covered in dirty grey piles of slush, it never hurts to have a few reminders of greenery in the room.
LEFT: by Hanne Willmann for Potocco
Berlin designer Hanne Willmann looked to river rocks as the genesis for her gem of a sofa, which has the rounded shape of a stone that’s been naturally weathered into a smooth, fluid form.
RIGHT: by Niccolò Devetag for Porada
This chair is a medley of distinguished materials, combining a solid canaletta walnut frame with a leather-upholstered shell plus seat and backrest cushions offered in a variety of soft fabrics. In an especially nice touch, the cushions are bordered with leather piping that matches the outer shell, which features a fan shape reminiscent of a ginkgo leaf.
LEFT: by Mónica Armani for Punt Mobles
The workday is better with a dose of nature, and this unit brings the outdoors into the office in two ways. First, the upper tray serves as a home for lush greenery. Meanwhile, the storage cabinet below features a fluted pattern that evokes the soft lines of sand dunes. And when the winds of change blow, invisible wheels allow for easy reconfigurations.
RIGHT: by Gordon Guillaumier for Frigerio
This design leads with strong geometry, pairing cylindrical legs with rounded square surfaces. Its upper tabletop moves in a more organic direction, contrasting the ashwood frame around it with rippling, fused glass that resembles a body of water — ultimately creating a conversation between solidity and fluidity.
5
Structural Integrity
Show a piece of furniture to someone in the design industry, and they’ll usually zero in on how it’s made. With the IDS Trade Days audience in mind, we selected this pair of furnishings because of the strong emphasis that they place on their clever assembly techniques.
LEFT: by Jamie McLellan for Resident
New Zealand’s Jamie McLellan cites sculptor Richard Serra as a reference point for this totemic, solid timber statement piece, which rests a cantilevered (and surprisingly ergonomic) seat atop two hefty legs modeled after industrial skids, all while concealing any joinery to make everything appear as though it’s sitting in delicate balance.
RIGHT: by Johan Lindau, Stefan Borselius, and Thomas Bernstrand for Blå Station
The trio behind this chair set out to prove that they were able to meet a wildly ambitious goal: Every single component of their design — from the tubular steel frame to the zinc couplings and feet, and canvas or leather seat and backrest — can be disassembled, replaced and recycled.
6
It’s All in the Details
Our final pairing rewarded close inspection, showcasing the special touches that distinguish high-end production.
TOP LEFT: by Patrick Norguet for Flexform
Set on a swiveling base, this chair delivers comfort and sophistication in a small footprint, perfect for areas where space is at a premium. The leather backrest features a folded upper portion secured by a metal stud — a well-crafted detail that recalls a fashionable handbag.
TOP RIGHT: by Gabriele and Oscar Buratti for Colección Alexandra
Many of the most compelling designs find harmony between ideas that might initially seem to be at odds. Here, the Italian Buratti brothers set out to create a chair that would navigate three key contrasts, feeling both solid and light, expressing an architectural rigour while still being warm and inviting, and having a simple silhouette yet also incorporating rich details.
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